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112-779: The First Chief Directorate was formed within the KGB directorate in 1954, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union became the Foreign Intelligence Service ( SVR RF ). The primary foreign intelligence service in Russia and the Soviet Union has been the GRU , a military intelligence organization and special operations force. From the beginning, foreign intelligence played an important role in Soviet foreign policy. In

224-461: A legal resident gathered intelligence while based at the Soviet embassy or consulate, and, if caught, was protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity . At worst, the compromised spy was either returned to the Soviet Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government of the target country. The illegal resident spied, unprotected by diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic and trade missions, ( cf.

336-620: A "friend of the cause" or as agents provocateurs , who would infiltrate the target group to sow dissension, influence policy, and arrange kidnappings and assassinations . Source: GRU (Soviet Union) Main Intelligence Directorate (Russian: Главное разведывательное управление , romanized : Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye , IPA: [ˈglavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə] ), abbreviated GRU (Russian: ГРУ , IPA: [ɡɨ̞‿rɨ̞‿ˈu] , [gru] ),

448-505: A 1st Directorate of NKGB. That state remained until 1946, when all People's Commissariats were renamed Ministries; NKVD was renamed Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), and the NKGB was renamed into Ministry of State Security (MGB). From 1946 to 1947, the 1st Directorate of the MGB was conducting foreign intelligence. In 1947, the GRU (military intelligence) and MGB's 1st Directorate was moved to

560-587: A 30-year contract with him soon after. The centre then realized that it was better for them to deal with a more competent agent, which at the time was Babrak Karmal , who later accused Taraki of taking bribes and even of having secretly contacted the United States embassy in Kabul. On that, the centre again refused to listen and instructed him to take a position in the Kabul residency by 1974. On 30 April 1978, Taraki, despite being cut off from any support, led

672-543: A Russian emigration conducted in the 1920s was Operation Trust (Trust Operation). "Trust" was an operation to set up a fake anti- Bolshevik underground organization , "Monarchist Union of Central Russia", MUCR (Монархическое объединение Центральной России, МОЦР). The "head" of the MUCR was Alexander Yakushev (Александр Александрович Якушев), a former bureaucrat of the Ministry of Communications of Imperial Russia , who after

784-536: A USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either: The agent then substantiated his or her false-identity by living in a foreign country, before emigrating to the target country. For example, the KGB would send a US-bound illegal resident via the Soviet embassy in Ottawa , Canada . Tradecraft included stealing and photographing documents, code-names, contacts, targets, and dead letter boxes , and working as

896-615: A career KGB officer who had risen steadily through the ranks as a loyal protégé of Sakharovsky. Mortin was on top the FCD only for two years, when, in 1974, he was succeeded by the 50-year-old Vladimir Kryuchkov , who was almost to equal Sakharovsky's record term as head of the FCD. After 14 years in FCD Hq, he was to become chairman of the KGB in 1988. Kryuchkov joined the Soviet diplomatic service, stationed in Hungary until 1959. He then worked for

1008-411: A foreign country under diplomatic cover (e.g., from his country's embassy). He is an official member of the consular staff, such as a commercial, cultural, or military attaché. Thus, he has diplomatic immunity from prosecution and cannot be arrested by the host country if suspected of espionage . The most the host country can do is send him back to his home country. He is in charge of the residency and

1120-482: A form of political warfare conducted by the Soviet security services to influence the course of world events, "in addition to collecting intelligence and producing politically correct assessment of it". Active measures ranged "from media manipulations to special actions involving various degree of violence". They included disinformation , propaganda , and forgery of official documents. The preparation of forged "CIA" documents which were then shown to third-world leaders

1232-516: A game of disinformation. But Washington Resident Stanislav Androsov wished to demonstrate his office's effectiveness to his superiors and ordered the immediate arrest of all who helped the CIA and FBI. After those incidents, the security of residencies was increased and the Line KR was assigned more security officers, especially in countries like the United States and Great Britain. The KGB's FCD residency

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1344-549: A letter accusing the Reagan administration of plotting to overthrow President Zia and his regime. The letter also mentioned that after Mujib was assassinated the United States contacted Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad to replace him as a short-term President. When the election happened in the end of 1979, the KGB made sure that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party would win. The party received 207 out of 300 seats, but

1456-509: A new party called BAKSAL and created a one-party state. Three years later, the KGB in that region increased from 90 to 200, and by 1979 printed more than 100 newspaper articles. In these articles, the KGB officials accused Ziaur Rahman , popularly known as "Zia", and his regime of having ties with the United States. In August 1979, the KGB accused some officers who were arrested in Dhaka in an overthrow attempt, and by October, Andropov approved

1568-619: A number of people, including Major General Dmitri Polyakov , a high-ranking military intelligence officer ( GRU ). He was cooperating with the CIA and FBI. Ames reported that Colonel Oleg Gordievsky , London resident, had spied for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6). Line KR officers arrested many others, whom they sent to Moscow. There they were passed into the hands of the KGB Second Chief Directorate (counterintelligence). After

1680-467: A plane crash. He was replaced by Mikhail Trilisser , also a revolutionary. Trilisser specialized in tracing secret enemy informers and political spies inside the Bolshevik party. Before becoming INO chief, he led its Section of Western and Eastern Europe. Under Trilisser's management, foreign intelligence had become big professionally and respected by their opponent's services. This period characterized

1792-563: A quick and secret process, they were sentenced to death. The death sentences were carried out in the Lubyanka Prison. They were buried face down in unmarked graves. Only Oleg Gordievsky was able to escape from the USSR, with SIS help. Line KR officers did not want to immediately arrest all the KGB personnel identified by Ames and Hanssen because they did not want to draw the attention of the CIA and FBI (which it did). They wanted to run

1904-538: A special course in foreign intelligence. Fitin became deputy chief of the NKVD's foreign intelligence in 1938, then a year later at the age of thirty-one became chief. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service credits Fitin with rebuilding the depleted foreign intelligence department after Stalin's Great Terror . Fitin also is credited with providing ample warning of the German Invasion of 22 June 1941 that began

2016-418: A way to put Karmal back in. They brought him and three other ministers secretly to Moscow during which time they discussed how to put him back in power. The decision was to fly him back to Bagram by 13 December. Four days later, Amin's nephew, Asadullah, was taken to Moscow by the KGB for acute food poisoning treatment. On 19 November 1979, the KGB had a meeting on which they discussed Operation Cascade, which

2128-670: The Cheka , who served until 1935 and again in 1937. He was arrested in May 1938 and subsequently murdered in July 1938 during the so-called " Latvian Operation " of Joseph Stalin 's Great Purge . The GRU in its modern form was created by Stalin in February 1942, less than a year after the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany . From April 1943 the GRU handled human intelligence exclusively outside

2240-1103: The Federal Security Agency of the RSFSR (AFB), the Inter-Republican Security Service (MSB), the Central Intelligence Service (TsSR), and the Committee for the Protection of the State Border (KOGG). In 1993, the KGB was succeeded overall by the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) of Russia (itself a direct successor to the AFB), which in-turn was succeeded by the Federal Security Service of

2352-646: The Federal Security Service (FSB). Following the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War , the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia established its own KGB, keeping the unreformed name. In addition, Belarus established its successor to the KGB of the Byelorussian SSR in 1991, the Belarusian KGB , keeping the unreformed name. Restructuring in the MVD following the fall of Beria in June 1953 resulted in

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2464-520: The Great Patriotic War . Only the actual invasion saved Fitin from execution for providing the head of the NKVD, Lavrenty Beria , with information General Secretary of the CPSU, Joseph Stalin did not want to believe. Beria retained Fitin as chief of foreign intelligence until the war ended but demoted him. From June to September 1946, the head of foreign intelligence (MGB 1st directorate),

2576-683: The Moscow Narodny Bank Limited to finance the acquisition, and an intermediary, Singaporean businessman Amos Dawe, as the frontman. On 2 February 1973, the Politburo , which was led by Yuri Andropov at the time, demanded that KGB members influence Bangladesh (which was then newly formed) where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was scheduled to win parliamentary elections. During that time, the Soviet secret service tried hard to ensure support for his party and his allies and even predicted an easy victory for him. In June 1975, Mujib formed

2688-827: The Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). Despite its accurate forecast of crisis, the PZPR hindered the KGB's destroying the nascent Solidarity-backed political movement, fearing explosive civil violence if they imposed the KGB-recommended martial law. Aided by their Polish counterpart, the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa—SB), the KGB successfully infiltrated spies to Solidarity and the Catholic Church, and in Operation X co-ordinated

2800-654: The Russian Revolution joined the Narkomat of External Trade (Наркомат внешней торговли), when the Soviets had to allow the former specialists (called "specs", "спецы") to take positions of their expertise. This position allowed him to travel abroad and contact Russian emigrants. MUCR kept the monarchist general Alexander Kutepov (Александр Кутепов), head of a major emigrant force, Russian All-Military Union (Русский общевоинский союз), from active actions and who

2912-525: The Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka , OGPU , and NKVD . Attached to the Council of Ministers , it was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", carrying out internal security, foreign intelligence , counter-intelligence and secret police functions. Similar agencies operated in each of

3024-768: The Soviet–Polish War , it was elevated in status to become the Second (Intelligence) Directorate of the Red Army Staff, and was thereafter known as the Razvedupr . This probably resulted from its new primary peacetime responsibilities as the main source of foreign intelligence for the Soviet leadership. As part of a major re-organization of the Red Army, sometime in 1925 or 1926 the RU (then Razvedyvatelnoe Upravlenye) became

3136-483: The Spanish Civil War . In February 1938, Slutsky was invited to the office of GUGB head komkor Mikhail Frinovsky , where he was poisoned and died. Slutsky was replaced by Zelman Passov , but soon he was arrested and murdered, his successor Sergey Spigelglas had met with the same fate, and by the end of 1938, he was arrested and murdered. The next chief (acting) of Foreign Department for only three weeks

3248-649: The Trust Operation . In 1936, Artuzov was replaced by then State Security Commissar 2nd rank Abram Slutsky . Slutsky was an active participant of the October Revolution and Russian Civil War . He had started work in security organs in 1920 by joining Cheka and later working in OGPU, Economic Department. Then in 1931, he went to serve in OGPU's Foreign Department (INO), and often left the country for Germany , France and Spain , where he participated in

3360-515: The West German intelligence service . In the 1960s, acting upon the information of KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn , the CIA counter-intelligence chief James Jesus Angleton believed KGB had moles in two key places—the counter-intelligence section of CIA and the FBI's counter-intelligence department—through whom they would know of, and control, US counter-espionage to protect the moles and hamper

3472-521: The White Guard people ( White movement ), of which the largest groups were in Berlin, Paris and Warsaw . The intelligence and counter-intelligence department led long so called intelligence games against Russian emigration. As a result of those games, the main representatives of Russian emigration like Boris Savinkov were arrested and sent for many years to prison. Another well known action against

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3584-535: The atomic bomb ; he was also given a management role in the Soviet atomic effort, to help with coordination. After Sudoplatov left his post, he was replaced by Vladimir Dekanozov , before becoming INO head, Dekanozov was Deputy Chairman of the Georgian Council of People's Commissars and after he left his post in 1939 and became the Soviet ambassador in Berlin . For the next seven years, from 1939 to 1946,

3696-552: The declaration of martial law with Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and the Polish Communist Party; however, the vacillating, conciliatory Polish approach blunted KGB effectiveness—and Solidarity then fatally weakened the Communist Polish government in 1989. Nadezhin saw that China threatened the USSR by claiming a historic right to regions under the USSR's control. China also wanted to displace the USSR as

3808-613: The non-official cover CIA officer). In its early history, the KGB valued illegal spies more than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with greater ease. The KGB residency executed four types of espionage: (i) political, (ii) economic, (iii) military-strategic, and (iv) disinformation , effected with "active measures" (PR Line), counter-intelligence and security (KR Line), and scientific–technological intelligence (X Line); quotidian duties included SIGINT (RP Line) and illegal support (N Line). The KGB classified its spies as: The false-identity (or legend ) assumed by

3920-724: The republics of the Soviet Union aside from the Russian SFSR , where the KGB was headquartered, with many associated ministries, state committees and state commissions. The agency was a military service governed by army laws and regulations, in the same fashion as the Soviet Army or the MVD Internal Troops . While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two online documentary sources are available. Its main functions were foreign intelligence , counter-intelligence, operative-investigative activities, guarding

4032-610: The Afghan-controlled KGB intelligence service throughout the nation which were under the command of Ahmad Shah Paiya and had received all the training they need in the Soviet Union. By May 1982, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was set up in Afghanistan under the command of KHAD. In 1983, Boris Voskoboynikov became the next head of the KGB while Leonid Kostromin became his Deputy Minister. The KGB dissolved on December 3, 1991. Its immediate successor agencies were

4144-705: The August 1991 Soviet coup d'état in an attempt to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev . The failed coup d'état and the collapse of the USSR heralded the end of the KGB on 3 December 1991. The KGB's modern day successors are the FSB ( Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation ) and the SVR ( Foreign Intelligence Service ). The GRU (Foreign military intelligence service of the Soviet Union) recruited

4256-720: The Communist Party headquarters in Ukraine for eight years before joining the KGB in 1967. In 1988 he was promoted to General of the Army rank and became KGB Chairman. In 1989–1990, he was a member of Politburo. The next and last head of FCD was born on March 24, 1935, in Moscow Leonid Shebarshin . According to published sources, the KGB included the following directorates and departments in 1980s: " Active measures " ( Russian : Активные мероприятия ) were

4368-530: The Foreign Department had also been used to carry out assassinations abroad). During World War II , his unit helped organize guerrilla bands, and other secret behind-the-lines units for sabotage and assassinations, to fight the Nazis . In February, 1944, Lavrenty Beria (head of NKVD) named Pavel Sudoplatov to also head the newly formed Department S, which united both GRU and NKVD intelligence work on

4480-607: The Fourth (Intelligence) Directorate of the Red Army Staff, and was thereafter also known simply as the "Fourth Department." Throughout most of the interwar period, the men and women who worked for Red Army Intelligence called it either the Fourth Department, the Intelligence Service, the Razvedupr , or the RU. […] As a result of the re-organization [in 1926], carried out in part to break up Trotsky's hold on

4592-425: The GRU's operations. Nonetheless, the Cheka infiltrated the GRU in 1919. That worsened a fierce rivalry between the two agencies, which were both engaged in espionage. The rivalry became even more intense than that between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency in the US. The existence of the GRU was not publicized during the Soviet era, but documents concerning it became available in

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4704-425: The GUGB became GUGB's Department 7, and later Department 5. By 1941, foreign intelligence was given the highest status and it was enlarged to directorate. The name was changed from INO (Innostranny Otdiel) to INU— Inostrannoye Upravleniye , Foreign Directorate. During the following years, Soviet security and intelligence organs went through frequent organizational changes. From February to July 1941, foreign intelligence

4816-503: The Hungarian revolt, KGB chairman Ivan Serov personally supervised the post-invasion "normalization" of the country. Consequently, the KGB monitored the satellite state populations for occurrences of "harmful attitudes" and "hostile acts"; yet, stopping the Prague Spring, deposing a nationalist Communist government, was its greatest achievement. The KGB prepared the Red Army's route by infiltrating Czechoslovakia with many illegal residents disguised as Western tourists. They were to gain

4928-413: The KGB largely stopped assassinations abroad after Stashynsky's defection, although they continued assisting the Eastern European sister services in doing so. The KGB First Chief Directorate residency was the equivalent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) station. The chief of residency (Resident) was the equivalent of the CIA's Chief of Station . A legal resident is a spy who operates in

5040-423: The KGB's structure, completely separate from the Soviet armed forces - the Border Troops , the Governmental Signals Troops (which in addition to providing communications between the central government and the lower administrative levels, also provided the communications between the General Staff and the military districts), the Special Service Troops (which provided EW , ELINT, SIGINT and cryptography) as well as

5152-478: The KGB). Brezhnev sacked Shelepin's successor and protégé, Vladimir Semichastny (in office: 1961–1967) as KGB Chairman and reassigned him to a sinecure in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . Shelepin found himself demoted from the chairman of the Committee of Party and State Control in 1965 to Trade Union Council chairman (in office 1967–1975). In the 1980s, the Soviet Union glasnost provoked KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov (in office: 1988–1991) to lead

5264-429: The Line KR's role was increased considerably after CIA counterintelligence officer Aldrich Ames and FBI counterintelligence special agent Robert Hanssen volunteered their services to the KGB residency in Washington, DC. In return for money, they gave the KGB the names of officers of the KGB residency in Washington, DC, and other places, who cooperated with the FBI and/or the CIA. Line KR officers immediately arrested

5376-485: The Management office (INO chief and two deputies), chancellery, agents department, visas bureau and foreign sections. In 1922, after the creation of the State Political Directorate (GPU) and connecting it with People's Commisariat for Internal Affairs ( NKVD ) of the Russian SFSR , foreign intelligence was conducted by the GPU Foreign Department, and between December 1923 and July 1934 by the Foreign Department of Joint State Political Directorate or OGPU. In July 1934, OGPU

5488-403: The Ministry of State Security. After the death of longtime Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in March 1953, Lavrenty Beria took over control of the security and intelligence organs, disbanded the MGB and its existing tasks were given to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) which he was in control of. In the MVD, the foreign intelligence was conducted by the Second Chief Directorate and following

5600-402: The PDPA received a fake request from Taraki concerning health issues among the party members. On that, the centre accused him of "terrorist" activities and expelled him from the party. The following day General Boris Ivanov, who was behind the mission in Kabul along with General Lev Gorelov and Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Pavlovsky, visited Amin to congratulate him on his election to power. On

5712-419: The Red Army's invasion. The KGB's Czech success in the 1960s was matched with the failed suppression of the Solidarity labour movement in 1980s Poland. The KGB had forecast political instability consequent to the election of Archbishop of Kraków Karol Wojtyla as the first Polish Pope, John Paul II, whom they had categorised as "subversive" because of his anti-Communist sermons against the one-party régime of

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5824-434: The Registration Department was not directly subordinate to the General Staff (at the time called the Red Army Field Staff – Polevoi Shtab ). Administratively, it was the Third Department of the Field Staff's Operations Directorate. In July 1920, the RU was made the second of four main departments in the Operations Directorate. Until 1921, it was usually called the Registrupr (Registration Department). That year, following

5936-566: The Roosevelt Government—to identify the Soviet spies Duggan, White, and others—he was ignored. Hence, during the Second World War (1939–45)—at the Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945) conferences—Big Three Ally Joseph Stalin of the USSR, was better informed about the war affairs of his US and UK allies than they were about his. Soviet espionage was at its most successful in collecting scientific and technological intelligence about advances in jet propulsion , radar and encryption , which impressed Moscow, but stealing atomic secrets

6048-534: The Russian Federation (FSB). The Committee for State Security was a militarized organization adhering to military discipline and regulations. Its operational personnel held army style ranks, except for the maritime branch of the Border troops, which held navy style ranks. The KGB consisted of two main components - organs and troops. The organs included the services directly involved in the committee's main roles - intelligence, counter-intelligence, military counter-intelligence etc. The troops included military units within

6160-428: The Second Red Scare (1947–57) and the crisis in the CPUSA hampered recruitment. The last major illegal resident, Rudolf Abel (Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher/"Willie" Vilyam Fishers), was betrayed by his assistant, Reino Häyhänen , in 1957. Recruitment then emphasised mercenary agents, an approach especially successful in scientific and technical espionage, since private industry practised lax internal security, unlike

6272-477: The Soviet Union, foreign intelligence was formally formed in 1920 as a foreign department of Cheka ( Inostrannyj Otdiel —INO), during the Russian Civil War of 1918–1920. On December 19, 1918, the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) Central Committee Bureau decided to combine Cheka front formations and the Military Control Units, which were controlled by the Military Revolutionary Committee , and responsible for counter-intelligence activities, into one organ that

6384-405: The Soviet government for its fierce independence from the rival " internal intelligence organizations ", such as the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB), State Political Directorate (GPU), MGB , OGPU , NKVD , NKGB , KGB and the First Chief Directorate (PGU). At the time of the GRU's creation, Lenin infuriated the Cheka (the predecessor of the KGB) by ordering it not to interfere with

6496-414: The Spetsnaz of the KGB (the Kremlin Regiment , Alpha Group , Vympel , etc.). At the time of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 the KGB had the following structure: The Soviet Union was a federal state, consisting of 15 constituent Soviet Socialist Republics, each with its own government closely resembling the central government of the USSR. The republican affiliation offices almost completely duplicated

6608-506: The US Government. One notable KGB success occurred in 1967, with the walk-in recruitment of US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker . Over eighteen years, Walker enabled Soviet Intelligence to decipher some one million US Navy messages, and track the US Navy. In the late Cold War, the KGB was successful with intelligence coups in the cases of the mercenary walk-in recruits FBI counterspy Robert Hanssen (1979–2001) and CIA Soviet Division officer Aldrich Ames (1985–1994). It

6720-401: The USSR. The GRU had the task of handling all military intelligence , particularly the collection of intelligence of military or political significance from sources outside the Soviet Union. It operated rezidenturas (residencies) all over the world, along with the signals intelligence (SIGINT) station in Lourdes, Cuba , and throughout the Soviet-bloc countries . The GRU was known in

6832-436: The West in the late 1920s, and it was mentioned in the 1931 memoirs of the first OGPU defector, Georges Agabekov , and described in detail in the 1939 autobiography of Walter Krivitsky ( I Was Stalin's Agent ), who was the most senior Red Army intelligence officer ever to defect. It became widely known in Russia, and in the West outside the narrow confines of the intelligence community , during perestroika , in part thanks to

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6944-529: The Zia regime did not last long, falling on 29 May 1981 when after numerous escapes, Zia was assassinated in Chittagong . The KGB started infiltrating Afghanistan as early as 27 April 1978. During that time, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was planning the overthrow of President Mohammed Daoud Khan . Under the leadership of Major General Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy and Muhammad Rafi – code named Mammad and Niruz respectively – the Soviet secret service learned of

7056-428: The army, the Fourth Department seems to have been placed directly under the control of the State Defense Council (Gosudarstvennaia komissiia oborony, or GKO), the successor of the RVSR . Thereafter its analysis and reports went directly to the GKO and the Politburo , apparently even bypassing the Red Army Staff. The first head of the 4th Directorate was Yan Karlovich Berzin , a Latvian Communist and former member of

7168-452: The biggest successes of Soviet foreign intelligence was the penetration of the American Manhattan Project , which was the code name for the effort during World War II to develop the first nuclear weapons of the United States with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada. Information gathered in the United States, Great Britain and Canada, especially in USA, by NKVD and NKGB agents then supplied to Soviet physicists, allowed them to carry out

7280-498: The chief of the foreign intelligence department (then 5th Department of the GUGB/NKVD) was a very young NKVD officer and graduate of the first official intelligence school (SHON), Major of State Security Pavel Fitin . Fitin graduated from a program in engineering studies at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in 1932 after which he served in the Red Army , then became an editor for the State Publishing House of Agricultural Literature. The All-Union Communist Party (CPSU) selected him for

7392-444: The coup which later became known as Saur Revolution , and became the country's leader, with Hafizullah Amin as vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers and vice-chairman of the Revolutionary Council . On 5 December 1978, Taraki compared the Saur Revolution to the Russian Revolution , which struck Vladimir Kryuchkov , the FCD chief of that time. On 27 March 1979, after losing the city of Herat in an uprising , Amin became

7504-489: The creation of KGB foreign intelligence was conducted by the First Chief Directorate of the Committee for State Security or KGB, subordinate to the council of ministers of the USSR. The first chief of the Soviet foreign intelligence service, Cheka foreign department ( Inostranny Otdel —INO), was Yakov Davydov . He headed the foreign department until late 1921, when he was replaced by longtime revolutionary Solomon Mogilevsky . He led INO only for few months, as in 1925 he died in

7616-437: The detection and capture of other Communist spies. Moreover, KGB counter-intelligence vetted foreign intelligence sources, so that the moles might "officially" approve an anti-CIA double agent as trustworthy. In retrospect, the captures of the moles Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen proved that Angleton, though ignored as over-aggressive, was correct, despite the fact that it cost him his job at CIA, which he left in 1975. In

7728-430: The diplomats Laurence Duggan and Michael Whitney Straight in the State Department, the statistician Harry Dexter White in the Treasury Department , the economist Lauchlin Currie (an FDR advisor), and the "Silvermaster Group", headed by statistician Greg Silvermaster , in the Farm Security Administration and the Board of Economic Warfare. Moreover, when Whittaker Chambers , formerly Alger Hiss's courier, approached

7840-405: The enlisting of foreign agents, wide use of emigrants for intelligence tasks and organization of a network of independent agents. Trilisser himself was very active, personally traveling to Berlin and Paris for meetings with important agents. Trilisser left his position in 1930, and was replaced by Artur Artuzov , the former chief of department of counter-intelligence (KRO) and main initiator of

7952-427: The fabrication of a letter in which he stated that Muhammad Ghulam Tawab , an Air Vice-Marshal at the time, was the main plotter, which led the Bangladesh, Indian and Sri Lankan press to believe that he was an American spy. Under Andropov's command, Service A, a KGB division, falsified the information in a letter to Moudud Ahmed in which it said that he was supported by the American government and by 1981 even sent

8064-594: The first Soviet nuclear explosion in 1949. In March 1954, Soviet state security underwent its last major postwar reorganization. The MGB was once again removed from the MVD, but downgraded from a ministry to the Committee for State Security (KGB), and formally attached to the Council of Ministers in an attempt to keep it under political control. The body responsible for foreign operations and intelligence collection activities

8176-511: The formation of the KGB under Ivan Serov in March 1954. Secretary Leonid Brezhnev overthrew Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1964. Brezhnev (in power: 1964–1982) was concerned about ambitious spy-chiefs – the communist party had managed Serov's successor, the ambitious KGB Chairman, Aleksandr Shelepin (in office: 1958–1961), but Shelepin carried out Brezhnev's palace coup d'état against Khrushchev in 1964 (despite Shelepin not then being in

8288-539: The ideological agent Julian Wadleigh , who became a State Department diplomat in 1936. The NKVD 's first US operation was establishing the legal residency of Boris Bazarov and the illegal residency of Iskhak Akhmerov in 1934. Throughout, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and its General Secretary Earl Browder , helped NKVD recruit Americans, working in government, business, and industry. Other important, low-level and high-level ideological agents were

8400-453: The imminent uprising. Two days after the uprising, Nur Muhammad Taraki , leader of the PDPA, issued a notice of concern to the Soviet ambassador Alexander Puzanov and the resident of Kabul -based KGB embassy Viliov Osadchy that they could have staged a coup three days earlier hence the warning. On that, both Puzanov and Osadchy dismissed Taraki's complaint and reported it to Moscow, which broke

8512-458: The internal security. Line KR had operational control over residency personnel, surveillance , establishment of any suspicious contacts of residency personnel with citizens of the country where they are staying that they had not reported, checking personal mail, etc. Line KR used such tactics to prevent or uncover anyone from the residency or embassy from being recruited by the enemy, such as the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In 1985,

8624-598: The killings of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists members Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera by Bohdan Stashynsky in Munich in 1957 and 1959, as well as the unrelated slayings of emigre dissidents like Abdurahman Fatalibeyli , and the surreptitious ricin poisoning of the Bulgarian émigré Georgi Markov , shot with an umbrella-gun of KGB design, in 1978. The defection of assassins like Nikolai Khokhlov and Bohdan Stashynsky severely curtailed such activities however, and

8736-490: The leader of the international socialist movement. The KGB wanted to infiltrate the Chinese security services with "a sufficient number of agents". Top agents also believed that the KGB needed to do more to ensure the protection of the USSR from Chinese spies. According to declassified documents, the KGB aggressively recruited former German (mostly Abwehr ) intelligence officers after the war. The KGB used them to penetrate

8848-462: The life of Gulabzoy and Watanjar and send them to Tashkent from Bagram Airfield by giving them fake passports. With that and a sealed container in which an almost breathless Sarwari was laying, they came to Tashkent on 19 September. During the continued investigation in Tashkent, the three were put under surveillance in one of the rooms for as long as four weeks where they were investigated for

8960-406: The lines was responsible for counterintelligence . The Line KR (short for "kontrazviedka," counterintelligence) played a big role in the KGB residency, being responsible for counterintelligence and security of the residency and the consulate or embassy that housed the residency. Mainly it used so-called "defensive counterintelligence" tactics. This meant that Line KR attention and force was used for

9072-707: The mid-1970s, the KGB tried to secretly buy three banks in northern California to gain access to high-technology secrets. Their efforts were thwarted by the CIA. The banks were Peninsula National Bank in Burlingame, the First National Bank of Fresno, and the Tahoe National Bank in South Lake Tahoe. These banks had made numerous loans to advanced technology companies and had many of their officers and directors as clients. The KGB used

9184-557: The next Prime Minister , and by 27 July became Minister of Defense as well. The centre though was concerned of his powers since the same month he issued them a complaint about lack of funds and demanded US$ 400,000,000. Furthermore, it was discovered that Amin had a master's degree from Columbia University , and that he preferred to communicate in English instead of Russian. Unfortunately for Moscow's intelligence services, Amin succeeded Taraki and by 16 September Radio Kabul announced that

9296-625: The operation, including the Interior Ministry building, the Internal Security ( KHAD ) building, and the General Staff building ( Darul Aman Palace ). Out of the 54 KGB operators that assaulted the palace, 5 were killed in action, including Colonel Grigori Boyarinov, and 32 were wounded. Alpha Group veterans call this operation one of the most successful in the group's history. In June 1981, there were 370 members in

9408-483: The personnel. He is also an official contact who well-known people in government can contact in times of crisis. In 1962, KGB Washington, D.C. Resident Aleksandr Fomin (real name Alexander Feklisov ) played a huge role in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis . The residency was divided into lines (sections). Each line was responsible for its assigned task of gathering intelligence. For instance, one of

9520-485: The program, providing operatives and intelligence for assassinations and other types of covert operations. The Thirteenth Department was responsible for direct action , including assassination and sabotage ; at one time it was led by Viktor Vladimirov . They were used both abroad and domestically. Occasionally, KGB assassinated the enemies of the USSR abroad—principally Soviet Bloc defectors, either directly or by aiding Communist country secret services. For instance:

9632-461: The recently created foreign intelligence agency called the Committee of Information (KI). In the summer of 1948, the military personnel in KI were returned to the Soviet military to reconstitute a foreign military intelligence arm of the 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, as a First Chief Directorate of

9744-473: The reliability of their claims by the KGB. Soon after, they were satisfied with the results and sent them to Bulgaria for a secret retreat. On 9 October, the Soviet secret service had a meeting in which Bogdanov, Gorelov, Pavlonsky and Puzanov were the main chiefs who were discussing what to do with Amin who was very harsh at the meeting. After the two-hour meeting they began to worry that Amin would establish an Islamic republic in Afghanistan and decided to seek

9856-411: The same day the KGB decided to imprison Sayed Gulabzoy as well as Mohammad Aslam Watanjar and Assadullah Sarwari but while in captivity and under an investigation all three denied the allegation that the current Minister of Defence was an American secret agent. The denial of claims was passed on to Yuri Andropov and Leonid Brezhnev , who as the main chiefs of the KGB proposed operation Raduga to save

9968-623: The sponsorship of Leon Trotsky (then the civilian leader of the Red Army), signed by Jukums Vācietis , the first commander-in-chief of the Red Army (RKKA), and by Ephraim Sklyansky , deputy to Trotsky; it was originally known as the Registration Directorate ( Registrupravlenie , or RU). Semyon Aralov was its first head. In his history of the early years of the GRU, Raymond W. Leonard writes: As originally established,

10080-566: The state border of the USSR, guarding the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government , organization and security of government communications as well as combating nationalist , dissident , religious and anti-Soviet activities. On 3 December 1991, the KGB was officially dissolved. It was succeeded in Russia by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and what would later become

10192-445: The structural organization of the main KGB. The Chairman of the KGB , First Deputy Chairmen (1–2), Deputy Chairmen (4–6). Its policy Collegium comprised a chairman, deputy chairmen, directorate chiefs, and republican KGB chairmen. A Time magazine article in 1983, reported that the KGB was the world's most effective information-gathering organization. It operated legal and illegal espionage residencies in target countries where

10304-584: The trust of and spy upon the most outspoken proponents of Alexander Dubček 's new government. They were to plant subversive evidence, justifying the USSR's invasion, that right-wing groups—aided by Western intelligence agencies—were going to depose the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. Finally, the KGB prepared hardline , pro-USSR members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), such as Alois Indra and Vasiľ Škultéty, to assume power after

10416-399: The world, they were used to build legal intelligence post called residentura. It was led by a resident whose real identity was known only to the ambassador . The first operations of the Soviet intelligence concentrated mainly on Russian military and political emigration organizations. According to Vladimir Lenin 's directions, the foreign intelligence department had chosen as his main target

10528-502: The writings of " Viktor Suvorov " ( Vladimir Rezun ), a GRU officer who defected to Great Britain in 1978 and wrote about his experiences in the Soviet military and intelligence services. According to Suvorov, even the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , when entering the GRU headquarters, needed to go through a security screening. In Aquarium Suvorov alleges that during his training and service he

10640-465: Was Lieutenant General Pyotr Kubatkin (born in 1907), when he was replaced by then Lieutenant General Pyotr Fedotov (born in 1900). Before he became head of foreign intelligence, he was working in OGPU/GUGB counter-intelligence and 'Secret Political departments and then he headed the NKVD's counter-intelligence department. From 1949 to 1951, the head of intelligence in the Committee of Information

10752-693: Was Cold War policy for the KGB of the Soviet Union and the secret services of the satellite states to extensively monitor public and private opinion, internal subversion and possible revolutionary plots in the Soviet Bloc . In supporting those Communist governments, the KGB was instrumental in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring of " Socialism with a Human Face " in Czechoslovakia, 1968. During

10864-541: Was First Chief Directorate (FCD). The first head of FCD was Aleksandr Panyushkin , the former ambassador to the United States and China and former head of Second Chief Directorate in MVD responsible for foreign intelligence. Panyushkin's diplomatic background, however, did not imply any softening in MVD/KGB operational methods abroad. Indeed, one of the first foreign operations personally supervised by Panyushkin

10976-461: Was Operation Rhine, the attempted assassination of a Ukrainian émigré leader in West Germany . In 1956, Panyushkin was succeeded by his former deputy Aleksandr Sakharovsky , who was to remain head of FCD for record period of 15 years. He was remembered in the FCD chiefly as an efficient, energetic administrator. In 1971, Sakharovsky was succeeded by his 53-year-old former deputy Fyodor Mortin,

11088-544: Was Sergey Savchenko. Savchenko was born in 1904 and at first he was working as a security guard. He joined Soviet security organs in 1922 and in the 1940s was a top NKVD man in Ukrainian SSR . When Andrey Vyshinsky became Minister for Foreign Affairs and the head of Committee of Information, Savchenko was his deputy and head of foreign intelligence. In 1951, he was replaced by Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Petrovich Pitovranov, longtime secret service worker. Between 1950 and 1951, he

11200-549: Was convinced to wait for the development of the internal anti-Bolshevik forces. Among the successes of "Trust" was the luring of Boris Savinkov and Sidney Reilly into the Soviet Union to be arrested. In Soviet intelligence history, the 1930s proceeded as a so-called Era of the Great Illegals. Among others Arnold Deutsch , Theodore Maly and Yuri Modin were officers leading the Cambridge Five case. One of

11312-405: Was divided in two parts – Operational Staff and Support Staff KGB The Committee for State Security ( Russian : Комитет государственной безопасности , romanized :  Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti , IPA: [kəmʲɪˈtʲed ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ] ), abbreviated as KGB (Russian: КГБ ; listen ) was the main security agency of

11424-622: Was launched earlier that year. The operation carried out bombings with the help of GRU and FCD . On 27 December, the centre received news that KGB Special Forces Alpha and Zenith Group, supported by the 154th OSN GRU, also known as Muslim battalion and paratroopers from the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment stormed the Tajbeg Palace and killed Amin and his 100–150 personal guards. His 11-year-old son died due to shrapnel wounds. The Soviets installed Karmal as Amin's successor. Several other government buildings were seized during

11536-535: Was located in Kharkiv and was divided in two sections: Western and Southern . Each section had six groups: registration, personal, technical, finance, law, and organization. WIB had its own internal stations, in Kiev and Odessa . The first had the so-called national section— Polish , Jewish and German . On December 20, 1920, Felix Dzerzhinsky created the Foreign Department ( Innostranny Otdel —INO), made up of

11648-657: Was named Cheka Special Section (department). The head of the Special Section was Mikhail Sergeyevich Kedrov . The Special Section's task was to run human intelligence: to gather political and military intelligence behind enemy lines, and expose and neutralize counter-revolutionary elements in the Red Army . At the beginning of 1920, the Cheka Special Section had a War Information Bureau (WIB), which conducted political, military, scientific and technical intelligence in surrounding countries. WIB headquarters

11760-563: Was often reminded that exiting the GRU (retiring) was only possible through "The Smoke Stack". This was a GRU reference to a training film shown to him, in which he alleges he watched a condemned agent being burned alive in a furnace., During the Cold War , the Sixth Directorate was responsible for monitoring Intelsat communication satellites traffic. GRU Sixth Directorate officers reportedly visited North Korea following

11872-577: Was often successful in sowing suspicion. Active measures included the establishment and support of international front organizations (e.g., the World Peace Council ); foreign communist, socialist and opposition parties; wars of national liberation in the Third World ; and underground, revolutionary, insurgency , criminal, and terrorist groups. The intelligence agencies of Eastern Bloc and other communist states also contributed to

11984-536: Was reincorporated into NKVD of the Soviet Union, and renamed the Main Directorate of State Security ( GUGB ). Until October 9, 1936, INO was operated inside the GUGB organization as one of its departments. Then, for conspiracy purposes, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Nikolai Yezhov , in his order #00362 had introduced a numeration of departments in the GUGB organization, hence Foreign Department or INO of

12096-644: Was the capstone of NKVD espionage against Anglo–American science and technology. To wit, British Manhattan Project team physicist Klaus Fuchs (GRU 1941) was the main agent of the Rosenberg spy ring. In 1944, the New York City residency infiltrated top secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by recruiting Theodore Hall , a 19-year-old Harvard physicist. The KGB failed to rebuild most of its US illegal resident networks. The aftermath of

12208-849: Was the deputy of MGB head Viktor Abakumov . On March 5, 1953, MVD and MGB were merged into the MVD by Lavrenty Beria and his people took over all high positions. The foreign intelligence (2nd Chief Directorate of the MVD), was given to Vasili Ryasnoy. After Lavrenty Beria was arrested, along with his people in MVD, Aleksandr Panyushkin became the head of foreign intelligence. In the first years of existence, Soviet Russia did not have many foreign missions that could provide official camouflage for legal outpost of intelligence called residentura, so, foreign department (INO) relied mainly on illegals, officers assigned to foreign countries under false identities. Later when official Soviet embassies, diplomatic offices and foreign missions had been created in major cities around

12320-456: Was the experienced NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov . Before he became INO head in May, 1938, on Stalin's direct order, he personally assassinated the Ukrainian nationalist leader Yavhen Konovalets . Later in June 1941, Sudoplatov was placed in charge of the NKVD's Special Missions Directorate, whose principal task was to carry out sabotage operations behind enemy lines in wartime (both it and

12432-592: Was the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces until 1991. For a few months it was also the foreign military intelligence agency of the newly established Russian Federation until 7 May 1992 when it was dissolved and the Russian GRU took over its activities. The GRU's first predecessor in Russia formed on October 21, 1918 by secret order under

12544-507: Was the responsibility of the recently created new administration the People's Commissariat of State Security ( NKGB ) and was working in its structure as a 1st Directorate and, after the July 1941 organizational changes, as a 1st Directorate of the People's Commisariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD). It then returned to its former state. Already in April 1943, NKGB dealt with foreign intelligence as

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