Information on Soviet Secret Police to Remain Classified

Jan. 20, 2016

Russia's Interdepartmental Commission for the Protection of State Secrets has refused to declassify information on the work of Soviet law enforcement services between 1917 and 1991.

This information remains relevant, its release may threaten the country's security and therefore it may not be declassified, the Commission said in response to a request that the information be declassified.

The document was published online by Ivan Pavlov, a lawyer and leader of Team 29, a human rights organization struggling for free access to information about the activities of government bodies.

In March 2014 the Commission extended the period of classification of documents from the archives of the Soviet secret police for 30 years.

A total of 60,336 people have backed an online petition on Change.org, requesting access to the archives of the Soviet secret law enforcement services including the NKVD, the GKChP and the KGB.

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