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This article is about the KGB of the Soviet Union. For the intelligence services in Belarus, see State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus. The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus (Камітэт дзяржаўнай бяспекі КДБ Комитет государственной безопасности For other uses, see KGB (disambiguation).
The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield
The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield

KGB (transliteration of "КГБ") is the Russian abbreviation for Committee for State Security (Russian: Комитет государственной безопасности (help·info); Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti), which was the official name of the umbrella organization serving as the Soviet Union's premier security agency, secret police, and intelligence agency, from 1954 to 1991. Transliteration is the practice of Transcribing a Word or text written in one Writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages For the fictional company set in the Resident Evil videogame series see Umbrella Corporation. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 A security agency is an organization which conducts intelligence activities for the internal Security of a Nation, State or Organization Secret police (sometimes political police) are a Police agency which operates in Secrecy to maintain National security against internal An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to the Information gathering (known in the context as " intelligence " Then, the official name of this organization was changed to FSB (ФСБ, Федеральная служба безопасности), although the word KGB may apply to the secret police of various epochs. The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation ( FSB) ( Russian: ФСБ Федера́льная слу́жба безопа́сности Federalnaya

The KGB's operational domain encompassed functions and powers like those exercised by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the counter-intelligence (internal security) division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Security Agency, the Federal Protective Service, and the Secret Service in the United States, or by the twin organizations MI5 and Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in the United Kingdom. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all This article is a subset article of Intelligence cycle security. The National Security Agency/ Central Security Service ( NSA/CSS) is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States government The United States Federal Protective Service (FPS is a component of U The Secret Intelligence Service ( SIS) colloquially known as MI6 is the United Kingdom 's external Intelligence agency. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located

On December 21, 1995, the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin signed the decree that disbanded the KGB, which was then substituted by the FSB, the current domestic state security agency of the Russian Federation. Events 69 - The end of the Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 The President of Russia (Президент России or the President of the Russian Federation, Президент Российской Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin () (1 February 1931 23 April 2007 was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999 The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation ( FSB) ( Russian: ФСБ Федера́льная слу́жба безопа́сности Federalnaya

In Belarus, a former Soviet republic, the official Russian name of the State Security Agency remains "KGB". Belarus ( Belarusian Беларусь / Biełaruś is a Landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus (Камітэт дзяржаўнай бяспекі КДБ Комитет государственной безопасности

The term is also sometimes used figuratively in the Western press to refer to the current FSB committee after the 1991 renaming due to its recognition and public perception. The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings "Popular press" redirects here note that the University of Wisconsin Press publishes under the imprint "The Popular Press" [1]

Most of the information about the KGB remains secret, although there are two sources of documents of KGB available online. [2][3]

Contents

Origin of the KGB

The first of the forerunners of the KGB, the Cheka, was established on December 20, 1917. The Cheka ( ЧК - чрезвычайная комиссия Chrezvychaynaya Komissiya,) was the first of a succession of Soviet State security Events 69 - Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year It replaced the Tsarist Okhrana. The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya The Otdeleniye po Okhraneniyu Obshchestvennoy Bezopasnosti i Poryadka ( Отделение по Охранению Общественной Безопасности и Порядка The Cheka underwent several name and organizational changes over the years, becoming in succession the State Political Directorate (OGPU) (1923), People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB) (1941), and Ministry for State Security (MGB) (1946), among others. The State Political Directorate was the Secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ( RSFSR) and the Soviet Union from 1922 until In March 1953, Lavrentiy Beria consolidated the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and the MGB into one body—the MVD; within a year, Beria was executed and MVD was split. Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria; Russian: Лаврентий Павлович The reformed MVD retained its police and law enforcement powers, while the second, new agency, the KGB, assumed internal and external security and intelligence functions, and was subordinate to the Council of Ministers. On July 5, 1978 the KGB was re-christened as the "KGB of the Soviet Union," with its chairman holding a ministerial council seat. Events 1295 - Scotland and France form an alliance the beginnings of the Auld Alliance, against England. Year 1978 ( MCMLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar) The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991

The KGB was dissolved when its chief, Colonel-General Vladimir Kryuchkov, used the KGB's resources to aid the August 1991 coup attempt to overthrow Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov ( Russian: Владимир Александрович Крючков) ( 29 February 1924 &ndash 23 November The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt ( August 19 - August 21, 1991) also known as the August Putsch or August Coup was a three-day Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev ( Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov;; born 2 March 1931 in Privolnoye Stavropol Krai) is a Russian politician On August 23, 1991 Colonel-General Kryuchkov was arrested, and General Vadim Bakatin was appointed KGB Chairman—and mandated to dissolve the KGB of the Soviet Union. Events 79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan the Roman god of fire Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin (Вадим Викторович Бакатин (born November 6, 1937) was a Russian Soviet Political figure. On November 6, 1991, the KGB officially ceased to exist. Events 355 - Roman Emperor Constantius II promotes his cousin Julian to the rank of Caesar, entrusting him with Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. Its services were divided into two separate organizations; the FSB for Internal Security and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) for Foreign Intelligence Gathering. Foreign Intelligence Service ( Russian: Служба Внешней Разведки (or SVR) is Russia 's primary external intelligence agency The Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (FSB) is functionally much like the Soviet KGB. The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation ( FSB) ( Russian: ФСБ Федера́льная слу́жба безопа́сности Federalnaya

From its inception, the KGB was envisioned as the "sword and shield" of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The October Revolution (Октябрьская революция Oktyabrskaya revolyutsiya) also known as the Soviet Revolution The KGB achieved a remarkable string of successes in the early stages of its history. The then-comparatively lax security of foreign powers such as the United States and the United Kingdom allowed the KGB unprecedented opportunities to penetrate the foreign intelligence agencies and governments with its own ideologically-motivated agents such as the Cambridge Five. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Cambridge Five (also sometimes known as the Cambridge four) was a ring of Soviet spies in the UK who passed information to the Soviet Arguably, the Soviet Union’s most important intelligence coup, the Cambridge Five, detailed information concerning the building of the atomic bomb (the Manhattan Project), which occurred due to well-placed KGB agents within that project such as Klaus Fuchs and Theodore Hall. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs ( December 29, 1911 &ndash January 28, 1988) was a German -born theoretical physicist and Theodore Alvin Hall ( October 20, 1925  &ndash November 1, 1999) was an American Physicist and an atomic The KGB also pursued enemies of the Soviet Union and of Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party These include people, such as Leon Trotsky and groups like the counter-revolutionary White Guards, eventually achieving Trotsky's assassination. Leon Trotsky ( Russian:, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij The White movement (Beloie Dvijenie Белое движение whose military arm is known as the White Army (Belaia Armia Белая Армия or White Guard

During the Cold War, the KGB played a critical role in the survival of the Soviet one-party state through its suppression of political dissent (termed "ideological subversion") and hounding of notable public figures such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the Political dissent refers to any expression designed to convey dissatisfaction with or opposition to the policies of a governing body Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn ( Алекса́ндр Иса́евич Солжени́цын) (December 11 1918 – August 3 2008 was a Russian Novelist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (Андре́й Дми́триевич Са́харов (May 21 1921 – December 14 1989 was an eminent Soviet nuclear Physicist It also achieved notable successes in the foreign intelligence arena, including continued gathering of Western science and technology (including much of the technical information regarding the Concorde, which the USSR copied for the Tupolev Tu-144) from agents like Melita Norwood and the infiltration of West Germany’s government under Willy Brandt, alongside the East German Stasi. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Melita Norwood, née Sirnis, ( 25 March 1912 &ndash 2 June 2005) was a British civil servant who for a period of about West Germany ( Inf German: Westdeutschland or West-Deutschland) was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany ( Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm (18 December 1913 - 8 October 1992 was a German politician Chancellor of West Germany 1969&ndash1974 The German Democratic Republic ( GDR; Deutsche Demokratische Republik DDR; commonly known in English as East Germany) was a Socialist state For the regular police in East Germany see Volkspolizei. The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit ( Ministry for State Security However, the double blow of the compromise of existing KGB operations through high-profile defections like those of Elizabeth Bentley in the United States and Oleg Gordievsky in Britain, as well as the drying up of ideological recruitment after the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring, resulted in a major decline in the extent of the KGB’s capabilities. Elizabeth Terrill Bentley ( January 1 1908 &ndash December 3 1963) was an American spy for the Soviet Union Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky ( Russian: Олег Антонович Гордиевский CMG (born 10 October 1938 in Moscow The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 ( Hungarian: 1956-os forradalom) was a spontaneous nationwide Revolt against the Stalinist government of The Prague Spring ( Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during However, the KGB was assisted by some mercenary Western defectors such as the CIA mole Aldrich Ames and the FBI mole Robert Hanssen, helping to partly counteract its own hemorrhage of skilled agents. In Politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another A mole (also called a defector in place, an informant and in the Mafia a rat) is a Spy who works for an enemy Nation, but whose loyalty Aldrich Hazen Ames (born May 26 1941) is a former Central Intelligence Agency Counter-intelligence officer and analyst who in 1994 was convicted Robert Philip Hanssen (born April 18, 1944) is a former American FBI agent who spied for the Russian KGB against the United

Modus operandi

Many experts consider the KGB as the then world's most effective information-gathering organization. [4] Like most other intelligence agencies, the KGB operated both legal and illegal residencies in its target countries. There are two types of resident spies legals and illegals Legal resident A legal resident is a Spy who operates in a foreign country under diplomatic cover Legal residencies operated out of the local Soviet embassy under the cover of diplomatic immunity, and legal residents were thus free from prosecution if discovered to be spying. Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments which ensures that Diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not At best, the legal resident’s position to gather information would be compromised, and either the KGB would have to recall the resident or the resident would be expelled by the host country. In contrast, illegal residents operated without the benefit of immunity from prosecution (similar to the CIA's non-official cover). Non-official cover ( NOC) is a term used in Espionage (particularly by national intelligence services for agents or operatives who assume covert roles in organizations The KGB, especially in its early years, often placed more worth in its illegal residencies than its legal ones, primarily due to the ability of illegals to more easily operate undercover and thus infiltrate KGB targets.

Using the ideological attraction of the first worker-peasant state and later on the fight against fascism and the Great Patriotic War, the Soviets successfully recruited many high-level spies. Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology The term Great Patriotic War (Великая Отечественная война Velikaya Otechestvennaya Vojna) is used in Russia and some other However, events such as the 1939 signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, and the 1968 Prague Spring mostly dried up ideological recruitment; young radicals were repelled by the Red Army’s violations of sovereignty and Brezhnev’s geriatric leadership. The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya Instead, the KGB turned to blackmail and bribery to recruit Western agents. Blackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public a family member or associates unless a demand made upon the Bribery, a form of pecuniary corruption is an act usually implying money or gift given that alters the behaviour of the recipient in ways not consistent with the duties of that person

At legal residencies, operations were divided into four major sectors: political, economic, military strategic intelligence, and disinformation, called active measures in espionage parlance (PR Line), counter-intelligence and security (KR Line), and scientific and technological intelligence (X Line), which took on increasing importance throughout the Cold War. This article is a subset article of Intelligence cycle security. Other major operations included the collection of SIGINT (RP Line), illegal support (N Line), and a section dealing with émigrés (EM Line). Illegal residencies tended to be more decentralized and lacked official organizational structures.

The KGB, like its Western counterparts, divided its intelligence personnel into agents, who provided the information, and controllers, who relayed the information to the Kremlin and were responsible for keeping track of and paying the agents. View01jpg|thumb|right|250px|Remains of the Kolomna Kremlin]] Kremlin (Кремль Kreml) is the Russian word for "fortress" "citadel" or "castle" Some of the most important agents, like the Cambridge Five, had multiple controllers over their espionage careers. The Cambridge Five (also sometimes known as the Cambridge four) was a ring of Soviet spies in the UK who passed information to the Soviet Ironically, Kim Philby, who had thought of himself as a KGB officer, was rudely informed of this distinction when he defected to the Soviet Union; as a foreign agent, he was not even allowed to enter KGB headquarters. Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby or HAR Philby ( OBE: 1946-1965 ( 1 January, 1912 – 11 May, 1988)

To give cover for its illegals who were often born in Russia, the KGB constructed elaborate legends for them, involving them assuming the identity of a "live double," who handed over his or her identity to assist in the fabrication, or a "dead double," whose identity was based on a real (though deceased) person but was heavily altered by the KGB itself. These legends were usually supplemented by the agent living out the role given to him by the KGB in a foreign country before arriving at his final destination; one of the KGB’s favorite tactics was to send agents bound for the United States through its Ottawa residency in Canada. Ottawa (ˈɒtəwə or sometimes /ˈɒtəwɑː/ is the Capital of Canada and the country's fourth largest municipality. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page

KGB agents practiced standard espionage craft such as the retrieval and photographing of classified documents using concealed cameras and microfilm, code-names in communication to disguise agents, contacts, targets, and the use of dead letter boxes to relay intelligence. A dead drop or dead letter box, is a location used to secretly pass items between two people without requiring them In addition, the KGB made skillful use of agents provocateur, who infiltrated a target’s entourage by posing as sympathizers to the target’s cause or group. Traditionally an agent provocateur ( Plural: agents provocateurs, French for "inciting agent" is a person employed by the police or These agents provocateur were then used to sow dissent, influence policy, or help arrange kidnapping or assassination operations. In Criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or Asportation of a person against the person's will usually to hold the person in False imprisonment AssassiNation is the sixth album by Krisiun, released in 2006 on Century Media.

History of the KGB

Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of Cheka, a predecessor to the KGB.
Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of Cheka, a predecessor to the KGB. Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( Polish: Feliks Edmundowicz Dzierżyński, Russian: Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский Belarusian The Cheka ( ЧК - чрезвычайная комиссия Chrezvychaynaya Komissiya,) was the first of a succession of Soviet State security

The evolution of the KGB originates with the establishment of the Cheka six weeks after the 1917 October Revolution in order to defend the nascent Bolshevik state from its powerful, "bourgeois" enemies, chief among them the White Army. The October Revolution (Октябрьская революция Oktyabrskaya revolyutsiya) also known as the Soviet Revolution The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction The White movement (Beloie Dvijenie Белое движение whose military arm is known as the White Army (Belaia Armia Белая Армия or White Guard The Cheka set out to brutally suppress dissent by interrogating and torturing suspected counter-revolutionists and was credited by Lenin as playing a key role in the new regime’s survival. With Lenin’s approval, a new foreign intelligence department of the Cheka, the INO (Innostranyi Otdel) was established on December 20, 1920; it was the precursor to the First Chief Directorate (FCD) of the KGB. The First Chief Directorate (Russian Первое Главное Управление (or PGU of the Committee for State Security (KGB was the organization responsible for The Cheka itself was renamed the State Political Directorate (OGPU), a name it would retain throughout much of Stalin’s early reign (1920s-30s). The State Political Directorate was the Secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ( RSFSR) and the Soviet Union from 1922 until

The OGPU continued to expand its operations at home and abroad; however, the growing paranoia of Stalin, which would foreshadow the later period of the purges, strongly influenced the performance and direction of the intelligence agency. Under Stalin, the pursuit of imaginary conspiracies against the state like that of the Trotskyists became a central focus of intelligence. Paranoia is a disturbed thought process characterized by excessive Anxiety or Fear, often to the point of Irrationality and Delusion. Leon Trotsky ( Russian:, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij As Stalin acted as his own intelligence analyst, the role of intelligence processing was subordinated to that of collection, and often reports submitted to Stalin were designed to reflect only what he wanted to hear. Of the many agents OGPU offered, only Nikolai Vlasik was chosen as Stalin's longtime bodyguard. Nikolai Vlasik (Никола́й Си́дорович Вла́сик (1896-1967 was an associate of Stalin. This was only a slight nod to the organization as a whole. This period in the KGB’s history culminated in the eventual liquidation of many intelligence officers and chaos within the organization’s internal and external operations during the Great Purge, such as the conviction of former KGB chairman Genrikh Yagoda of treason and conspiring with Trotskyists, and of former KGB chairman Nikolai Yezhov, on similar charges, who ironically had denounced Yagoda and carried out the Terror under Stalin’s orders from 1936 to 1938. Great Purge (Большая чистка transliterated Bolshaya chistka) was a series of campaigns of Political repression and Persecution Genrikh Grigor'evich Yagoda (Генрих Григорьевич Ягода born Yenokh (Enoch Gershonovich Ieguda ( Енох Гершонович Иегуда 1891 Biography His character Yezhov was born in Saint Petersburg according to his official Soviet biography though he stated he was born in Mariiampole Lithuania

The agency, now called the NKGB and later part of the NKVD, sought to rebuild itself after the disaster of Stalin’s purges. The NKVD ( НКВД, ru Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел ''Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del'') or People's Commissariat Under Lavrentiy Beria, it continued its sycophantic role of producing intelligence to corroborate Stalin’s own conspiracy theories while simultaneously achieving some of the deepest penetration of Western powers ever achieved by any intelligence agency. Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria; Russian: Лаврентий Павлович The next major organizational shuffle was to come in 1947 in the form of the KI (Komitet Informatsii), the brainchild of Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, which would centralize the intelligence system by combining the foreign intelligence services of the agency, renamed the MGB, and the GRU, and place the ambassador in an embassy at the head of the both the MGB’s and the GRU’s legal residency. Molotov redirects here For other uses see Molotov (disambiguation. GRU is the English transliteration of the Russian Acronym ГРУ, which stands for "Гла́вное Разве́дывательное The KI unraveled after Molotov fell out of favor with Stalin.

Meanwhile, Beria, now the head of the MVD, had been consolidating his power with the ambition to succeed Stalin as leader of the Soviet Union. Following Stalin’s death in 1953, Beria merged the MGB into the MVD. Fearing an attempt at a coup d'état, Beria’s colleagues in the Presidium united against him and he was charged with "criminal anti-Party and anti-state activities" and executed for treason. The Presidium or Præsidium (from Latin praesidium meaning protection or defense so plural presidia or praesidia is the name for the Executive committee In Law, treason is the Crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or Nation. The MGB was split off from the MVD and underwent its final renaming to become the KGB.

The next KGB chairman to possess high ambitions was the relatively youthful Aleksandr Shelepin (chairman from 1958–61), who helped in the coup against Khrushchev in 1964. Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin (Александр Николаевич Шелепин 18 August 1918, Voronezh - October 24, 1994 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (April 17 1894 – September 11 1971 served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 following His protégé at the KGB, Vladimir Semichastny (1961–67), was sacked, and Shelepin himself was sidelined from the powerful post of chairman of the Committee of Party and State Control into the unimportant chairmanship of the Trade Union Council by Brezhnev and the Communist Party, whose memories of Beria were still fresh in their minds. Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny (Russian Владимир Ефимович Семичастный January 15, 1924 &ndash January 12, 2001

In 1967, Yuri Andropov, the longest serving and most influential KGB chairman in its history, began his tenure at the head of the KGB. Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (Ю́рий Влади́мирович Андро́пов Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov) ( &ndash 9 February 1984 was a Soviet politician Andropov would go on to make himself heir-apparent to Brezhnev, helped by the general secretary’s growing feeble-mindedness, and succeeded him in 1982. Andropov’s legacy at the KGB was an increased focus on combating ideological subversion in all its forms, no matter how apparently minor or trivial.

Vladimir Kryuchkov, the last of the KGB chairmen, grew dismayed at Gorbachev’s efforts to open up Soviet society (glasnost) and was one of the principal organizers of the 1991 coup. Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov ( Russian: Владимир Александрович Крючков) ( 29 February 1924 &ndash 23 November (Гла́сность)is literally defined as publicity and sometimes figuratively interpreted as "tipping a vase to let someone see into the vase but not the bottom of the vase" The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt ( August 19 - August 21, 1991) also known as the August Putsch or August Coup was a three-day However, declining respect for the KGB and other factors had fatally weakened the Soviet regime, and following the coup’s failure, the KGB was disbanded, officially on November 6, 1991. Its successor agency, the FSB, now performs most of the functions of the former KGB, though the largest, most important directorate of the KGB, the FCD, was broken off to become the SVR (Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki).

Former Russian President and current prime minister Vladimir Putin started out his career in the KGB working in the Fifth Directorate, monitoring the activities of the students of the Leningrad University. The President of Russia (Президент России or the President of the Russian Federation, Президент Российской Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (; born 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, USSR; now Saint Petersburg, Russia was the second President of Russia He later worked for the KGB in East Germany.

KGB operations within the United States

Main article: History of Soviet espionage in the United States

Pre-Cold War

As the Soviet regime had viewed the United States as a lower priority target than Britain and other European countries, the KGB had been slow to establish an agent network there. Since the late 1920s the Soviet Union, through its OGPU and NKVD intelligence services used Russians and foreign-born nationals as well as Communist Responsibilities for infiltration thus fell to the GRU, which recruited Julian Wadleigh and possibly Alger Hiss, who began providing documents from the State Department. Henry Julian Wadleigh, was an economist and employee of Dean Acheson in the United States Department of State in the 1940s Alger Hiss (November 11 1904 – November 15 1996 was a US State Department official involved in the establishment of the United Nations.

The KGB, at that time called the NKVD, first made its presence known in 1935 with the establishment of a legal residency under Boris Bazarov and an illegal residency under Iskhak Akhmerov. Boris Jakovlevich Bazarov (1893&ndash1939 was a Soviet spy. He was born in 1893 in Kovno gubernia of the Russian Empire (modern Lithuania Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov (Исха́к Абду́лович Ахме́ров Troitsk, located in modern Chelyabinsk Oblast, The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and its general secretary Earl Browder assisted with recruitment efforts, and soon the KGB’s network was providing high-grade intelligence from within the United States government and defense and technology firms. The Communist Party of the United States of America ( CPUSA) is a Marxist-Leninist Political party in the United States.

Among the most important agents gathering political intelligence recruited during this time period were Laurence Duggan and Michael Whitney Straight, who passed classified State Department documents, Harry Dexter White, who performed a similar role in the Treasury Department, and Lauchlin Currie, an economic adviser to President Roosevelt. Laurence Duggan (1905&ndash December 20, 1948) was head of the South American desk at the United States Department of State during World Michael Whitney Straight, ( September 1, 1916 – January 4, 2004) was an American magazine publisher, Novelist Harry Dexter White ( October 9, 1892 &ndash August 16, 1948) was an American economist and senior U The United States Department of the Treasury is a Cabinet department and the Treasury of the United States government. Lauchlin Bernard Currie ( October 8, 1902 – December 23, 1993) was a Canadian -born Economist from New Dublin A notorious spy ring, the Silvermaster Group, run by Greg Silvermaster, also operated at this time, though it was somewhat detached from the KGB itself. Nathan Gregory Silvermaster ( November 27, 1898 &ndash October 7, 1964) an Economist with the United States The KGB thus succeeded in penetrating major branches of the United States government at a time when the US had no significant countervailing espionage operations in the Soviet Union. When Whittaker Chambers, a former courier for Hiss and others, approached Roosevelt with information fingering Duggan, White, and others as Soviet spies, his claims were dismissed as nonsense. Whittaker Chambers ( April 1, 1901 &ndash July 9, 1961) born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker At the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conferences during World War II, Stalin was vastly more knowledgable about what cards the United States held in its bargaining deck than Roosevelt, or his successor Truman, were about Stalin and Soviet intelligence. The Tehran Conference ( Codenamed EUREKA) was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and Codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from 4 February The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, Germany, from July 16, World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

In scientific intelligence, the KGB achieved an even more spectacular success. British physicist Klaus Fuchs, recruited by the GRU in 1941, was part of the British team collaborating with the United States in the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb. Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs ( December 29, 1911 &ndash January 28, 1988) was a German -born theoretical physicist and The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Fuchs was the most prominent agent involved in Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's spy ring. Julius Rosenberg (May 12 1918 &ndash June 19 1953 and Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (September 28 1915 &ndash June 19 1953 were American Communists who were executed The New York City residency also infiltrated Los Alamos National Laboratory (where much of the work on the atomic bomb program was done) with its recruitment of then nineteen-year-old Harvard physicist Theodore Hall in 1944; Lona Cohen served as his courier. The City of New York Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL (previously known at various times as Site Y, Los Alamos Laboratory, and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) is a Theodore Alvin Hall ( October 20, 1925  &ndash November 1, 1999) was an American Physicist and an atomic Lona Theresa Cohen, Leontine, aka in London as Helen Kroger ( 11 January 1913 - 23 December 1992) was an American The stealing of the secrets to the atomic bomb was only the capstone of the Soviet espionage effort in the American scientific community. Soviet agents reported back information on advancements in the fields of jet propulsion, radar, and encryption, among other concepts. specific --->A jet engine is a Reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet of Fluid to Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range altitude direction or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as Aircraft, ships

The unraveling of the KGB’s network came about as a result of some key defections, like that of Elizabeth Bentley and Igor Gouzenko, and the Venona project decrypts. Elizabeth Terrill Bentley ( January 1 1908 &ndash December 3 1963) was an American spy for the Soviet Union Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko ( January 13, 1919, Rahachow, Soviet Union &ndash June 28, 1982, Mississauga, The Venona project was a long-running and highly secret collaboration between Intelligence agencies of the United States and United Kingdom that involved Bentley, a courier to the Silvermaster group, had fallen out with Akhmerov and started informing on her former spy colleagues to the FBI in 1945. Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov (Исха́к Абду́лович Ахме́ров Troitsk, located in modern Chelyabinsk Oblast, Her efforts, and the resulting "spy mania" in the United States, led to the recall of most of the senior KGB staff, leaving the spy network temporarily headless in the US. Information on VENONA, which threatened to compromise the entire spy network, caused shock and panic within KGB headquarters. However, damage was minimized as KGB agent Bill Weisband and then-SIS Washington Kim Philby passed on information about VENONA and agents it identified from 1947 onwards, five years before the CIA was informed. William Weisband Sr ( August 28, 1908 &ndash May 14, 1967) was an American cryptographic code analyst and Soviet Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby or HAR Philby ( OBE: 1946-1965 ( 1 January, 1912 – 11 May, 1988) Still, the KGB had to rebuild most of its operations from scratch, and never again would achieve such thorough penetration of a foreign power.

Cold War

The KGB attempted, largely without success, to rebuild its illegal residencies in the United States during the Cold War. The residual effects of the Red Scare and McCarthyism and the evisceration of the CPUSA severely damaged KGB recruitment efforts. Red Menace redirects here For the 2007 Wildstorm Productions comic book series see Red Menace (comics. McCarthyism is a term describing the intense anti-communist suspicion in the United States in a period that lasted roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s The last major illegal, "Willie" Vilyam Fisher, better known as Rudolf Abel, was betrayed by his assistant Reino Häyhänen in 1957, in all likelihood leaving the KGB without a single illegal residency in the United States, at least for a major span of time. Vilyam ("Willie" Genrikhovich (August Fisher (Вильям Генрихович Фишер ( July 11, 1903 &ndash November 15, 1971

Legal residencies became more successful in the absence of illegals. The KGB’s recruitment efforts turned towards mercenary agents recruited because of monetary, not ideological, reasons. It was particularly successful in gathering scientific intelligence, as firms such as IBM retained lax security while security within the government tightened. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology The one notable and significant exception was the highly successful Walker spy ring, which enabled the Soviets to decipher over one million classified US messages, and directly led to the development of the Akula class submarine, which addressed a significant advantage over what the US had in submarine technology. John Anthony Walker Jr (born July 28 1937 in Washington DC) is a former Warrant Officer and communications specialist for the U Current status As with many Soviet/Russian craft information on the status of the Akula Class submarines is sketchy at best As the Walkers were taken offline in 1985, the KGB scored its most important intelligence coup of the Cold War with the walk-ins of Aldrich Ames (that same year) and Robert Hanssen (who started spying in 1979), who compromised dozens of undercover Soviet agents, including Gordievsky, who was now on the verge of being appointed as head of the British legal residency. Aldrich Hazen Ames (born May 26 1941) is a former Central Intelligence Agency Counter-intelligence officer and analyst who in 1994 was convicted Robert Philip Hanssen (born April 18, 1944) is a former American FBI agent who spied for the Russian KGB against the United Walker, Ames, and Hanssen began their careers by simply walking into the Soviet embassy in Washington, DC, and volunteering their positions in exchange for money. They were paid millions of dollars each for their efforts.

When Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy in 1963, some observers suspected that he was acting at the behest of the KGB. But investigators were never able to find evidence to support this. However, a 2007 analysis [5] of the 1964 murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer, Kennedy's main girlfriend and confidante during his White House years, indicated that it had been arranged by the KGB. A statement by her ex-husband, former senior CIA official Cord Meyer, then was reinterpreted to mean that the KGB had also organized the assassination of Kennedy, the motive being revenge for the humiliation of the USSR in the Cuban Missile Crisis. [6]

KGB operations in the Soviet Bloc

The KGB, along with its satellite state intelligence agency allies, monitored extensively public and private opinion, subversion, and possible revolutionary plots in the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War. During the Cold War, the term Communist Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) was used to refer to the Soviet Union and countries it either controlled or that were It played an instrumental role in the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the destruction of the 1968 Prague Spring and "socialism with a human face," and general operations to prop up Soviet-friendly puppet states in the Bloc. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 ( Hungarian: 1956-os forradalom) was a spontaneous nationwide Revolt against the Stalinist government of The Prague Spring ( Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during The Prague Spring ( Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during

During the Hungarian uprising, KGB chairman Ivan Serov personally visited Hungary in order to supervise the "normalization" of Hungary following the invasion of the Red Army. General Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov (Иван Александрович Серов August 13, 1905 – July 1, 1990) was the The KGB monitored incidences of "harmful attitudes" and "hostile acts" in the satellite states as minute as listening to pop music. Pop music as a genre features a noticeable rhythmic element catchy melodies and hooks, a mainstream style and conventional structure But it was during the Prague Spring that the KGB was to have the greatest role in bringing down a regime.

The KGB began preparing the way for the Red Army by infiltrating Czechoslovakia with a large number of illegals posing as Western tourists. Czechoslovakia may also refer to what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In classic KGB fashion, they attempted to gain the confidence of some of the most outspoken proponents of the new Alexander Dubček government in order to pass on information about their activities. Alexander Dubček (November 27 1921 – November 7 1992 was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia (1968-1969 famous for his attempt to reform Additionally, the illegals were tasked with planting evidence, in order to justify a Soviet invasion, that rightist groups with the help of Western intelligence agencies were planning to overthrow the government. Finally, the KGB prepared hardline, pro-Soviet members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC), such as Alois Indra and Vasil Biľak, to assume power following the invasion. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak Komunistická strana Československa (KSČ was a political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between RSDr Vasil Biľak (born 11 August 1917 in Krajná Bystrá) was Slovak Communist leader of Rusyn origin The betrayal of the often courageous leaders of the Prague Spring did not leave untouched the KGB's own agents, however; the famous defector Oleg Gordievsky would later remark "It was that dreadful event, that awful day, which determined the course of my own life" (The Sword and the Shield, 261). Oleg Antonovich Gordievsky ( Russian: Олег Антонович Гордиевский CMG (born 10 October 1938 in Moscow

The KGB’s success in Czechoslovakia would be matched by a relatively unsuccessful suppression of the Solidarity labor movement in Poland in the 1980s. The KGB had forecast future instability in Poland with the election of the first Polish Pope, Karol Wojtyla, known better as Pope John Paul II, who had been categorized as subversive through his sermons criticizing the Polish regime. Pope Though it accurately foresaw the coming crisis in the Polish government, the KGB was hindered in its attempts to crush the nascent Solidarity-backed movement against the one-party state by the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP) itself, who feared an explosion of bloodshed if they imposed martial law like the KGB suggested. The Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza - PZPR was a Communist party in the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1990 The KGB, with the help of their Polish counterparts in the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB), succeeded in installing spies in Solidarity and the Catholic Church, and coordinated the declaration of martial law along with Wojciech Jaruzelski and the PUWP (Operation X). Służba Bezpieczeństwa Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnętrznych ( pronounced bɛspʲetʂɛɲstfa miɲistɛrstfa spraf vevnɛ̃tʂnɨx ( Security Service of the Ministry Martial law in Poland (Stan wojenny w Polsce refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983 However, the PUWP’s vacillating, conciliatory approach had blunted the KGB’s effectiveness, and the movement would fatally weaken the PUWP government later on in 1989.

Monument to the victims of KGB terror in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Monument to the victims of KGB terror in Vilnius, Lithuania. Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika is a Country in Eastern often referred to as Northern Europe or in the

Suppression of dissent

One of the KGB’s chief preoccupations during the Cold War was the suppression of unorthodox beliefs, the persecution of the Soviet dissidents, and the containment of their opinions. Indeed, this obsession with "ideological subversion" only increased throughout the Cold War, primarily due to the rise of Yuri Andropov in the KGB and his appointment as chairman in 1967. Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (Ю́рий Влади́мирович Андро́пов Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov) ( &ndash 9 February 1984 was a Soviet politician Andropov declared that every instance of dissent including all and every religious movements which rejected the Communist Party and did not worship the Secretary General were a threat to the Soviet state that must be challenged and he mobilized the resources of the KGB to achieve this goal. The Political system of the Soviet Union was characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU the only party permitted by Soon after Yuri Andropov's appointment one of the KGB departments was assigned to deal with religious leaders, churches and its members. Most dissidents were apprehended by the KGB and sent to gulags for indefinite periods, where their dissent would lack the strength it might have had in public. The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. Documents from the archive of Yale University [2] indicate the principal role of the heads of KGB, Yuri Andropov and then Vitali Fedorchuk, was the repression of dissidents. Vitaly Vasilyevich Fedorchuk ( December 27, 1918 - February 29, 2008) was a Ukrainian Soviet administrator. A dissident, broadly defined is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine policy or institution

Under Khrushchev, the tight controls over subversive beliefs had been partially relaxed following his denunciation of Stalinist-era terror in a secret speech. Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 On the Personality Cult and its Consequences (О культе личности и его последствиях commonly known as the Secret Speech or the This resulted in the reemergence of critical literary works, most notably the publication in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in 1962 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Один день Ивана Денисовича Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha) is a novel written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn ( Алекса́ндр Иса́евич Солжени́цын) (December 11 1918 – August 3 2008 was a Russian Novelist However, following Khrushchev’s fall from power, the Soviet state and the KGB quickly moved to crack down on all forms of dissent. The KGB routinely searched the homes and monitored the movements of prominent dissidents in an attempt to find incriminating documents. For example, a search in 1965 of Moscow dissidents turned up manuscripts given by Solzhenitsyn (codenamed PAUK, or spider, by the KGB) to a friend that contained allegedly "slanderous fabrications. "

The KGB also tracked down writers who published their work anonymously abroad. The infamous case of Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, who were put on trial in 1965 for their writing of subversive texts, illustrates the reach and obsession of the KGB in its ideological war. Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky ( Russian language: Андрей Донатович Синявский) ( 8 October 1925, Moscow - Yuli Markovich Daniel (Юлий Маркович Даниэль November 15, 1925 — December 30, 1988) was a Soviet Dissident Sinyavsky, going by the pseudonym of "Abram Tertz," and Daniel, using the alias of "Nikolai Arzhak," were caught by Soviet surveillance of their apartment flats in Moscow after a tip-off from a KGB agent planted within the Moscow literary world.

Soon after the Prague Spring, Andropov set up a Fifth Directorate whose express purpose was to monitor and crack down on dissent. Andropov was especially concerned with the activities of the two leading Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, both declared to be "Public Enemy Number One" (The Sword and the Shield, 325) by Andropov. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (Андре́й Дми́триевич Са́харов (May 21 1921 – December 14 1989 was an eminent Soviet nuclear Physicist Andropov was unsuccessful in expelling Solzhenitsyn until 1974, while Sakharov was exiled to the closed Soviet city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) in 1980. Nizhny Novgorod (Ни́жний Но́вгород Nižnij Novgorod) colloquially shortened as Nizhny, is the fourth largest city in Russia The prevention of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Sakharov in 1975 (which failed) and the same award being given to Yuri Orlov in 1978 (which succeeded, but probably not due to the KGB’s efforts) were missions of the highest importance and personally overseen by Andropov himself. The Nobel Peace Prize ( Swedish, Danish and Nobels fredspris is one of five Nobel Prizes Bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Yuri Feodorovich Orlov (Юрий Орлов born August 13, 1924) is a prominent nuclear Physicist, a former Soviet Dissident

The KGB employed multiple methods to infiltrate the dissident community. It planted agents who appeared to sympathize with the dissidents’ cause, employed smear campaigns to discredit the more public figures like Sakharov, and prosecuted dissidents in show trials or harassed the more prominent ones. A smear campaign, smear tactic or simply smear is a Metaphor for activity that can harm an individual or group's reputation by conflation with The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly Public trial. In prison, Soviet interrogators attempted to wear down their charges while sympathetic KGB informants tried to gain their confidence.

Eventually, with the emergence of Mikhail Gorbachev and his policy of glasnost, persecution of dissidents was given relaxed priority in the KGB, as Gorbachev himself began to implement some of the policy changes first demanded by the dissidents. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev ( Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov;; born 2 March 1931 in Privolnoye Stavropol Krai) is a Russian politician (Гла́сность)is literally defined as publicity and sometimes figuratively interpreted as "tipping a vase to let someone see into the vase but not the bottom of the vase"

Other notable operations

NKVD Headquarters on Lubyanka Square was designed by Aleksey Schusev.
NKVD Headquarters on Lubyanka Square was designed by Aleksey Schusev. The Lubyanka is the popular name for the headquarters of the KGB and affiliated Prison on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. Lubyanka Square (Лубянская площадь in Moscow is not far from Red Square. Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev (Алексе́й Ви́кторович Щу́сев September 26, 1873, Kishinev &mdash May 24, 1949

James Jesus Angleton, the CIA's counter-intelligence chief from the 1950s to the 1970s, acting on information provided by KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn, feared that the KGB had moles in two key places: (i) the CIA's counter-intelligence section, and (ii) the FBI's counter-intelligence department. James Jesus Angleton (December 9 1917 &ndash May 12 1987 known to colleagues as Jim and nicknamed "the Kingfisher" was a long-serving chief of the Central Intelligence Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn CBE (Анатолий Михайлович Голицынborn August 25, 1926 in Piryatin, Ukrainian SSR With those moles in place, the KGB would be aware of and therefore could control US counter-spy efforts to detect, capture, and arrest their spies; it could protect their moles by safely redirecting investigations that might uncover them, or provide them sufficient advance warning to allow their escape. Moreover, KGB counter-intelligence vetted foreign sources of intelligence, so that moles in that area were positioned to stamp their approval of double agents sent against the CIA. A split album featuring performances by bands The KGB and Alien Spy that was produced in 1997

In retrospect, in the context of the capture of the Soviet moles Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, it appears Angleton's fears—then deemed excessively paranoid—were well-grounded, although both Ames and Hanssen operated and were exposed long after Angleton left the CIA in 1974. A soviet (сове́т, "council" originally was a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia. A mole (also called a defector in place, an informant and in the Mafia a rat) is a Spy who works for an enemy Nation, but whose loyalty Aldrich Hazen Ames (born May 26 1941) is a former Central Intelligence Agency Counter-intelligence officer and analyst who in 1994 was convicted Robert Philip Hanssen (born April 18, 1944) is a former American FBI agent who spied for the Russian KGB against the United Still, his officially disbelieved assertions cost him his counter-intelligence post in the CIA. This article is a subset article of Intelligence cycle security.

Occasionally, the KGB conducted assassinations abroad, mainly of Soviet Bloc defectors, and often helped other Communist country security services with their assassinations. AssassiNation is the sixth album by Krisiun, released in 2006 on Century Media. During the Cold War, the term Communist Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) was used to refer to the Soviet Union and countries it either controlled or that were In Politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based A security agency is an organization which conducts intelligence activities for the internal Security of a Nation, State or Organization An infamous example is the September 1978 killing of Bulgarian émigré Georgi Markov in London, where Bulgarian secret agents used a KGB-designed umbrella gun to shoot Markov dead with a ricin-poisoned pellet. The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian Georgi Ivanov Markov (Георги Иванов Марков (March 1 1929 – September 11 1978 was a Bulgarian Dissident. The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian A gun is a particular Weapon that propels Projectiles The projectile is generally fired through a hollow tube known as the gun's barrel. Ricin (ˈraɪ sɨn is a Protein Toxin that is extracted from the castor bean ( Ricinus communis)

There are also disputed allegations that the KGB was behind the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981 and the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in an air crash in 1961. Pope Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld ( (29 July 1905 &ndash 18 September 1961 was a Swedish Diplomat, Christian mystic, and the second Secretary-General

Template:Cite Italian Panel: Soviets Behind Pope Attack

The highest-ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence defector, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, described his conversation with the head of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceauşescu who told him about "ten international leaders the Kremlin killed or tried to kill": "Laszlo Rajk and Imre Nagy of Hungary; Lucretiu Patrascanu and Gheorghiu-Dej in Romania; Rudolf Slansky, the head of Czechoslovakia, and Jan Masaryk, that country’s chief diplomat; the shah of Iran; Palmiro Togliatti of Italy; American President John F. Kennedy; and China's Mao Zedong. Ion Mihai Pacepa (born 28 October 1928 in Bucharest, Romania) is the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected Nicolae Ceauşescu (nikoˈlaje tʃauˈʃesku (January 26 1918 – December 25 1989 was the communist dictator of Romania from 1965 until December 1989 when a revolution László Rajk ( May 8, 1909 Székelyudvarhely &ndash October 15, 1949 Budapest) was a Hungarian Communist Imre Nagy ( June 7, 1896 – June 16 1958) was a Hungarian politician appointed Prime Minister of Hungary on two occasions Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu ( November 4, 1900 &mdash April 17, 1954) was a Romanian communist politician and leading member of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (born Gheorghe Gheorghiu; November 8 1901, Bârlad - March Rudolf Slánský ( July 31 1901, Nezvěstice near Blovice &ndash December 3 1952, Prague) was a Czech Jan Garrigue Masaryk ( September 14, 1886 &ndash March 10, 1948) was a Czechoslovak Diplomat and Politician Palmiro Togliatti ( March 26 1893 - August 21 1964) was an Italian politician the leader of the Italian Communist Party John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of Mao Zedong ( 26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese Military and political leader who led " Pacepa provided some additional details, such as a plot to kill Mao Zedong with the help of Lin Biao organized by KGB and noted that "among the leaders of Moscow’s satellite intelligence services there was unanimous agreement that the KGB had been involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. Mao Zedong ( 26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese Military and political leader who led Lin Biao ( born as Lin Yurong ( December 5, 1907 ?[[September 13]] 1971) was a Chinese Communist military leader "[7]

Organization

The KGB was a national intelligence and security agency for the Soviet Union, and directly controlled the republic-level KGB organizations; however, as Russia was the core republic of the Soviet Union, the KGB itself was also Russia's republic-level KGB. An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to the Information gathering (known in the context as " intelligence " A security agency is an organization which conducts intelligence activities for the internal Security of a Nation, State or Organization The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 A republic is a State or Country that is not led by a hereditary Monarch, but in which the people (or at least a part of its people have impact on its As everything in the Soviet Union, the KGB was controlled by the CPSU.

Senior staff

The Senior staff consisted of a Chairman, one or two First Deputy Chairmen, and four to six Deputy Chairmen.

Collegium—a Chairman, deputy chairmen, Directorate chiefs, and one or two republic-level KGB organization chairmen—affected key policy decisions. See also Collegium (disambiguation for other meanings The collegia were government departments in Imperial Russia, established

The Directorates

The KGB was organized into several directorates, with certain directorates assigned a “chief” status due to their importance. Some were:

Other sections

The KGB also contained these independent sections and detachments:

The Evolution of the KGB

(as depicted in The Sword and the Shield, page xv)

Dates Organization
December 1917 Cheka
February 1922 Incorporated into NKVD (as GPU)
July 1923 OGPU
July 1934 Reincorporated in NKVD (as GUGB)
February 1941 NKGB
July 1941 Reincorporated in NKVD (as GUGB)
April 1943 NKGB
March 1946 MGB
October 1947 – November 1951 Foreign Intelligence transferred to KI
March 1953 Combined with MVD to form enlarged MVD
March 1954 KGB
November 1991 FSK
April 1995 FSB

(as depicted in The Sword and the Shield, Appendix A)

Organization Chairman Dates
Cheka/GPU/OGPU Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky 1917–1926
OGPU Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky 1926–1934
NKVD Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda 1934–1936
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov 1936–1938
Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria 1938–1941
NKGB Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov 1941 (February–July)
NKVD Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria 1941–1943
NKGB/MGB Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov 1943–1946
MGB Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov 1946–1951
Semyon Denisovich Ignatyev 1951–1953
Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria 1953 (March–June)
Sergei Nikiforovich Kruglov 1953–1954
KGB Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov 1954–1958
Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin 1958–1961
Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny 1961–1967
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov 1967–1982
Vitali Vasilyevich Fedorchuk 1982 (May–December)
Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov 1982–1988
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov 1988–1991
Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin 1991 (August–November)

See also

References

  1. ^ Safe as houses: the KGB-proof mansion - Times Online
  2. ^ a b http://www.yale.edu/annals/sakharov/sakharov_list.htm, The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov edited by Joshua Rubenstein and Alexander Gribanov; Russian and English versions are available
  3. ^ http://psi.ece.jhu.edu/~kaplan/IRUSS/BUK/GBARC/buk.html archieve of documents about KPSS and KGB, collected by Vladimir Bulovsky. SMERSH (acronym of SMERt' SHpionam, Russ СМЕРть Шпионам Eng Death to Spies) were the counter-intelligence departments in The World Peace Council (or World Council of Peace) was formed in 1949 in order to promote Peaceful coexistence and Nuclear disarmament.
  4. ^ Eyes of the Kremlin
  5. ^ Did the KGB Murder President Kennedy's Girlfriend?
  6. ^ Did the KGB Arrange the Assassination of John F. Kennedy?
  7. ^ The Kremlin’s Killing Ways - by Ion Mihai Pacepa, National Review Online, November 28, 2006

Sources

Further reading

External links

Yuri Petrovich Shchekochikhin (Ю́рий Петро́вич Щекочи́хин (June 9 1950 Kirovabad - July 3 2003 Moscow) was a Russian Investigative
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