KGB against opponents of the regime

The KGB devoted special attention to those groups of society which, in their opinion, posed a real or alleged threat, symbolised an independent state, fought against violations of human rights and freedoms. 

Deportees and political prisoners who came back from places of deportation and imprisonment were under particularly careful observation of the authorities and the KGB, they were persecuted and discriminated. The KGB was interested in their real or alleged activities directed against the authorities because they were considered the most dangerous and disobedient group of society.  Their meeting places and relations between these people were under strict observation. In part the KGB was right because some former political prisoners became active members of a dissident movement; however, they did not abound in numbers.  Another societal group, on which the KGB focused, was the youth (both academic and non-formal youth groups). The authorities and the KGB devoted undivided attention to its control and ideological “education” through the press, school and youth organisations. Interest was taken in the form of leisure of the youth, their behaviour and their lifestyle. Due to its authority and influence the creative, academic intelligentsia attracted the KGB’s keen interest. Their behaviour, utterances, interaction between these people was closely watched. The authorities and the KGB had a negative view of dissident and the human rights movements due to their aspiration to expose soviet crimes to the world and raise the issues of the occupation and human rights. Public and organised campaigns of anti-soviet resistance and movements were viewed as extremely dangerous to the system; their organisers and participants were persecuted and punished severely.