The KGB, Russian Academic Imperialism, Ukraine, and Western Academia, 1946-2024

The KGB, Russian Academic Imperialism, Ukraine, and Western Academia, 1946-2024 is a study of Soviet and Russian intelligence operations against the centers for Soviet studies in North American academia. Using recently opened archival KGB and US intelligence documents, memoirs, and personal interviews with former KGB officers in post-Soviet Ukraine, this book analyzes the Soviet strategy of "using their enemies" for promoting their own political interests, especially directed at the problems of Ukrainian nationalism and independence. This volume investigates KGB operations establishing a foothold within the American Slavic studies community during the Cold War. The KGB, and their current successors the Russian FSB, use Russian emigrants and academics to promote pro-Kremlin and pro-Putin myths within North American research institutes. Special attention is paid to the historical roots of contemporary Russian intelligence operations targeting American-Russian academics and promoting Russian state interests in the ongoing war against Ukraine.

Sergei I. Zhuk is professor of history at Ball State University.

Introduction: Russian Academic Imperialism in the West and Soviet/Russian Intelligence
Chapter 1: The KGB and Founding of the Soviet Studies Centers in Capitalist America, 1946-1960
Chapter 2: The KGB and International Academic Connections in the USSR Academy of Sciences
Chapter 3: The "KGB People" in International Academic Exchanges
Chapter 4: The KGB Spies, Infiltration into American Society, and KGB "Sleeper Cells/Illegals"
Chapter 5: The KGB, Ukrainian Diaspora in America, and Academic Exchanges
Chapter 6: "Academic Imperialism": Writing Soviet and Post-Soviet History without Ukraine and the Role of the Russian Post-Soviet Immigration to the West
Chapter 7: "The Agents of Influence": Post-Soviet Oligarchs, Russian Intelligence Service and Slavic Studies Centers in the West
Epilogue: KGB Legacy and Failed "Westernization" of Russia
Appendix: List of Interviews
Bibliography
About the Author