KGB

KGB: translation

/ Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti

The Committee for State Security, most commonly known by itsRussian languageacronym KGB, was the Soviet Union’s premier secret police, internal security, andespionageagency. Established in 1954 out of the NKVD and otherStalin-erasecurity services, the organization controlled many aspects of life in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) until its demise in the immediate wake of the 1991August Coup, which had been perpetrated by several highranking members of the organization including KGB chiefVladimir Kryuchkov.

The KGB’s responsibilities were subsequently divided between the newly created Inter-republican Security Service, the Central Intelligence Service, and the Committee for Protection of the State Border.With thedissolution of the Soviet Unionin December 1991, these organizations underwent further reforms and division of responsibilities; in 1995,Boris Yeltsinclearly delineated the lines between domestic security and foreign spying by creating theFSBand the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation. However, these organizations are deeply influenced by the culture and organization of their predecessor, the KGB. Abroad, the KGB ran a massive international spy ring of ideological sympathizers, as well as paid informants and agents. Within theEastern Bloc, the agency carefully monitored opposition to local Communist Party and Soviet domination, often infiltrating anti-Soviet organizations. At home, the security agency was charged with suppressing ideological subversion and “counterrevolution,” which included disinformation campaigns and the monitoring and censoring ofdissidents,national minorityleaders, and anti-Communist activists.

Despite its fearsome reputation, the agency maintained a high level of prestige and commanded a great deal of political influence in the late Soviet period. Many observers noted that the KGB was the only major state institution that was not afflicted by thecorruptionthat had become rampant by the mid-1980s. The KGB proved a valuable ally forMikhail Gorbachevduring his rise to power and early years of reform. By the late 1980s, however, Gorbachev’s move towarddemocratization(demokratizatsiia) soured relations with the KGB’s leadership. While the military aspects of the KGB’s spy programs were toned down under Gorbachev’s “New Thinking” inforeign relations, the agency ratcheted up its industrial espionage, creating a legacy that influenced policy under both Yeltsin andVladimir Putin, the latter a former KGB agent himself.

See alsoUnited States.