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A Soviet anthology of spy stories contains a stirring Abel call for KGB recruits. "The best representatives of our youth are going into intelligence work that requires the creative acquisition of the Marxist-Leninist theory, a general educational background and a broad spiritual outlook." That might seem questionable to Russians who witnessed the demonstration against the Czechoslovak invasion in Red Square last August, when a gang of young KGB operatives brutally mauled the demonstrators.
Naturally Discouraged. Abel's sudden blossoming into print and native recognition is somewhat surprising. Last week he even appeared in a movie based partly on his own experiences. Russia long denied that he was a spy, or indeed a Soviet citizen at all. At Abel's 1957 trial, he refused to disclose his identity, confessing only that he had entered the U.S. illegally. At that time, the Soviet press described him as a wretched German photographer victimized by "a hoax concocted by J. Edgar Hoover and American authors of lowbrow science fiction." In fact, as Abel now tells it, he was the son of a Russian revolutionary exiled to the far north under Czar Nicholas II. He prepared for his future vocation by distributing Bolshevik literature, beating up "Trotskyites" and studying radio engineering and foreign languages. Now 65, Abel notes that his country, which "values highly the courage, valor and boundless loyalty" of the KGB agent, has awarded him the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star and other medals for his 30-year service.
Some specialists in the U.S. believe that the Soviet leaders are not so naive as to expect the current glorification campaign to popularize the KGB with the Russian people. The purpose of the exercise is rather to raise the morale of the KGB, which employs some 750,000 people. They were naturally discouraged after Stalin's death when their power was sharply reduced, and most of the vast slave-labor camps they had manned for 25 years were disbanded. But there is much hope for the future, Abel believes, because the young people he now sees entering the KGB are displaying "exceptional stubbornness and persistence in learning from the work experience of their older comrades—the real masters of their profession." It is a self-serving but nonetheless chilling thought.