WASHINGTON The KGB secret police is enjoying greater supportfrom Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev than any other Sovietorganization, according to U.S. and foreign analysts of Sovietaffairs.
In turn, he seems particularly dependent on the agency and maybe in the process of increasing its power.
The close relationship of the two is particularly striking inview of the contrast between Gorbachev's image in the West as aliberal reformer seeking increased democratization of Soviet life,and the KGB's image as the Kremlin's terror agency.
The facts that the KGB is the only major institution Gorbachevhas not publicly criticized and that its chief, Viktor M. Chebrikov,has been accorded unprecedented high visibility indicate the closerapport.
Analysts say the Soviet leader needs a strong secret policeorganization to reassure conservatives that his reforms will not getout of hand: that while he is pushing a restructuring of economic andpolitical life, the KGB remains on alert against dissident elementsand liberalization trends getting out of control. Elevated to Politburo Since Gorbachev assumed the top Soviet postin 1985, KGB chief Chebrikov has been elevated to full membership inthe Politburo and became the first member of that top ruling group topublicly endorse the new leader's calls for change.
In Gorbachev's first year in office, Chebrikov was designated todeliver a Revolution Day speech in the Kremlin and has become anactive representative of Soviet foreign policy, making trips abroadthat none of his predecessors were permitted.
At the same time, the role of his agency has been expanding.
Intelligence reports say that the KGB appears to be taking overmore responsibility for conducting surveillance on the performance ofeconomic and agricultural enterprises. In the past, that work wasdone by Communist Party officials assigned to the organizations, buttheir authority appears to be declining, with the KGB picking up theslack, according to one foreign expert on Soviet affairs.
Gorbachev's hand has been seen in the appointment of severaladditional new deputy chairmen of the KGB, with younger men replacingold-guard officials. New KGB chiefs have been appointed in five ofthe 15 Republics of the Soviet Union.
His support has bolstered an agency already massive in size andpervasive in influence.
In scope, the KGB functions as the equivalent of the CentralIntelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and NationalSecurity Agency rolled into one. In the intelligence field, onlymilitary surveillance is outside its domain.
Analysts say Gorbachev's close ties to the agency, in additionto helping quiet conservatives' fears about the new internal reforms,are allowing him to keep better tabs on his own critics. Opponentsundoubtedly exist in the Communist Party, the military and industrywho feel threatened by his campaigns to root out corruption andincrease efficiency.
But despite the benefits of an alliance, analysts stress thatthere is no certainty that the Soviet leader and the KGB will alwaysremain "in bed," as one put it.
Gorbachev's aggressive reform agenda could exacerbatelong-standing differences between the KGB's domestic and foreignservices, a senior administration official said, weakening theorganization's commitment to him.
Agents in the foreign intelligence service are generally bettereducated and more sophisticated, and are believed to endorseGorbachev's call for change. The "internal" KGB officers, who spy onSoviet citizens, are often derided as crude thugs by the Sovietintelligentsia, and would be the more likely targets of corruptionand favoritism charges. Hints of strain Already, there have been some hints of possiblestrain.
Recently, Chebrikov spent five days on the Afghan borderinvestigating a security lapse by internal KGB border guards in whichAfghan rebels infiltrated the Soviet Union, according to a report byRadio Liberty, a U.S. government station that broadcasts news andcommentary into the Soviet Union.
Also, in January, Chebrikov wrote a front-page letter to theparty newspaper, Pravda, publicly admitting that the head of the KGBin a Ukrainian city illegally imprisoned a Pravda journalist who wasthreatening to collect material about economic failures and corruptparty practices there.
Nevertheless, analysts discount the likelihood of a seriousrift.
Many interpreted the Ukranian incident primarily as a move toundermine the Ukrainian party boss, a Gorbachev opponent on thePolitburo.
Harry Gelman, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst nowwith Rand Corp., believes that the incident also "sent a warning toarty mafias that they cannot use the local KGB against journalists,or other agents from Moscow."
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