by Genine Babakian
When Natasha Gevorkian began her journalism career, she operated under a completely different system - with a censor at every newspaper. But that did not deter her from pursuing a beat that made the censors jumpy at best.
Since 1988, Natasha has covered the KGB and other "repressive" agencies for the Moscow News, earning a reputation that led to the publication of her first book, "The KGB Still Lives," by a German publisher last fall.
Until censorship laws changed in 1990, it wasn't easy covering an institution that had been shrouded in secrecy for so many years. But the KGB's secrecy - and the terror it generated - is what inspired Gevorkian to keep writing, chipping away at the impenetrable wall.
"We opened the window, and by doing so began to destroy the secret system," Gevorkian says. Once you start taking away the unknowns, she says, the fear will soon follow.
She began by describing the KGB's structure and how it operated - information that had been well known in the West for years, but had never been available to the Soviet citizen for reasons of "national security."
Then her "big break" occurred in 1990, when a disillusioned KGB general marched into her office, divulging information that had never before been revealed to the public. The interview, which led to the general's dismissal and a criminal lawsuit, was a turning point in Gevorkian's career. Since then she has written exclusively about the KGB.
But even though she no longer has to worry about censors, Gevorkian's task of locating sources is no easier. At first she enjoyed direct links to KGB officials, who, speaking with an attractive young woman, were less cautious than they might have been. But that honeymoon was soon over after they started reading her columns and learned to keep their collective mouths shut.
So what if the KGB higher-ups are all angry with her? Gevorkian manages without them, having developed an extensive pool of sources - both employees and former employees of the KGB - who have been, in one way or another, "offended by the system."
"These people may have their own agenda, but in general they don't lie," Gevorkian says. "I've found that people on an official level never speak the truth."
Gevorkian admits that she herself is sometimes fed up by the focus of her career, but she is driven by a journalist's sense of curiosity, as well as a commitment to her compatriots.
"This whole country grew up in an atmosphere of fear," says Gevorkian. "For me, writing about the KGB is one way of dispelling people's fear."
