The active reserve of the KGB

KGB

The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...

 are members of the organization who work undercover "either pretending to assume various jobs or using as cover professions in which they are actually trained".
Active reserve KGB officers typically occupied such positions as deputy directors of scientific research or deans responsible for foreign relations in academic institutions of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, although these people were not scientists. Other officers were trained for certain civilian jobs, usually translators, journalists, telephone engineers, or doormen in hotels that served foreigners.

The active reserve was significantly expanded in Post-Soviet Russia, when a majority of positions in the Russian power elite

Power elite

A power elite or The Grand Elite, in political and sociological theory, is a small group of people who control a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, and access to decision-making of global consequence. The term was coined by C...

 were occupied by acting or undercover officers of the Russian state security services, such as the FSB and SVR

Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is Russia's primary external intelligence agency. The SVR is the successor of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB since December 1991...

, the official successors of the KGB. "The only difference between them [officers of active reserve] and regular civil-servants is that they have an extra duty: writing reports every month for the FSB. They are the eyes of the master”, said sociologist Olga Krychtanovskaia.

Background

Undercover staff of the KGB included three major categories: (a) the active reserve; (b) the "trusted contacts" (or "reliable people"), and (c) "civilian informers" (or "secret helpers"). The "active reserve" included KGB officers with a military rank who worked undercover in the Soviet Union. "Trusted contacts" were high placed civilian

Civilian

A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...

s who collaborated with the KGB without signing any official working agreements, such as directors of personnel departments at various institutions, academics, deans, or writers and actors . Informers were citizens secretly recruited by the KGB, sometimes using forceful recruitment methods, such as blackmail

Blackmail

In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...

. The precise number of people from various categories remains unknown, but one of the estimates was 11 million "informers" in the Soviet Union, or one out of every eighteen adult citizens

History

The active reserve was established by Yuri Andropov

Yuri Andropov

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:...

 in the end of 1960s. "Active reservists" worked in all organizations of importance including press and television .

A "Law on Foreign Intelligence" adopted in August 1992 provided conditions for penetration by former KGB officers to all levels of the government and economy, since it stipulated that "career personnel may occupy positions in ministries, departments, establishments, enterprises and organizations in accordance with the requirements of this law without compromising their association with foreign intelligence agencies.". "All big companies have to put people from the security services on the board of directors... and we know that when Lubyanka

Lubyanka (KGB)

The Lubyanka is the popular name for the headquarters of the KGB and affiliated prison on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. It is a large building with a facade of yellow brick, designed by Alexander V...

 calls, they have to answer them", said a Russian banker http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2008-28-3.cfm. A current FSB colonel explained that "We must make sure that companies don't make decisions that are not in the interest of the state" http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9682621 http://www.finrosforum.fi/?p=513.

Olga Kryshtanovskaya, director of the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Elites, has found in the beginning of 2000s that up to 78% of 1,016 leading political figures in post-Soviet Russia have served previously in organizations affiliated with the KGB or FSB. She said: "If in the Soviet period and the first post-Soviet period, the KGB and FSB people were mainly involved in security issues, now half are still involved in security but the other half are involved in business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

, political parties

Political Parties

Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 , and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy...

, NGOs, regional governments, even culture... They started to use all political institutions."

Notable active reserve officers

Many Russian democratic politicians and businessmen hired officers of the active reserve as their closest associates. Most did this knowingly to receive the support of the powerful organization. Anatoly Sobchak

Anatoly Sobchak

Anatoly Alexandrovich Sobchak was a Russian politician, a co-author of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the first democratically elected mayor of Saint Petersburg, and a mentor and teacher of both Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev....

 asked for advice from Oleg Kalugin

Oleg Kalugin

Oleg Danilovich Kalugin , is a former KGB general. He was a longtime head of KGB operations in the United States and later a critic of the agency.-Early life and the KGB career:...

 in 1990. He said: "I feel isolated. I need a person who can maintain contacts with the KGB, which controls the city". Very soon Sobchak hired Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

 who allegedly remained in the active reserve at this time.

Tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky is a Russian prisoner, considered by some - such as Amnesty International - to have been imprisoned for political reasons, jailed until 2016 and a former Russian oligarch and businessman...

 hired former KGB general Alexei Kondaurov

Alexei Kondaurov

Alexei Kondaurov is a former KGB general, former Head Analyst at Yukos, and current member of Russia's State Duma for the Communist Party. Asked about the fact that he is both a Communist and a millionaire, Kondaurov stated "There's no contradiction. Engels was an oligarch and Lenin hardly a...

. Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov had Yevgeny Primakov

Yevgeny Primakov

Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov is a Russian politician and diplomat. During his long career, he served as the Russian Foreign Minister, Prime Minister of Russia, Speaker of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and chief of intelligence service...

, then director of Russian Foreign intelligence

Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is Russia's primary external intelligence agency. The SVR is the successor of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB since December 1991...

 . In 1991 businessman Vladimir Gusinsky

Vladimir Gusinsky

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky is a Russian media baron, is known as the founder of Media-Most holding that included Most Bank, the NTV channel, the newspaper Segodnya and magazines.-Life and career:Gusinsky was born in Moscow....

 hired General Philipp Bobkov

Philipp Bobkov

Philipp Bobkov is a former director of KGB political police department , which was responsible for suppression of internal dissent in the former Soviet Union...

 who supervised the entire system of active reserve in the Soviet Union. Bobkov officially served as a head of security in the Media Most company that belonged to Gusinsky.