The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB

100. Among the evidence ignored by the KGB conspiracy theorists who saw the Jehovah’s Witnesses as vehicles for American ideological subversion was the fact that, from the First World War to the war in Vietnam, they consistently represented the largest group of Americans imprisoned for conscientious objection. In 1918 their leaders were imprisoned for contravening the American Espionage Act, though their sentences were overturned on appeal. Penton, Apocalypse Delayed, pp. 55-6, 142. Sadly, some of the conspiracy theories survived the collapse of the Soviet system.

101. k-1, 241. In reality, Jehovah’s Witnesses behave in many ways as model citizens. Since 1962 they have been instructed to obey all human laws not directly in conflict with those of God. Penton, Apocalypse Delayed, p. 140.

102. Antic, “The Spread of Modern Cults in the USSR,” pp. 257-8.

103. k-1, 92.

104. k-1, 91. There is no reference in the files noted by Mitrokhin to any successful KGB penetration either of the Jehovah’s Witnesses” Brooklyn headquarters or of its west European offices.

105. k-1, 91.

106. k-1, 73.

107. Antic, “The Spread of Modern Cults in the USSR,” p. 259.

108. Polyakov, “Activities of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1991; p. 147; Van den Bercken, “The Russian Orthodox Church, State and Society in 1991-1993,” p. 164.

109. Walters, “The Defrocking of Fr. Gleb Yakunin,” pp. 308-9.

110. Yakunin, “First Open Letter to Patriarch Aleksi II,” pp. 313-14. Father Gleb was in dispute with the Patriarch over the decision by the Holy Synod in October 1993 that Orthodox clergy would no longer be allowed to stand as candidates for political office. He went ahead with his candidature in the elections two months later, was elected and then defrocked. Walters, “The Defrocking of Fr Gleb Yakunin,” p. 310.

Chapter Twenty-nine The Polish Pope and the Rise of Solidarity

1. k-19, 515.

2. See above, chapter 16.

3. k-19, 516.

4. On the arrests, see Karpiński, Poland since 1944, pp. 196-7.

5. Cywiński later read Wałęsa’s acceptance speech for the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize at the ceremony in Oslo which Wałęsa was unable to attend.

6. k-19, 516.

7. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 126.

8. See above, chapter 16.

9. k-19, 429. Bardecki cannot, of course, be blamed in any way for receiving, among his Western visitors, two men whom he had no possible means of identifying as KGB illegals.

10. k-19, 516.

11. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 127.

12. Szulc, Pope John Paul II, p. 264.

13. k-19, 516.

14. Karpiński, Poland since 1944, pp. 200-1.

15. k-19, 473.

16. k-1, 45.

17. k-19, 515.

18. k-19, 506.

19. Szulc, Pope John Paul II, p. 289.

20. The KGB claimed in 1982 that there were 26,000 Catholic priests in Poland (k-19, 506).

21. Szulc, Pope John Paul II, p. 403.

22. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 321.

23. k-1, 11.

24. Szulc, Pope John Paul II, p. 285.

25. k-1, 11.

26. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 184.

27. vol. 8, ch. 8; vol. 8, app. 3. Tischner cannot, of course, be blamed in any way for receiving, among his Western visitors, an apparently well-recommended Canadian publisher seeking his help for a book on Polish missionaries, whom he had no possible means of identifying as a KGB illegal.

28. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 373.

29. Szulc, Pope John Paul II, p. 299; Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 191.

30. k-20, 208.

31. k-20, 163.

32. k-20, 211.

33. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, pp. 217-18.

34. Szulc, Pope John Paul II, pp. 310-12; Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 308.

35. k-1, 19.

36. k-20, 245.

37. k-20, 245.

38. k-20, 220.

39. Kramer (ed.), “Declassified Soviet Documents on the Polish Crisis,” p. 116.

40. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 246.

41. k-20, 221.

42. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 246.

Chapter Thirty The Polish Crisis and the Crumbling of the Soviet Bloc

1. Kramer (ed.), “Declassified Soviet Documents on the Polish Crisis,” pp. 117, 129-30.

2. k-20, 221.

3. Dobbs, Down with Big Brother, pp. 48-9.

4. k-20, 342.

5. k-20, 34.

6. k-20, 35.

7. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, pp. 247-8.

8. k-16, 409.

9. vol. 8, app. 3. Neither Bardecki nor Mazowiecki can be blamed in any way for receiving, among their Western visitors, someone whom they had no possible means of identifying as a KGB illegal.

10. t-7, 156.

11. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 250.

12. k-20, 10, 26.

13. k-19, 29.

14. Bernstein and Politi, His Holiness, p. 254.

15. k-20, 28.