KGB

Restructuring in the MVD following the fall of Beria in June 1953 resulted in the formation of the KGB under Ivan Serov in March 1954. Secretary Leonid Brezhnev overthrew Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1964. Brezhnev (in power: 1964–1982) was concerned about ambitious spy-chiefs – the communist party had managed Serov's successor, the ambitious KGB Chairman, Aleksandr Shelepin (in office: 1958–1961), but Shelepin carried out Brezhnev's palace ''coup d'état'' against Khrushchev in 1964 (despite Shelepin not then being in the KGB). Brezhnev sacked Shelepin's successor and protégé, Vladimir Semichastny (in office: 1961–1967) as KGB Chairman and reassigned him to a sinecure in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Shelepin found himself demoted from the chairman of the Committee of Party and State Control in 1965 to Trade Union Council chairman (in office 1967–1975). In the 1980s, the Soviet Union glasnost provoked KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov (in office: 1988–1991) to lead the August 1991 Soviet ''coup d'état in an attempt to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev. The failed coup d'état'' and the collapse of the USSR heralded the end of the KGB on 3 December 1991. The KGB's modern-day successors are the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) and the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service). ==In the US==

Between the World Wars The GRU (Foreign military intelligence service of the Soviet Union) recruited the ideological agent Julian Wadleigh, who became a State Department diplomat in 1936. The NKVD's first US operation was establishing the legal residency of Boris Bazarov and the illegal residency of Iskhak Akhmerov in 1934. Throughout, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and its General Secretary Earl Browder, helped NKVD recruit Americans, working in government, business, and industry. Other important, low-level and high-level ideological agents were the diplomats Laurence Duggan and Michael Whitney Straight in the State Department, the statistician Harry Dexter White in the Treasury Department, the economist Lauchlin Currie (an FDR advisor), and the "Silvermaster Group", headed by statistician Greg Silvermaster, in the Farm Security Administration and the Board of Economic Warfare. Moreover, when Whittaker Chambers, formerly Alger Hiss's courier, approached the Roosevelt Government to identify the Soviet spies Duggan, White, and others, he was ignored. Hence, during the Second World War (1939–45)—at the Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945) conferences—Big Three Ally Joseph Stalin of the USSR, was better informed about the war affairs of his US and UK allies than they were about his. Soviet espionage was at its most successful in collecting scientific and technological intelligence about advances in jet propulsion, radar and encryption, which impressed Moscow, but stealing atomic secrets was the capstone of NKVD espionage against Anglo–American science and technology. To wit, British Manhattan Project team physicist Klaus Fuchs (GRU 1941) was the main agent of the Rosenberg spy ring. In 1944, the New York City residency infiltrated top secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by recruiting Theodore Hall, a 19-year-old Harvard physicist. During the Cold War The KGB failed to rebuild most of its US illegal resident networks. The aftermath of the Second Red Scare (1947–57) and the crisis in the CPUSA hampered recruitment. The last major illegal resident, Rudolf Abel (Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher/"Willie" Vilyam Fishers), was betrayed by his assistant, Reino Häyhänen, in 1957. Recruitment then emphasised mercenary agents, an approach especially successful in scientific and technical espionage, since private industry practised lax internal security, unlike the US Government. One notable KGB success occurred in 1967, with the walk-in recruitment of US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker. Over eighteen years, Walker enabled Soviet Intelligence to decipher some one million US Navy messages, and track the US Navy. In the late Cold War, the KGB was successful with intelligence coups in the cases of the mercenary walk-in recruits FBI counterspy Robert Hanssen (1979–2001) and CIA Soviet Division officer Aldrich Ames (1985–1994). ==In the Soviet Bloc==

, Estonia in 2007 It was Cold War policy for the KGB of the Soviet Union and the secret services of the satellite states to extensively monitor public and private opinion, internal subversion and possible revolutionary plots in the Soviet Bloc. In supporting those Communist governments, the KGB was instrumental in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring of "Socialism with a Human Face" in Czechoslovakia, 1968. During the Hungarian revolt the founding member KGB chairman Ivan Serov personally supervised the post-invasion "normalization" of the country. Consequently, the KGB monitored the satellite state populations for occurrences of "harmful attitudes" and "hostile acts"; yet, stopping the Prague Spring, deposing a nationalist Communist government, was its greatest achievement. The KGB prepared the Red Army's route by infiltrating Czechoslovakia with many illegal residents disguised as Western tourists. They were to gain the trust of and spy upon the most outspoken proponents of Alexander Dubček's new government. They were to plant subversive evidence, justifying the USSR's invasion, that right-wing groups—aided by Western intelligence agencies—were going to depose the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. Finally, the KGB prepared hardline, pro-USSR members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), such as Alois Indra and Vasiľ Škultéty, to assume power after the Red Army's invasion. The KGB's Czech success in the 1960s was matched with the failed suppression of the Solidarity labour movement in 1980s Poland. The KGB had forecast political instability consequent to the election of Archbishop of Kraków Karol Wojtyla as the first Polish Pope, John Paul II, whom they had categorised as "subversive" because of his anti-Communist sermons against the one-party régime of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). Despite its accurate forecast of crisis, the PZPR hindered the KGB from destroying the nascent Solidarity-backed political movement, fearing explosive civil violence if they imposed the KGB-recommended martial law. Aided by their Polish counterpart, the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa—SB), the KGB successfully infiltrated spies to Solidarity and the Catholic Church, and in Operation X co-ordinated the declaration of martial law with Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and the Polish Communist Party; however, the vacillating, conciliatory Polish approach blunted KGB effectiveness—and Solidarity then fatally weakened the Communist Polish government in 1989. Nadezhin saw that China threatened the USSR by claiming a historic right to regions under the USSR's control. China also wanted to displace the USSR as the leader of the international socialist movement. The KGB wanted to infiltrate the Chinese security services with "a sufficient number of agents". Top agents also believed that the KGB needed to do more to ensure the protection of the USSR from Chinese spies. ==Notable operations==

• With the Trust Operation (1921–1926), the OGPU successfully deceived some leaders of the right-wing, counter-revolutionary White Guards back to the USSR for execution. • NKVD infiltrated and destroyed Trotskyist groups; in 1940, the Spanish agent Ramón Mercader assassinated Leon Trotsky in Mexico City. • KGB favoured active measures (e.g. disinformation), in discrediting the USSR's enemies. • For war-time, KGB had ready sabotage operations arms caches in target countries. According to declassified documents, the KGB aggressively recruited former German (mostly Abwehr) intelligence officers after the war. The KGB used them to penetrate the West German intelligence service. Bangladesh On 2 February 1973, the Politburo, which was led by Yuri Andropov at the time, demanded that KGB members influence Bangladesh (which was then newly formed), where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was scheduled to win parliamentary elections. During that time, the Soviet secret service tried hard to ensure support for his party and his allies and even predicted an easy victory for him. In June 1975, Mujib formed a new party called BAKSAL and created a one-party state. Three years later, the KGB in that region increased from 90 to 200, and by 1979, it printed more than 100 newspaper articles. In these articles, the KGB officials accused Ziaur Rahman, popularly known as "Zia", and his regime of having ties with the United States. In August 1979, the KGB accused some officers who were arrested in Dhaka in an overthrow attempt, and by October, Andropov approved the fabrication of a letter in which he stated that Muhammad Ghulam Tawab, an Air Vice-Marshal at the time, was the main plotter, which led the Bangladesh, Indian and Sri Lankan press to believe that he was an American spy. Under Andropov's command, Service A, a KGB division, falsified the information in a letter to Moudud Ahmed in which it said that he was supported by the American government and by 1981 even sent a letter accusing the Reagan administration of plotting to overthrow President Zia and his regime. The letter also mentioned that after Mujib was assassinated, the United States contacted Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad to replace him as a short-term President. When the election happened at the end of 1979, the KGB made sure that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party would win. The party received 207 out of 300 seats, but the Zia regime did not last long, falling on 29 May 1981 when after numerous escapes, Zia was assassinated in Chittagong. was planning the overthrow of President Mohammed Daoud Khan. Under the leadership of Major General Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy and Muhammad Raficode named Mammad and Niruz respectivelythe Soviet secret service learned of the imminent uprising. Two days after the uprising, Nur Muhammad Taraki, leader of the PDPA, issued a notice of concern to the Soviet ambassador Alexander Puzanov and the resident of Kabul-based KGB embassy Viliov Osadchy that they could have staged a coup three days earlier hence the warning. On that, both Puzanov and Osadchy dismissed Taraki's complaint and reported it to Moscow, which broke a 30-year contract with him soon after. The centre then realised that it was better for them to deal with a more competent agent, which at the time was Babrak Karmal, who later accused Taraki of taking bribes and even of having secretly contacted the United States embassy in Kabul. On that, the centre again refused to listen and instructed him to take a position in the Kabul residency by 1974. On 30 April 1978, Taraki, despite being cut off from any support, led the coup which later became known as Saur Revolution, and became the country's leader, with Hafizullah Amin as vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers and vice-chairman of the Revolutionary Council. On 5 December 1978, Taraki compared the Saur Revolution to the Russian Revolution, which struck Vladimir Kryuchkov, the FCD chief of that time. His 11-year-old son died due to shrapnel wounds. The Soviets installed Karmal as Amin's successor. Several other government buildings were seized during the operation, including the Interior Ministry building, the Internal Security (KHAD) building, and the General Staff building (Darul Aman Palace). Out of the 54 KGB operators that assaulted the palace, 5 were killed in action, including Colonel Grigori Boyarinov, and 32 were wounded. Alpha Group veterans call this operation one of the most successful in the group's history. In June 1981, there were 370 members in the Afghan-controlled KGB intelligence service throughout the nation which were under the command of Ahmad Shah Paiya and had received all the training they need in the Soviet Union. By May 1982, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was set up in Afghanistan under the command of KHAD. In 1983, Boris Voskoboynikov became the next head of the KGB while Leonid Kostromin became his Deputy Minister. ==August 1991 and dissolution==

The KGB dissolved on December 3, 1991. Its immediate successor agencies were the Federal Security Agency of the RSFSR (AFB), the Inter-Republican Security Service (MSB), the Central Intelligence Service (TsSR), and the Committee for the Protection of the State Border (KOGG). In 1993, the KGB was succeeded overall by the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) of Russia (itself a direct successor to the AFB), which in-turn was succeeded by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB). ==Organisation==

The Committee for State Security was a militarised organisation adhering to military discipline and regulations. Its operational personnel held army style ranks, except for the maritime branch of the Border troops, which held navy style ranks. The KGB consisted of two main components - organs and troops. The organs included the services directly involved in the committee's main roles - intelligence, counter-intelligence, military counter-intelligence etc. The troops included military units within the KGB's structure, completely separate from the Soviet armed forces - the Border Troops, the Governmental Signals Troops (which in addition to providing communications between the central government and the lower administrative levels, also provided the communications between the General Staff and the military districts), the Special Service Troops (which provided EW, ELINT, SIGINT and cryptography) as well as the Spetsnaz of the KGB (the Kremlin Regiment, Alpha Group, Vympel, etc.). At the time of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 the KGB had the following structure: • Secretariat (office of the Chairman of the KGB) (Секретариат) • Group of Consultants to the Chairman of the KGB (Группа консультантов при Председателе КГБ) • Centre for Public Relations (Центр общественных связей) • 1st Main Directorate (External Intelligence) (1-е Главное управление (внешняя разведка)) • 2nd Main Directorate (Counter-Intelligence) (2-е Главное управление (контрразведка)) • 3rd Main Directorate (Military Counter-Intelligence) (3-е Главное управление (военная контрразведка)) • 4th Directorate (Counter-Intelligence Support for the transport and communications infrastructure) (4-е Управление (контрразведывательное обеспечение объектов транспорта и связи)) • 5th Directorate (Political police) • 6th Directorate (Counter-Intelligence Support for the economy) (6-е Управление (контрразведывательное обеспечение экономики)) • 7th Directorate (External Surveillance) (7-е Управление (наружное наблюдение)) • 8th Main Directorate (Cryptography) (8-е Главное управление (шифровальное)) • 9th Directorate (Protection of High level party members) • 10th Department (Inventory and Archive) (10-й отдел (учётно-архивный)) • 12th Department (Wiretapping and surveillance in enclosed spaces) (12-й отдел (прослушивание телефонов и помещений)) • 15th Main Directorate (Wartime government command centres) (15-е Главное управление (обслуживание запасных пунктов управления)) • 16th Directorate (ELINT) (16-е Управление (электронная разведка)) • 17th Directorate (RECON) (Special Reconnaissance in the Field) • Close Protection Service (Close protection, perimeter protection, transport and catering for high-ranking government officials) (Служба охраны) • Directorate "Z" (Protection of the constitutional order) (Управление «З» (защита конституционного строя)) • Directorate "OP" (Combat against the organised crime) (Управление «ОП» (борьба с организованной преступностью) • Directorate "SCh"(Сч) Spetsnaz of the KGB. • Main Directorate of the Border Troops (Главное управление пограничных войск) • Analytical Directorate (Аналитическое управление) • Inspection Directorate (Инспекторское управление) • Operational Technical Directorate (R&D of special equipment and procedures) (Оперативно-техническое управление) • Investigative Department (Следственный отдел) • Directorate of Government Communications (Управление правительственной связи) • Personnel Directorate (Управление кадров) • Supply Directorate (Хозяйственное управление) • Military Construction Directorate (Военно-строительное управление) • Military Medical Directorate (Военно-медицинское управление) • Department of Financial Planning (Финансово-плановый отдел) • Mobilisation Department (Мобилизационный отдел) • Legal Department and Arbitration (Юридический отдел с арбитражем) Republican affiliations , January 1990 , Lithuania The Soviet Union was a federal state, consisting of 15 constituent Soviet Socialist Republics, each with its own government closely resembling the central government of the USSR. The republican affiliation offices almost completely duplicated the structural organisation of the main KGB. • KGB of Belarusian SSR / KDB of Belarus (see State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus) • KGB of Ukrainian SSR / KDB of Ukraine (see Security Service of Ukraine) • KGB of Moldovan SSR / CSS of Moldova • KGB of Estonian SSR / RJK of Estonia • KGB of Latvian SSR / LPSR (VDK) • KGB of Lithuanian SSR / VSK of Lithuania • KGB of Georgian SSR / KSU of Georgia • KGB of Armenian SSR • KGB of Azerbaijan SSR / DTK of Azerbaijan • KGB of Kazakh SSR • KGB of Kyrgyz SSR • KGB of Uzbek SSR • KGB of Turkmen SSR • KGB of Tajik SSR • KGB of Russian SFSR (created in 1991; see Federal Counterintelligence Service and Federal Security Service) Leadership The Chairman of the KGB, First Deputy Chairmen (1–2), Deputy Chairmen (4–6). Its policy Collegium comprised a chairman, deputy chairmen, directorate chiefs, and republican KGB chairmen. Directorates • First Chief Directorate (Foreign Operations) – foreign espionage (now the Foreign Intelligence Service or SVR in Russian). • Second Chief Directorate – counter-intelligence, internal political control. • Third Chief Directorate (Armed Forces) – military counter-intelligence and armed forces political surveillance. • Fourth Directorate (Transportation security) • Fifth Chief Directorate – censorship and internal security against artistic, political, and religious dissension; renamed "Directorate Z", protecting the Constitutional order, in 1989. • Sixth Directorate (Economic Counter-intelligence, industrial security) • Seventh Directorate (Surveillance) – of Soviet nationals and foreigners. • Eighth Chief Directorate – monitored-managed national, foreign, and overseas communications, cryptologic equipment, and research and development. • Ninth Chief Directorate (Guards and KGB Protection Service) – The 40,000-man uniformed bodyguard for the party leaders and families, guarded critical government installations (nuclear weapons, etc.), operated the Moscow VIP subway, and secure Government–Party telephony. President Yeltsin transformed it to the Federal Protective Service (FPS). • Fifteenth Directorate (Wartime government command centres) • Sixteenth Directorate (SIGINT and communications interception) – operated the national and government telephone and telegraph systems. • Eighteenth Chief Directorate (Investigations) - investigations inside of the Soviet Ministries, preventing corruption and other crimes. Previously named Investigative Department. • Border Guards Directorate responsible for the Soviet Border Troops. • Operations and Technology Directorate – research laboratories for recording devices and Laboratory 12 for poisons and drugs. meets with former CIA director Robert Gates, April 2007. Other units • KGB Personnel Department • Secretariat of the KGB • KGB Technical Support Staff • KGB Finance Department • KGB Archives • KGB Irregulars • Administration Department of the KGB, and • The CPSU Committee • KGB Spetsnaz (special operations) units such as: :* Alpha Group :* Vympel Group :* Zenith Group • Kremlin Guard Force for the Presidium, et al., then became the FSO Mode of operation A Time magazine article in 1983, reported that the KGB was the world's most effective information-gathering organisation. It operated legal and illegal espionage residencies in target countries where a legal resident gathered intelligence while based at the Soviet embassy or consulate, and, if caught, was protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity. At worst, the compromised spy was either returned to the Soviet Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government of the target country. The illegal resident spied, unprotected by diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic and trade missions, (cf. the non-official cover CIA officer). In its early history, the KGB valued illegal spies more than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with greater ease. The KGB residency executed four types of espionage: (i) political, (ii) economic, (iii) military-strategic, and (iv) disinformation, effected with "active measures" (PR Line), counter-intelligence and security (KR Line), and scientific–technological intelligence (X Line); quotidian duties included SIGINT (RP Line) and illegal support (N Line). The KGB classified its spies as: • agents (a person who provides intelligence) and • controllers (a person who relays intelligence). The false-identity (or legend) assumed by a USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either: • a "live double" (a participant to the fabrications) or • a "dead double" (whose identity is tailored to the spy). The agent then substantiated his or her false identity by living in a foreign country before emigrating to the target country. For example, the KGB would send a US-bound illegal resident via the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Canada. Tradecraft included stealing and photographing documents, code-names, contacts, targets, and dead letter boxes, and working as a "friend of the cause" or as agents provocateurs, who would infiltrate the target group to sow dissension, influence policy, and arrange kidnappings and assassinations. ==List of chairmen==

==Commemorative and award badges ==

File:Znak5 GPU.GIF|5 years Cheka–OGPU, Honoured Worker of Cheka–OGPU, 1923 File:Znak15 OGPU.GIF|15 years Cheka–OGPU, Honoured Worker of Cheka–OGPU, 1932 File:NKVD 1940 honored officer badge.gif|Honoured Worker of NKVD, 1940 File:Kgb 50years 1967.gif|50 years Cheka–KGB, 1967 File:Kgb 60years 1977.gif|60 years Cheka–KGB, 1977 File:Kgb 70years 1987.gif|70 years Cheka–KGB, 1987 File:Kgb member honour 1957.gif|Honoured Worker of State Security, 1957 File:OGPU 10 years, 1927.gif|Anniversary Badge 10 years OGPU, 1927 File:Excellent KGB Border Troop 1st class CCCP.jpg|Excellent Border Troop 1st class, 1969 File:Excellent KGB Border Troop 2nd class CCCP.jpg|Excellent Border Troop 2nd class, 1969 File:70letpv.jpg|70 years Border Troops KGB, 1988 File:Знак 70 лет Комсомолу ВЛКСМ ВЧК-КГБ.JPG|70 years Komsomol Cheka–KGB ==See also==