KGB

The KGB, an initialism for Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (Russian: Комите́т госуда́рственной безопа́сности (КГБ), IPA: [kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪnːəj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ] ( listen)), translated in English as Committee for State Security, was the main security agency for the Soviet Union

Soviet Union from 1954 until its break-up in 1991. As a direct successor of such preceding agencies as Cheka, NKGB, NKVD

NKVD and MGB, a committee was attached to the Council of Ministers. It was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", acting as internal security, intelligence and secret police. Similar agencies were constituted in each of the republics of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union aside from Russia, and consisted of many ministries, state committees and state commissions. The agency was a military service governed by army laws and regulations, in the same fashion as the Soviet Army

Soviet Army or MVD

MVD Internal Troops. While most of the KGB

KGB archives remain classified, two online documentary sources are available.[1][2] Its main functions were foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence, operative-investigatory activities, guarding the State Border of the USSR, guarding the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party

Communist Party and the Soviet Government, organization and ensuring of government communications as well as combating nationalism, dissent, and anti-Soviet activities. After the dissolution of the USSR, the KGB

KGB was split into the Federal Security Service and the Foreign Intelligence Service

Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation. After breaking away from Georgia in the early 1990s with Russian help, the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia

Republic of South Ossetia established its own KGB (keeping this unreformed name).[3] Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin worked at the KGB

KGB in Leningrad.

Contents

1 Mode of operation 2 History 3 In the US

3.1 Between the World Wars 3.2 During the Cold War

4 In the Soviet Bloc 5 Suppressing internal dissent 6 Notable operations

6.1 Bangladesh 6.2 Afghanistan

7 August 1991 coup 8 Organization

8.1 Republican affiliations 8.2 Leadership 8.3 Directorates 8.4 Other units

9 List of chairmen 10 Insignia 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External links

Mode of operation[edit]

The ukase establishing the KGB

A 1983 Time magazine article reported that the KGB
KGB is the world's most effective information-gathering organization.[4] It operated legal and illegal espionage residencies in target countries where a legal resident gathered intelligence while based at the Soviet embassy or consulate, and, if caught, was protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity. At best, the compromised spy was either returned to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government of the target country. The illegal resident spied, unprotected by diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic and trade missions, (cf. the non-official cover CIA officer). In its early history, the KGB
KGB valued illegal spies more than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with greater ease. The KGB
KGB residency executed four types of espionage: (i) political, (ii) economic, (iii) military-strategic, and (iv) disinformation, effected with "active measures" (PR Line), counter-intelligence and security (KR Line), and scientific–technological intelligence (X Line); quotidian duties included SIGINT (RP Line) and illegal support (N Line).[5] The KGB
KGB classified its spies as agents (intelligence providers) and controllers (intelligence relayers). The false-identity or legend assumed by a USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either a "live double" (participant to the fabrications) or a "dead double" (whose identity is tailored to the spy). The agent then substantiated his or her legend by living it in a foreign country, before emigrating to the target country, thus the sending of US-bound illegal residents via the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Canada. Tradecraft included stealing and photographing documents, code-names, contacts, targets, and dead letter boxes, and working as a "friend of the cause" or agents provocateur, who would infiltrate the target group to sow dissension, influence policy, and arrange kidnappings and assassinations.[6] History[edit] Further information: Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies See also: Cheka, OGPU, NKGB, and Ministry for State Security (Soviet Union)

KGB
KGB Regulation seen in Museum of Genocide Victims Vilnius

Mindful of ambitious spy chiefs—and after deposing Premier Nikita Khrushchev—Secretary Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev and the CPSU
CPSU knew to manage the next over-ambitious KGB
KGB Chairman, Aleksandr Shelepin (1958–61), who facilitated Brezhnev's palace coup d'état against Khrushchev in 1964 (despite Shelepin not then being in the KGB). With political reassignments, Shelepin protégé Vladimir Semichastny
Vladimir Semichastny (1961–67) was sacked as KGB
KGB Chairman, and Shelepin himself was demoted from chairman of the Committee of Party and State Control to Trade Union Council chairman. In the 1980s, the glasnost liberalisation of Soviet society provoked KGB
KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov
Vladimir Kryuchkov (1988–91) to lead the August 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev. The thwarted coup d'état ended the KGB
KGB on 6 November 1991. The KGB's main successors are the FSB ( Federal Security Service
Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) and the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service). In the US[edit] Between the World Wars[edit] The GRU
GRU (military intelligence) recruited the ideological agent Julian Wadleigh, who became a State Department diplomat in 1936. The NKVD's first US operation was establishing the legal residency of Boris Bazarov and the illegal residency of Iskhak Akhmerov
Iskhak Akhmerov in 1934.[7] Throughout, the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and its General Secretary Earl Browder, helped NKVD
NKVD recruit Americans, working in government, business, and industry. Other important, low-level and high-level ideological agents were the diplomats Laurence Duggan
Laurence Duggan and Michael Whitney Straight
Michael Whitney Straight in the State Department, the statistician Harry Dexter White
Harry Dexter White in the Treasury Department, the economist Lauchlin Currie
Lauchlin Currie (an FDR advisor), and the "Silvermaster Group", headed by statistician Greg Silvermaster, in the Farm Security Administration and the Board of Economic Warfare.[8] Moreover, when Whittaker Chambers, formerly Alger Hiss's courier, approached the Roosevelt Government—to identify the Soviet spies Duggan, White, and others—he was ignored. Hence, during the Second World War (1939–45)—at the Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945) conferences—Big Three Ally Joseph Stalin of the USSR, was better informed about the war affairs of his US and UK allies than they were about his.[9] Soviet espionage was at its most successful in collecting scientific and technological intelligence about advances in jet propulsion, radar and encryption, which impressed Moscow, but stealing atomic secrets was the capstone of NKVD
NKVD espionage against Anglo–American science and technology. To wit, British Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project team physicist Klaus Fuchs ( GRU
GRU 1941) was the main agent of the Rosenberg spy ring.[10] In 1944, the New York City residency infiltrated top secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by recruiting Theodore Hall, a 19-year-old Harvard physicist.[11][12] During the Cold War[edit] The KGB
KGB failed to rebuild most of its US illegal resident networks. The aftermath of the Second Red Scare
Red Scare (1947–57) and the crisis in the CPUSA hampered recruitment. The last major illegal resident, Rudolf Abel
Rudolf Abel (Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher/"Willie" Vilyam Fisher), was betrayed by his assistant, Reino Häyhänen, in 1957.[13] Recruitment then emphasised mercenary agents, an approach especially successful[citation needed][quantify] in scientific and technical espionage, since private industry practised lax internal security, unlike the US Government. One notable KGB
KGB success occurred in 1967,with the walk-in recruitment of US Navy
US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker. Over eighteen years, Walker enabled Soviet Intelligence to decipher some one million US Navy
US Navy messages, and track the US Navy.[14] In the late Cold War, the KGB
KGB was successful with intelligence coups in the cases of the mercenary walk-in recruits FBI counterspy Robert Hanssen (1979–2001) and CIA Soviet Division officer Aldrich Ames (1985–1994).[15] In the Soviet Bloc[edit] It was Cold War
Cold War policy for the KGB
KGB of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union and the secret services of the satellite states to extensively monitor public and private opinion, internal subversion and possible revolutionary plots in the Soviet Bloc. In supporting those Communist governments, the KGB was instrumental in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and the Prague Spring
Prague Spring of "Socialism with a Human Face", in 1968 Czechoslovakia. During the Hungarian revolt, KGB
KGB chairman Ivan Serov
Ivan Serov personally supervised the post-invasion "normalization" of the country. In consequence, KGB
KGB monitored the satellite state populations for occurrences of "harmful attitudes" and "hostile acts;" yet, stopping the Prague Spring, deposing a nationalist Communist government, was its greatest achievement. The KGB
KGB prepared the Red Army's route by infiltrating to Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia many illegal residents disguised as Western tourists. They were to gain the trust of and spy upon the most outspoken proponents of Alexander Dubček's new government. They were to plant subversive evidence, justifying the USSR's invasion, that right-wing groups—aided by Western intelligence agencies—were going to depose the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. Finally, the KGB
KGB prepared hardline, pro-USSR members of the Communist Party
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC), such as Alois Indra and Vasiľ Škultéty, to assume power after the Red Army's invasion.[16] The KGB's Czech success in the 1960s was matched with the failed suppression of the Solidarity labour movement in 1980s Poland. The KGB had forecast political instability consequent to the election of Archbishop of Kraków Karol Wojtyla as the first Polish Pope, John Paul II, whom they had categorised as "subversive" because of his anti-Communist sermons against the one-party PUWP régime. Despite its accurate forecast of crisis, the Polish United Workers' Party
Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP) hindered the KGB's destroying the nascent Solidarity-backed political movement, fearing explosive civil violence if they imposed the KGB-recommended martial law. Aided by their Polish counterpart, the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB), the KGB
KGB successfully infiltrated spies to Solidarity and the Catholic Church,[17] and in Operation X co-ordinated the declaration of martial law with Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and the Polish Communist Party;[18] however, the vacillating, conciliatory Polish approach blunted KGB effectiveness—and Solidarity then fatally weakened the Communist Polish government in 1989. Suppressing internal dissent[edit]

Monument to victims of KGB
KGB / NKVD
NKVD operations in Vilnius, Lithuania

During the Cold War, the KGB
KGB actively sought to combat "ideological subversion"—anti-communist political and religious ideas and the dissidents who promoted them, which was generally dealt with as a matter of national security in discouraging influence of hostile foreign powers. After denouncing Stalinism
Stalinism in his secret speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences in 1956, head of state Nikita Khrushchev lessened suppression of "ideological subversion". As a result, critical literature re-emerged, including the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was code-named PAUK ("spider") by the KGB. After Khrushchev's deposition in 1964, Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev reverted the State and KGB
KGB to actively harsh suppression; house searches to seize documents and the continual monitoring of dissidents became routine again. To wit, in 1965, such a search-and-seizure operation yielded Solzhenitsyn manuscripts of "slanderous fabrications", and the subversion trial of the novelists Andrei Sinyavsky
Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel; Sinyavsky (alias "Abram Tertz"), and Daniel (alias "Nikolai Arzhak"), were captured after a Moscow literary-world informant told KGB
KGB when to find them at home.[19] In 1967, the campaign of this suppression increased under new KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov. After suppressing the Prague Spring, KGB Chairman Andropov established the Fifth Directorate to monitor dissension and eliminate dissenters. He was especially concerned with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, "Public Enemy Number One".[20] Andropov failed to expel Solzhenitsyn before 1974; but did internally exile Sakharov to Gorky in 1980. The KGB
KGB failed to prevent Sakharov's collecting his Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, but did prevent Yuri Orlov collecting his Nobel Prize in 1978; Chairman Andropov supervised both operations. KGB
KGB dissident-group infiltration featured agents provocateur pretending "sympathy to the cause", smear campaigns against prominent dissidents, and show trials; once imprisoned, the dissident endured KGB
KGB interrogators and sympathetic informant cell-mates. In the event, Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost policies lessened persecution of dissidents; he was effecting some of the policy changes they had been demanding since the 1970s.[21] Notable operations[edit]

With the Trust Operation (1921–1926), the OGPU
OGPU successfully deceived some leaders of the right-wing, counter-revolutionary White Guards back to the USSR for execution. NKVD
NKVD infiltrated and destroyed Trotskyist groups; in 1940, the Spanish agent Ramón Mercader
Ramón Mercader assassinated Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky in Mexico City. KGB
KGB favoured active measures (e.g. disinformation), in discrediting the USSR's enemies. For war-time, KGB
KGB had ready sabotage operations arms caches in target countries.

In the 1960s, acting upon the information of KGB
KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn, the CIA counter-intelligence chief James Jesus Angleton believed KGB
KGB had moles in two key places—the counter-intelligence section of CIA and the FBI's counter-intelligence department—through whom they would know of, and control, US counter-espionage to protect the moles and hamper the detection and capture of other Communist spies. Moreover, KGB
KGB counter-intelligence vetted foreign intelligence sources, so that the moles might "officially" approve an anti-CIA double agent as trustworthy. In retrospect, the captures of the moles Aldrich Ames
Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen
Robert Hanssen proved that Angleton, though ignored as over-aggressive, was correct, despite the fact that it cost him his job at CIA, which he left in 1975.[citation needed] In the mid-1970s, the KGB
KGB tried to secretly buy three banks in northern California to gain access to high-technology secrets. Their efforts were thwarted by the CIA. The banks were Peninsula National Bank in Burlingame, the First National Bank of Fresno, and the Tahoe National Bank in South Lake Tahoe. These banks had made numerous loans to advanced technology companies and had many of their officers and directors as clients. The KGB
KGB used the Moscow
Moscow Narodny Bank Limited to finance the acquisition, and an intermediary, Singaporean businessman Amos Dawe, as the frontman.[22] Bangladesh[edit] On 2 February 1973, the Politburo, which was led by Yuri Andropov
Yuri Andropov at the time, demanded that KGB
KGB members influence Bangladesh
Bangladesh (which was then newly formed) where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was scheduled to win parliamentary elections. During that time, the Soviet secret service tried very hard to ensure support for his party and his allies and even predicted an easy victory for him. In June 1975, Mujib formed a new party called BAKSAL
BAKSAL and created a one-party state. Three years later, the KGB
KGB in that region increased from 90 to 200, and by 1979 printed more than 100 newspaper articles. In these articles, the KGB officials accused Ziaur Rahman, popularly known as "Zia", and his regime of having ties with the United States.[23] In August 1979, the KGB
KGB accused some officers who were arrested in Dhaka
Dhaka in an overthrow attempt, and by October, Andropov approved the fabrication of a letter in which he stated that Muhammad Ghulam Tawab, an Air Vice-Marshal at the time, was the main plotter, which led the Bangladesh, Indian and Sri Lankan press to believe that he was an American spy. Under Andropov's command, Service A, a KGB
KGB division, falsified the information in a letter to Moudud Ahmed in which it said that he was supported by the American government and by 1981 even sent a letter accusing the Reagan administration
Reagan administration of plotting to overthrow President Zia and his regime. The letter also mentioned that after Mujib was assassinated the United States
United States contacted Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad to replace him as a short-term President. When the election happened in the end of 1979, the KGB
KGB made sure that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party would win. The party received 207 out of 300 seats, but the Zia regime did not last long, falling on 29 May 1981 when after numerous escapes, Zia was assassinated in Chittagong.[23][better source needed] Afghanistan[edit]

KGB
KGB special operative Igor Morozov sits on top of the BTR-80
BTR-80 armoured vehicle during his assignment to the Badakhshan province, c. 1982

The KGB
KGB started infiltrating Afghanistan
Afghanistan as early as 27 April 1978. During that time, the Afghan Communist Party[24] was planning the overthrow of the imperially appointed Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan. Under the leadership of Major General Sayed Gulabzoy and Muhammad Rafi (code names of whom were Mammad and Niruz), the Soviet secret service discovered the information about the imminent uprising. Two days after the uprising, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
Afghanistan militant leader Nur Muhammad Taraki
Nur Muhammad Taraki issued a notice of concern to the Soviet ambassador Alexander Puzanov
Alexander Puzanov and the resident of Kabul-based KGB
KGB embassy Viliov Osadchy that they could have staged a coup three days earlier hence the warning. On that, both Puzanov and Osadchy dismissed Taraki's complaint and reported it to Moscow, which broke a 30-year contract with him soon after.[23][25] The centre then realized that it was better for them to deal with a more competent agent, which at the time was Babrak Karmal, who later accused Nur Muhammad Taraki
Nur Muhammad Taraki of taking bribes and even having secretly contacted the United States
United States embassy in Kabul. On that, the centre again refused to listen and instructed him to take resident position in the Kabul
Kabul residency by 1974. On 30 April 1978, Taraki, despite being cut off from any support, led the coup which later became known as April Revolution, and became the country's President, along with Hafizullah Amin
Hafizullah Amin being Deputy-Prime Minister and Vice-President. On 5 December of that same year, Taraki compared the April Revolt to the Russian Revolution, which struck Vladimir Kryuchkov, the FCD chief of that time.[23][25] On 27 March 1979, after losing the city of Herat, Amin became the next Prime Minister, and by 27 July became Minister of Defence as well. The centre though was concerned of his powers since the same month he issued them a complaint about lack of funds and demanded US$400,000,000. Furthermore, it was discovered that Amin had a master's degree from Columbia University, and that he preferred to communicate in English instead of Russian. Unfortunately for Moscow's intelligence services, Amin succeeded Taraki and by 16 September Radio Kabul
Kabul announced that the PDPA received a fake request from Taraki concerning health issues among the party members. On that, the centre accused him of "terrorist" activities and expelled him from the Communist Party.[23][25] The following day General Boris Ivanov, who was behind the mission in Kabul
Kabul along with General Lev Gorelov and Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Pavlovsky, visited Amin to congratulate him on his election to power. On the same day the KGB
KGB decided to imprison Sayed Gulabzoy as well as Muhammad Watanjar and Asadullah Sarwari
Asadullah Sarwari but while in captivity and under an investigation all three denied the allegation that the current Minister of Defence was an American secret agent. The denial of claims was passed on to Yuri Andropov
Yuri Andropov and Leonid Brezhnev, who as the main chiefs of the KGB
KGB proposed operation Raduga to save the life of Gulabzoy and Watanjar and send them to Tashkent
Tashkent from Bagram airbase by giving them fake passports. With that and a sealed container in which an almost breathless Sarwari was laying, they came to Tashkent on 19 September.[23][25] During the continued investigation in Tashkent, the three were put under surveillance in one of the rooms for as long as four weeks where they were investigated for the reliability of their claims by the KGB. Soon after, they were satisfied with the results and sent them to Bulgaria
Bulgaria for a secret retreat. On 9 October, the Soviet secret service had a meeting in which Bogdanov, Gorelov, Pavlonsky and Puzanov were the main chiefs who were discussing what to do with Amin who was very harsh at the meeting. After the two-hour meeting they began to worry that Amin will establish an Islamic Republic
Islamic Republic in Afghanistan
Afghanistan and decided to seek a way to put Karmal back in. They brought him and three other ministers secretly to Moscow
Moscow during which time they discussed how to put him back in power. The decision was to fly him back to Bagram airbase
Bagram airbase by 13 December. Four days later, Amin's nephew, Asadullah, was taken to Moscow
Moscow by the KGB
KGB for acute food poisoning treatment.[23][25] On 19 November 1979, the KGB
KGB had a meeting on which they discussed Operation Cascade, which was launched earlier that year. The operation carried out bombings with the help of GRU
GRU and FCD.[25] On 27 December, the centre received news of the Darul Aman Palace, that KGB
KGB Special Forces Alpha and Zenith Group, supported by the 154th OSN GRU, also known as Muslim battalion and paratroopers from the 345th Guards Airborne Regiment stormed the Tajbeg Palace
Tajbeg Palace in Afghanistan
Afghanistan and killed Afghan President Hafizullah Amin
Hafizullah Amin and his 100–150 personal guards.[26] His 11-year-old son died due to shrapnel wounds.[27] The Soviets installed Babrak Karmal
Babrak Karmal as Amin's successor. Several other government buildings were seized during the operation, including the Ministry of Interior building, the Internal Security (KHAD) building, and the General Staff building (Darul Aman Palace). Out of the 54 KGB operators that assaulted the palace, 5 were killed in action, including Colonel Grigori Boyarinov, and 32 were wounded. Alpha Group veterans call this operation one of the most successful in the group's history. In June 1981, there were 370 members in the Afghan-controlled KGB
KGB intelligence service throughout the nation which were under the command of Ahmad Shah Paiya and had received all the training they need in the Soviet Union. By May 1982 the Ministry of Internal Affairs was set up in Afghanistan
Afghanistan under the command of KHAD. In 1983 Boris Voskoboynikov became the next head of the KGB
KGB while Leonid Kostromin became his Deputy Minister.[25] August 1991 coup[edit] Main article: 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt On 18 August 1991, Chairman of the KGB
Chairman of the KGB Vladimir Kryuchkov, along with seven other Soviet leaders, formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency and attempted to overthrow the government of the Soviet Union. The purpose of the attempted coup d'état was to preserve the integrity of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union and the constitutional order. President Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev was arrested and ineffective attempts were made to seize power. Within two days, the attempted coup collapsed.[28] The KGB
KGB was succeeded by the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) of Russia, which was succeeded by the Federal Security Service
Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation
Russian Federation (FSB).[29] Organization[edit] Republican affiliations[edit]

Head of KGB
KGB in Lithuania
Lithuania Eduardas Eismuntas, January 1990

Erkebek Abdulaev, author and former KGB
KGB lieutenant colonel

The republican affiliation offices almost completely duplicated the structural organization of the main KGB.

KGB
KGB of Belarusian SSR / KDB of Belarus (see State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus) KGB
KGB of Ukraine / KDB of Ukraine (see Committee for State Security (Ukraine)) KGB
KGB of Moldovan SSR / CSS of Moldova KGB
KGB of Estonian SSR / RJK of Estonia KGB
KGB of Latvian SSR / LPSR Valsts drošības komiteja (VDK) KGB
KGB of Lithuanian SSR / VSK of Lithuania KGB
KGB of Georgian SSR / KSU of Georgia KGB
KGB of Armenian SSR KGB
KGB of Azerbaijan SSR / DTK of Azerbaijan KGB
KGB of Kazakh SSR KGB
KGB of Kyrgyz SSR KGB
KGB of Uzbek SSR KGB
KGB of Turkmen SSR KGB
KGB of Tajik SSR KGB
KGB of Russia (created in 1991) (see Federal Security Service)

Leadership[edit] The Chairman of the KGB, First Deputy Chairmen (1–2), Deputy Chairmen (4–6). Its policy Collegium comprised a chairman, deputy chairmen, directorate chiefs, and republican KGB
KGB chairmen. Directorates[edit]

First Chief Directorate
First Chief Directorate (Foreign Operations) – foreign espionage. (now the Foreign Intelligence Service
Foreign Intelligence Service or SVR in Russian) Second Chief Directorate – counter-intelligence, internal political control. Third Chief Directorate (Armed Forces) – military counter-intelligence and armed forces political surveillance. Fourth Directorate (Transportation security) Fifth Chief Directorate – censorship and internal security against artistic, political, and religious dissension; renamed "Directorate Z", protecting the Constitutional order, in 1989. Sixth Directorate (Economic Counter-intelligence, industrial security) Seventh Directorate (Surveillance) – of Soviet nationals and foreigners. Eighth Chief Directorate – monitored-managed national, foreign, and overseas communications, cryptologic equipment, and research and development. Ninth Directorate (Guards and KGB
KGB Protection Service) – The 40,000-man uniformed bodyguard for the CPSU
CPSU leaders and families, guarded critical government installations (nuclear weapons, etc.), operated the Moscow
Moscow VIP subway, and secure Government–Party telephony. President Yeltsin transformed it to the Federal Protective Service (FPS). Fifteenth Directorate (Security of Government Installations) Sixteenth Directorate (SIGINT and communications interception) – operated the national and government telephone and telegraph systems. Border Guards Directorate responsible for the USSR's border troops. Operations and Technology Directorate – research laboratories for recording devices and Laboratory 12 for poisons and drugs.

Former KGB
KGB officer Sergei Ivanov
Sergei Ivanov meets with former CIA director Robert Gates, April 2007

Other units[edit]

KGB
KGB Personnel Department Secretariat of the KGB KGB
KGB Technical Support Staff KGB
KGB Finance Department KGB
KGB Archives KGB
KGB Irregulars Administration Department of the KGB, and The CPSU
CPSU Committee KGB
KGB Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz (special operations) units such as:

Alpha Group Vega Group Zenith Group

Kremlin Guard Force for the Presidium, et al., then became the FSO

List of chairmen[edit]

Identity cards The Chairman of the KGB
Chairman of the KGB of the USSR Yuri Andropov.

Chairman Dates

Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov 1954–1958

Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin 1958–1961

Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny 1961–1967

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov 1967–1982 (Jan.–May)

Vitali Vasilyevich Fedorchuk 1982 (May–Dec.)

Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov 1982–1988

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov 1988–1991

Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin 1991 (Aug.–Nov.)

Insignia[edit]

NKVD

Komsomol
Komsomol KGB

Further reading[edit]

Контрразведывательный словарь [Counterintelligence dictionary] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Высшая краснознаменная школа Комитета Государственной Безопасности при Совете Министров СССР им. Ф. Э. Дзержинского [The Higher Red Banner School of the State Security Committee at the Dzerzhinsky Council of Ministers of the USSR]. 1972. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 March 2016. Петров Н. В., Кокурин А. И. (1997). ВЧК-ОГПУ-НКВД-НКГБ-МГБ-МВД-КГБ. 1917–1960. Справочник [Cheka-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB-MVD-KGB. 1917–1960. Handbook] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow. ISBN 5-89511-004-5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 December 2013. Петров Н. В., Кокурин А. И. (2003). Лубянка. Органы ВЧК-ОГПУ-НКВД-НКГБ-МГБ-МВД-КГБ. 1917–1991. Справочник [Lubyanka. Organs of Cheka-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB-MVD-KGB. 1917–1991. Handbook] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Международный фонд "Демократия". ISBN 5-85646-109-6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 October 2012. Петров Н. В. (2010). Кто руководил органами Госбезопасности. 1941–1954 гг. Справочник [Who headed the organs of the State Security. 1941–1954. Handbook] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Звенья. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 October 2012. Jong, Ben de (June 2005). "The KGB
KGB in Eastern Europe during the Cold War: on agents and confidential contacts". Journal of Intelligence History. 5 (1): 85–103. doi:10.1080/16161262.2005.10555111 (inactive 7 August 2017). Shlapentokh, Vladimir (Winter 1998). "Was the Soviet Union
Soviet Union run by the KGB? Was the West duped by the Kremlin? (A critical review of Vladimir Bukovsky's Jugement à Moscou)". Russian History. 25 (1): 453–461. doi:10.1163/187633198X00211. ISSN 0094-288X. Солженицын, А.И. (1990). Архипелаг ГУЛАГ: 1918 - 1956. Опыт художественного исследования. Т. 1 - 3. Москва: Центр "Новый мир". (in Russian) Yevgenia Albats
Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick, The State Within a State: The KGB
KGB and Its Hold on Russia — Past, Present, and Future Farrar Straus Giroux (1994) ISBN 0-374-52738-5. John Barron, KGB: The Secret Works of Soviet Secret Agents Bantam Books (1981) ISBN 0-553-23275-4 Vadim J. Birstein. The Perversion of Knowledge: The True Story of Soviet Science. Westview Press (2004) ISBN 0-8133-4280-5 John Dziak Chekisty: A History of the KGB, Lexington Books
Lexington Books (1988) ISBN 978-0-669-10258-1 Knight, Amy (Winter 2003). "The KGB, perestroika, and the collapse of the Soviet Union". Journal of Cold War
Cold War Studies. 5 (1): 67–93. doi:10.1162/152039703320996722. ISSN 1520-3972.

Knight, Amy (2003). "The KGB, Perestroika, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union". Journal of Cold War
Cold War Studies. 5 (1): 67–93. doi:10.1162/152039703320996722. ISSN 1520-3972.

Sheymov, Victor (1993). Tower of Secrets. Naval Institute Press. p. 420. ISBN 1-55750-764-3. (in Russian) Бережков, Василий Иванович (2004). Руководители Ленинградского управления КГБ : 1954-1991. Санкт-Петербург: Выбор, 2004. ISBN 5-93518-035-9 Кротков, Юрий (1973). «КГБ в действии». Published in «Новый журнал» №111, 1973 (in Russian) Рябчиков, С. В. (2004). Размышляя вместе с Василем Быковым // Открытый мiръ, № 49, с. 2-3. (in Russian)(ФСБ РФ препятствует установлению мемориальной доски на своем здании, в котором ВЧК - НКВД совершала массовые преступления против человечности. Там была установлена "мясорубка", при помощи которой трупы сбрасывались чекистами в городскую канализацию.) [1] Рябчиков, С. В. (2008). Великий химик Д. И. Рябчиков // Вiсник Мiжнародного дослiдного центру "Людина: мова, культура, пiзнання", т. 18(3), с. 148-153. (in Russian) (об организации КГБ СССР убийства великого русского ученого) Рябчиков, С. В. (2011). Заметки по истории Кубани (материалы для хрестоматии) // Вiсник Мiжнародного дослiдного центру "Людина: мова, культура, пiзнання", 2011, т. 30(3), с. 25-45. (in Russian) [2]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to KGB.

For Cold War
Cold War KGB
KGB activity in the US, see Alexander Vassiliev's Notebooks from the Cold War
Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) Soviet Technospies from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives KGB
KGB Committee for State Security at GlobalSecurity.org (organization) Viktor M. Chebrikov et al., eds. Istoriya sovetskikh organov gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti ("History of the Soviet Organs of State Security"). (1977), www.fas.harvard.edu (in Russian) Slaves of KGB. 20th Century. The religion of betrayal, by Yuri Shchekochikhin

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Secret police
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Soviet Union

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Cold War

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1940s

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1950s

Papua conflict Bamboo Curtain Korean War McCarthyism Egyptian Revolution of 1952 1953 Iranian coup d'état Uprising of 1953 in East Germany Dirty War
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Syrian Crisis of 1957 1958 Lebanon crisis Iraqi 14 July Revolution

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1960s

Congo Crisis 1960 U-2 incident Bay of Pigs Invasion 1960 Turkish coup d'état Soviet–Albanian split Berlin Crisis of 1961 Berlin Wall Portuguese Colonial War

Angolan War of Independence Guinea-Bissau War of Independence Mozambican War of Independence

Cuban Missile Crisis Sino-Indian War Communist insurgency in Sarawak Iraqi Ramadan Revolution Eritrean War of Independence Sand War North Yemen Civil War Aden Emergency 1963 Syrian coup d'état Vietnam War Shifta War Guatemalan Civil War Colombian conflict Nicaraguan Revolution 1964 Brazilian coup d'état Dominican Civil War South African Border War Transition to the New Order Domino theory ASEAN Declaration Laotian Civil War 1966 Syrian coup d'état Argentine Revolution Korean DMZ conflict Greek military junta of 1967–74 Years of Lead (Italy) USS Pueblo incident Six-Day War War of Attrition Dhofar Rebellion Al-Wadiah War Protests of 1968 French May Tlatelolco massacre Cultural Revolution Prague Spring 1968 Polish political crisis Communist insurgency in Malaysia Invasion of Czechoslovakia Iraqi Ba'athist Revolution Goulash Communism Sino-Soviet border conflict CPP–NPA–NDF rebellion Corrective Move

1970s

Détente Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Black September
Black September in Jordan Corrective Movement (Syria) Cambodian Civil War Koza riot Realpolitik Ping-pong diplomacy Ugandan-Tanzanian War 1971 Turkish military memorandum Corrective Revolution (Egypt) Four Power Agreement on Berlin Bangladesh
Bangladesh Liberation War 1972 Nixon visit to China North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972 Yemenite War of 1972 NDF Rebellion Eritrean Civil Wars 1973 Chilean coup d'état Yom Kippur War 1973 oil crisis Carnation Revolution Spanish transition Metapolitefsi Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Rhodesian Bush War Angolan Civil War Mozambican Civil War Oromo conflict Ogaden War Ethiopian Civil War Lebanese Civil War Sino-Albanian split Cambodian–Vietnamese War Sino-Vietnamese War Operation Condor Dirty War
Dirty War (Argentina) 1976 Argentine coup d'état Korean Air Lines Flight 902 Yemenite War of 1979 Grand Mosque seizure Iranian Revolution Saur Revolution New Jewel Movement 1979 Herat
Herat uprising Seven Days to the River Rhine Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union

1980s

Soviet–Afghan War 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts 1980 Turkish coup d'état Peruvian conflict Casamance conflict Ugandan Bush War Lord's Resistance Army insurgency Eritrean Civil Wars 1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War Ndogboyosoi War United States
United States invasion of Grenada Able Archer 83 Star Wars Iran–Iraq War Somali Rebellion 1986 Black Sea incident 1988 Black Sea bumping incident South Yemen Civil War Bougainville Civil War 8888 Uprising Solidarity

Soviet reaction

Contras Central American crisis RYAN Korean Air Lines Flight 007 People Power Revolution Glasnost Perestroika Nagorno-Karabakh War Afghan Civil War United States
United States invasion of Panama 1988 Polish strikes Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall Velvet Revolution Romanian Revolution Peaceful Revolution Die Wende

1990s

Mongolian Revolution of 1990 German reunification Yemeni unification Fall of communism in Albania Breakup of Yugoslavia Dissolution of the Soviet Union Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Frozen conflicts

Abkhazia China-Taiwan Korea Nagorno-Karabakh South Ossetia Transnistria Sino-Indian border dispute North Borneo dispute

Foreign policy

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Organizations

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