Calling Tom Graves!

[Benjamin Cole]

TG-

Jeff Morley published something on his substack about the the Russian-JFK records.

I do not subscribe to Morley, for a lot of reasons.

Can you get a copy of this substack? Seems in your wheelhouse, as your are the world's leading authority on Russian propaganda.

[Tom Graves]

TG-

Jeff Morley published something on his substack about the the Russian-JFK records.

I do not subscribe to Morley, for a lot of reasons.

Can you get a copy of this substack? Seems in your wheelhouse, as your are the world's leading authority on Russian propaganda.

"Russian propaganda" is a phrase for neophytes, I'm afraid.

Regardless, I'm more of a student of Soviet and Russian disinformation, "active measures," and mole-based strategic deception counterintelligence operations waged against us and our NATO allies since late 1961 when the risk-taking head of the Second Chief Directorate (today's FSB), General Oleg Gribanov, sent GRU Lt. Col. Dmitry Polyakov to the FBI's NYC field office to "volunteer" to spy for it at the U.N.

Factoid: Polyakov "flipped" to his CIA case officer in New Delhi about five years later and was executed for his troubles in the 1980s because, as Pete Bagley's friend, KGB General Sergey Kondrashev, told him in 1994, "He was telling you more than he was supposed to."

If you google "polyakov's arrest by the kgb" in quotation marks and "Videos" you should be able to watch the one showing about five KGB guys in suits arresting him and making sure that he doesn't have a cyanide capsule ensconced in his mouth.

[Tom Graves]

TG-

Jeff Morley published something on his substack about the the Russian-JFK records.

I do not subscribe to Morley, for a lot of reasons.

Can you get a copy of this substack? Seems in your wheelhouse, as your are the world's leading authority on Russian propaganda.

Is this what you're referring to?

Comrade Morley posted it about 18 hours ago on his so-called "JFK Facts" Substack page.

My comments are in brackets.

. . . . . . .


EXCLUSIVE: Inside Russia's JFK Dossier [ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/603520021 ] With English Translations of Key Documents

We start by presenting the Russian archivists' [Who?] account of how they compiled records related to President Kennedy's assassination.

As reported here last month, the Russian government’s dossier on JFK’s assassination has been posted on the National Archives site for the JFK Assassination Collection.

Starting today, and continuing weekly on Fridays, JFK Facts will present translations of key portions of the dossier, including:

How Russian archivists compiled the dossier.

The Putin government’s interpretation of JFK’s assassination.

Eight significant JFK documents in the dossier.

Reports on three JFK documents that have never been seen before.

As the Russian government’s semi-official statement on JFK’s assassination, the dossier is part of the historical record that deserves scrutiny, analysis, and debate.

The translations were done by JFK Facts readers fluent in Russian.

Preface: How the Dossier Was Compiled

The dossier opens with what the authors call an “Archeographic Preface.” Uncommon in English, the word “archeographic” refers to the writing of treatises on antiquity.

The essay, by two Russian archivists, describes how they located and assembled the documents. This is not a discussion of JFK’s assassination but a report on Russian sources and methodology.

In summary:

The compilers of the collection sought, through the use of archival sources, to shed light on a difficult period in Soviet-American relations in the 1960s: the restoration of full-fledged trusting contacts at the highest level between the two countries after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the tragic death of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and the establishment of the first contacts with the new president, Lyndon Johnson.

The preface enables JFK researchers to fact check, to compare the documents in the dossier with previously published sources to see if they are authentic and accurate.

Here is the preface in its entirety.

Archaeographic Preface to Russia’s JFK dossier

The collection of documents titled The assassination of US President J.F. Kennedy and Soviet-American relations was prepared as part of an ongoing project to publish Cold War era documents from the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History. This project, which began with the foundational publication, Presidium of the Central Committee of the KPSU,1 edited by the academic A.A. Fursenko, brought increased research focus on a new array of historical sources that document the activities of the highest party organ, revealing the true history of the confrontation between the two systems after World War II.2

The compilers of the collection sought, through the use of archival sources, to shed light on a difficult period in Soviet-American relations in the 1960s: the restoration of full-fledged trusting contacts at the highest level between the two countries after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the tragic death of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and the establishment of the first contacts with the new president, Lyndon Johnson.

The central theme of the collection is the Soviet response to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the beginning of interaction with the new U.S. President, Lyndon Johnson. For the first time, the active assistance of the Soviet authorities in the investigation of this crime is shown on a strictly documentary basis. The selection of documents for inclusion in the collection was primarily based on their originality and relevance to the intended purpose of the publication.

Most of the documents were previously held in closed storage at the Archives of the President of the Russian Federation (formerly the archives of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee) and were only recently transferred to the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History. All published materials have undergone the established declassification procedure.

Compilers utilized the subject-chronological principle of document systematization. All documents are grouped into four sections, arranged chronologically within each section, but with a single, consistent numbering. Given that the materials within the sections are arranged chronologically, the inevitable partial loss of causal relationships between documents is restored in the comments (content notes) using cross-references.

The first section of the collection includes documents on Soviet-American relations at the highest level during the early part of the U.S. election campaign. They are mainly devoted to the preparation and conclusion of the treaty banning nuclear weapons tests in three environments (Moscow Treaty of 1963), contacts between the USSR Minister of Foreign Affairs A.A. Gromyko and the U.S. leadership during his stay at the 18th UN General Assembly, as well as the discussion by the Soviet leadership of the main issues of the further development of relations with the U.S. and directly with J.F. Kennedy. This section includes 11 documents for the period from June 13 to October 25, 1963.

The second section includes documents covering several closely interrelated topics: the reaction of the Soviet Union’s leadership to the assassination of J.F. Kennedy in Dallas; a trip to the United States to attend the funeral by Khrushchev’s trusted associate, member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, A. Mikoyan, and his establishment of initial contacts with the new president, L. Johnson; and, finally, the USSR’s assistance to the American side in conducting the investigation. This section includes 66 documents for the period from November 22, 1963 to September 28, 1964.

The third section is devoted to issues related to the history of the establishment of the J.F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston and the provision of documentary materials for its acquisition. This section includes seven documents from February 26 to August 28, 1964.

Finally, the fourth (additional) section includes materials on L.H. Oswald’s granting of residency rights in the USSR and his stay in Minsk. This section includes 11 documents for the period from October 13, 1959 to May 28, 1962.

The basis for the preparation of this collection were the documents deposited in fund No. 3 “Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b)-VKP(b)-CPSU” (subject matter “On the murder of the president J.F. Kennedy” And “USA. Political-economic relations” (inventory No. 66 “International Issues”, subgroup “USA”), inventory file No. 16 “Minutes of the meetings of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU (original resolutions and materials), 22nd convocation, as well as individual documents from the personal collection of N.S. Khrushchev (collection No. 52, inventory No. 1).

The collection also includes a number of documents from other federal and departmental archives that complement the set of sources identified in the RGANI. Materials related to A. Mikoyan’s trip are stored in the State Archives of the Russian Federation and in the Foreign Policy Archives of the Russian Federation. Documents concerning L.H. Oswald come from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation and the Central Archives of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. The Central Archives of the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus presented materials on Oswald’s stay in Minsk.

Along with the documents, the collection also features little-known photo and film images from the collections of the Russian State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Documents and the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History.

For publication in the collection, primarily original documents were selected, and only In exceptional cases were copies included, which were usually kept in thematic files.

The issue of authenticity or copying is particularly important in relation to documents received via encrypted communication channels (cipher telegrams). Upon their receipt by the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the KGB under the USSR Council of Ministers, at least 45 equivalent copies were printed from the decrypted text on special forms. Moreover, the decrypted original text, according to the compilers, cannot be determined as the first copy (original) of this type of document. The documents included in the collection are from departmental archives, as a rule.

These are represented by duplicates since the first copies were sent to the addressee. It should also be noted that during this period (1961-1964), when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent notes with draft resolutions attached to the CPSU Central Committee, the General Department of the Central Committee received a second, and sometimes a third, unsigned copy of the note alongside the signed original (Copy 1). This is likely due to the peculiarities of the formation of original resolutions of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee and thematic files in Sectors I and VI of the General Department of the Central Committee. Subsequently, according to the observations of the compilers, the original notes began to be copied in the General Department of the Central Committee on electronic copying machines manufactured in Czechoslovakia and the GDR (German Democratic Republic, or East Germany).

The published documents can be conditionally divided into several types of groups.

l. Resolutions of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, adopted both at meetings and between Presidium meetings by voting. It was the Presidium’s resolutions that regulated the main issues related to the subject of this collection. Several versions of the texts of the resolutions have been preserved in the archive.

In the minutes of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Following meetings of the Presidium, the General Department of the Central Committee prepared a protocol, which included all resolutions (with the exception of resolutions of the “Special Folder,” where only the point number and the title of the resolution were included in the protocol), both those adopted directly at the meeting and decisions taken by vote in the period following the previous meeting.

The minutes were printed in several versions: signed, signed First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and sometimes, together with him, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, presiding over the meeting; archival No. 1, which was an almost exact copy of the signature protocol, with the exception of the protocol points, used for reference work in the General Department of the Central Committee; a distribution protocol, intended for distribution to members of the CPSU Central Committee. The latter protocol did not include mention of the “Special Folder” points, nor did it include most decisions on operational, personnel, and other issues submitted by ministries and departments. Decisions concerning the organization of party work or major national economic issues were mainly reserved for distribution.

Extracts from the minutes of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. From the adopted resolutions, extracts were immediately prepared on forms, distributed to those responsible for execution, and also sent (in several copies) to the Sector VI of the General Department of the Central Committee for compilation into thematic files and subsequent forwarding.

Original resolutions of the CPSU Central Committee (resolutions of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee). Draft resolutions were prepared and submitted for consideration to members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee by the relevant departments of the Central Committee or directly by the ministry/department (usually security agencies or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). They were received by Sector I of the General Department of the Central Committee, after which, as a rule, they were sent in copies to members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee for voting. After the voting (decision-making) was finished, handwritten corrections (including editorial ones) were made to the original draft, if necessary.

After this, the head of the General Department of the Central Committee (sometimes the deputy head of the department) was given written instructions on the text of the draft regarding the execution, release, and distribution of the decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. All subsequent clerical notes concerning the details of the circulation and distribution, including the number and date of the resolution, were also affixed to the original. Upon completion of the distribution, the original resolutions, extracts from the minutes, together with the notes and other materials that served as the basis for their adoption, were transferred to Sector VI, where they were compiled into files titled “Minutes of Meetings of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU (original resolutions and materials)” and into thematic files.

Taking into account what was on the original resolutions, how all stages of preparation, voting and the release of the document are reflected in a concentrated form, the authors used them as the main source for publication.

2. Official messages from the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the President of the USA, as well as note correspondence from the US Embassy.

N.S. Khrushchev’s messages have been preserved in two main versions — in the form of a draft, prepared in the central office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in some cases in its secretariat), and in the final version, approved by the resolution of the Presidium of the Central Committee. Two types of messages can be distinguished: open, that is, those published in the press, and closed, confidential ones. If the text of the message was officially published, information about it is indicated in the comments.

The U.S. president’s messages have been preserved in two versions — the originals in English, directly signed by the authors (signatures or certified facsimile signatures); translations received from the Soviet embassy or central Ministry of Foreign Affairs apparatus. All foreign-language materials are published in the collection in translation.

3. Recordings of conversations between N.S. Khrushchev and political and public figures of the USA.

4. Documents from ministries and departments make up the bulk of the collection. They can be conditionally divided into two groups: notes of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Chairman of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and their deputies, as well as heads of other government bodies in the Central Committee of the CPSU;

Notes from Soviet ambassadors to the Central Committee of the CPSU or the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, transmitted using encrypted communication. After receipt and decryption, the cipher telegrams were printed in several copies (from 1964, they were copied using a copier) and sent to members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU and other recipients. The copy sent to N.S. Khrushchev was generally selected for publication.

5. Personal documents include letters from Jacqueline and Robert Kennedy, and L.H. Oswald. All letters are written in English. Original letters have been included by the compilers as illustrative material of personal documents. The visa application form is also the authentic original.

6. Reference and informational materials include documents from A. Mikoyan’s trip to the United States, prepared by the U.S. Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Soviet Embassy in the United States.

The archaeographical processing of the published documents was carried out in accordance with the Methodological Recommendations for the Publication of Archival Documents, developed by VNIIDAD in 2022, taking into account the specifics of document preparation in the highest party bodies.

Each document has its own editorial title, number (if any), location (for documents prepared outside Moscow), and date. If a document has its own title, it is included in the editorial title in quotation marks.

All headings indicate the positions of the author and addressee of the document. The only exception was the position of N.S. Khrushchev, which is published only in the first document. The compilers did this in view of the current practice of not indicating the positions of the top officials of the Soviet Union (I.V. Stalin, N.S. Khrushchev, L.M. Brezhnev, etc.) when publishing. This is largely due to both the fact that they held several positions and the difficulty of determining in what capacity they were being addressed at a particular moment. Thus, notes addressed to N.S. Khrushchev, sent to him as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in most cases they were considered at the Presidium of the Central Committee and were initially formalized as resolutions of the Central Committee. The date set by the compilers is indicated in square brackets.

The security classifications, copy number, etc. present on the document are reproduced as an integral part of the document after the editorial heading, to the right under the date.

Resolutions, notes, certificates related to the document, as well as the featured reproduction of the text, various corrections in it, etc. are specified in textual notes, designated by a footnote sign in the form of letters of the Latin alphabet. The compilers omit from the documents various kinds of office work markings, registration stamps, and other minor, in terms of content, features of the design and movement of documents.

The documents are published in their entirety, without any deletions or abbreviations. The only exception is document No. 72, “From the transcript of a conversation between N.S. Khrushchev and New York Times columnist D. Pearson and his wife L. Pearson about the investigation of the murder of “J.F. Kennedy,” which omits portions of the text unrelated to the collection’s subject matter. The documents’ stylistic and linguistic features have been preserved in their transmission. [emphasis added by T. Graves]

Obvious typos and grammatical errors that have no semantic meaning and do not distort the contents of the document are not specified by the authors; omitted words are restored in square brackets. The author’s underlinings in the text are retained, but underlinings made during the document’s review by the Central Committee of the CPSU or the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs are not transmitted.

All foreign surnames and names are printed as in the documents; their variant readings are not discussed and are not converted to modern spelling. The modern spelling of foreign surnames and names is given in the index of names, where they are indicated in parentheses if discrepancies are found in documents.

The legend includes an indication of the document’s storage location. However, in some cases the legend indicates the presence of an original and a copy found in different archives. The legend also necessarily indicates the authenticity or copy of the document; the method of text reproduction (typewritten, manuscript, etc.); and the presence of autographed signatures. For example: “Typewritten text. Autographed signature, blue ballpoint pen.” The scientific reference apparatus of the collection consists of textual notes, comments (notes on the content), name and geographical indices, a list of abbreviations and a list of published documents.

All comments necessary for a more complete and accurate understanding of the contents of the document, of an explanatory, clarifying or reference nature, are marked with Arabic numerals and are given after the main body of the document.

For commenting in addition to publicly available sources, various types of reference and memoir literature, and periodicals, extensive use was made of documentary materials from the former archives of the Politburo, Secretariat and Apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU, stored in the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, as well as scientific reference materials for them.

The compilers consider it their duty to express their gratitude to the following employees of the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF) - L.A. Rogova and F.I. Melentyev, RGAKFD - N.I. Pestov and L.A. Denisova, RGASPI - P.P. Skorospelov and N.I. Leontyeva, RGANI - A.E. Sokolova, T.A. Dzhalilov, A.A. Kazinov and L.V. Klimova, and to the former director of the Historical Documentation Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia N.M. Barinova and our colleagues from the archives of the CBP of Russia, the FSB of Russia and the KGB of the Republic of Belarus, who provided invaluable assistance in the preparation of the collection.

A.S. Stepanov, N.Yu. Pivovarov

[Translation by Jack Reid, JFK Facts]



NEXT FRIDAY: The Putin government’s interpretation of JFK’s assassination.

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1 Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. 1954-1964. Rough minutes of meetings. Transcripts. Resolutions.

In 3 Vols. - M.: ROSSPEN. 2003-2008.


2 Viennese Waltz of the Cold War (around the meeting of N. S. Khrushchev and J. F. Kennedy in 1961 in Vienna).

Documents. - M.: ROSSPEN, 2011; Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. Two Colors of Time. Documents from the personal collection of N. S. Khrushchev. In 2 volumes. - M.: MFD, 2009; in Europe (USSR, FRG and the Moscow TREATY of 1970 based on documents of the CPSU Central Committee) - M.: Kuchkovo Pole, 2020.