DID KGB HELP TO SELL K'S MEMOIRS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300180019-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 6, 2004
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: December 8, 1970
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 1 8 0 0 1 9 - 4
11). \ '
SCiG6l5 . interested in the Life installments. Why w ere the
reminiscences made avaa`labic for publication nov; ? What
message was intended ly whatever authority made publi-
cation possible?
Involvement of the atenvy, KGB (and perha KGB's
often publicized "disiniorinalion" bureau), is sug;geste(f
by the roe of the shxlowy I nssian journalist, l'ictoi'
Louis, in the arraugeleent, He is, a correspondent in
Moscow for the I,(irrdorr Evening Newt's, and the is h lieve(l
to have worked for the KGB on-'other occasions,
Louis was reported- to be in Copenhagen at the time
of the negotiations for ho ihrrl,hchev materials. 't'here
is evidence to indicate i'.hat he was, in fact, the salesrnati
in the deal, but the cireinmWe-es surrounding the trans-
action are obscure.
There is no lack of theories as to wily sonic Iireblia
leaders wanted to publicize views attributed to
Khrusirchev. It is suggested, for example, that sotto
Soviet leaders want to turn back the 'rehabilitation'' of
Josef Stalin, avlticli ha_- been slowly progressing; r'nJer
the present regime,.'am.l were glad to circulate certain
grisly Khrushchev reco'lections about the World 'j`' It
dictator.
'ACCORDING TO another hypothesis, some SoNt.
leaders wanted to publiciz the Khrushchev reeol.lectinus
-arid l)riuri them to L halt,--before Khrushclhev could
record, in detail, this vrsiori of the events which led to
his own :fall front poses: in October 1.964. A third theori'
is that Khrushcihev had been authorized to start preparing'
a rncnhoir' by autliorr r? who later cli_nged their-minds
and simply wanted to =top the project.
- There has even Kan speculation that KGB assem-
bled and sold the r:; terials simply to augment that.
agency's supply of doiiar,s, hard currency necessary for
operations elsewhero c cl very difficult to obtain wit`bin
The Soviet bureaucracy_ In the absence of hard informa-
tion, however, none of nc~se theories has been generally-
acepted as an expert consensus. -
In Its official denial, which was apparently issued '
tir'hite lihruncchev was lsac italizcd and under obsci'veticmn
for a heart ailment, t. former premier declared the
accounts of the pCiblho.tioIl of his memoir's a/or'e Ca
"fabrication." The sta.tcirhent. did not quite say that ire
had never prepared any such material.
Analysis would also like to have much more iiilornma?
lion on the channels by tieliiclr the Khrushchev ren in-
icec icces Ot G!It of llusc s. V'iro made the initial contract?
~r
i rat. a-aas the per'suasi;c evidence as to the authenticity
of the nisterial? ?
That sort of da t.. 1:: 7 ,ri'ently kno',.'n only to . ;
officials in the 75mt-L'i-r, orgeuizctien, where the aeil':
venture was SCCrei and 1-Iferred to as "Ohe ,)ones Pi'nQt',?
r,/
Approved For Release 2004/10/28: CIA-RDP88-01314R000300180019-4