Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies
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List of Soviet secret police agencies, the Soviet secret police agencies and their different names are as follows chronologically.
Note. For most items listed there the secret policy operations were only a part of their functions.
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 KGBs successor.
- Cheka (Abbreviation of Vecheka, itself an acronym for "All-Russian Extraordinary Committee to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage") (Russian SFSR)
February 6, 1922 Cheka becomes GPU, a section of the NKVD of the Russian SFSR.
- NKVD - "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs"
- GPU - State Political Directorate
November 15, 1923 GPU is reorganized into OGPU under Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
- OGPU - "Joint State Political Directorate" or "All-Union State Political Board"
July 10, 1934 OGPU becomes GUGB of NKVD of the USSR; NKVD of the Russian SFSR ceases to exist.
- NKVD + GUGB - "Main Directorate for State Security"
Both GUGB and NKVD are headed by the same person.
February 3, 1941 the GUGB of NKVD is separated into the NKGB.
- NKGB - "People's Commissariat for State Security"
- Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov February 3, 1941 - July 20, 1941 (NKGB folded back into NKVD)
- Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov April 14, 1943 - 1946 (NKGB reseparated from NKVD)
March 18, 1946 all People's Commissariates are renamed to Ministries
- MGB - "Ministry for State Security"
- Viktor Semionovich Abakumov 1946 - 1951
- Semion Denisovich Ignatiyev 1951 - 1953
- The East German secret police, the Stasi, took their name from this iteration.
March 5, 1953 MVD and MGB are merged into the MVD by Lavrenty Beria.
March 13, 1954 newly independent force becomes the KGB, as Beria is purged and the MVD divests itself again of the functions of secret policing. Now after renames and tulmults, the KGB remains stable untill 1991.
- KGB - Committee for State Security
- Ivan Serov March 13 1954 - December 8 1958
- Aleksandr Shelepin December 25 1958 - November 13 1961
- Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny November 13 1961 - May 18 1967
- Yuri Andropov May 18 1967 - May 26 1982
- Vitaliy Fedorchuk May 26 1982 - December 17 1982
- Viktor Chebrikov December 17 1982 - October 1 1988
- Vladimir Kryuchkov October 1 1988 - August 22 1991
- Leonid Shebarshin August 22 1991 - August 23 1991 (Acting)
- Vadim Bakatin August 23 1991 - October 22 1991
After the State Emergency Committee fails to overthrow Gorbachev and Yeltsin takes over, General Vadim Bakatin is given instructions to dissolve the KGB.
Related article
- Okhranka, secret police of Imperial Russia
- Special Corps of Gendarmes
- Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery
External links
- Official history of the MVD of Russia: 1917-1930 (http://www.mvdinform.ru/index.php?docid=367) 1931-1945 (http://www.mvdinform.ru/index.php?docid=368) 1946-1965 (http://www.mvdinform.ru/index.php?docid=369) 1966-1985 (http://www.mvdinform.ru/index.php?docid=370) 1986-1993 (http://www.mvdinform.ru/index.php?docid=371) (in Russian)