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This article analyzes the Khrushchev-era KGB's use of a tactic known as profilaktika in its struggle with political unrest in Lithuania, one of the few former Soviet republics with an accessible secret police archive. In many cases involving low-level anti-Soviet activity, KGB officials chose not to prosecute citizens accused of minor political crimes, but to 'invite' them to a 'prophylactic chat' where they would be intimidated or manipulated into confessing and warned that they would be arrested if they broke the law again; in other cases, known as ' profilaktika with the public's help,' the KGB organized humiliating public hearings at which the behavior of low-level offenders was denounced by other Soviet citizens. I argue that profilaktika should not be seen as a straightforward example of post-Stalin liberalization, but as a tactic that combined traditional secret police coercion and surveillance with ideologically inspired efforts at reeducation and moral reform. In the end, profilaktika suited the interests of both Khrushchev-era officials and KGB operatives, allowing it to survive as a secret police tactic long after the ideological enthusiasm of the Khrushchev years had faded away. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]