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Chronology of Soviet
security agencies

1917–22

Cheka of the Sovnarkom of the RSFSR
(All-Russian Extraordinary Commission)

1922–23

GPU of the NKVD of the RSFSR
(State Political Directorate)

1923–34

OGPU of the Sovnarkom of the USSR
(Joint State Political Directorate)

1934–41
1941–43

NKVD of the USSR
(People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs)

GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR
(Main Directorate of State Security)

1941
1943–46

NKGB of the USSR
(People's Commissariat for State Security)

1946–53

MGB of the USSR
(Ministry of State Security)

1953–54

MVD of the USSR
(Ministry of Internal Affairs)

1954–91

KGB of the Council of Ministers of the USSR
(Committee for State Security)

There were a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The Okhrana was abolished by the Provisional government after the first revolution of 1917, and 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 a secret police and an intelligence agency.

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]

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)

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
OGPU ОГПУ	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

Notes

^ Svetlana Chervonnaya, KI briefing from the Russian side, H-HOAC Discussion, March 17, 2005. [1] Archived November 8, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved August 20, 2011.
^ 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