Detailed chronology •
Cheka (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) •
Jēkabs Peterss (July 7, 1918 – August 22, 1918) (acting) •
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 – "
People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs" •
GPU – State Political Directorate •
Felix 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 of the USSR. •
OGPU – "Joint State Political Directorate" or "All-Union State Political Board" •
Felix Dzerzhinsky (November 15, 1923 – July 20, 1926) •
Vyacheslav Menzhinsky (July 30, 1926 – May 10, 1934) •
Genrikh Yagoda (May 10, 1934 – July 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. •
NKVD – "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs" •
GUGB – "Main Directorate for State Security" •
Genrikh Yagoda (July 10, 1934 – September 26, 1936) •
Nikolai Yezhov (September 26, 1936 – November 25, 1938) •
Lavrentiy Beria (November 25, 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) •
NKVD – "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs" •
GUGB – "Main Directorate for State Security" •
Lavrentiy Beria (July 20, 1941 – April 14, 1943) •
NKGB – "People's Commissariat for State Security" •
Vsevolod Merkulov (April 14, 1943 – March 15, 1946) (NKGB reseparated from NKVD) March 18, 1946: All
People's Commissariats were renamed to
Ministries. •
MGB – "Ministry of State Security" •
Vsevolod Merkulov (March 15, 1946 – May 4, 1946) •
Viktor Abakumov (May 4, 1946 – July 14, 1951) •
Sergei Ogoltsov (July 14, 1951 – August 9, 1951) (acting) •
Semyon Ignatiev (August 9, 1951 – March 5, 1953) The East German secret police, the
Stasi, took their name from this iteration. • – "Committee of Information" (foreign intelligence service) •
Pyotr Fedotov MGB •
Fedor Kuznetsov GRU •
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 (
GRU). 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
Lavrentiy Beria. •
MVD – "Ministry of Internal Affairs" •
Lavrentiy Beria (March 5, 1953 – June 26, 1953) •
Sergei Kruglov (June 26, 1953 – March 13, 1954) 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. •
KGB – Committee for State Security •
Ivan Serov (March 13, 1954 – December 8, 1958) • (December 8, 1958 – December 25, 1958) (acting) •
Alexander Shelepin (December 25, 1958 – November 5, 1961) •
Pyotr Ivashutin (November 5, 1961 – November 13, 1961) (acting) •
Vladimir Semichastny (November 13, 1961 – May 18, 1967) •
Yuri Andropov (May 18, 1967 – May 26, 1982) •
Vitaly Fedorchuk (May 26, 1982 – December 17, 1982) •
Viktor Chebrikov (December 17, 1982 – October 1, 1988) •
Vladimir Kryuchkov (October 1, 1988 – August 28, 1991) •
Leonid Shebarshin (August 22, 1991 – August 23, 1991) (acting) •
Vadim Bakatin (August 29, 1991 – December 3, 1991) In the aftermath of the
1991 Soviet coup attempt, when 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
Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) in 1995, and the
Federal Protective Service (FSO). The
GRU continues to operate as well.
Leadership ==See also==