Start a revolution from my bed?

Hunt for Red October (1990)

Many keyboard warriors are so convinced by what they see online. They fail to understand why others are so dumb (in their eyes, of course). To them, truth our there is as clear as day. And everyone else just ought to follow, no questions asked. What these modern warriors or influencers, as they are referred to these days, need to know is that sometimes we become too blinded with our beliefs that we fail to practice mindfulness. They should wear another hat and maybe a different colour lens, other than rose, to get a different perspective on things. A revolution cannot be started by an army of one. It begins with the revolution of the collective minds and hearts of the people. This change is difficult, more so in modern times, as we are so divided by ideologies, cultures, faiths and identity.

This film is based on Tom Clancy's 1984 novel which in turn was loosely based on Soviet Union's 1975 attempted mutiny aboard a warship. In the 1975 revolt, a brand-new Russian frigate, Storozhevoy, is hijacked by its Third Rank Captain, Valery Sablin. He was convinced that Leonid Brezhnev's Soviet Union had lost its original Leninist's visions. The system was plagued with corruption and lies. Sablin wanted to use the hijack as a political statement to stir the Russian to engage in its Second Revolution. His plan fell flat, and he and his fellow men were incarcerated.

Storozhevoy

In the book and the film version, the warship was changed to a spanking new state-of-art nuclear-powered radar-escaping submarine. A rogue Russian Captain uses the invincibility of the sub to defect to the USA. The problem is the US Navy does not know of his intention and are wary of the intrusion of a Russian submarine in international waters. At the same time, the Russian authorities realise the rogue Captain's plan. The Russians are at wit's end to stop the Americans from laying their hands on Russia's highly advanced submarine. 

The highly suspenseful drama describes how the US Navy manages to save the day. They help the Russian crew to defect, rescue the submarine and embarrass the Russian at their own game.

It is naive to believe that truth will always prevail in the end. Things in real life are much more convoluted than that. The power brokers, financiers, the leaders, big pharma companies and the media moguls have the final say of how history ought to be written. Poetic justice and honesty are left to pacify the romantics. It is the rule of the majority. Annoyance from the minority can be easily boomeranged back to the senders by the powers that be (spoiler alert). 

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What is the cost of lies?

Chernobyl (2019)
Netflix miniseries

I could not help it but compare the disaster at Chernobyl to the fall of the Malaysian ruling party of 61 years in the last general elections. 

Everything was going wrong in 1986, Russia. In 1917, when the peasants were starving, and the Romanov family was perched in their castles oblivious to the people's sufferings, it seemed like the best thing to do. Singlehandedly, the people defended their Motherland from external aggressors. The propaganda news suggested that they had the best leader in the world. In the field of science and technology, they were beyond compare. Proof of their achievements was evident in the area of space travels. Communism took care of everybody, they were told.

But happy hours do not last forever.

Communism never lived to its promise. Somehow, from the word go, the lure of human desires always superseded the need to do the just thing. Under the cloak of grandiosity, lay beneath a corrupt system which was hellbent on suppressing citizen dissatisfactions and punishing them. Improving the system was last on the agenda. Every economic transformation system has a shelf-life, I guess. 

Back at home, a similar scenario was occurring. Immersed in 60 years of unabated power, they thought they were invincible. Accountability and people-centred programs were forgotten. Fattening one's own and cronies'  wallets became the order of the day. Racial and religious issues were fanned to keep citizens self-absorbed in self-defeating exercises. 

The thing that befuddles me is why, of all the elected and non-elected leaders of the executive, legislature and judiciary arms of the country, none had the gumption to stand up against the shenanigans that were happening under their supervisions. Did the system stupefy them or were they like mere obedient servants like Adolf Eichmann?  Mind-boggling indeed.

This five-episode miniseries narrated the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1985. It re-creates the events, as told by the local population. It describes, with the liberty of poetic licence, through the eyes of a fictitious nosy (or conscientious) scientist the real shortcomings that led the accident in the first place and at their lousy handling of the aftermath of the mishap.

The Russians were not cordial to this show. They have decided to make their own show with their version of the truth. Even the mortality figures are disputed. The official Soviet figures put death at 32, whilst Western journalists estimate 4,000 to 93,000 fatalities.

 Memorable quotes: 

“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Lies.” 

 “the gift of Chernobyl: where I once would fear the cost of truth, I only ask”—“what is the cost of lies?”

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On the other side of the Iron Curtain...

The Mitrokhin Archive II (2005)

It all sounds like a plot of an espionage paperback set in the Cold War era. The only thing that makes it interesting is that it is said to have happened in the real world - that a KGB employee, disillusioned with the direction that Communist Russia was taking, should decide to painstakingly make short notes, via his handwriting, of secret documents as the KGB headquarters was relocated and the archives, in the pre-internet days, were transferred. Vasili Mitrokhin, the low-level official, after the collapse of Soviet Union, in 1992, decided to take his 10 years worth of handwritten documents and to defect to the West. He had apparently shown up at the American Embassy in Latvia with his papers but was turned down. At the British Embassy, however, he was cordially offered a cup of tea and the rest, as they say, is history.

   

The papers were a damning account of the clandestine activities of Soviet Russia in many countries of the world.  In simple words, the archives were accusing Russia of spying many countries around the globe whilst influencing their leadership. From bugging of Henry Kissinger's office to forged documents in promoting false narratives to placing informants amongst leaders in South America and the Middle East, assassination plots of some world leaders and even literally putting heads of India in the KGB payroll. 

Christopher Andrew, an MI5 historian, released two books based on the records- The Sword and the Shield (1999) and The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World (2005). Almost immediately after the release of the first book, select committees were set up in many countries to investigate its allegations, namely the UK, Italy and India.

With the heat and adrenaline associated with the ongoing India Elections, one by one, KGB's involvement in the administration of newly independent Congress ruled India is coming to fore. Call it sensationalisation, call it political slandering. The documents are freely available on the public domain for scrutiny.

It was no secret that Nehru had reverence to the Soviet Union and the course of socialism. Maybe deep inside, he was a closet Communist. Russia took notice of him after the Bandung Conference in 1955 and his involvement in the Non-Alignment Movement. The largest democracy, India, became KGB's most concentrated operation. India was regarded as an imperialist puppet. At one time, the Soviet Union had such a free hand in running the country. Its money ran the Congress Party, and they had a firm grip on the succession of leaders. Indian Embassy in Moscow was infiltrated by the KGB. Even though the Communist Party of India was funded by Russia, it also had access to India's Intelligence Bureau's knowledge of the activities of the party. 

Krishna Menon, the Defence Minister, was earmarked to be Nehru's successor. Menon was instrumental in sourcing for Russian weapons to arm itself, instead of Westen ones. Unfortunately, his nonchalant outlook of the 1961 Chinese invasion of India brought him into disrepute. Lal Bahadur Shastri took the realm after Nehru's demise even though Gulzarilal Nanda was their man. Shastri mysteriously died one and a half years into the tenure in Tashkent. There is another conspiracy theory behind that one.

Vasili Mitrokhin

The KGB had their eyes all set on young Indira Gandhi even as a young girl. She was viewed as a possible popular figurehead whom they could manipulate. The last thing that the Russians wanted was for Morarji Desai, the right Hindu traditionalist to lead.

Indra, with her trusted advisor, Parameshwar Narain Haksar, was accused of selling of India to the Soviet Union. She, with her codename, Maimoona Begum was on KGB's payroll. Russia's involvement was there in 1971 war in defence of East Pakistan and throughout the Indian Government -intelligence, counter-intelligence, Defense and Foreign Ministries and police. 

Mrs Gandhi became increasingly unpopular as an obscene amount of money started flowing into the politician's coffers. It seems that Mrs Gandhi did not care if the money to run her party came from the KGB. Neither did she care that in return the communists virtually made a coup of the entire nation and occupied every vital position in all political, academic, judicial, executive and media institutions of the country. The whole country was up for sale, and Indira Gandhi sold it to the communists.

KGB also had an influence on the Indian press. The published materials are often said to be favourable to Russia's image. Soviet active measures manufactured unfounded evidence against the CIA and the unsubstantiated Pakistani intelligence behind the Sikh separatism.

As the Gandhi dynasty came crumbling and the Soviet bloc was beginning to disintegrate, the Indo-Soviet relationship, to which the KGB had devoted much of its energies, came to an inglorious end.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/07/06/kgb_papers_kept_in_secret_since_1992_released_by_british_archive.html

https://mitrokhinarchiveii.blogspot.com/2005

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitrokhin_Archive

https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/52/mitrokhin-archive

http://indiafacts.org/indira-gandhi-soviet-agent/

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