Defenders of the besieged fortress. Notes on the historical legitimisation of Russia’s special services
Defenders of the besieged fortress. Notes on the historical legitimisation of Russia’s special services

Author(s): Jolanta Darczewska
Contributor(s): Adam Eberhardt (Editor), Anna Łabuszewska (Editor), Małgorzata Zarębska (Editor), Katarzyna Kazimierska (Editor), Jim Todd (Translator)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, History, Political history, Recent History (1900 till today), Government/Political systems, Security and defense
Published by: OSW Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia
Keywords: Russia; special services; history of special services; Soviet services; political system; historical legitimisation of secret services; KGB; ruling elite;
Summary/Abstract: In this text, I will examine the main trains of thought in the narrative of the historical memory of the Russian Federation’s special services, which demonstrate the attempts to reconcile the traditions of the Tsarist-era services with those of the Soviet services. I will proceed from the assumption that the history of the special services is part of the history of the state apparatus, and more broadly, of the state’s political systems. In this context, the work of Russian historiographers focuses not only on combining these two, in many respects contradictory identities of Russia – the Tsarist and the totalitarian – but above all on the creation of parallels between the historical and contemporary situations. This is because the historical legitimisation of the services is an important factor that gives legal validity to the current ruling elite, whose roots largely lie in the KGB, and which operates under the conditions of a new system of governance based on state capitalism.

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