There was a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The first secret police after the Russian Revolution, created by Vladimir Lenin's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as "chekists", a name that is still informally applied to people under the Federal Security Service of Russia, the KGB's successor in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

For most agencies listed here secret policing operations were only part of their function; for instance, the KGB was both the secret police and national foreign intelligence agency for the Soviet Union.

Contents 1 Chronology 2 See also 2.1 Secret Services of Imperial Russia 2.2 Soviet and Russian Intelligence Services 2.3 Secret Police and Intelligence services of the Russian Federation 3 External links

[edit] Chronology

• Cheka (Abbreviation of Vecheka, itself an acronym for "All-Russian Extraordinary Committee to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage") (Russian SFSR)
  • Felix Dzerzhinsky 1917 - 1918
  • Yakov Peters 1918
  • Felix Dzerzhinsky 1918 - 1922

February 6, 1922: Cheka transforms into GPU, a department of the NKVD of the Russian SFSR.

• NKVD - "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs"
  • GPU - State Political Directorate
    • Felix Dzerzhinsky 1922 - 1923

November 15, 1923: GPU leaves the NKVD and becomes all-union OGPU under direct control of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.

• OGPU - "Joint State Political Directorate" or "All-Union State Political Board"
  • Felix Dzerzhinsky 1923 - July 1926
  • Vyacheslav Menzhinsky July 1926 - May 1934

July 10, 1934: NKVD of the Russian SFSR ceases to exist and transforms into the all-union NKVD of the USSR; OGPU becomes GUGB ("Main Directorate for State Security") in the all-union NKVD.

• • Genrikh Yagoda 1934 - 1936
  • Nikolai Yezhov 1936 - 1938
  • Lavrenty Beria 1938 - 1945

February 3, 1941: The GUGB of the NKVD was briefly separated out into the NKGB, then merged back in, and then in 1943 separated out again.

• NKGB - "People's Commissariat for State Security"
  • Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov February 3, 1941 - July 20, 1941 (NKGB folded back into NKVD)
  • Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov April 14, 1943 - 1946 (NKGB reseparated from NKVD)

March 18, 1946: All People's Commissariates were renamed to Ministries.

• MGB - "Ministry for State Security"
  • Viktor Semionovich Abakumov 1946 - 1951
  • Semion Denisovich Ignatiyev 1951 - 1953
  • The East German secret police, the Stasi, took their name from this iteration.

• KI - "Committee of Information" (foreign intelligence service)
  • Peter Fedotov MGB
  • Fedor Kuznetsov GRU
  • Yakov Malik Foreign Ministry

May 30, 1947: Official decision with the expressed purpose of "upgrading coordination of different intelligence services and concentrating their efforts on major directions". In the summer of 1948 the military personnel in KI were returned to the Soviet military to reconstitute foreign military intelligence service (GRU). KI sections dealing with the new East Bloc and Soviet emigres were returned to the MGB in late 1948. In 1951 the KI returned to the MGB.

March 5, 1953: MVD and MGB are merged into the MVD by Lavrenty Beria.

• MVD - "Ministry of Internal Affairs"
  • Lavrenty Beria March, 1953 - June, 1953
  • Sergey Nikiforovich Kruglov June, 1953 - March, 1954

March 13, 1954: Newly independent force became the KGB, as Beria was purged and the MVD divested itself again of the functions of secret policing. After renamings and tumults, the KGB remained stable until 1991.

• KGB - Committee for State Security
  • Ivan Serov (March 13, 1954 - December 8, 1958)
  • Aleksandr Shelepin (December 25, 1958 - November 13, 1961)
  • Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny (November 13, 1961 - May 18, 1967)
  • Yuri Andropov (May 18, 1967 - May 26, 1982)
  • Vitaly Fedorchuk (May 26, 1982 - December 17, 1982)
  • Viktor Chebrikov (December 17, 1982 - October 1, 1988)
  • Vladimir Kryuchkov (October 1, 1988 - August 22, 1991)
  • Leonid Shebarshin (August 22, 1991 - August 23, 1991, acting)
  • Vadim Bakatin (August 23, 1991 - October 22, 1991)

After the State Emergency Committee failed to overthrow Gorbachev and Yeltsin took over, General Vadim Bakatin was given instructions to dissolve the KGB.

In Russia today, KGB functions are performed by the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) and the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation). The GRU, Main Intelligence Directorate, continues to operate as well.

[edit] See also

[edit] Secret Services of Imperial Russia

• Okhrana, secret police of Imperial Russia
• Special Corps of Gendarmes
• Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery

[edit] Soviet and Russian Intelligence Services

• GRU

[edit] Secret Police and Intelligence services of the Russian Federation

• FSB (Russia) - Russian successor of KGB
• Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia) - Former 1st directorate of KGB now an independent agency
• Federal Protective Service (Russia) - former 9th Directorate of KGB now an independent agency
• FAPSI - State communications, former 8th and 16th Directorate of KGB, now an independent agency

Other:

• Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services

[edit] External links

• The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) has the full text of former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev's Notebooks with evidence of Soviet espionage in the United States during the Cold War
• Official history of the MVD of Russia: 1917-1930 1931-1945 1946-1965 1966-1985 1986-1993 (Russian)

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