In June 1989, Captain Vladas Baerinas, a senior commissioner of the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR, received a cover document – a correspondent’s certificate from the republican newspaper Vechernye Novosti. The captain of the state Security Service was preparing for a business trip. Under the cover of a journalist, he was to take part in negotiations in the city of Treviso with leaders and representatives of the youth organization of the Christian Democratic Party of Italy.
He was also instructed, among other things, to organize and hold a meeting with DPI object No. 2334 “Krasavitsa”. DPI is a “case of preliminary study”, a dossier on the target of possible recruitment. In the assignment, signed by the head of the First department of the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR and approved by the chairman of the republican committee, the captain was instructed to “exert a beneficial influence on the Beauty.”
Undercover approaches to the Italian journalist began in the fall of 1988. In August and October, the Italian traveled to Lithuania, collecting materials on the turbulent events of Perestroika in the country (then still a Soviet republic). In a conversation with colleagues (among whom were such as Captain Baerinas), the journalist expressed regret that she could not stay in Lithuania often and promptly receive the necessary information. They promised to help her.
From the report of the head of the I department of the Lithuanian KGB to the head of the III department of the RT Department of the PSU of the KGB of the USSR dated December 9, 1988: “Taking into account the available agent approaches to the facility, the first department plans to prepare and send through various channels to Krasavitsa materials of advantageous content for their further publication in the Italian press.”
In the same month, Colonel Karinauskas, head of the First Department of the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR, received a secret encrypted telegram from the Union Committee in Lubyanka: “We support your proposal to create and use on a long-term basis a channel for active events on the Baltic issue, as well as the proposed theses for promotion in the Italian media. We ask that the activation of work on this channel and its planning be closely linked to the actual state of development of Krasavitsa and the consolidation of its contact with us.”
After that, plans for active events were finalized in Vilnius. Here is what was proposed in the report to Moscow:
“When preparing materials of a beneficial content for us in order to transfer them to DPI object No. 2334 Krasavitsa for further publication in the Italian press, the I department of the committee plans to use the following theses:
– The responsibility of Christians for the preservation of life and peace on earth is increasing. Catholics also need to be actively involved in supporting the disarmament process and the fight against the nuclear threat. Politicians cannot express the interests of humanity as sincerely as religious figures. The paradox is that it is a civilized person, a Christian, who may be the first to press the button of universal destruction. However, the Catholic center in matters of war and peace acts in a low-energy, vague, non-mobilizing manner, shows itself to be “far from this world” and disappoints millions. The awakening of faith and the struggle for peace are two sides of the same process, since only by getting rid of the threat of nuclear war will a person become free to believe.
– The current leadership of the Vatican, unlike Paul IV (this is obviously a typo in the text, referring to Paul VI. – “NGR”), does not carry the proper spirit of reconciliation where it is vital for humanity – in relations between East and West.”
The author of the document compares the contemporary Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) with the already deceased Paul VI (died in 1978). John Paul I, who followed him, ruled for a little over a month, and then he was replaced by the Pole Wojtyla. The document claims that John Paul II is not fighting enough for peace and unity, as Paul VI did in his time. The agent had to put this idea into the head of the “Beauty”.
As for the typo, it is obvious, because Pope Paul IV lived in the XV–XVI centuries.
Thus, the Italian journalist had to take part in undermining the authority of Pope John Paul II, who was in confrontation with the Soviet authorities. It was up to Captain Baerinas to convince her of the need for such a job.
The year 1989 came. There is a severe economic crisis in the USSR. The indestructible Alliance is cracking and is about to collapse. But the union and republican KGB continue their work on this political “draft”. For example, the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR managed to take an “active measure” and weaken Vatican Radio. In January 1989, one of the leaders of the republican KGB reported to the leadership of the KGB of the USSR: “In coordination with the Center, over the past two years, the I department of the committee has participated in a joint active event of the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR to remove Prelate V. Kazlauskas, an ardent anti-Soviet, from the post of head of the Lithuanian section of Vatican Radio. During the dispatch of agents to the Vatican, as well as through representatives of the Roman Curia visiting the Lithuanian SSR, Pope John Paul II and his inner circle were regularly informed about the dissatisfaction of ordinary believers and the Catholic clergy of Lithuania with the content of broadcasts to Lithuania. The agents of the I Department also took an active part in this. The result of the committee’s joint efforts was the dismissal of Prelate V. Kazlauskas from the post of head of the Vatican Radio section. In a recent conversation with one of the high-ranking representatives of the Lithuanian Catholic Church, an agent (the agent’s name in the document is closed. – NGR), the former head noted that “the bishops and ordinary believers of Lithuania, who constantly complained about him to the pope, are to blame for his dismissal.”
Much later, Kazlauskas learned that the letters of “ordinary believers” had been fabricated by the craftsmen of the Soviet secret service.
All the cards got mixed up in December 1989, when Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, visited the Vatican and held a personal meeting with John Paul II. It was decided to establish official relations between the States on a permanent basis.
And on March 11, 1990, Lithuania seceded from the USSR. The Republican KGB began hastily removing and hiding archives. The operative-agent activity was paralyzed.
And what about the “Beauty”? Left out of business? How to know, how to know… After all, she still appears in old documents published by Lithuanian archivists, only under a flattering pseudonym for a woman. Perhaps it was useful to the special services of the already independent Baltic country, and they did not decipher it. But if this is the case, then the documents about it are not yet available.
