Name
The official designation in line to the native reference is: *Русский: = Государственное политическое управление (ГПУ) при Народном комиссариaте внутренних дел (НКВД) РСФСР * tr =Gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie (GPU) pri narodnom komissariate vnutrennikh del (NKVD) RSFSR – (GPU pri NKVD RSFSR) *English: = State Political Directorate (also State Political Administration) under the People's Commissariat of interior affairs of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RFSR)Establishment
Formed from the Cheka, the original Russian state security organization, on February 6, 1922, it was initially known under the Russian abbreviation GPU—short for "State Political Directorate under theMission
Internal security
On paper, the new agency was supposed to act with more restraint than the Cheka. For example, unlike the Cheka, it did not have the right to shoot suspected "counter-revolutionaries" at will. All those suspected of political crimes had to be brought before a judge in normal circumstances.Foreign intelligence
The 'Foreign Department' of the GPU was headed by a former Bolshevik and party member, Mikhail Trilisser. The Foreign Department was placed in charge of intelligence activities overseas, including espionage and liquidation of 'enemies of the people'. Trilisser himself was later liquidated byDisestablishment
With the creation of the USSR in December 1922, a unified organization was required to exercise control over state security throughout the new union. Thus, on November 15, 1923, the GPU left the Russian NKVD and was transferred into the all-union Joint State Political Directorate, also translated as "All-Union State Political Administration". Its official name was "Joint State Political Directorate under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR" (Russian: ''Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye'' under the SNK of the USSR, Объединённое государственное политическое управление при СНК СССР), or OGPU (ОГПУ).Personnel
See also
* * Commanders of the border troops USSR and RF * Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies *References
Further reading
* Gerson, L. D. (1985). ''The Secret Police in Lenin"s Russia.'' Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. * Nation, R. C. (2018). ''Black Earth, Red Star: A History of Soviet Security Policy, 1917-1991.'' Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. * Ryan, James. (2012). ''Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence.'' London: Routledge.External links