Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies

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There were a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The first secret police after the October Revolution, created by Vladimir Lenin's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as "chekists", a name that is still informally applied to people under the Federal Security Service of Russia, the KGB's successor in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

For most agencies listed here secret policing operations were only part of their function; for instance, the KGB was both the secret police and the intelligence agency.

## Contents

* 1 History of the Soviet state security organs
* 1.1 Detailed chronology
* 1.2 Leadership
* 2 See also
* 3 Notes
* 4 External links

## History of the Soviet state security organs

### 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)
* Yakov Peters (July 7, 1918 – August 22, 1918)
* 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
* 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"
* Dzerzhinsky (November 15, 1923 – July 20, 1926)
* Vyacheslav Menzhinsky (July 30, 1926 – May 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 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 18, 1946) (NKGB reseparated from NKVD)

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

* MGB – "Ministry of State Security"
* Viktor Abakumov (March 18, 1946 – July 14, 1951)
* Sergei Ogoltsov (July 14, 1951 – August 9, 1951) (acting)
* Semyon Ignatyev (August 9, 1951 – March 5, 1953)

The East German secret police, the Stasi, took their name from this iteration.

* KI [ru] – "Committee of Information" (foreign intelligence service)[1]
* Peter 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 1953 – March 13, 1954)

The 1954 ukase establishing the KGB.

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)
* Alexander Shelepin (December 25, 1958 – November 13, 1961)
* 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 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 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

Organization  | Chairman  | Dates

|
|

Cheka
Чека | Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky  | 1917[2]–1922
GPU
ГПУ | 1922–1923
OGPU
ОГПУ | 1923–1926
Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky  | 1926–1934
NKVD
НКВД | Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda  | 1934–1936
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov  | 1936–1938
Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria  | 1938–1941
NKGB
Нкгб | Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov  | Feb–Jul 1941
NKVD
НКВД | Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria  | 1941–1943
NKGB
Нкгб | Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov  | 1943–1946
MGB
МГБ | Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov  | 1946–1951
Semyon Denisovich Ignatyev  | 1951–1953
Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria  | Mar–Jun 1953
Sergei Nikiforovich Kruglov  | 1953–1954
KGB
КГБ | Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov  | 1954–1958
Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin  | 1958–1961
Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny  | 1961–1967
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov  | 1967–1982
Vitali Vasilyevich Fedorchuk  | May–Dec 1982
Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov  | 1982–1988
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov  | 1988–1991
Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin  | August 1991 –

January 1992

## See also

* Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War § Violence and terror
* Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union § Terror, famine and the Gulag
* Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union § Human rights
* Commanders of the border troops USSR and RF
* Director of the Federal Security Service
* Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service
* FAPSI – State communications, formed from the former 8th and 16th Directorates of KGB and later merged into FSB
* List of chairmen of the KGB
* Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services

## Notes

1. ↑ Svetlana Chervonnaya, KI briefing from the Russian side, H-HOAC Discussion, March 17, 2005. [1] Retrieved August 20, 2011.
2. ↑ Communist Secret Police: Cheka, referencing the quote by David Shub about the starting date of the Cheka, Retrieved November 24, 2016

## External links

* The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) has the full text of former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev's Notebooks with evidence of Soviet espionage in the United States during the Cold War
* Communist Secret Police: Cheka

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