[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 193 (Wednesday, December 6, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18115-S18116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO DMITRY VOLKOGONOV

  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, earlier today in Moscow, the world lost a 
renowned, first-class historian with the highest of morals, Russia lost 
a key reformer, America lost an ally in the search for the truth about 
missing American servicemen, and I lost a friend and colleague.
  I am speaking of retired Russian Gen. Dmitry Volkogonov who passed 
away earlier today at the age of 67, following a long battle with 
cancer.
  I first met General Volkogonov in February, 1992, when Senator John 
Kerry and I traveled to Moscow as the cochairmen of the Senate Select 
Committee on POW/MIA Affairs.
  More than any other person in Russia at the time, General Volkogonov 
was eager to assist the United States in finding answers about missing 
American servicemen from the cold war, the Korean war, the Vietnam war, 
and even World War II. This was a very difficult situation for General 
Volkogonov because he had to deal with the archives, he had to deal 
with the KGB, and others who had much information that they would have 
preferred not to come to the surface. But General Volkogonov bravely 
pursued it on our behalf.
  I will never forget sitting in the general's top-floor office in the 
Russian Duma in February, 1992, listening to the general detail his 
preliminary work in Soviet archives on the issue of missing Americans.
  It was a cold, winter afternoon in Moscow that day, but as the 
meeting progressed, the Sun began to shine. In fact, the sunlight was 
so strong that we literally had to close the blinds in the office. The 
sunlight was a good sign that day, Mr. President. I knew we were on the 
right track to seeking answers now that we had found General 
Volkogonov.
  I also knew it would not be long before the Sun began to shine on 
important information previously tucked away in the darkest corners of 
the Soviet archives.
  Following my first trip to Moscow with Senator Kerry, then-President 
George Bush and President Yeltsin formally established a Joint 
Commission on the MIA issue between Russian and the United States. The 
Russian side was headed by General Volkogonov.
  I was happy that Senator Kerry and I were appointed to serve on that 
Commission, along with Congressmen Sam Johnson and Pete Peterson, both 
of whom were POWs in Vietnam. During the last 4 years, it was a 
privilege to work with General Volkogonov, and I was thankful for the 
opportunities I had to meet with him here in Washington, as well as in 
Moscow.
  Because of the research conducted by General Volkogonov, the United 
States has received important documentary evidence concerning the fate 
of unaccounted-for Americans captured or lost in North Vietnam, North 
Korea, China, and along the borders of the former Soviet Union.
  It is the kind of information, Mr. President, that never would have 
seen the light of day had it not been for General Volkogonov.
  He has turned over documents concerning discussions between Joseph 
Stalin and Chinese officials in 1952 about how many American POW's 
would be held back during the Korean war. He has also handed 
over Russian translations of North Vietnamese politburo sessions where 
it was indicated that more American POW's were secretly being held in 
North Vietnam than those eventually released.

  These documents are both dramatic and disturbing, and it remains for 
Vietnam, North Korea, and China to fully explain these documents.
  I will never forget General Volkogonov sitting in my office telling 
me that these documents were authentic, and that he would do everything 
in his power to get them and to get access to them on behalf of the 
American people. And this is a Russian general.
  When these documents were formally turned over to the United States 
by Russia, General Volkogonov stated--

       It's a delicate issue, but we can't be quiet about it any 
     longer, since it's a humanitarian issue . . . we are talking 
     about men's fates . . . there is no political spin. We want 
     to help the families.

  Those were the words of General Volkogonov.
  Mr. President, this was obviously a noble cause for the general. 
America could not have asked for a more committed ally on this issue. 
He fully understood our joint quest for the truth, and the importance 
that Americans attached to this inquiry. He had a way of knowing how we 
felt, how deeply we felt about this issue, specifically our Nation's 
veterans and the families of our unaccounted for Americans.
  When you think of the thousands, if not millions, of people lost in 
Soviet wars, most of them attributed to Stalin, General Volkogonov took 
the time to spend looking for these few--compared to the Russian 
losses--Americans.
  General Volkogonov always stood on principle. He took action when he 
knew it was morally correct to do so. He was not afraid, and he was not 
deterred. Nothing showed those traits more clearly than when he wrote 
his books on Stalin and Lenin, based on his archival research, and when 
he admitted he had been wrong in believing that Soviet-style communism 
could be more ``human and effective'' as he put it. Can you imagine the 
courage of a man who would write something like that?
  General Volkogonov was the first Russian general to admit the system 
had failed--he was the ``black sheep'' as he put it in an interview 
earlier this year.
  Mr. President, history will judge General Volkogonov very kindly. And 
historians will owe him a great debt for years to come.
  I know both the Russian people and the American people will always be 
grateful for his enormous contributions. I also hope both our 
governments understand how important General Volkogonov was in helping 
to build a bridge of partnership and cooperation between Russia and the 
United States on these humanitarian issues of missing American 
servicemen.
  I am going to miss my friend, Dmitry Volkogonov, and I know the 
American people join me in sending our condolences to his wife and two 
daughters.
  Let me conclude by expressing my heartfelt hope that President 
Yeltsin and the Russian Duma will find someone--it will be difficult--
but will find someone to follow in the general's footsteps who is 
equally committed to disclosing information about unaccounted for 
American POW's and MIA's.
  I can think of no finer tribute to this great man. And let me just 
say, it would be appropriate, I think, for us to remember him tonight 
because he is a part of history and he was a great historian. This is 
what we should have for the historical record for General Volkogonov.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that two obituaries on General 
Volkogonov from newswire services be printed in the Record, and I also 
ask unanimous consent that the statement by the American chairman of 
the United States-Russian joint commission, Ambassador Malcolm Toon, be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                Russian Historian Volkogonov Dies at 67

                          (By Anatoly Verbin)

       MOSCOW, Dec. 6 (Reuter).--General Dmitry Volkogonov, one of 
     the best-known Russian historians of the past decade, died on 
     Wednesday at the age of 67.
       Volkogonov was both famed and hated for his revealing works 
     on Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Josef Stalin.
       The State Duma lower house of parliament stood in silence 
     to pay final tribute to the man who called himself the 
     ``black sheep'' of the Soviet generals.
       He transformed from an orthodox communist standardbearer to 
     a writer triggering the nomenklatura's outrage with books 
     mercilessly stripping away decades of myths 

[[Page S 18116]]
     about dictator Stalin and Soviet state founder Lenin.
       ``I was a Leninist and a Marxist for many years until I 
     gradually realised that I and many of my colleagues had been 
     misled,'' he said in a Reuters interview earlier this year.
       ``I was not a dissident--I thought the system could be 
     reformed, be made more human and effective, but I was wrong. 
     I was the first general to admit it, a black sheep.''
       In 1937, when Volkogonov was eight, his father was shot in 
     Stalin's purges and his mother ended up in a labour camp. The 
     young boy's faith in the system was not shaken and he entered 
     the army as an orphan.
       He made a perfectly orthodox career in the Soviet Red Army 
     ending with a job as as deputy head of the department 
     responsible for communist indoctrination of troops.
       He then become head of the Institute of Military History, 
     which gave him unparalelled access to the nation's top 
     archives. The deeper he delved, the more disillusioned he 
     became.
       Volkogonov rose to prominence in 1988 by producing the 
     first Soviet biography of Josef Stalin, which portrayed the 
     dictator as an immoral power-hungry killer.
       This was hardly a revelation for Western historians. But it 
     exploded like a bombshell among a people kept in ignorance of 
     their own history for decades.
       In 1991, Volkogov and his team produced the first volume of 
     a planned ten-tome official Soviet history of World War Two.
       The book, which castigated Stalin for letting himself be 
     outwitted by Hitler, was banned by horrified Soviet Defense 
     Ministry officials.
       Volkogonov resigned in protest.
       After producing a biography of Soviet rebel-revolutionary 
     Leon Trostky, he tackled what he described as the last 
     bastion--Lenin.
       Previous accounts had always been careful to portray the 
     Soviet state's founder as a kindly, wise man whose ideas were 
     subsequently perverted by Stalin.
       Volkogonov's biography, based on 3,724 top secret 
     documents, smashed the illusion by unmasking Lenin as 
     ruthless and ready to resort to mass killings to achieve his 
     aims. ``Lenin was the anti-Christ, more like the devil . . . 
     All Russia's great troubles stemmed from Lenin,'' Volkogonov 
     once said.
       Volkogonov once served as a military adviser to President 
     Boris Yeltsin. In that capacity, at the end of 1991, he 
     headed a commission which abolished communist party bodies in 
     the armed forces.
       Up to his death, he was a co-chairman of a joint Russian-
     U.S. commission looking into the fates of POWs and missing in 
     action in world War Two, Vietnam and other wars.
                                                                    ____


     dmitry volkogonov, military historian and reformer, dead at 67

                           (By Ntasha Alova)

       MOSCOW (AP).--Dmitry Volkogonov, a military historian who 
     helped reveal the truth about Communist Party repression and 
     who headed the Russian-American Commission on missing POWs, 
     has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 67.
       Gen. Volkogonov died Tuesday night at a military hospital 
     in Krasnogorski, outside Moscow, the Interfax news agency 
     reported.
       Volkogonov, who as director of the Soviet Defense 
     Ministry's History Museum had extensive access to Soviet 
     military archives, was one of the first historians in Russia 
     to make public the extent of the Communist regime's 
     persecution.
       His confirmation that the repression began when the 
     Bolsheviks took power in 1917 and was, in fact, launched by 
     Vladimir Lenin, the Communists' idol, made hardliners revile 
     him and pro-reform forces lionize him.
       Volkogonov wrote more than 30 books. Best known are his 
     history works on Lenin, Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky, 
     written in recent years on the basis of newly opened archive 
     materials.
       Born in Siberia in 1928, Volkogonov fell victim to Stalin's 
     repression at an early age, when his father was shot and his 
     mother sent into exile.
       Volkogonov joined the Soviet army in 1949 after working as 
     a teacher. He finished a tank school, then made his career as 
     a student and later professor at the Lenin Military-Political 
     Academy for top Soviet army political-propaganda officers.
       He later headed the Soviet Defense Ministry's History 
     Museum and conducted archival research there.
       Volkogonov met Boris Yeltsin in 1990 when both became 
     members of the Russian parliament, and in 1991 he became 
     security and defense adviser to Yeltsin, then parliamentary 
     speaker. He remained an adviser after Yeltsin became 
     president.
       After the 1991 Soviet breakup, Volkogonov presided over a 
     commission charged with creating a Russian defense ministry 
     and armed forces.
       When the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on Prisoners of War 
     and Missing in Action was formed in 1992, Volkogonov became 
     co-chairman, along with Malcolm Toon of the United States.
       The commission was charged with determining whether any 
     American servicemen were held on Soviet territory during the 
     Cold War. So far, they have found none.
       He also headed a presidential commission charged with 
     finding missing Russian soldiers, including those lost during 
     the war in Chechnya.
       In 1993, the retired general was elected to the first post-
     Soviet parliament on reformer Yegor Gaidar's ticket.
       The State Duma, the lower house of parliament. today 
     observed a moment of silence in his honor.
       Volkogonov was married, with two daughters.
                                                                    ____


Statement by Ambassador Malcolm Toon, American Co-Chairman of the U.S. 
                        Russia Joint Commission

       The U.S. side of the U.S. Russia Joint Commission was very 
     saddened to learn of the passing of General-Colonel 
     Antonovich Volkogonov, a fellow soldier for whom we had great 
     respect, which only grew in the three and a half years we 
     worked together. While serving as the Russian co-chairman of 
     the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIA Affairs, General 
     Volkogonov widened the windows of communication with the 
     United States on POW/MIA matters, and was unswerving in his 
     efforts to gain information which would help resolve painful 
     questions about lost American and Soviet service members. 
     Enduring great physical hardship, he nevertheless 
     demonstrated a strength of character so admired by his 
     friends and colleagues. His work will leave an enduring 
     legacy to Russians and to the world alike, and his memory 
     will serve as a beacon to those who continue his efforts. We 
     will miss him.

  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________