Committee for State Security/Related Articles

Parent topics

Soviet Union [r]: A Communist state, which took over the Russian Empire, after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that existed from 1922 to 1991; the major part now extant as the Russian Federation ^[e]
Joseph Stalin [r]: (1878 - 1953) The head of Russia's Communist ("Bolshevik") party and dictator of the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death. ^[e]
Organs of State Security [r]: A generic term for Soviet intelligence and internal security organizations, from the Cheka to the KGB; traditionally a third of the power balance among the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Red Army; term continues in Russian usage with the FSB ^[e]

First Chief Directorate [r]: The main human-source intelligence and covert action organization of the Soviet Committee for State Security; many functions transferred to the SVR of the Russian Federation ^[e]
- Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia) [r]: Russian Federation foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, largely built from the First Chief Directorate of the KGB ^[e]
Second Chief Directorate [r]: That part of the KGB responsible for internal counterintelligence from other nations, as opposed to suppression of dissent; very roughly comparable to the British Security Service, Israeli Shin Bet or the national security division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ^[e]
- FSB [r]: In the Russian Federation, the domestic counterintelligence organizations, many of whose functions were inherited from the Second Chief Directorate of the Soviet Committee for State Security (KGB) ^[e]

Includes the essentially same organization under many names

Vladimir Putin [r]: President of Russia (1999-2008 and 2012-) and former Prime Minister; leader of United Russia party; KGB officer in the Soviet era. ^[e]
Yevgeni Primakov [r]: Add brief definition or description
Yuri Andropov [r]: Add brief definition or description
Vladimir Kryuchkov [r]: Add brief definition or description
Vitaly Cherchenko [r]: Add brief definition or description
Lavrenti Beria [r]: (1899-1953) Soviet security and intelligence official, who rose from the Cheka until becoming head of state security; managed Soviet nuclear program; attempted to assume power after the death of Joseph Stalin but was executed by a coalition of other seekers of power ^[e]

Anatoly Golitsyn [r]: Soviet KGB officer who defected to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, triggering an intense internal debate, not completely settled today, if he were genuine or a KGB plant; he and Yuri Nosenko accused one another of being a double agent ^[e]
Yuri Nosenko [r]: Soviet KGB officer who defected to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, triggering an intense internal debate, not completely settled today, if he were genuine or a KGB plant; he and Anatoly Golitsyn accused one another of being a double agent; he was, without court authority, detained for several years by the CIA ^[e]
Petr Popov [r]: Add brief definition or description
Oleg Penkovsky [r]: (1919-1963) Colonel in Soviet military intelligence (GRU), possibly the most important Cold War defector, who remained in place, providing information, until shot ^[e]