II. The Andropov Deception – the War Against Law and Order in the USSR

We pick up with another account of how the architect of the USSR’s destruction, comrade Andropov, destroyed his political enemies. There is a stark difference between the USSR of Brezhnev and the USSR of Andropov and Gorbachev and then Yeltsin and Putin. Crime absolutely skyrocketed in the final days of the USSR for several reasons:

• The elimination of an independent police force under the Ministry of Internal Affairs

• The flooding of the USSR with drugs from Afghanistan via the KGB and organized crime (under the krisha/wing of the KGB)

• The mass release of prisoners, creation of the aforementioned criminal gangs

We will cover the first two points today.

The third point is a huge topic in its own right and it would be better covered in a separate article that also explains the lead-up to the so-called Chechen “Wars” and how they were conducted. Suffice it to say for now, the KGB/FSB first released, then trained and funded and directed the leaders of the Chechen and Dagestani terrorist movements. First, they eliminated the secular nationalists and replaced them with Islamic criminals. Then, they helped these new leaders win the “war” against the greatest military in the world at the time (just like Afghanistan). Then, they cut a deal with these same criminals and integrated them into the structure of the larger transnational criminal network run by Andropov’s people in the KGB/FSB.

It is very similar to the strategy that was used in Yugoslavia vis a vis the criminal Islamics running Albania. The Western transnational spook state supported and created the Albanian operation for the same reason that the KGB supported and created the Chechen operation and the Afghanistan operation before that (with the help of the CIA). These “countries” are nothing more than pirate bases from which the transnational spook state can recruit gangster-soldiers and conduct their drug, assassination, and human trafficking operations without any scrutiny. The compatibility of Islamic culture with banditry and the deep-seated racial hatred that all Muslims have for ordinary European folk make them potent weapons and tools in the hands of the xenocrats that run the various spook state mafias.

But, before we can get into all of that, we still have some lore to cover before we can put a bookmark in our investigation into the true causes of the disintegration of the USSR.

And now back to the first two points mentioned above.

Brezhnev, belatedly, tried to conduct some evasive maneuvers to fend off Andropov’s looming coup against the Politburo. For that, he recruited his underling, Nikolai Shchelokov, in the Ministry of Internal Affairs to try and fend off Andropov’s KGB. The Ministry of Internal Affairs struck first with the famous kidnapping, torture and murder of a KGB agent. This led to a cascading series of intrigues and political wrangling that culminated with Brezhnev dying and Andropov eventually becoming the Gen. Secretary until his own untimely death soon after.

There is a good chance that both men might have been poisoned.

And now we come to the main story for today.

Andropov ended up eliminating 160 officials in the Ministry of Internal Affairs through various means when the final score was tallied. Few people in the USSR or modern-day FSU talk openly about this and it is a forbidden topic in the media, in which Andropov enjoys a stellar reputation very unlike any of the other USSR leaders.

As one last interesting aside, an interesting movie depicting this conflict in the context of a murder mystery and a smuggling operation run by the KGB is Gorky Park.

It is an English-language film and quite good as a mystery-thriller. It tells the story of an honest Moscow policeman trying to bring a foreign agent and his KGB friends to justice.

It is vital to understand the conflict between the Ministry of Internal Affairs under Nikolai Shchelokov and the KGB under Yuri Andropov.

Here:

In the early 80s of the last century, the confrontation between the leaders of the two power departments of the USSR almost resulted in an open war between the two departments.

Nikolai Shchelokov was a close friend of Leonid Brezhnev, and this made him virtually untouchable. Even with all the influence of the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov.

It was Shchelokov who made the Soviet police a separate organization, and not an eternal appendage of the VC-OGPU-NKVD-KGB.

(NOTE: OGPU means Organized Criminal Group in Russian abbreviation.)

The Chekhists always controlled the work of the police. However, the new Minister of Internal Affairs significantly weakened the influence of Lubyanka on his department. Shchelokov had carried out significant reforms in the ministry. In fact, it was a restructuring, which provided for both the improvement of technical equipment and the creation of a positive image of the Soviet policeman.

Along with the changes within the department, films about the work of the police were shot, concerts were given throughout the country, and thanks to Shchelokov, Police Day was almost the brightest holiday in the USSR with a mandatory solemn concert on TV, in which the main stars of the stage took part.

However, Shchelokov was only a man, and he could not handle everything. Despite the fact that with him the police really became respected in society, that didn’t mean that this family didn’t have its own (skeletons in the closet).

In December 1981, there was one terrible story, after which Andropov changed his hostile and wait-and-see attitude towards Shchelokov and went on the offensive.

The essence of the story is this. At the very end of 1982, at one of the Moscow stations, a KGB officer was beaten to death. The investigation led to employees of the police department of the station «Zhdanovskaya ».

It turned out that the police detained the tipsy citizen and treated him rudely. And when they found out that in front of them was a Chekist, who promised them great punishments, this became a death sentence for him.

He was taken out into the forest and beaten to death by the police. But worst of all, during the investigation of the killers in uniform, it turned out that the crimes in this department were literally put on public display. Robberies, rape, murder, extortion – it turns out that the police did not hold back on anything.

(NOTE: He means that the police were almost as bad as the KGB)

This was not advertised openly, and Soviet newspapers, of course, did not write about the affair. But in any case, this gave Andropov a considerable trump card in his hands. And he managed to (indict) the entire Ministry of Internal Affairs – from management to ordinary myizioners.

Naturally, Shchelokov did everything so that the Chekists got as little access to his department as possible. Many police officers received tacit instructions not to help KGB officers.

However, after the death of Brezhnev, (probably assassinated by Andropov) Andropov’s hands were untied. Now he had no protection at the very top. The entire head of the KGB went into an open offensive, and in December 1982, a month after the death of Leonid Ilyich, Shchelokov lost the post of Minister of Internal Affairs.

Further, the Chekists arranged the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a uniform defeat of – and, at all levels, starting from ordinary departments and ending with the highest «cops ».

Serious financial flaws were discovered, and simply put, the theft of budget funds in huge amounts. Leveling charges against senior officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Andropov department was getting closer to Shchelokov himself. And finally, they got to him. The main policeman of the USSR was charged with indiscriminate theft and another whole bouquet of criminal articles.

Even the wife of Shchelokov was suspected of involvement in the so-called diamond mafia, in the purchase and resale of jewelry.

Yes, actually a large chunk of the Soviet elite was involved in smuggling precious metals into the West. Brezhnev’s wife included. This was portrayed in popular culture as the wives of high-level officials needing money to go on shopping sprees in Paris or Milan to keep up with their more fashionable wife-competitors in the West. In reality, while they were indeed engaged in this smuggling, this may have actually been part of a clandestine operation to smuggle Soviet gold into the West in preparation for the implosion of the USSR. And the whole “corrupt wives” story was just a half-truth to cover up for an even bigger crime.

That is a conspiracy investigation for another time though.

It is curious not that Shchelokov was ready at his own expense to compensate the treasury for all the losses that were presented to him, but the fact that Andropov no longer needed it.

The USSR chief Chekist longed for the «blood » of his opponent, wanted to finish him off, destroy him as a person. And he achieved this.

Two months after the resignation of her husband and in the midst of an investigation into the purchase of jewelry, the wife of ex-Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Svetlana Shchelokova committed suicide.

Rumor had it that she was trying to kill Andropov and even shot him in the back, following him in the elevator. Both Shchelokov and Andropovy lived in the same nomenclature house and even in one entrance on Kutuzovsky Prospekt. And only then the woman killed herself.

Amusing to learn that the top comrades of the USSR all lived in the same blocks of luxury buildings. Like all neighbors though, from the proletariat in the commieblocks to the villagers on the communal estates, they spent their days intriguing against one another.

But this story is nothing more than a beautiful legend in which a wife decided to avenge her husband to his main enemy. In fact, Svetlana Shchelokova shot herself at her cottage in Silver Bor.

And Andropov was always and everywhere with serious protection. So, it was impossible to approach him anywhere, including in the elevator of his own house.

The death of Svetlana Shchelokova did not bother Andropov at all, he continued the attack on his enemy on all fronts. In the summer of 1983, the former chief policeman of the USSR was withdrawn from the Central Committee of the CPSU. This meant that Shchelokov no longer had support from the old Soviet friendships.

Many of his associates and friends were dragged for interrogation to the Lubyanka, demanding evidence against the former chief. By this time, Andropov had already stood at the helm of the state, now all the levers of control were in his hands.

True, soon the disease completely bound him to bed. And when Andropov died on February 7, 1984, for Shchelokov, it would seem, a ray of light loomed at this end of the tunnel.

However, the investigation wheel launched by Andropov continued to spin automatically. And Konstantin Chernenko, who came to power, was so old and sick that he intervened little. And even more so, he did not want to get into the affairs of the KGB.

Therefore, the fate of Shchelokov was a foregone conclusion. At the end of December of the same, 1984, the ex-Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was deprived of the rank of army general, and almost all state awards were taken. In addition to everything, he was kicked out of the party. For that era, you can’t imagine a worse punishment. 

In fact, the circle closed. (They) understood that (his days were numbered). But Shchelokov was not going to end his life in prison.

On December 10, the ex-minister wrote a dying letter to Chernenko, in which he denied everything that he was accused of. He also asked his story not to touch his children. Three days later, on December 13, dressing in his general uniform, he shot himself from a hunting rifle.

Three months after this tragedy, Chernenko himself expired, and the young reformer Mikhail Gorbachev headed the country. But, judging by the energy with which the new leader was getting rid of the Brezhnev-era appointments, Shchelokov would have had no chance of achieving justice for himself (under Gorbachev).

That, in a nutshell, is how Andropov eliminated the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Unmentioned in the above account, are the investigations that the Ministry tried to launch into the criminal network set up by Andropov’s KGB. Under Andropov, the KGB truly became a criminal business racket with international branches engaging in murder-for-hire, drug import/export, human trafficking and psychological operations against the Soviet population.

An interesting data point: it was not known in the USSR, but Andropov actually had a first wife that he didn’t even bother to divorce before marrying his lover. People within the party knew because she wrote denunciations of him and his behavior that she tried to circulate in the party to sink his career. Hell hath no fury etc. Then his son became a criminal that spent his time in and out of jail and who died of liver cirrhosis at 35. Andropov never acknowledged his son and abandoned him to his death. Because of his control of the media, he was able to foster a public image of a moral boy scout though. This is quite similar to the way in which Putin is able to portray himself as a great moralitarian himself in turn despite all evidence to the contrary about his moral character. The children of the entire ruling class of the USSR and the Russian Federation all have similar character defects for some reason. But because they are powerful, we are told that they are moral supermen.

See how that works?

With all of this background in mind, let’s just jump into another narrative as told by a former Ministry of Internal Affairs chinovnik about Andropov’s KGB and what it got up to. The story is quite gripping.