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Vadim Bakatin

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In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Viktorovich and the family name is Bakatin.

Vadim Bakatin
Вадим Бакатин
Bakatin in 1988
Leader of the Inter-Republican Security Service of the USSR
In office
6 November 1991[1] – 15 January 1992[2]
PremierIvan Silayev
Preceded byPost established
Succeeded byPost abolished
Chairman of the KGB
In office
29 August 1991[3] – 3 December 1991
PremierIvan Silayev
Preceded byVladimir Kryuchkov
Succeeded byPost abolished
Minister of Interior of the Soviet Union
In office
20 October 1988 – 1 December 1990
PremierNikolai Ryzhkov
Preceded byAlexander Vlasov
Succeeded byBoris Pugo
Personal details
Born(1937-11-06)6 November 1937
Kiselyovsk, Kemerovo Oblast, Soviet Union
Died31 July 2022(2022-07-31) (aged 84)
Moscow, Russia
Nationality
  • Soviet (1937–1991)
  • Russian (1991–2022)
Political partyCommunist Party of the Soviet Union (1964–1991)

Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin (Russian: Вадим Викторович Бакатин; 6 November 1937 – 31 July 2022) was a Russian politician who served as the last chairman of the KGB in 1991. He was the last surviving former chairman of this organization. He was appointed to dismantle the KGB, but he was unable to control this organization and to fulfill the task[4] due to political reasons.[5] However, he was able to fulfill a plan to disintegrate the intelligence agency into separate organizations.[6] He ran for the Russian presidency as an independent candidate in June 1991.

Early life and education

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Vadim Bakatin was born in Kiselyovsk, Kemerovo Oblast, in 1937. He graduated from the Novosibirsk Civil Engineering Institute and the Academy of Social Sciences under the CPSU Central Committee.[7]

Career

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From 1960 to 1971, Bakatin was supervisor, chief engineer, and director of construction works. From 1964 to 1991, he was the member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1986 to 1990, he served as a member of the CPSU Central Committee. Bakatin was appointed Minister of Interior of the Soviet Union in 1988, replacing Alexander Vlasov.[8] Bakatin's tenure lasted until 1990. In 1991, he was made the head of KGB. Eventually, he was able to disintegrate the KGB, dismiss Fourth Department of the Chief Directorate "З", Fifth Chief Directorate, the actual political police apparatus that ran the secret informants, political dossiers, and dissident-hunting machinery.[6]

After the disintegration of the KGB, he served as head of the Inter-republican Security Service of the Soviet Union.

Bakatin had been put forth as a candidate for the Communist Party's nomination for the 1990 Soviet Union presidential election. However, he decided not to compete.[9]

In 1991, Vadim Bakatin as Chief of the KGB revealed to the U.S. ambassador Robert Schwarz Strauss to the Soviet Union the methods that had been used to install covert listening devices in the building that had been intended to replace Spaso House as the American embassy in Moscow. Strauss reported that this revelation was made from a sense of cooperation and goodwill, with "no strings attached". Bakatin's action was met with harsh criticism, including allegations of treason[10] which were eventually retracted.

In 1992, Bakatin was appointed vice-president and director of the Department of Political and International Relations of the international "Reforma" fund. From 1997 on, Bakatin was a director/advisor of Baring Vostok (Moscow).

1991 presidential campaign

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Main article: Vadim Bakatin presidential campaign, 1991

Bakatin was a candidate in the 1991 Russian presidential election. His running mate was Ramazan Abdulatipov. He ultimately placed last in the election out of six candidates, receiving 2,719,757 votes (3.5% of the votes cast).

Personal life

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Vadim Bakatin, his grandson, (born 24 June 1998) was an International football player and played for AS Monaco FC at youth level.[11][12][13]

Bakatin died on 31 July 2022 at a hospital in Moscow, Russia, at the age of 84.[14][15]

Quotes

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The traditions of chekism must be eradicated, must cease to exist as an ideology.[16]

References

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  1. ^ Указ Президента СССР от 06.11.1991 N УП-2818
  2. ^ Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 15 января 1992 г. № 22 «Об освобождении от должностей руководителей министерств и ведомств»
  3. ^ Постановление Верховного Совета СССР от 29 августа 1991 г. N 2370-I «О членах Кабинета Министров СССР»
  4. ^ Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia—Past, Present, and Future. 1994. ISBN 0-374-52738-5
  5. ^ J. Michael Waller. Russia: Death and Resurrection of the KGB.
  6. ^ a b J. Michael Waller. Ibid.
  7. ^ "Soviet Union: Political Affairs" (PDF). JPRS. 12 December 1989. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  8. ^ Starov, Vadim (7 September 2012). "MVD. The Ministry of Internal Affairs. Systema Spetsnaz". Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  9. ^ Первый и последний: как Горбачев стал президентом СССР BBC Russian, 11 March 2015
  10. ^ Martin Ebon KGB: Death and Rebirth. Praeger Publishers. pp. 58–65, 1994, ISBN 978-0-275-94633-3
  11. ^ "Vadim BAKATIN | U19 | AS Monaco FC". www.asmonaco.com. Archived from the original on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  12. ^ "Подписать контракт с профессиональным клубом и говорить семье, что я футболист, всегда было моей мечтой». Как внук последнего председателя КГБ СССР делает карьеру в "Монако" - Еженедельник "Футбол"". www.ftbl.ru. Archived from the original on 31 August 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  13. ^ "Наш человек в "Монако". Как Вадим Бакатин пробивает себе дорогу в большой футбол". Life.ru. 25 July 2016.
  14. ^ В Москве умер последний председатель КГБ СССР Вадим Бакатин (in Russian)
  15. ^ Trevelyan, Mark (August 2022). "Vadim Bakatin, last head of Soviet KGB, dies at 84". Reuters.
  16. ^ J. Michael Waller Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today, Westview Press. Boulder, CO., 1994, ISBN 0-8133-2323-1
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Government offices
Preceded by Head of Soviet Committee of State Security
1991 		Succeeded by
office disestablished
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