{{Short description|Alleged Soviet disinformation campaign against the Vatican}} thumb|right|Pope Pius XII (1945) {{Pius XII series}} '''Seat 12''', also known as '''Operation Seat 12''', was a purported disinformation campaign conducted by the Soviet Union during the Cold War to discredit the moral authority of the Vatican because of its outspoken anti-communism.<ref name="Mindell">{{cite news |url=http://www.jewishledger.com/articles/2008/11/25/news/on_the_cover/news01.txt |first=Cindy |last=Mindell |title=Pope Pius XII: The Case For - and Against - Canonization |newspaper=The Jewish Ledger |location=Hartford, Connecticut |date=November 25, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410161902/http://www.jewishledger.com/articles/2008/11/25/news/on_the_cover/news01.txt |archive-date=April 10, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Poprzeczny">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newsweekly.com.au/articles/2007apr28_p275408.html |first=Joseph |last=Poprzeczny |title=The Cold War: How Moscow framed Pope Pius XII as pro-Nazi |magazine=News Weekly |location=Balwyn, Victoria |date=April 28, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091016090852/http://www.newsweekly.com.au/articles/2007apr28_p275408.html |archive-date=October 16, 2009 }}</ref><ref name="FollainTimes">{{cite news |first=John |last=Follain |title=KGB and the plot to taint 'Nazi pope' |newspaper=The Times |location=London, UK |date=February 18, 2007}}</ref> Claims of the operation's existence were first made in 2007 by Ion Mihai Pacepa, a lieutenant general who headed the Securitate, Romanian secret service before defecting to the West in 1978.
==Description== According to Pacepa, in February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev authorized a covert operation to discredit the Vatican's moral authority in Western Europe with a campaign of disinformation due to its fervent anti-communism, Pope Pius XII being the prime target.<ref name="Mindell"/><ref name="Pacepa">{{cite web |last=Pacepa |first=Ion Mihai |authorlink=Ion Mihai Pacepa |date=January 25, 2007 |title=Moscow's Assault on the Vatican: The KGB made corrupting the Church a priority |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/article/219739/moscows-assault-vatican-ion-mihai-pacepa |website=National Review Online}}</ref><ref name="FollainTimes"/> The motto of Seat 12 was "Dead men cannot defend themselves", since Pius died in 1958.<ref name="FollainAust">{{cite news |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/kgb-bid-to-depict-pope-as-anti-jew/story-e6frg6so-1111113016885 |first=John |last=Follain |title=KGB bid to depict pope as anti-Jew |newspaper=The Australian |location=Sydney, Australia |date=February 19, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811153619/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/kgb-bid-to-depict-pope-as-anti-jew/story-e6frg6so-1111113016885 |archive-date=August 11, 2011}}</ref> Pacepa states that General Ivan Agayants, chief of the KGB's disinformation department, created the outline for what was to become a play mischaracterizing the Pope as a Nazi sympathizer, ''The Deputy;'' that the purported research for the play consisted of forgeries;<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.forbes.com/2008/10/27/pope-pius-jews-oped-cx_mk_1028kaylan_print.html |first=Melik |last=Kaylan |title=Rehabilitating Pope Pius XII |magazine=Forbes |date=October 28, 2008 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130102175309/http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/27/pope-pius-jews-oped-cx_mk_1028kaylan_print.html |archive-date=January 2, 2013}}</ref> that the research was done not by its author Rolf Hochhuth, but by KGB agents; and that the play's producer, Erwin Piscator, founder of the Proletarian Theater in Berlin,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Erwin Piscator |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/Erwin_Piscator.htm |access-date=2025-03-20 |website=Spartacus Educational |language=en}}</ref> was a devout Communist who had long established ties with the USSR.<ref name="Pacepa"/><ref name="FollainTimes"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Crowe |first=David |title=The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LB_HLHJ_J64C |publisher=Westview Press |year=2008 |page=371 |isbn=978-0-7867-3242-5 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
Pacepa states that the KGB employed Romanian spies to feign that Romania was preparing to reestablish diplomatic relations with the Holy See.<ref name="FollainAust"/> Under this ruse, Pacepa states he obtained entry into Vatican archives from the Church's head of secret discussions with the Warsaw Pact, Monsignor Agostino Casaroli.<ref name="FollainAust"/> Three communist spies in the guise of priests over two years secreted materials out of the archives for copying and transfer to the KGB.<ref name="FollainAust"/> "In fact," Pacepa reported, "no incriminating material against the pontiff ever turned up."<ref name="FollainAust"/> According to Pacepa, General Ivan Agayants, head of Soviet disinformation, informed him while in Bucharest in 1963 that the disinformation campaign had "materialised into a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII", Agayants having authored the outline of ''The Deputy'' and overseen KGB's compilation of the "research" which incorporated documents Pacepa's agents had purloined from the Vatican.<ref name="FollainAust"/>
Writer and law professor Ronald Rychlak states that the American producer of Seat 12's play was also a communist; many of the press who lauded the play had deep connections to leftist or communist causes; a highly communist influenced periodical helped to guarantee ''The Deputy'' played on Broadway; and even early reviews had communist links.{{sfnp|Rychlak|2010|p=291}} Pacepa also relates that in 1974 Yuri Andropov admitted that had Soviets known in 1963 what they knew in 1974 (newly released information that Hitler was hostile to and plotted against Pius XII) they would never have gone after him.<ref name="Pacepa"/><ref name="FollainTimes"/>
According to Rychlak, a declassified British intelligence memorandum, dated January 10, 1969, surmises that Hochhuth may have played a knowing role in spreading communist propaganda, rather than having been a dupe, saying he "might perhaps be an ‘intellectual agent', writing either on behalf of the East Germans or the Soviets" and the British agents declined to "discount the possibility of long-term efforts by the communists to foster Hochhuth's allegations until they become legend."{{sfnp|Rychlak|2010|p=304}} The memorandum continued: "whether Hochhuth is motivated only by the urge to write historical plays, to rehabilitate the Germans or is up to some more sinister game is difficult to determine at this stage. But the Russians are certainly reaping some of the benefit."{{sfnp|Rychlak|2010|p=303}}
Rychlak concludes that Hochhuth might not have been a knowing actor in the propaganda but was a "perfect candidate to be an unknowing dupe."{{sfnp|Rychlak|2010|p=304}} Rychlak writes "his ideology was not far removed from Marxism. He also admitted that he was, at least at times, anticlerical. He was particularly opposed to priestly celibacy."{{sfnp|Rychlak|2010|p=304}}
Referring to Pacepa's account, German historian Michael F. Feldkamp writes that "Pacepa's report is wholly credible. It fits like a missing piece in the puzzle of communist propaganda and disinformation aimed at discrediting the Catholic Church and its Pontiff."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.vatican-magazin.de/archiv/2007/03-2007/deutschland.pdf |first=Michael F. |last=Feldkamp |title=Hochhuths Quellen |trans-title=Hochhuth's Sources |magazine=Vatican |date=March 2007 |pages=26–28 |language=de }}{{Dead link|date=December 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ptwf.org/Downloads/Hochhuth%20plot.pdf |first=Ronald |last=Rychlak |title=The Play and the Plot to Denigrate the Pope |website=Pave the Way Foundation |page=25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120506172644/http://www.ptwf.org/Downloads/Hochhuth%20plot.pdf |archive-date=May 6, 2012}}</ref> English historian, Michael Burleigh, concurring with Feldkamp, states: "Soviet attempts to smear Pius had actually commenced as soon as the Red Army crossed into Catholic Poland", noting that the Soviets "hired a militantly anti-religious propagandist, Mikhail Markovich Sheinmann" – "Hochhuth's play ... drew heavily upon Sheinmann's lies and falsehoods."<ref name="Poprzeczny"/>
Pacepa's story has not been corroborated; the national German paper ''Frankfurter Allgemeine'' stated in 2007 that "Hochhuth did not require any KGB assistance for his one-sided presentation of history".<ref>{{cite news |first=Thomas |last=Brechenmacher |title=Hochhuths Quellen. War der 'Stellvertreter' vom KGB inspiriert? |trans-title=Hochhuth's sources. Was 'The Deputy' inspired by the KGB? |newspaper=Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung |date=April 26, 2007 |language=de}}</ref>
==See also== * Anti-Catholicism in the Soviet Union * Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union * Persecution of Christians in Warsaw Pact countries * Persecutions of the Catholic Church and Pius XII * Pope Pius XII and Russia
==References== === Citations === {{Reflist}}
=== General and cited references === {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book |last=Rychlak |first=Ronald |authorlink=Ronald Rychlak |year=2010 |title=Hitler, the War and the Pope |edition=Revised and expanded |location=Huntington, Indiana |publisher=Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. |isbn=978-1-59276-565-2}} {{Refend}}
Category:Anti-Catholicism in the Soviet Union Category:Disinformation operations Category:Cold War espionage Category:Communist propaganda Category:Foreign relations of the Soviet Union Category:Holy See–Soviet Union relations Category:KGB operations Category:Pope Pius XII and World War II Category:Propaganda in the Soviet Union Category:Soviet Union intelligence operations