KGB
KGB
- mission KGB Agent |
The KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoi
Bezopasnosti, or The Committee for State Security) was
the name of the main Soviet external security and
intelligence agency, as well as the main secret police
agency from March 13, 1954 to November 6, 1991. The KGB's
domain was roughly that of the American CIA and the
counterintelligence division of the FBI.
In March of 1953, Lavrenty Beria united the MVD and MGB
into one body, the MVD. Within a year, Beria was executed
and the MVD was split up. The reformed MVD retained its
internal security functions while the new KGB took on
external security functions. The KGB was subordinated to
the Council of Ministers. On July 5, 1978 the KGB was
renamed the "KGB of the USSR" with the KGB
Chairman given a seat on the council.
See Also:
CIA Central
Intelligence Agency Mossad
Israel Intelligence Agency KGB NKVD World
Intelligence_Agencies_List NSA
National Security Agency United
States US Secret Service Australian
Security Intelligence Organisation Canadian
Security Intelligence Service MI6
Military Intelligence 6 -British Secret Intelligence
Service SIS MI-5 Kim Philby
Soviet Spy Gestapo
The KGB was dissolved due to the participation of its
chief, Colonel General Vladimir Kryuchkov, in the August
1991 coup attempt designed to overthrow Mikhail
Gorbachev. He used many of the KGB's resources to aid the
coup attempt. Kryuchkov was arrested, and General Vadim
Bakatin was appointed Chairman on August 23, 1991 with a
mandate to dismantle the KGB. On November 6, 1991 the
Russian KGB officially ceased to exist, though its
successor organization, the Federalnaya Sluzhba
Bezopasnosti, or FSB, is functionally extremely similar
to the KGB. Belarus is the only post-Soviet society where
the successor organization continues to be called the
KGB. Belarus is also where one of the founders of the
KGB, Felix Dzerzhinsky — who was born in a town now
within Belarusian territory — remains a national
hero.
Table of contents
1 Tasks and Organization
2 Notable KGB Operations
3 Organization
4 Agent Directors (Heads) of the KGB or equivalent
Tasks and Organization
Its tasks were external espionage, counter-espionage,
liquidation of anti-Soviet and counter-revolutionary
formations within the USSR, and guarding the leaders of
the party and state. Unlike Western intelligence
agancies, the KGB was (theoretically) not interested in
learning enemy intentions, only their capabilites.
Intentions were political decisions based on Marxist
theory and the personal whims of the leadership.
In its espionage role, the KGB was mostly reliant on
human intelligence, unlike their western counterparts,
who relied far more on imagery intelligence (IMINT) and
signals intelligence. Using ideological attraction, the
Soviets were successful in recruiting a number of high
level spies. Most notable are the KGB successes in
gathering US atomic secrets, and the Cambridge Five,
especially Kim Philby in the UK. This ideological method
of conversion failed after the 1956 crushing of the
Hungarian uprising. Instead, the KGB was forced to rely
on blackmail and bribery for most of its agent defectors.
This still achieved notable succeses, such as CIA mole
Aldrich Ames and FBI mole Robert Hanssen, but far fewer
than earlier.
Notable KGB Operations
Alger Hiss is alleged to have been a KGB spy, but there
is no hard evidence.
Robert Hanssen provided the KGB with information on U.S.
counterintelligence efforts through his job at the FBI.
Aldrich Ames was a KGB mole within the CIA.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed by the United
States for providing information on the US's atomic
programs to the KGB.
James Jesus Angleton, head of CIA counter-intelligence,
reportedly lived in deathly fear that the KGB had moles
in two key places: CIA counter-intelligence and FBI
counter-intelligence. With those two moles in place, the
KGB would have control or awareness of all U.S. efforts
to catch KGB spies, and could protect their assets by
safely redirecting any investigation that came close, or
at least provide sufficient warning; also,
counter-intelligence had the job of vetting foreign
sources of intelligence, so moles in that area were in a
position to give a stamp of approval to double agents
against the CIA. With the capture of Aldrich Ames and
Robert Hanssen, it appears that Angleton's fears, deemed
paranoid at the time, were well-grounded.
The KGB occasionally conducted assassinations, mainly of
defectors.
Agent Organization
The KGB was organized into directorates. Some of the main
directorates were:
The First Chief Directorate (Foreign Operations) was
responsible for foreign operations and
intelligence-gathering activities.
The Second Chief Directorate was responsible for internal
political control of citizens and foreigners within the
Soviet Union.
The Third Chief Directorate (Armed Forces) controlled
military counterintelligence and political surveillance
of the armed forces.
The Fifth Chief Directorate also dealt with internal
security. Originally created to combat political dissent,
it took up some of the tasks previously handled by the
Second Chief Directorate.
The Seventh Directorate (Surveillance) handled
surveillance, providing equipment to follow and monitor
the activities of both foreigners and Soviet citizens.
The Eighth Chief Directorate was responsible for
communications. It dealt with monitoring foreign
communications and was also responsible for the
cryptological systems used by KGB divisions, transmission
to KGB stations overseas, and the development of
communication equipment
The Ninth Directorate (Guards Directorate) provided
guards for principal Party leaders and their families,
and major government facilities in the Soviet Union.
Directors of the KGB or equivalent
All-Russian Extraordinary Commissary against the
Counterrevolution and Sabotage, or Cheka, the
Bolshevik-era equivalent to the KGB
Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinksiy 1917 - 1922
Main Political Department (GPU)
Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinksiy 1922 - 1923
Joint Main Political Department (OGPU)
Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinksiy 1923 - July 1926
Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinskiy July 1926 - May 1934
OGPU merged into the NKVD in July 1934
Peoples Commissary for State Security (NKGB)
Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov February 1941 - March 1946
Ministry of State Security (MGB)
Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov March 19 1946 - May 7 1946
Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov May 7 1946 - July 14 1951
Sergey Ogoltsov July 14 1951 - August 9 1951
Semyon Denisovich Ignatiyev August 9 1951 - March 5 1953
MGB merged into MVD March 5 1953
Committee for State Security (KGB)
Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov March 13 1954 - December 8 1958
Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin December 25 1958 -
November 13 1961
Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastniy November 13 1961 - May
18 1967
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov May 18 1967 - May 26 1982
Vitaliy Vasilyevich Fedorchuk May 26 1982 - December 17
1982
Viktor Mikhaylovich Chebrikov December 17 1982 - October
1 1988
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov October 1 1988 - August
22 1991
Leonid Nikolayevich Shebarshin August 22 1991 - August 23
1991 (Acting)
Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin August 23 1991 - October 22
1991
NKVD
The NKVD, or Narodnij Kommisariat Vnutrennih Del -
People's Commisariat for Interior Affairs, was the name
for the political police in the USSR in one of the stages
of its development.
The NKVD was created in early 1918 to handle policing and
internal affairs. However, it did not obtain state
security functions until it took over the OGPU in July
1934. State security functions were then handled by the
NKVD's GUGB ("Glavnoe Upravlenie Gosudarstvennoe
Bezopasnosti" or Main Directorate of State
Security). On 8 February 1941, the Special Sections of
the NKVD (responsible for counter-intelligence in the
military) were given to the Army and Navy (NKO and NKVMF)
where they became the SMERSH (from Smert' Shpionam or
"Death to Spies"). In April 1943, GUGB was
removed from NKVD and renamed NKGB.
During World War II, NKVD units were used for rear area
security, including halting deserters. On
"liberated" territory the NKVD and NKGB carried
out mass arrest and deportations, at times sending entire
populations (650,000+ Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush,
and others) to Central Asia. In 1946, the NKVD was
transformed into the MVD. The MVD in turn evolved into
the KGB.
The organization and responsibility of the NKVD was
similar to Nazi Germany's Gestapo.
Leaders of Soviet political police 1917 - 1991
1917 - 1918 Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinskiy
1918 - 1918 Yakov Hristoforovitch Peters
1918 - 1926 Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinskiy
1926 - 1934 Vyatcheslav Rudolfovitch Menzhinsky
1934 - 1936 Genrikh Grigoryevitch Yagoda
1936 - 1938 Nikolay Ivanovitch Yezhov
1938 - 1945 Lavrenty Pavlovitch Beria
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