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Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies

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The Soviet Union had a succession of secret police agencies over the course of its existence. The first secret police after the Russian Revolution, created by Lenin's decree on December 20 1917, was called "Cheka" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as chekists, a name that is still applied to people under the FSB of Russia, the KGB's successor.

Note that for most agencies listed here secret policing operations were only part of their function.

Contents

Chronology

February 6, 1922: Cheka became GPU, a section of the NKVD of the Russian SFSR.

November 15, 1923: GPU was reorganized into OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.

July 10, 1934: OGPU became GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR; NKVD of the Russian SFSR ceased to exist.

February 3, 1941: The GUGB of the NKVD was briefly separated out into the NKGB, then merged back in, and then in 1943 separated out again.

March 18, 1946: All People's Commissariates were renamed to Ministries.

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 a foreign military intelligence arm of the GRU. KI sections dealing with the new East Bloc and Soviet emigres 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 Lavrenty 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 tulmults, the KGB remained stable until 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 SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) and the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation). The GRU, Main Intelligence Directorate, continues to operate as well.

See also

Secret Services of Imperial Russia

Soviet and Russian Intelligence Services

Secret Police and Intelligence services of Russian Federation

External links

 

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