ambassador rudolf v. perina - Association for Diplomatic Studies and ...

line was that a person was made to feel very insecure and vulnerable because it was fairly
obvious that someone had been in the apartment. The implied message was: be careful,
your behavior is being watched, and next time something far more serious can happen.
I found this a very interesting form of psychological harassment, and, while it never
bothered me or my family particularly, it did lead to paranoia among some people. In
some cases, I think, it led to people accusing the Soviets of doing things whenever
anything went wrong, even if perhaps the Soviets were not actually at fault. You know, if
the coffeemaker broke down people would assume, “Well, the KGB did this.” Sometimes
the Soviets may have done it but at times they didn't and people just blamed them. But in
a sense that also served the KGB purpose because it underlined the insecurity and
vulnerability, which is what the KGB wanted. So people’s paranoia would start working
to the benefit of the KGB. We did experience such harassment a number of times—once
when one of my wife’s coats disappeared for several months and then suddenly
reappeared hanging in the closet. But how can someone protest that to the Foreign
Ministry? That was the beauty of the KGB scheme.
Q: Was there a problem of radiation at that time?
PERINA: There was but we didn't know about it. We found out subsequently that this
was the period when the building was being microwaved. There was some real anger
about this toward the Department in later years because many people felt that the
Department had an obligation to tell employees about something that could have negative
health effects. The Department, of course, claimed there was no evidence of negative
health effects but many people are not convinced and believe that the rates of cancer and
miscarriages in particular have been higher among employees who served in Moscow in
those years.
Q: Well the technical people knew about the microwaves, and the Ambassador must have
been told. You can't disguise that sort of thing from people who have the technical
capabilities to monitor it but do not tell their own.
PERINA: No, we weren’t told. The later government argument was that it was below the
level that can be damaging but as I understand nobody quite knows what that level is. A
similar thing at the time was the so-called “angel dust” that the KGB put on steering
wheels and door knobs of some employees to trace their movements and so on. Again, as
I understand, people weren't told about that but it came out in later years. There, however,
it is unclear if our government knew about it, but they certainly knew about the
microwaves and did not tell us. The reason, as I have been told, is that we were doing the
same thing to their Embassy in Washington so neither side wanted to make an issue of it.
Q: How about leisure time for you and your family. Could you get around, see things, do
things, or was it difficult? How was life?
PERINA: Life could be difficult. For example, we lived in a diplomatic housing
compound run by the Soviets which was luxurious by Soviet standards but not at all up to
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