Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies
Encyclopedia
There was a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The first secret police
after the Russian Revolution
, created by Vladimir Lenin
's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka
" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as "chekists", a name that is still informally applied to people under the Federal Security Service of Russia
, the KGB
's successor in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
.
For most agencies listed here secret policing operations were only part of their function; for instance, the KGB
was both the secret police and the intelligence agency
.
February 6, 1922: Cheka transforms into GPU, a department of the NKVD of the Russian SFSR.
November 15, 1923: GPU leaves the NKVD and becomes all-union OGPU under direct control of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
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.
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.
March 18, 1946: All People's Commissariats were renamed to Ministries
.
The East German secret police, the Stasi
, took their name from this iteration.
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 (GRU
). KI sections dealing with the new East Bloc and Soviet emigrés 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 Lavrentiy Beria
.
March 13, 1954: Newly independent force became the KGB
, 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.
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 Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), the Federal Protective Service (FSO)
The GRU
, Main Intelligence Directorate, continues to operate as well.
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
after the Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, created by Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as "chekists", a name that is still informally applied to people under the Federal Security Service of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, 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...
's successor in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
.
For most agencies listed here secret policing operations were only part of their function; for instance, 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...
was both the secret police and the intelligence agency
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
.
Chronology
- ChekaChekaCheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
(abbreviation of Vecheka, itself an acronym for "All-Russian Extraordinary Committee to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage" of the Russian SFSR)- Felix Dzerzhinsky (December 20, 1917 - July 7, 1918)
- Yakov PetersYakov PetersJēkabs Peterss or Yakov Khristoforovich Peters was a Latvian Communist revolutionary, Soviet politician, chekist, and terrorist. Together with Feliks Dzerzhinsky, he was one of the founders and chiefs of the VChK...
(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.
- NKVDNKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
- "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs"- GPUState Political DirectorateThe State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...
- State Political Directorate- Dzerzhinsky (February 6, 1922 - November 15, 1923)
- GPU
November 15, 1923: GPU leaves the NKVD and becomes all-union OGPU under direct control of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
- OGPUState Political DirectorateThe State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...
- "Joint State Political Directorate" or "All-Union State Political Board"- Dzerzhinsky (November 15, 1923 - July 20, 1926)
- Vyacheslav MenzhinskyVyacheslav MenzhinskyVyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky was a Polish-Russian revolutionary, a Soviet statesman and Party official who served as chairman of the OGPU from 1926 to 1934...
(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.
- NKVDNKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
- "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs"- GUGB - "Main Directorate for State Security"
- Genrikh YagodaGenrikh YagodaGenrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda , born Enokh Gershevich Ieguda , was a Soviet state security official who served as director of the NKVD, the Soviet Union's Stalin-era security and intelligence agency, from 1934 to 1936...
(July 10, 1934 - September 26, 1936) - Nikolai YezhovNikolai YezhovNikolai Ivanovich Yezhov or Ezhov was a senior figure in the NKVD under Joseph Stalin during the period of the Great Purge. His reign is sometimes known as the "Yezhovshchina" , "the Yezhov era", a term that began to be used during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s...
(September 26, 1936 - November 25, 1938) - Lavrentiy BeriaLavrentiy BeriaLavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
(November, 1938 - March 5, 1953)
- Genrikh Yagoda
- GUGB - "Main Directorate for State Security"
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 MerkulovVsevolod Nikolayevich MerkulovVsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov , was the head of NKGB from February to July 1941, and again from April 1943 to March 1946. He was a member of the so-called "Georgian mafia" of Lavrenti Beria, head of the NKVD.In 1913, Merkulov graduated from the Tiflis Gymnasium with the gold medal and became a...
(February 3, 1941 - July 20, 1941) (NKGB folded back into NKVD) - Vsevolod Merkulov (April 14, 1943 - March 18, 1946) (NKGB reseparated from NKVD)
- Vsevolod Merkulov
March 18, 1946: All People's Commissariats were renamed to Ministries
Ministry (government department)
A ministry is a specialised organisation responsible for a sector of government public administration, sometimes led by a minister or a senior public servant, that can have responsibility for one or more departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions or other smaller executive, advisory, managerial or...
.
- MGB - "Ministry for State Security"
- Viktor Abakumov (March 18, 1946 - 1951)
- Semyon IgnatyevSemyon IgnatyevSemyon Denisovich Ignatiev, also spelled Ignatyev was a Soviet politician.Ignatiev, the son of a peasant,an engineer, joined the Communist Party in 1926. For most of his career, he was a discreet regional apparatchik, serving as Party Secretary in Buryat ASSR, Bashkir ASSR, Byelorussian SSR and...
(1951 - March 5, 1953)
The East German secret police, the Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
, took their name from this iteration.
- KI - "Committee of Information" (foreign intelligence service)
- Peter Fedotov MGBMGBThe abbreviation MGB may refer to:* Mathematical Gymnasium Belgrade, special school, elementary and high school, for gifted in areas of mathematics, physics, and ICT, under University of Belgrade umbrella...
- Fedor Kuznetsov GRUGRUGRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
- Yakov Malik Foreign Ministry
- Peter Fedotov MGB
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 (GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
). KI sections dealing with the new East Bloc and Soviet emigrés 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 Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
.
- MVD - "Ministry of Internal Affairs"
- Lavrentiy Beria (March 5, 1953 - June 26, 1953)
- Sergei Kruglov (June, 1953 - March 13, 1954)
March 13, 1954: Newly independent force became 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...
, 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.
- KGBKGBThe 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...
- Committee for State Security- Ivan SerovIvan SerovState Security General Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov was a prominent leader of Soviet security and intelligence agencies, head of the KGB between March 1954 and December 1958, as well as head of the GRU between 1958 and 1963. He was Deputy Commissar of the NKVD under Lavrentiy Beria, and was to play a...
(March 13, 1954 - December 8, 1958) - Alexander ShelepinAlexander ShelepinAlexander Nikolayevich Shelepin was a Soviet state security officer and party statesman. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its Politburo and was the head of the KGB from 25 December 1958 to 13 November 1961.Shelepin was born in Voronezh...
(December 25, 1958 - November 13, 1961) - Vladimir SemichastnyVladimir SemichastnyVladimir Yefimovich Semichastny was the head of the KGB from November 1961 to April 1967....
(November 13, 1961 - May 18, 1967) - Yuri AndropovYuri AndropovYuri 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:...
(May 18, 1967 - May 26, 1982) - Vitaly Fedorchuk (May 26, 1982 - December 17, 1982)
- Viktor ChebrikovViktor ChebrikovViktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov ) was a Soviet Union public official and security administrator and head of the KGB from December 1982 to October 1988....
(December 17, 1982 - October 1, 1988) - Vladimir KryuchkovVladimir KryuchkovVladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov was a former Soviet politician and Communist Party member, having been in the organization from 1944 until he was dismissed in 1991...
(October 1, 1988 - August 22, 1991) - Leonid ShebarshinLeonid ShebarshinLeonid Vladimirovich Shebarshin became head of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB in January 1989, when the former FCD chief, Vladimir Kryuchkov, was promoted to KGB chief...
(August 22, 1991 - August 23, 1991) (acting) - Vadim BakatinVadim BakatinVadim Viktorovich Bakatin was a Soviet politician who served as the last chairman of the KGB in 1991. He is the last surviving former chairman of this organization...
(August 23, 1991 - October 22, 1991)
- Ivan Serov
In 1991, after the State Emergency Committee
Soviet coup attempt of 1991
The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup , was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev...
failed to overthrow Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
and Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
took over, General Vadim Bakatin
Vadim Bakatin
Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin was a Soviet politician who served as the last chairman of the KGB in 1991. He is the last surviving former chairman of this organization...
was given instructions to dissolve the KGB.
In Russia today, KGB functions are performed by the Foreign Intelligence Service (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 Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), the Federal Protective Service (FSO)
Federal Protective Service (Russia)
In the Russian Federation, the Federal Protective Service is a federal government agency concerned with the tasks related to the protection of several, mandated by the relevant law, high-ranking state officials, including the President of Russia, as well as certain federal properties...
The GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
, Main Intelligence Directorate, continues to operate as well.
See also
- List of Chairmen of the KGB
- Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret servicesPoison laboratory of the Soviet secret servicesPoison laboratory of the Soviet secret services, alternatively known as Laboratory 1, Laboratory 12, and Kamera which means "The Chamber" in Russian, was a covert research and development facility of the Soviet secret police agencies,which notably also developed antidotes and internal...
- FAPSIFAPSIFAPSI or Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information was a Russian government agency, which was responsible for signal intelligence and security of governmental communications...
- State communications, formed from the former 8th and 16th Directorates of KGBKGBThe 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...
and later merged into FSB
Secret Services of Imperial Russia
- Okhrana, secret police of Imperial Russia
- Special Corps of GendarmesSpecial Corps of GendarmesThe Special Corps of Gendarmes was the uniformed security police of the Russian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main responsibilities were law enforcement and state security....
- Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own ChancelleryThird Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own ChancelleryThe Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery was a secret department set up in Imperial Russia, inherited from Tayny Prikaz, Privy Chancellery and Specialty Chancellery, effectively serving as the Imperial regime's secret police for much of its existence. The organization was...