The Ninth Chief Directorate (also nicknamed ''Devyatka'' (russian: девятка) of the
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
was the organization responsible for providing
bodyguard
A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects a person or a group of people — usually witnesses, high-ranking public officials or officers, w ...
services to the principal
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
(CPSU) leaders (and their families) and major Soviet government facilities (including nuclear-weapons stocks). The directorate consisted of 40,000 uniformed troops.
It operated the
Moscow VIP subway system, and the secure government telephone system linking high-level government and CPSU officers.
In mid-1992 the KGB's Ninth Directorate became the Main Guard Directorate (''Glavnoye upravleniye okhraneniya'', GUO) and in 1996 it was re-organized to the
Federal Protective Service of Russia
The Federal Protective Service, or the Federal Guard Service (russian: Федеральная служба охраны, ФСО, Federalnaya sluzhba okhrany, FSO) of the Russian Federation, official name in English Federal Guard Service of the Ru ...
.
References
{{Reflist
KGB
Protective security units