Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies
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The Soviet Union had a succession of secret police agencies over the course of its existence. The first secret police after the Russian Revolution, created by Lenin's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as chekists, a name that is still applied to people under the FSB of Russia, the KGB's successor.
Note that for most agencies listed here secret policing operations were only part of their function.
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[edit] Chronology
- Cheka (Abbreviation of Vecheka, itself an acronym for "All-Russian Extraordinary Committee to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage") (Russian SFSR)
February 6, 1922: Cheka became GPU, a section of the NKVD of the Russian SFSR.
- NKVD - "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs"
- GPU - State Political Directorate
November 15, 1923: GPU was reorganized into OGPU under 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: OGPU became GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR; NKVD of the Russian SFSR ceased to exist.
- NKVD + GUGB - "Main Directorate for State Security" (Both GUGB and NKVD were headed by the same person.)
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"
- 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 a foreign military intelligence arm of the 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 tulmults, 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
- Vitaliy 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
- Okhranka, secret police of Imperial Russia
- Special Corps of Gendarmes
- Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery
[edit] Soviet and Russian Intelligence Services
[edit] Secret Police and Intelligence services of 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
- Presidential Security Service - Former part of KGB now an independent agency
- FAPSI - State communications, former 8th and 16th Directorate of KGB, now an independent agency
