The article analyzes the main directions and forms of external open communications of the Soviet secret services at the second stage of their reorganization in the Gorbachev Era. It shows the general tendencies of the state security bodies’ implementation of the principle of openness. It highlights the peculiarities of “publicity and democratization” expansion in the operational and service activities of the USSR KGB in the Perestroika period. It is substantiated that in the second half of the 1980s in the USSR there was a transformation of the “repressive-communicative” system with a gradual transition from monologic communication to dialogic communication. At the same time, it is shown that the publicity of the Soviet secret services in this transitional period was influenced by both the specifics of their work and the prevailing propaganda model of communication in the USSR. It is emphasized that at that time the public contacts of the state security bodies with the population had a pronounced propaganda character.It is proven that the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR considered open communications as an important tool for influencing and manipulating public opinion. At the same time, they were provided through public (work with the media, creative unions, public organizations, meetings with employees of enterprises, institutions, organizations, etc.) and personal channels (consideration of applications and reception of citizens).Among the main areas of the communicative interaction of the Soviet secret services in Ukraine, the article deals with the following: public discrediting of national liberation movement members; popularization of state security bodies through mass media and creative unions, in particular the role of press groups in information and propaganda support of state security bodies; participation in rehabilitation processes; work with citizens’ appeals.The leading forms of such activities were as follow: meetings with labor collectives, roundtable discussions, thematic evenings, public meetings, organization of excursions to departmental rooms-museums; participation of representatives of state security bodies in public events; publications in the press, release of TV and radio programs, feature and documentary films dedicated to the Soviet secret services, organization of press conferences; conducting a personal reception of citizens, and correspondence based on the results of consideration of appeals.