There were a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The

Okhrana The Department for the Protection of Public Safety and Order (), usually called the Guard Department () and commonly abbreviated in modern English sources as the Okhrana ( rus , Охрана, p=ɐˈxranə, a=Ru-охрана.ogg, t= The Guard) w ...

was abolished by the

Provisional government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, a transitional government or provisional leadership, is a temporary government formed to manage a period of transition, often following state collapse, revoluti ...

after the first revolution of 1917, and the first

secret police image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secre ...

after the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, created by

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...

" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as " chekists", a name that is still informally applied to people under the

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation �СБ, ФСБ России (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterin ...

of Russia, the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

's successor in Russia after the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

. For most agencies listed here, secret policing operations were only part of their function; for instance, the

was both a secret police and an

intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy obj ...

History of the Soviet state security organs

Detailed chronology

(abbreviation of ''Vecheka'', itself an acronym for "All-Russian Extraordinary Committee to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage" of the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

) ** Felix Dzerzhinsky (December 20, 1917 – July 7, 1918) ** Yakov Peters (July 7, 1918 – August 22, 1918) ** Felix Dzerzhinsky (August 22, 1918 – February 6, 1922) February 6, 1922: Cheka transforms into GPU, a department of the NKVD of the Russian SFSR. *

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

– "

People's Commissariat A People's Commissariat (; Narkomat) was a structure in the Soviet state (in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in other union and autonomous republics, in the Soviet Union) from 1917–1946 which functioned as the central executive ...

for Internal Affairs" ** GPU – State Political Directorate ***Dzerzhinsky (February 6, 1922 – November 15, 1923) November 15, 1923: GPU leaves the NKVD and becomes all-union OGPU under direct control of the

Council of People's Commissars The Council of People's Commissars (CPC) (), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (), were the highest executive (government), executive authorities of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Soviet Union (USSR), and the Sovi ...

of the USSR. *

OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...

– "Joint State Political Directorate" or "All-Union State Political Board" **Dzerzhinsky (November 15, 1923 – July 20, 1926) ** Vyacheslav Menzhinsky (July 30, 1926 – May 10, 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. *

– "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs" ** GUGB – "Main Directorate for State Security" ***

Genrikh Yagoda Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda (, born Yenokh Gershevich Iyeguda; 7 November 1891 – 15 March 1938) was a Soviet secret police official who served as director of the NKVD, the Soviet Union's security and intelligence agency, from 1934 to 1936. A ...

(July 10, 1934 – September 26, 1936) ***

Nikolai Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov ( rus, Николай Иванович Ежов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ (j)ɪˈʐof; 1 May 1895 – 4 February 1940), also spelt Ezhov, was a Soviet Chekism, secret police official under Joseph Stalin who ...

(September 26, 1936 – November 25, 1938) ***

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria ka, ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია} ''Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria'' ( – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph ...

(November 1938 – February 3, 1941) February 3, 1941: The GUGB of the NKVD was briefly separated out into the NKGB, then merged back in, and then on April 14, 1943, separated out again. * NKGB – "People's Commissariat for State Security" ** Vsevolod Merkulov (February 3, 1941 – July 20, 1941) (NKGB folded back into NKVD) *

– "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs" ** GUGB – "Main Directorate for State Security" ***

(July 20, 1941 – April 14, 1943) * NKGB – "People's Commissariat for State Security" **Vsevolod Merkulov (April 14, 1943 – March 18, 1946) (NKGB reseparated from NKVD) March 18, 1946: All

s were renamed to

Ministries Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

. * MGB – "Ministry of State Security" **

Viktor Abakumov Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov (; 24 April 1908 – 19 December 1954) was a high-level Soviet security official who from 1943 to 1946 was the head of SMERSH in the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense, and from 1946 to 1951 of the Minister of St ...

(March 18, 1946 – July 14, 1951) **

Sergei Ogoltsov Sergei Ivanovich Ogoltsov (; 29 August 1900 – 30 December 1976Semyon Ignatyev (August 9, 1951 – March 5, 1953) The East German secret police, the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...

, took their name from this iteration. * – "Committee of Information" (foreign intelligence service) Svetlana Chervonnaya, KI briefing from the Russian side, H-HOAC Discussion, March 17, 2005

Retrieved August 20, 2011. ** Peter Fedotov MGB ** Fedor Kuznetsov

GRU Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series. Gru or GRU may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper * Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga'' Organizations Georgia (c ...

** 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 (

). KI sections dealing with the new East Bloc and Soviet émigrés 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

. * MVD – "Ministry of Internal Affairs" **Lavrentiy Beria (March 5, 1953 – June 26, 1953) ** Sergei Kruglov (June 26, 1953 – March 13, 1954) KGB first law

March 13, 1954: Newly independent force became the

, 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. *

– Committee for State Security ** Ivan Serov (March 13, 1954 – December 8, 1958) ** Alexander Shelepin (December 25, 1958 – November 13, 1961) ** Vladimir Semichastny (November 13, 1961 – May 18, 1967) **

Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov ( – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the List of Chairmen of t ...

(May 18, 1967 – May 26, 1982) ** Vitaly Fedorchuk (May 26, 1982 – December 17, 1982) **

Viktor Chebrikov Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov (; 27 April 1923 – 2 July 1999) was a Soviet public official and security administrator and head of the KGB from December 1982 to October 1988.Montgomery, Isobel (7 July 1999)Viktor Chebrikov: KGB chief who favoure ...

(December 17, 1982 – October 1, 1988) **

Vladimir Kryuchkov Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov (; 29 February 1924 – 23 November 2007) was a Soviet lawyer, diplomat, and head of the KGB, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Initially working in the Soviet justice system a ...

(October 1, 1988 – August 28, 1991) ** Leonid Shebarshin (August 22, 1991 – August 23, 1991) (acting) ** Vadim Bakatin (August 29, 1991 – December 3, 1991) In 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 Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Counterintelligence Service which later became the

of the Russian Federation (FSB) in 1995, and the Federal Protective Service (FSO). The

continues to operate as well.

Leadership

Notes

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

{{Soviet Union topics 01 Secret police Soviet intelligence agencies Soviet secret police agencies Defunct intelligence agencies Politics of the Soviet Union Human rights in the Soviet Union . . Political repression in the Soviet Union

History of the Soviet state security organs

Detailed chronology

Leadership

See also

Notes

External links