Just months before the failed Soviet putsch of 1991, which is known today as having indirectly led to the collapse of the USSR, Nikolai Golushko, the chairman of the Ukrainian KGB posted a Secret report to Leonid Kravchuk, the newly anointed Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, regarding what was seen as a devious and dangerous increase in “subversive activities” by the likes of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Pointing to the thinly-veiled connections between RFE/RL and the US Central Intelligence Agency, Golushko spells out the efforts of both organizations to use Gorbachev’s concept of Glasnost in order to spread the notion that the Ukrainian people might consider the better life out from under the yoke of Communism. Golushko summarizes by bemoaning the Kremlin’s November 1988 decision to cease jamming of RFE/RL broadcasts.
An interesting side note to all of this was Kravchuk’s hand in Ukraine’s ultimate independence the same year Golushko penned this missive. Another tidbit of potential interest is the fact that the CIA stopped bankrolling RFE/RL’s activities in 1971, although the report underscores what it believes to be the CIA’s continued funding of broadcast operations.
The following is our translation of this three-page declassified report. Our archives now hold 46 similar declassified reports, almost all of which come from the former Ukrainian KGB files. We will strive to provide more such translations in the weeks to come.
Secret
PERSONAL
KGB of the Ukrainian SSR
To the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR Comrade L.M. Kravchuk
17 January 1991, Kyiv
On the increase of subversive activities of special services against Ukraine through the airwaves of Radio Liberty
Materials that have recently come in to the Republic’s KGB indicate that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), following guidelines laid out by the CIA, is expanding efforts to monitor and track the development of socio-political issues in Ukraine. Responding flexibly to changes in the international environment and improvement in Soviet-American relations, RFE/RL leadership are introducing new schemes and techniques to their operation, all the while striving to mask the belligerent nature of their subversive activities against the USSR, presenting it to the Soviet audience in a more appealing “peace-loving” light. In so doing, this intensification is constantly being underscored as an exclusively “informational” focus, which in reality is an indication of the expansion of the CIA’s intelligence operations, making use of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty as its cover.
The KGB of the Ukrainian SSR has recorded the concrete steps of the Radio Committee to create and expand a network of freelance correspondents (paid informants) from a number of the Republic’s residents. Specifically, we have noted significant efforts along this line by official staff members from Radio Liberty [Bohdan] Nahaylo, L. Torn, and M. Zelyk during their visit to Ukraine this year. To date, we have identified 88 of these “correspondents”. In an effort to actively locate new sources of political, economic, or other types of information, we are seeing a newer, simpler, and more effective form of recruitment for collaboration in the form of individual, outwardly “harmless” contracts between the Radio Liberty staff members and representatives of the Republic’s scientific circles engaged, in particular, in sociological research. As a rule, preference is given to activists and leaders of political entities.
Thus, a functionary of Radio Liberty, Eugene Parta, met with one of the staff members of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR V.I. Paniotto, who was in the US for two months on official business. The two discussed a proposal to enter into a $6000 contract to conduct sociology research in Ukraine. In turn, Paniotto brought in V.Ye. Khmelko, the Director of the Republic Sociology Center of the Sociological Association of Ukraine for the work. Khmelko is the co-chairman of the recently founded Democratic Party for Revival [Партия демократического возрождения]. What is characteristic in this case is the fact that the activist of the newly-formed party also moved to establish contact with the foreigner, deliberately, according to him, assuming that the Radio Liberty employee also works for the CIA. Paniotto told his own acquaintances, “I know that Radio Liberty is funded by the CIA and that Parta is most likely a staffer for this organization, but in order to obtain funds for my party, I’m ready to partner with anyone.” This example serves as a testimony to the radical change in the public affiliation of the aforementioned individuals, which has so transformed their perception that they are essentially prepared to engage in a blatant act of treason against the state in pursuit of their individual political goals.
In many respects, the targeted operation of RFE/RL, directed at creating a “new image” for the radio broadcaster, has facilitated the changing attitude of the Republic’s citizens toward the well-known centers of the West’s radio propaganda. In this case, we note the trend toward convergence between Radio Liberty and the information structures of the opposition (Press Center “Rukha” [Movement], Informrukhom) which, in turn, is driven by a noticeable gravitation toward the RFE/RL on the part of certain “democratic” leaders, who view Radio Liberty as an ally in the political struggle for power. This is evidenced by the fact that deputies of the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine, I. Drach and M. Horyn, acting in close contact with B. Nahaylo, the head of the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, sent an appeal to the US Congress and to Pell, the President of RFE/RL. This appeal highlights “the growing significance of the activities of Radio Liberty for the Republic’s population of 52 million.” It further notes that, “in the context of Glasnost in the USSR, which has by no means yet led to genuine freedom of the press and information, the station’s Ukrainian service not only conveys truthful information regarding events in Ukraine and the world, and fosters the development of democracy, but also restores the historical memory and national pride of the Ukrainian people.”
The appeal also requests a review of the status of the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty, an increase in the power of radio transmitters directed toward Ukrainian territory, an expansion of the service’s broadcast hours, and a resolution to the issue of the accreditation of Radio Liberty’s staff correspondents within the republic.
In reaction to the appeal that garnered a lively response and active support within the U.S. Congress, Enders Wimbush (Director of Radio Liberty) and Bohdan Nahaylo (Head of the station’s Ukrainian Service, and career CIA officer) are set to arrive in Ukraine in the coming days. The purpose of their visit to Ukraine is to resolve the issue of establishing Radio Liberty bureaus in the cities of Kyiv and Lviv. To this end, the visitors plan to establish contact with the Kyiv City Council and reach an agreement regarding the allocation of the premises necessary for these bureaus (such an agreement has already been reached with the authorities of Lviv). Preliminary work regarding the opening of these bureaus was conducted by Roman Solchanyk, Head of the station’s Research Department, who visited Kyiv in December of this year at the invitation of the Republic’s Association of Ukrainian Studies.
To summarize the foregoing, one may conclude that the RFE/RL Committee continues to serve as the United States’ most powerful tool for exerting influence, beneficial to the West, on the course of events in the USSR, and in the Republic in particular. This is facilitated, to a significant extent, by the cessation of the jamming of Radio Liberty broadcasts within the territory of the USSR.
In this regard, we deem it inadvisable to extend preferential treatment to functionaries of foreign ideological centers, thereby facilitating the establishment of their information structures within Ukraine. Drawing upon the Law of the USSR “On the Press and Other Mass Media,” adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and acting in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, efforts should be intensified to neutralize the subversive activities of the quasi-legal information cells of Radio Liberty operating within the Republic. Furthermore, in cooperation with our own mass media, a series of articles should be prepared and published in the Republic’s press to expose the true nature of Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (RL/RFE) and its nefarious role in exacerbating tensions and destabilizing the socio-political climate in Ukraine.
This has been provided for information purposes.
Committee Chairman N. Golushko
Translation © 2026 by Michael Estes and TranslatingHistory.org
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