Cohn Wins Grant to Study KGB’s ‘Prophylactic Chats’

Mar 20, 2023

Edward Cohn, professor of history, meets with students from his class on historical writing.

Professor of History Edward Cohn has won an $18,500 grant from the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER) to conduct research on the little-known KGB tactic known as profilaktika, or the “prophylactic chat.” The Soviet Union’s KGB used this policing tactic in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s to quash dissent; Cohn will focus his research on its use in the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia along the USSR’s western frontier.

I originally thought that the difference between a ‘chat’ and an interrogation was negligible, and that both amounted a grilling by the secret police. Over time, though, I became aware that although they could both be quite intimidating, there were significant differences.

Edward Cohn, professor of history

What is a “prophylactic chat”? Cohn explains that the KGB would “invite” citizens suspected of “anti-Soviet acts” to an informal, yet terrifying, “chat” at KGB headquarters.

In the course of the chat, KGB agents would pressure the subject to admit their political transgressions and listen to a lengthy lecture on Soviet values. The chats were a way to assert power and suppress political dissent while avoiding the expense of arresting low-level offenders — sometimes teenagers or even pre-teens, Cohn says. The intent of the KGB may have been to change the subjects' behavior while they were still young enough to malleable.

“I originally thought that the difference between a ‘chat’ and an interrogation was negligible, and that both amounted a grilling by the secret police,” Cohn says. “Over time, though, I became aware that although they could both be quite intimidating, there were significant differences.”

He says that the prophylactic chat was a sophisticated surveillance strategy that involved elements of social science research and the language of science and medicine. The strategy was often manipulative in its efforts to change behavior, while also allowing the KGB to present a less chilling facade after the death of Stalin in 1953.

The NCEEER grant will allow Cohn to conduct archival research (primarily in Moldova and Latvia, but also in Lithuania and Estonia), drawing on KGB files and other sources. NCEEER will provide funding to Cohn under authority of a Title VIII grant from the U.S. Department of State. The end result of Cohn’s work will be a book on profilaktika, to be completed during the 2023–2024 academic year.hjuyh