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Coercion, Reeducation, and the Prophylactic Chat: Profilaktika and the KGB's Struggle with Political Unrest in Lithuania, 1953–64
Author(s) -
COHN EDWARD D.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the russian review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.136
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-9434
pISSN - 0036-0341
DOI - 10.1111/russ.12131
Subject(s) - coercion (linguistics) , unrest , ideology , politics , political science , law , enthusiasm , criminology , sociology , psychology , social psychology , philosophy , linguistics
This article analyzes the Khrushchev‐era KGB's use of a tactic known as profilaktika in its struggle with political unrest in Lithuania, one of the few former Soviet republics with an accessible secret police archive. In many cases involving low‐level anti‐Soviet activity, KGB officials chose not to prosecute citizens accused of minor political crimes, but to “invite” them to a “prophylactic chat” where they would be intimidated or manipulated into confessing and warned that they would be arrested if they broke the law again; in other cases, known as “ profilaktika with the public's help,” the KGB organized humiliating public hearings at which the behavior of low‐level offenders was denounced by other Soviet citizens. I argue that profilaktika should not be seen as a straightforward example of post‐Stalin liberalization, but as a tactic that combined traditional secret police coercion and surveillance with ideologically inspired efforts at reeducation and moral reform. In the end, profilaktika suited the interests of both Khrushchev‐era officials and KGB operatives, allowing it to survive as a secret police tactic long after the ideological enthusiasm of the Khrushchev years had faded away.