Bobkov began his career in the Soviet secret services--then known as the
People's Commissariat for State Security, or NKGB--in 1945, under the guidance of
Lavrentiy Beria. In the power struggles that followed the death of Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin, Bobkov survived Beria's removal and execution, and later outlasted eleven subsequent chairmen of the
Ministry of State Security (MGB) and KGB. During the 1970s and 1980s, he "effectively became the KGB's real chairman, although officially he held the post of first deputy," according to Russian investigative journalist
Yevgenia Albats.
Creation of front organizations Bobkov was very instrumental in creation of KGB-controlled political organizations, such as the
Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public, established in 1983. He also allegedly invented the
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, according to Soviet Politburo member
Alexander Yakovlev. However, Bobkov denied these allegations, saying that he did not support the creation of a "
Zubatov-style pseudo-party under KGB control, which directs interests and sentiments of certain social groups."
Ethnic conflicts As described in his official biography, Bobkov was personally engaged in resolving ethnic conflicts in the Soviet Union. This included incidents such as the
Sumgait pogrom, the
January Events in Lithuania, the 1989 tribal clashes in Uzbekistan, and the
Jeltoqsan. Former Politburo deputy and reformist leader Alexander Yakovlev, however, has claimed that Bobkov did not solve these conflicts, but rather created them in an effort to maintain the power of the KGB by showing its necessity.
Perestroika According to Bobkov,
perestroika had been invented by him and his KGB colleagues: "We in the KGB contributed quite a bit to the process of perestroika because [...] without it the Soviet Union could not move ahead." Documents discovered by political scientist
Robert van Voren in the
Stasi archives show that in summer 1989 Bobkov came to Berlin and told Stasi Director
Erich Mielke that
German reunification was the work of mentally ill persons. Bobkov allegedly supervised the transfer of Communist Party money to foreign banks prior to the
1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt. In October 1990, Bobkov ordered the creation of
commercial firms and banks, which were managed by KGB officers and their "trusted contacts." The project was funded by KGB and Party money, "which made up almost 80% of the amount invested in the new banks, stock exchanges, and businesses in 1990-1991," according to the testimony of Richard Palmer to the
United States Congress regarding Soviet infiltration of the Western financial system.
Nikolay Kruchina, a high ranking
CPSU official who was officially responsible for supervising the Communist Party money, fell to his death from the window of his luxury apartment in Moscow soon after the events.
Post-Soviet Russia Bobkov officially retired in 1991 and organized a private security service in the
Media Most company called SB MOST Group (), which included thousands of his former KGB colleagues. The entire archive of 5th KGB Main Directorate was taken to Media-Most. This security service allegedly organized an attempted assassination of Russian oligarch
Boris Berezovsky in 1994. His daughter Dasha or Daria Bobkova () heads the Spanish branch of Most-Bank (). Bobkov died on 17 June 2019. ==References==