Perhaps it was my young age and naive belief that truth always triumphs in the end that sustained me in my resistance, dissent and denial of everything. I did not try to make excuses, but I proclaimed my innocence in a very assertive manner. The more I was pressured the more I resisted. I think it was my sacred belief in justice which saved me then. If it hadn't  been for that I might have broken. It was this very belief that gave rise to my resistance.
And so we kept on clashing, character against character. The whole power of the KGB infrastructure was behind him and I, who was cornered like a rat, had nothing to lose. I am inclined to believe that I developed the ability to withstand coercion and violence during the frequent street-fights of my boyhood. I couldn't give in to the lieutenant. He seemed to have underestimated me.

At some point between the second or third questioning session I had already categorized his methods and could foresee many of his questions. His tactics were simple. He planned to intimidate me, rob me of my ability to grasp what was going on, and then squeeze me for whatever information he required. I would then begin to expose my friends and acquaintances, buying my own freedom by slandering all and sundry.
The lieutenant was slow to realize that I was not scared I got over that after our first meeting. In my mind prepared myself for the worst and regained my composure. I told myself that my case carried a death penalty. It was possible they would put me up against a wall. But then we are all mortals and sooner or later death will come to each one of us. My fate had already been decided in heaven and whatever was to happen would happen anyway.
Profoundly gripped by this kind of fatalism I stopped worrying. All my fear evaporated and I began to struggle for survival. I was lucky that since me memory was excellent I never wrote notes but kept everything in my head. That was why the KGB found nothing, no diaries, note-pads, address books or lists of telephone numbers. They could hang nothing
on me and I revealed no names or addresses.  Why get my friends mixed up in all this?
It took the lieutenant a few days to understand that he had been wrong to count on my fear. He changed tactics. I was paroled and warned that they would summon me again soon. The routine was repeated several times. I was summoned, kept under lock and key for a few days and then released. And they kept on questioning me.
After my first interrogation at the KGB headquarters in Lubyanka many of my fellow students immediately broke off relations with me and began avoiding me like the plague.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
The President's Crown of Thorns 1995