In the early 20th century, the Russian
Cheka led by
Felix Dzherzhinsky began operating on Belarusian land. On 1 March 1922, under the auspices, Central Executive Committee of the BSSR, a
State Political Directorate is formed. The
People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the KGB's predecessor agency, was in the mid-1950s involved in many Stalinist purges around the country, especially on Belarus. In March 1954, the central government in
Moscow began reforms for the
Soviet Interior Ministry, during which the Committee for State Security (KGB), was a subordinate agency under
Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. On 19 May 1954, the Soviet government in Belarus made the decision to form a republican affiliate of the KGB, led by Alexander Perepelitsyn. In December 1978, the KGB of the BSSR became an independent institution of the national agency, having responsibility for all assets in Belarus. In September 1991, the
Supreme Soviet of Belarus renamed the KGB of the BSSR to the
KGB of the Republic of Belarus, which became the new national security body of the state. A month earlier, the
Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic signed, effectively declaring Belarus an independent state from the USSR. ==Chairmen==