KGB

This article is about the security service of the Soviet Union. For other uses, see KGB (disambiguation).

Committee for State Security
Комитет государственной безопасности
КГБ СССР
Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti
KGB SSSR
Agency overview
Formed13 March 1954; 70 years ago (1954-03-13)
Preceding agencies
  • Cheka (1917–1922)
  • GPU (1922–1923)
  • OGPU (1923–1934)
  • NKVD (1934–1946)
  • NKGB (February–July 1941/1943–1946)
  • MGB (1946–1953)
Dissolved3 December 1991; 32 years ago (1991-12-03)
Superseding agencies
TypeState committee of union-republican jurisdiction
Jurisdiction
HeadquartersLubyanka Building, 2 Bolshaya Lubyanka Street
Moscow, Russian SFSR
Motto
  • Loyalty to the party – Loyalty to the motherland
  • Верность партии — Верность Родине
Agency executives
Child agencies
  • Foreign intelligence: First Chief Directorate
  • Internal security: Second Chief Directorate
    • Ciphering: Eighth Chief Directorate
    • Chief Directorate of Border Forces

The Committee for State Security (Russian: Комитет государственной безопасности, romanized: Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti, IPA: [kəmʲɪˈtʲed ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ]), abbreviated as KGB (Russian: КГБ; listenⓘ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, OGPU, and NKVD. Attached to the Council of Ministers, it was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", carrying out internal security, foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence and secret police functions. Similar agencies operated in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from the Russian SFSR, where the KGB was headquartered, with many associated ministries, state committees and state commissions.

The agency was a military service governed by army laws and regulations, in the same fashion as the Soviet Army or the MVD Internal Troops. While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two online documentary sources are available.[1][2] Its main functions were foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence, operative-investigative activities, guarding the state border of the USSR, guarding the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government, organization and security of government communications as well as combating nationalist, dissident, religious and anti-Soviet activities. On 3 December 1991, the KGB was officially dissolved.[3] It was succeeded in Russia by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and what would later become the Federal Security Service (FSB). Following the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War, the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia established its own KGB, keeping the unreformed name.[4] In addition, Belarus established its successor to the KGB of the Byelorussian SSR in 1991, the Belarusian KGB, keeping the unreformed name.

  1. ^ Rubenstein, Joshua; Gribanov, Alexander (eds.). "The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov". Annals of Communism. Yale University. Archived from the original on 21 May 2007.
  2. ^ JHU.edu Archived 25 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine, archive of documents about the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the KGB, collected by Vladimir Bukovsky.
  3. ^ "Закон СССР от 03.12.1991 N 124-н о реорганизации органов государственной". pravo.levonevsky.org. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  4. ^ Kolev, Stoyan (11 March 2009). "KGB Backyard in the Caucasus". Retrieved 19 January 2014.