Active Reserve (KGB)
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The active reserve of the
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
() are members of the organization who work undercover "either pretending to assume various jobs or using as cover professions in which they are actually trained". Active reserve KGB officers typically occupied such positions as deputy directors of scientific research or deans responsible for foreign relations in academic institutions of the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, although these people were not scientists. Other officers were trained for certain civilian jobs, usually translators, journalists, telephone engineers, or doormen in hotels that served foreigners. The active reserve was significantly expanded in
Post-Soviet Russia The modern history of Russia began with the Russian SFSR, a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, gaining more political and economical autonomy amidst the imminent dissolution of the USSR during 1988–1991, proclaiming its sovereignty ...
, when a majority of positions in the Russian
power elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...
were occupied by acting or undercover officers of the Russian state security services, such as the FSB and SVR, the official successors of the KGB. "The only difference between them fficers of active reserveand regular civil-servants is that they have an extra duty: writing reports every month for the FSB. They are the eyes of the master”, said sociologist Olga Krychtanovskaia.


Background

Undercover staff of the KGB included three major categories: (a) the active reserve; (b) the "trusted contacts" (or "reliable people"), and (c) "civilian informers" (or "secret helpers"). The "active reserve" included KGB officers with a military rank who worked undercover in the Soviet Union. "Trusted contacts" were high placed
civilian A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force. It is war crime, illegal under the law of armed conflict to target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations for civilians during times of war. If a civi ...
s who collaborated with the KGB without signing any official working agreements, such as directors of personnel departments at various institutions, academics, deans, or writers and actors. Informers were citizens secretly recruited by the KGB, sometimes using forceful recruitment methods, such as
blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...
. The precise number of people from various categories remains unknown, but one of the estimates was 11 million "informers" in the Soviet Union, or one out of every eighteen adult citizens.


History

The active reserve was established by
Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov ( – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the List of Chairmen of t ...
in the end of the 1960s. "Active reservists" worked in all organizations of importance including press and television. A "Law on Foreign Intelligence" adopted in August 1992 provided conditions for penetration by former KGB officers to all levels of the government and economy, since it stipulated that "career personnel may occupy positions in ministries, departments, establishments, enterprises and organizations in accordance with the requirements of this law without compromising their association with foreign intelligence agencies." "All big companies have to put people from the security services on the board of directors... and we know that when Lubyanka calls, they have to answer them", said a Russian banker. A current FSB colonel explained that "We must make sure that companies don't make decisions that are not in the interest of the state". Olga Kryshtanovskaya, director of the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Elites, has found in the beginning of the 2000s (decade) that up to 78% of 1,016 leading political figures in
post-Soviet Russia The modern history of Russia began with the Russian SFSR, a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, gaining more political and economical autonomy amidst the imminent dissolution of the USSR during 1988–1991, proclaiming its sovereignty ...
have served previously in organizations affiliated with the KGB or FSB. She said: "If in the Soviet period and the first post-Soviet period, the KGB and FSB people were mainly involved in security issues, now half are still involved in security but the other half are involved in
business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...
,
political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
,
NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...
s, regional governments, even culture... They started to use all political institutions."


Notable active reserve officers

Many Russian democratic politicians and businessmen hired officers of the active reserve as their closest associates. Most did this knowingly to receive the support of the powerful organization.
Anatoly Sobchak Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak ( rus, Анатолий Александрович Собчак, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ sɐpˈtɕak; 10 August 1937 – 19 February 2000) was a Russian politician and legal scholar, a co-autho ...
asked for advice from
Oleg Kalugin Oleg Danilovich Kalugin (; born 6 September 1934) is a former KGB general (stripped of his rank and awards by a Russian Court decision in 2002). He was during a time, head of KGB political operations in the United States and later a critic of ...
in 1990. He said: "I feel isolated. I need a person who can maintain contacts with the KGB, which controls the city". Very soon Sobchak hired
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
who allegedly remained in the active reserve at this time. Tycoon
Mikhail Khodorkovsky Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky (, ; born 26 June 1963), sometimes known by his initials MBK, is an exiled Russian businessman, Russian oligarchs, oligarch, and Russian opposition, opposition activist, now residing in London. In 2003, Khodork ...
hired former KGB general Alexei Kondaurov. Mayor of Moscow
Yuri Luzhkov Yuri may refer to: People Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. *Yuri (Japanese name), feminine Japanese given names, including a list o ...
had
Yevgeny Primakov Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov (29 October 1929 – 26 June 2015, ) was a Russian politician and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1998 to 1999. During his long career, he also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to ...
, then director of Russian Foreign intelligence. In 1991 businessman
Vladimir Gusinsky Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky (, ; born 6 October 1952) is a Russian media tycoon. He founded the Media-Most holding company that included the NTV free-to-air channel, the newspaper ''Segodnya'', and a number of magazines. Early life a ...
hired General Philipp Bobkov who supervised the entire system of active reserve in the Soviet Union. Bobkov officially served as a head of security in the Media Most company that belonged to Gusinsky.


See also

*
Front organization A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy ...
*
Agents provocateurs An is a person who actively entices another person to commit a crime that would not otherwise have been committed and then reports the person to the authorities. They may target individuals or groups. In jurisdictions in which conspiracy is a ...
*
Agent of influence Agent of influence is a controversial term used to describe people who are said to use their position to influence public opinion in one country or decision making to produce results beneficial to another. The term is used both to describe consc ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Active Reserve (Kgb) KGB Soviet phraseology Soviet intelligence agencies Russian intelligence agencies