Chekists Penetrate the Transition Economy: The KGB’s Self-Reforms during Perestroika

ABSTRACT This article explores the KGB’s penetration of the transition economy by examining its self-reforms and collective practices during perestroika. A formerly classified KGB in-house journal demonstrates how Chekists adapted their work to economic liberalization. The KGB strengthened counterintelligence measures for Soviet–Western joint ventures by infiltrating active reserve officers and establishing intimate relationships with new Soviet businesses by supplying them with commercial secrets stolen from Western partners. Business and foreign trade positions became new covers for Lubyanka. These institutional arrangements, rather than the individual entrepreneurship of Chekists, paved the way for their prominence in the post-Soviet Russian economy.