Abstract

This article analyzes the postservice lives of Soviet and Russian intelligence and state security officers to explore the meanings behind the phrase, “There is no such thing as a former chekist” (“Бывших чекистов не бывает”). The article analyzes four possible scenarios in which a Soviet/Russian intelligence or state security officer might be considered “former,” organized around the concepts of legitimate and illegitimate ways of leaving the service, as well as genuine and deceptive reasons. Those two concept pairs create a matrix of possibilities for Soviet intelligence and state security personnel who consider leaving the service: legitimate/genuine, made up of officers who leave with no negative ramifications; legitimate/deceptive, made up of officers who claim to leave the service but remain connected; illegitimate/genuine, made up of defectors and arrested officers; and illegitimate/deceptive, made up of false defectors. Whether the statement “there is no such thing as a former chekist” is true depends on whom one asks: those who claim to have genuinely left the service would refute the statement, while those who are still in a Russian intelligence or state security service, as well as those whose departure is not genuine, hold firmly to it.

摘要

本文分析了苏联和俄罗斯情报和国家安全官员的离职生活，以探究这句话背后的含义，“没有前契卡这样的东西”（“Бывших чекистов не бывает”）。这篇文章分析了苏联/俄罗斯情报或国家安全官员可能被视为“前任”的四种可能情况，围绕合法和非法离职方式以及真实和欺骗性原因的概念进行组织。这两个概念对为考虑离职的苏联情报和国家安全人员创造了一个可能性矩阵：合法/真正的，由离开时没有负面影响的军官组成；合法/欺骗性的，由声称离职但仍保持联系的官员组成；非法/真实的，由叛逃者和被捕人员组成；非法/欺骗性的，由虚假的叛逃者组成。“不存在前化学家”这一说法是否属实取决于问谁：那些声称真正离开该部门的人会反驳这一说法，而那些仍在俄罗斯情报部门或国家安全部门工作的人，以及那些不是真正离开的人，坚定地坚持下去。