List of Chairmen of the KGB

The Chairman of the KGB was the head of the Soviet KGB. He was assisted by one or two First Deputy Chairmen, and four to six Deputy Chairmen. And he was the head of the Collegium of the KGB— which consisted of the Chairman, deputy chairmen, Directorate Chiefs, and one or two republic-level KGB organization chairmen— who affected key policy decisions.

1 List
2 See also
3 Sources
4 Further reading
5 External links

List

Organization	Chairman	Took Office	Left Office
Cheka/GPU/OGPU	Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky	20 December 1917	20 July 1926
OGPU	Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky	30 July 1926	10 May 1934
NKVD	Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda	10 July 1934	26 September 1936
	Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov	26 September 1936	25 November 1938
	Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria	November 1938	3 February 1941
NKGB	Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov	3 February 1941	20 July 1941
NKVD	Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria	20 July 1941	14 April 1943
NKGB/MGB	Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov	14 April 1943	18 March 1946
MGB	Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov	18 March 1946	1951
	Semyon Denisovich Ignatyev	1951	5 March 1953
	Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria	5 March 1953	26 June 1953
	Sergei Nikiforovich Kruglov	June 1953	13 March 1954
KGB	Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov	13 March 1954	8 December 1958
	Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin	25 December 1958	13 November 1961
	Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny	13 November 1961	18 May 1967
	Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov	18 May 1967	26 May 1982
	Vitali Vasilyevich Fedorchuk	26 May 1982	17 December 1982
	Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov	17 December 1982	1 October 1988
	Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov	1 October 1988	22 August 1991
	Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin	23 August 1991	22 October 1991

Sources

Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, Gardners Books (2000), ISBN 0-14-028487-7 Basic Books (1999), hardcover, ISBN 0-465-00310-9; trade paperback (September, 2000), ISBN 0-465-00312-5
John Barron, "KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents",Reader's Digest Press (1974), ISBN 0-88349-009-9
Vasili Mitrokhin and Christopher Andrew, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World, Basic Books (2005) hardcover, 677 pages ISBN 0465003117

External links

KGB Information Center from FAS.org
Chebrikov, Viktor M., et al., eds. Istoriya sovetskikh organov gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti. (1977) [1]
Slaves of KGB. 20th Century. The religion of betrayal (Russian) - book by Yuri Shchekochikhin

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List of Chairmen of the KGB

Contents

List

See also

Sources

Further reading

External links