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105-713: The Lubyanka building is home to the Lubyanka prison, the headquarters of the Border Guard Service, a KGB museum, and a subsection of the FSB . Part of the prison was turned into a prison museum, but a special authorization is required for visits. The lower floors are made of granite with emblazoned Soviet crests. The Lubyanka was originally built in 1898 as a revenue house by the All-Russia Insurance Company ( Rossiya Insurance Company ) , on

210-630: A "counter-terrorism" operational regime under the FSB was introduced in Kursk , Bryansk and Belgorod Oblasts . This means in practice that "movement is restricted, vehicles can be seized, phone calls can be monitored, areas are declared no-go zones, checkpoints introduced, and security is beefed up at key infrastructure sites." In 2011, the FSB said it had exposed 199 foreign spies, including 41 professional spies and 158 agents employed by foreign intelligence services. The number has risen in recent years: in 2006

315-566: A Gulag prisoner. Following its publication, the book was initially circulated in the Soviet Union by samizdat underground publication. It was not widely published there until 1989. It appeared that year in the literary journal Novy Mir ; a third of the work was published in three issues. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union , The Gulag Archipelago has been officially published in Russia. As structured in most printed editions,

420-540: A company called Peter-Service helped state entities gather data on Russian mobile phone users as part of an online surveillance system called the System for Operative Investigative Activities ( SORM ) with close collaboration with the FSB. SORM-1 is for wiretapping phones. SORM-2 intercepts electronic correspondence and Internet traffic. Beginning in the summer of 2014, SORM-3 has been "on guard" and integrates all telecommunication services in real time. In recent years,

525-530: A former KGB officer who assisted Soviet dissidents, Vladimir Kazantsev , who disclosed illegal purchases of eavesdropping devices from foreign firms, and Vil Mirzayanov , who had written that Russia was working on a nerve-gas weapon. In 2011, the FSB prevented 94 "crimes of a terrorist nature", including eight terrorist attacks. In particular, the agency foiled a planned suicide bombing in Moscow on New Year's Eve. The agency failed to prevent terrorists perpetrating

630-700: A later paper copy, also smuggled out, was signed by Heinrich Böll at the foot of each page to prove against possible accusations of a falsified work. Solzhenitsyn was aware that there was a wealth of material and perspectives about Gulag to be continued in the future, but he considered the book finished for his part. The royalties and sales income for the book were transferred to the Solzhenitsyn Aid Fund for aid to former camp prisoners. His fund, (The Russian Social Fund), which had to work in secret in its native country, managed to transfer substantial amounts of money towards helping former gulag prisoners in

735-600: A lead role on "intelligence and influence operations". The FSB's Fifth Service, also referred to as the "Department for Operational Information" and "Operational Information and International Relations Service" is stated by the BBC and Radio Free Europe as counterintelligence in former territories of the Soviet Union, work formerly done by the KGB's Fifth Service. Its Ninth Directorate of the Fifth Service targets Ukraine. Putin

840-399: A series of camps where political prisoners and ordinary criminals would be sentenced to forced labor . The book describes and discusses the waves of purges and the assembling of show trials by Stalin through the 1930s in the context of the development of the greater Gulag system; Solzhenitsyn closely examines its purposive legal and bureaucratic development. The narrative ends in 1956 at

945-409: A shooting took place around the Lubyanka. In 2008, the wing of the house from Myasnitskaya Street received the status of a cultural heritage site. In 2011, it underwent reconstruction. During this period, information appeared about the installation of a helipad on the roof of the building. According to the head of Rosokhrankultura Viktor Petrakov, it has existed for a long time. Although the roof of

1050-540: A terrorist" and highlighted especially Russia's willingness to prioritize national security over civil rights. By 2010, Russian forces led by the FSB had managed to eliminate the top level leadership of the Chechen insurgency, except for Dokka Umarov . Starting from 2009, the level of terrorism in Russia increased again, particularly suicide attacks. Between February 2005 and August 2008, no civilians were killed in such attacks. In 2008, at least 17 were killed, and in 2009

1155-726: A very detailed account of prison conditions including torture in China in the same way that [Soviet dissident Aleksandr] Solzhenitsyn did in The Gulag Archipelago ." In 2019, journalist Mustafa Akyol drew a parallel between the book and Xinjiang internment camps . In December 2009, the Russian channel Rossiya K showed the French television documentary L'Histoire Secrète de l'Archipel du Goulag made by Jean Crépu and Nicolas Miletitch , and translated it into Russian under

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1260-707: Is a three-volume non-fiction series written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , a Soviet dissident . It was first published in 1973 by the Parisian publisher YMCA-Press , and it was translated into English and French the following year. It explores a vision of life in what is often known as the Gulag , the Soviet labour camp system. Solzhenitsyn constructed his highly detailed narrative from various sources including reports, interviews, statements, diaries, legal documents, and his own experience as

1365-425: Is engaged in the development of Russia's export control strategy and examines drafts of international agreements related to the transfer of dual-use and military commodities and technologies. Its primary role in the nonproliferation sphere is to collect information to prevent the illegal export of controlled nuclear technology and materials. In September 2017, WikiLeaks released "Spy Files Russia", revealing how

1470-531: Is one of the successor organizations of the Soviet Committee of State Security ( KGB ). Following the attempted coup of 1991 —in which some KGB units as well as the KGB head Vladimir Kryuchkov played a major part—the KGB was dismantled and ceased to exist from November 1991. In December 1991, two government agencies answerable to the Russian president were created by President Yeltsin's decrees on

1575-554: The Ayaks /Ajax hypersonic aircraft and has run a Russia-US scientific symposium for several years. Other instances of prosecution are the cases of investigative journalist and ecologist Grigory Pasko , Vladimir Petrenko , who described danger posed by military chemical warfare stockpiles, and Nikolay Shchur , chairman of the Snezhinskiy Ecological Fund . Other arrested people include Viktor Orekhov ,

1680-544: The Domodedovo International Airport bombing . Over the years, FSB and affiliated state security organizations have killed all presidents of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria including Dzhokhar Dudaev , Zelimkhan Yandarbiev , Aslan Maskhadov , and Abdul-Khalim Saidullaev . During the Moscow theater hostage crisis and Beslan school hostage crisis , all hostage-takers were killed on

1785-649: The Kengir uprising ; the practice of continued internal exile following the completion of the original prison sentence, and the ultimate but not guaranteed release of the prisoner, if one survived. Solzhenitsyn's examination details the trivial and commonplace events of an average prisoner's life, as well as specific and noteworthy events during the history of the Gulag system, including revolts and uprisings. At Chapter 4, Solzhenitsyn writes: "Macbeth's self-justifications were feeble – and his conscience devoured him. Yes, even Iago

1890-622: The Vladimir Putin 's second presidency (2006–2008), terrorist attacks in Russia dwindled, falling from 257 in 2005 to 48 in 2007. Military analyst Vitaly Shlykov praised the effectiveness of Russia's security agencies, saying that the experience learned in Chechnya and Dagestan had been key to the success. In 2008, the American Carnegie Endowment 's Foreign Policy magazine named Russia as "the worst place to be

1995-490: The invasion of Ukraine . A U.S. official interviewed by The Wall Street Journal described the arrest report as "credible". On 11 April 2022, the Times of London , citing unnamed sources who had spoken to Bellingcat executive director Christo Grozev , reported that Beseda was transferred to Lefortovo Prison , the scene of mass executions during Stalin's purges . The same report claims that up over 100 FSB agents from

2100-563: The "Gamaredon" hacking group. Media reporting indicates FSB units are capable of manufacturing their own advanced malware tools and have been documented manipulating exposed malware to mimic other hacking teams and conceal their activities. Reporting indicates the FSB oversees training and research institutes, which directly support the FSB's cyber mission. One FSB team reportedly focuses on penetrating infrastructure and energy sector targets. Most operations linked to this team appear to be reconnaissance or clandestine surveillance. The targeting of

2205-412: The 1940s, due to the war and other hindrances. Raoul Wallenberg was detained in the Lubyanka prison, where he reportedly died in 1947. According to the KGB, prisoners' interrogations stopped at Lubyanka in 1953 after the death of Stalin . In 1957, Russia's largest toy shop opened on the opposite side of Lubyanka Square, where a medieval cannon foundry was previously located. In 1958, the fountain at

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2310-492: The 1970s and 1980s. Beginning in 2009, Russian schools issued the book as required reading. Russian president Vladimir Putin called the book "much-needed", while the Russian Ministry of Education said that the book showed "vital historical and cultural heritage on the course of 20th-century domestic history." Arseny Roginsky , then head of the human-rights organization Memorial , welcomed Putin's backing for

2415-680: The 1993 constitutional crisis , the Ministry of Security was reorganized on 21 December 1993 into the Federal Counter-Intelligence Service (FSK). The FSK was headed by Sergei Stepashin . Before the start of the First Chechen War's main military activities, the FSK was responsible for the covert operations against the separatists led by Dzhokhar Dudayev . In 1995, the FSK was renamed and reorganized into

2520-565: The 2022 invasion, intelligence agencies in Ukraine, Germany, the UK, and the US reported that the FSB planned to replace elected leaders of Ukraine with Ukrainians now living in Russia. In 2014, according to a Russian military analyst, the FSB badly misled Putin with claims that Ukrainians would welcome a Russian invasion of Crimea to free them from "fascists". According to Radio Free Europe , in 2022,

2625-556: The Communist Party Central Committee. Her editor there was Konstantin Semyonov, and he became her third husband. Historian and archival researcher Stephen G. Wheatcroft described the book as "a fine literary masterpiece, a sharp political indictment against the Soviet regime, and has had tremendous importance in raising the issue of Soviet repression in the Russian consciousness." Wheatcroft wrote that

2730-524: The Constitutional System and the Fight against Terrorism. In 2003, the agency's responsibilities were considerably widened. The Border Guard Service of Russia , with its staff of 210,000, was integrated to the FSB via a decree signed on 11 March 2003. The merger was completed by 1 July 2003. In addition, The Federal Agency of Government Communication and Information (FAPSI) was abolished, and

2835-593: The FSB is appointed by and directly answerable to the president of Russia . Being part of Russia's executive branch formally, the FSB has significant, if not decisive, power over it. In 2003, the FSB's responsibilities were expanded by incorporating the Border Guard Service and a major part of the Federal Agency of Government Communication and Information (FAPSI); this would include intelligence activities in countries that were once members of

2940-456: The FSB again promised easy victory if Russia invaded Ukraine. With the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , Ukrainian counterintelligence has repeatedly asserted that the FSB suffered failures of operations security , including acts of insubordination and possible sabotage. In March 2022, Russia's encrypted communication system in Ukraine became useless after the Russian military destroyed cellphone towers; unencrypted phone calls from

3045-431: The FSB and criminal and civilian hackers, which the FSB reportedly uses to augment and staff its cyber units. DOJ has indicted multiple Russian hackers for a variety of criminal and state-sponsored cyber activities. Many of these indictments describe the close relationship between criminal hackers and the FSB. Since 2008, the director of the FSB has been General Alexander Bortnikov . The current First Deputy Director of

3150-507: The FSB had spent millions recruiting a network of pro-Russian collaborators who ultimately told Putin and his top advisers, among them the current FSB director, what they wanted to hear. A series of alleged leaked letters from FSB analysts, made public after the invasion began, report the same kind of problem. For example: "You have to write the analysis in a way that makes Russia the victor ... otherwise you get questioned for not doing good work." Russian-American ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina

3255-413: The FSB has expanded its mission to include foreign intelligence collection and offensive cyber operations. Cyber analysts have referred to FSB hackers as Berserk Bear , Energetic Bear , Gamaredon , TeamSpy, Dragonfly, Havex , Crouching Yeti , and Koala. The FSB reportedly has two primary centers overseeing its information security and cyber operations. The first is the 16th Center, which houses most of

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3360-469: The FSB in Ukraine to superiors in Moscow discussing the death of Vitaly Gerasimov were tapped and released publicly. Ukrainian intelligence reported that FSB members were leaking intelligence to them, including the location of the Chechen commandos sent to assassinate Zelensky. In late March, Ukrainian intelligence posted online the names, addresses, phone numbers, and more of 620 people they identified as FSB agents. None of these reports have been confirmed by

3465-829: The FSB is Sergei Korolev . He was appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 24 February 2021. As of 2022 Eduard Chernovoltsev was listed the Head of scientific and technical service of the FSB. Below the nationwide level, the FSB has regional offices in all the federal subjects of Russia . It also has administrations in the armed forces and other military institutions. Sub-departments exist for areas such as aviation, special training centers, forensic expertise, military medicine, etc. The Gulag Archipelago Defunct The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation ( Russian : Архипелаг ГУЛАГ , romanized :  Arkhipelag GULAG )

3570-467: The FSB reportedly caught about 27 foreign intelligence officers and 89 foreign agents. Comparing the number of exposed spies historically, the then-FSB Director Nikolay Kovalyov said in 1996: "There has never been such a number of spies arrested by us since the time when German agents were sent in during the years of World War II." The 2011 figure is similar to what was reported in 1995–1996, when around 400 foreign intelligence agents were uncovered during

3675-596: The FSB since it was established; instances include researcher Igor Sutyagin , physicist Valentin Danilov , physical chemist Oleg Korobeinichev , academician Oskar Kaibyshev , and physicist Yury Ryzhov . Ecologist and journalist Alexander Nikitin , who worked with the Bellona Foundation , was accused of espionage. He published material exposing hazards posed by the Russian Navy's nuclear fleet. He

3780-544: The FSB was granted a major part of its functions, while other parts went to the Ministry of Defense . Among the reasons for this strengthening of the FSB were the enhanced need for security after increased terror attacks against Russian civilians starting with the Moscow theater hostage crisis ; the need to end the permanent infighting between the FSB, FAPSI and the Border Guards due to their overlapping functions; and

3885-490: The FSB's signals intelligence capabilities. The FSB also includes the 18th Center for Information Security, which oversees domestic operations and security but conducts foreign operations as well. The U.S. government indicted 18th Center FSB officers in 2017 for breaching Yahoo and millions of email accounts. In 2021, Ukrainian intelligence released information and recordings of 18th Center FSB officers based in Crimea as part of

3990-473: The FSB, the operation was planned over six months and made possible due to the FSB's increased activities in foreign countries that were supplying arms to the terrorists. Basayev was tracked via surveillance of this arms trafficking. He and other militants were preparing to carry out a terrorist attack in Ingushetia when FSB agents destroyed their convoy; 12 militants were killed. During the last years of

4095-480: The FSB. Media outlets of Ukraine, its allies in the West, and Russian dissidents report that Vladimir Putin has blamed setbacks in the military operations on the FSB and the Fifth Service. On 11 March 2022, investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov reported that Fifth Service head Sergey Beseda and his deputy, Anatoly Bolyukh were under house arrest due to Putin 's discontent with intelligence failures regarding

4200-548: The FSB. Putin was reluctant to take over the directorship, but once appointed conducted a thorough reorganization, which included the dismissal of most of the FSB's top personnel. Putin appointed Nikolai Patrushev as the head of FSB in 1999. After the main military offensive of the Second Chechen War ended and the separatists changed tactics to guerilla warfare, overall command of the federal forces in Chechnya

4305-596: The Federal Security Service (FSB) by the Federal Law "On the Federal Security Service" (the title of the law as amended in June 2003 ) signed by the president on 3 April 1995. The FSB reforms were rounded out by decree No. 633, signed by Boris Yeltsin on 23 June 1995. The decree made the tasks of the FSB more specific, giving the FSB substantial rights to conduct cryptographic work, and described

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4410-460: The Fifth Service had been sacked. The Times of London also reports that "it is thought that" the Fifth Service is now headed by Beseda's former subordinate, Grigory Grishaev . According to an article in the 11 April 2022 issue of The Washington Post : Several current and former officials described the Russian security service as rife with corruption, beset by bureaucratic bloat and ultimately out of touch. A Ukrainian intelligence official said

4515-458: The KGB had confiscated Solzhenitsyn's materials in Moscow, during 1965–1967, he worked to develop his preparatory drafts of The Gulag Archipelago into finished typescript. He accomplished some of this while in hiding at his friends' homes in the Moscow region and elsewhere. While held at the KGB's Lubyanka Prison in 1945, Solzhenitsyn had befriended Arnold Susi , a lawyer and former Estonian Minister of Education, who had been taken captive after

4620-596: The President of the Russian Federation (GUSP). The primary responsibilities are within the country and include counter-intelligence , internal and border security , counterterrorism , surveillance and investigating some other types of serious crimes and federal law violations. It is headquartered in Lubyanka Square , Moscow 's center, in the main building of the former KGB. The director of

4725-650: The Russian FSB) was opened to the public. In 1990, an employee of the Lubyanka, Katya Mayorova, became Miss KGB, the first official "security services beauty title". In 1990, the Solovetsky Stone was erected across from the Lubyanka, to commemorate the victims of political repression. In August 1991, the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky was dismantled and removed from the center of the Lubyanka Square. That same year, Western visitors were allowed to tour

4830-567: The SVR is legally forbidden from conducting espionage under the inter-government agreements. Such activity is in line with Article 8 of the Federal Law on the FSB. According to the Royal United Services Institute , FSB's Department for Operational Information "is responsible for compiling data on Russia's 'near abroad ' ", having taken over the work of KGB's Fifth Service, which ran counterintelligence inside territories of

4935-473: The Solzhenitsyn textbook. Natalya Reshetovskaya described her ex-husband's book as "folklore", telling a newspaper in 1974 that she felt the book was "not in fact the life of the country and not even the life of the camps but the folklore of the camps." In her 1974 memoir, Reshetovskaya wrote that Solzhenitsyn did not consider the novel to be "historical research, or scientific research", and stated that

5040-538: The Soviet Union occupied Estonia in 1944. Solzhenitsyn entrusted Susi with the original typed and proofread manuscript of the finished work, after copies had been made of it both on paper and on microfilm. Susi got the manuscript to his daughter, Heli Susi, who kept the "master copy" hidden from the KGB in Estonia until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 1973, the KGB seized one of only three existing copies of

5145-527: The Soviet Union, work formerly done by the KGB's Fifth Service. The SVR had in 1992 signed an agreement not to spy on those countries; the FSB had made no such commitment. The Federal Security Service (FSB or FSS) (Russian: Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации , romanized : Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii , IPA: [fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnəjə ˈsluʐbə bʲɪzɐˈpasnəstʲɪ rɐˈsʲijskəj fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨɪ] [ФСБ, ФСБ России], lit.   ' Federal Service [of] Safety ' )

5250-535: The Soviet Union. In the summer of 2006, the FSB was given the legal power to engage in targeted killing of terrorism suspects overseas if ordered by the president. The Federal Border Guard Service (FPS) has been part of the FSB since 2003. Russia has 61,000 kilometers (38,000 mi) of sea and land borders, 7,500 kilometers (4,700 mi) of which is with Kazakhstan, and 4,000 kilometers (2,500 mi) with China. One kilometer (.62 miles) of border protection costs around 1 million rubles per year. The FSB

5355-416: The West; a mere six weeks after the work had left Parisian presses Solzhenitsyn himself was forced into exile. Because possession of the manuscript incurred the risk of a long prison sentence for "anti-Soviet activities", Solzhenitsyn never worked on the manuscript in complete form. Since he was under constant KGB surveillance, Solzhenitsyn worked on only parts of the manuscript at any one time, so as not to put

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5460-474: The agency was reformed by a decree signed on 17 June 2000. In the resulting structure, the FSB was to have a director, a first deputy director and nine other deputy directors, including one possible state secretary and the chiefs of six departments: Economic Security Department, Counterintelligence Department, Organizational and Personnel Service, Department of activity provision, Department for Analysis, Forecasting and Strategic Planning, Department for Protection of

5565-421: The artist Petr Pavlensky held an action - setting fire to the main entrance of the building as a protest "against continuous terror." He was fined for damaging a cultural heritage site, although it later emerged that the original door had been removed long ago. Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation ( FSB ) is the principal security agency of Russia and

5670-536: The basic structure of the system had survived and it could be revived and expanded by future leaders. While Khrushchev, the Communist Party, and the Soviet Union's supporters in the West viewed the Gulag as a deviation of Stalin, Solzhenitsyn and others among the opposition tended to view it as a systemic fault of Soviet political culture, and an inevitable outcome of the Bolshevik political project. After

5775-565: The basis of the relevant main directorates of the defunct KGB: Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia) (SVR, the former First Main Directorate ) and the Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information (FAPSI, merging the functions of the former 8th Main Directorate and 16th Main Directorate of the KGB). In January 1992, another new institution, the Ministry of Security, took over domestic and border security responsibilities. Following

5880-552: The book "brought down an empire", while author Michael Scammell described the book as a gesture that "amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state, calling its very legitimacy into question and demanding revolutionary change." About its impact, philosopher Isaiah Berlin wrote: "Until the Gulag, the Communists and their allies had persuaded their followers that denunciations of the regime were largely bourgeois propaganda." United States diplomat George F. Kennan said that

5985-575: The book was "the most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever to be levied in modern times." Author Tom Butler-Bowdon has described the book as a "Solzhenitsyn's monument to the millions tortured and murdered in Soviet Russia between the Bolshevik Revolution and the 1950s." An edition of The Book Show said that the book helped expose the brutality of the Soviet system. Psychologist Jordan Peterson , who wrote

6090-472: The book was essentially a "literary and political work", and "never claimed to place the camps in a historical or social-scientific quantitative perspective" but that in the case of qualitative estimates, Solzhenitsyn gave his inaccurately high estimate as he wanted to challenge the Soviet authorities to show that "the scale of the camps was less than this." Wheatcroft stated that historians relied on Solzhenitsyn to support their estimates of deaths under Stalin in

6195-477: The book's contents that they became unable to distinguish between their own experiences and what they read: " The Gulag Archipelago spoke for a whole nation and was the voice of all those who suffered." Soviet dissident and historian Roy Medvedev referred to the book as "extremely contradictory". In a review for the book, Medvedev described it as without parallel for its impact, saying: "I believe there are few who will get up from their desks after reading this book

6300-469: The building was not protected, representatives of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage stated that the project was not approved and the reconstruction was carried out without proper documentation. Details of the restoration of the facades, which took place in 2013-2014, were not disclosed due to the secret status of the object. Thanks to the activities of government agencies that worked in

6405-458: The building's prison for the first time. Remains of Adolf Hitler , as well as those of Joseph and Magda Goebbels , were presented at the Lubyanka in a 2004 documentary. Hitler's personal Golden Party Badge , which was discovered by the Red Army after the capture of Berlin , was stored in the Lubyanka. The badge was stolen in 2005, when guards thought a cat had set off the alarms, allowing

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6510-551: The building, the toponym "Lubyanka" has become a household name. Phraseological units associated with the house appeared at different times. Rallies and pickets are regularly held near the walls of the FSB building and the nearby Solovetsky Stone monument. In October 2018, endless single-person rallies were held near the house in support of prisoners in the cases of the New Greatness  [ ru ] and Network Case  [ ru ] organizations. In November 2016,

6615-639: The burglar to escape. In 2015, the Lubyanka's front door was set on fire by Pyotr Pavlensky , a performance artist. He was released from jail six months later. In 2017, a huge church was consecrated next to the Lubyanka building on the grounds of the Sretensky Monastery . The church is dedicated to the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church , including those who were executed at Lubyanka. In December 2019,

6720-504: The center of Lubyanka Square was replaced by an 11-ton (or 14-ton, or 15-ton) statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky ("Iron Felix"), founder of the Cheka . In 1972, Vasili Mitrokhin moved 300,000 KGB files from the Lubyanka building that he gave to the British intelligence in 1992. The building's asymmetric facade survived intact until 1983, when the original structure was reconstructed to match

6825-511: The changes to be an attempt to undermine FSB Director Nikolay Patrushev 's influence, as his team from the Karelian KGB Directorate of the late 1980s  to early 1990s suffered most, and he had been on vacations during the events. By 2008, the agency had one Director, two First Deputy Directors and 5 Deputy Directors. It had the following 9 divisions: Beginning with the Moscow theater hostage crisis in 2002, Russia

6930-528: The economic and financial security of the country, and combating organized crime. In September 2006, the FSB was shaken up by a major reshuffle. Combined with some earlier reassignments – most notably those of FSB Deputy Directors Yury Zaostrovtsev and Vladimir Anisimov in 2004 and 2005 – the changes were widely believed to be linked to the Three Whales Corruption Scandal that had slowly unfolded since 2000. Some analysts considered

7035-507: The energy sector has raised concern within the U.S. government. The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have documented the unit's reconnaissance and noted the possibility of inserting malware to cause future damage in an attack. The U.S. government also has linked the unit to attempts to penetrate state and local government networks in 2020. Media reporting has documented close connections between

7140-478: The eyewitness accounts that Solzhenitsyn had read, saying he "took plenty of license in outlining their contents and interpreting them". Both Rogovin and Walter Laquer argue that the book belongs to the genre of ' oral history '. In an interview with the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit , British historian Orlando Figes stated that many Gulag inmates he interviewed for his research identified so strongly with

7245-493: The federal forces to conduct efficient counterterrorist operations led to the government to transfer the responsibility of "maintaining order" in Chechnya from the FSB to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) in July 2003. After becoming president, Vladimir Putin launched a major reorganization of the FSB. First, the FSB was placed under direct control of the President by a decree issued on 17 May 2000. The internal structure of

7350-585: The foreword of an abridged fiftieth anniversary edition released on 1 November 2018, described The Gulag Archipelago as the most important book of the twentieth century. Parallels have been drawn between the book and the treatment of Liao Yiwu , a dissident who is dubbed "the Chinese Solzhenitsyn" according to the Agence France-Presse . Author David Aikman stated that Liao is the first Chinese dissident writer to "come up with

7455-437: The full book into jeopardy if he happened to be arrested. For this reason, he secreted the various parts of the work throughout Moscow and the surrounding suburbs, in the care of trusted friends. Sometimes when he was purportedly visiting them on social calls he actually worked on the manuscript in their homes. During much of this time, Solzhenitsyn lived at the dacha of the world-famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich , and due to

7560-401: The ground floor of the building figures prominently in a book written by the author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago . Famous inmates held, tortured and interrogated there include Sidney Reilly , Greville Wynne , Raoul Wallenberg , Ion Antonescu , Osip Mandelstam , Genrikh Yagoda , János Esterházy , Alexander Dolgun , Rochus Misch , and Walter Ciszek . During the 1980s,

7665-520: The horizontal lines. A clock is centered in the uppermost band of the facade. A fountain used to stand in front of the building, at the center of Lubyanka Square. Following the Bolshevik Revolution , in 1918 the structure was taken over by the government, for use as the headquarters of the secret police, then called the Cheka . The prison became operational in 1920. Its prisoners included Boris Savinkov , Osip Mandelstam , Gen. Władysław Anders , and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn . In Soviet Russian jokes , it

7770-456: The list that day. The list had been available previously, but only through individual request. Commenting on the list, Yuri Sapunov, head of counterterrorism at the FSB, named three main criteria necessary for organizations to be listed. According to some unofficial sources, since 1999, the FSB has also been tasked with the intelligence-gathering on the territory of the CIS countries, wherein

7875-809: The main successor agency to the Soviet Union 's KGB ; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) which was reorganized into the FSB in 1995. The three major structural successor components of the former KGB that remain administratively independent of the FSB are the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Protective Service (FSO), and the Main Directorate of Special Programs of

7980-472: The nature of the work immediately caused a stir, and translations into many other languages followed within the next few months, sometimes produced in a race against time. American Thomas P. Whitney produced the English version. The English and French translations of Volume I appeared in the spring and summer of 1974. The work had a profound effect internationally. Not only did it provoke energetic debate in

8085-424: The need for more efficient response to migration, drug trafficking and illegal arms trading. In addition, the FSB was the sole power base of the new president, so the restructuring strengthened his position (see Political groups under Vladimir Putin's presidency ). On 28 June 2004, in a speech to high-ranking FSB officers, Putin emphasized three major tasks of the agency: neutralizing foreign espionage, safeguarding

8190-435: The new build, at the urging of Communist Party General Secretary and former KGB Director Yuri Andropov in accordance with Shchusev's plans. Although the Soviet secret police changed its name many times, their headquarters remained in this building. Secret police chiefs from Lavrenty Beria to Andropov used the same office on the third floor, which looked down on the statue of Cheka founder Felix Dzerzhinsky . A prison on

8295-485: The number rose to 45. In March 2010, Islamist militants organised the 2010 Moscow Metro bombings , which killed 40 people. One of the two blasts took place at Lubyanka station, near the FSB headquarters. Militant leader Doku Umarov —dubbed "Russia's Osama Bin Laden"—took responsibility for the attacks. In July 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev expanded the FSB's powers in its fight against terrorism. FSB officers received

8400-456: The power to issue warnings to citizens on actions that could lead to committing crimes and arrest people for 15 days if they fail to comply with legitimate orders given by the officers. The bill was harshly criticized by human rights organizations. Since 2014, the FSB devoted substantial resources to preparing for a Russian takeover of Ukraine. Although Russia's SVR and GRU (foreign and military intelligence services) were also involved, FSB had

8505-532: The powers of the FSB director. The number of deputy directors was increased to eight: two first deputies, five deputies responsible for departments and directorates and one deputy director heading the Moscow City and Moscow regional directorate. Yeltsin appointed Colonel-General Mikhail Ivanovich Barsukov as the new director of the FSB. In 1998, Yeltsin appointed Vladimir Putin , a KGB veteran who would later succeed Yeltsin as federal president, as director of

8610-480: The prison was turned into a cafeteria for KGB staff. After the dissolution of the KGB in 1991, the Lubyanka became the headquarters of the Border Guard Service of Russia , as well as the Lubyanka prison, and is one directorate of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB). A museum of the KGB (now called Историко-демонстрационный зал ФСБ России, Historical Demonstration hall of

8715-517: The reputation and standing of the musician, despite the elevated scrutiny of the Soviet authorities, Solzhenitsyn was reasonably safe from KGB searches there. With the possible exception of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich , it is his best-known and most popular work, at least in the West. Finished in 1968, The Gulag Archipelago was microfilmed and smuggled out to Solzhenitsyn's main legal representative, Fritz Heeb of Zürich, to await publication;

8820-409: The same as when they opened its first page. In this regard I have nothing with which to compare Solzhenitsyn's book either in Russian or world literature." In the same review, he also writes that "This book is full of thoughts and observations, some profound and true, others perhaps not always true but born in the monstrous sufferings of tens of millions of persons." Novelist Doris Lessing said that

8925-471: The serious student of the 1930s for it provides no important new information or original analytical framework. Gabor Rittersporn shared Getty's criticism, saying that "he is inclined to give priority to vague reminiscences and hearsay ... [and] inevitably [leads] towards selective bias", adding that "one might dwell at length on the inaccuracies discernible in Solzhenitsyn’s work". Vadim Rogovin writes of

9030-521: The significance of the novel had been "overestimated and wrongly appraised." Reshetovskaya created an abridged version for Russian high-school students, including her probing introduction about the unique nature of Solzhenitsyn's "experiment in literary investigation." Her books were published by the Novosti Press , a state-run media founded by the USSR Council of People's Commissars and

9135-510: The spot by FSB spetsnaz forces. Only one of the suspects, Nur-Pashi Kulayev , survived and was convicted later by the court. It is reported that more than 100 leaders of terrorist groups have been killed during 119 operations on North Caucasus during 2006. On 28 July 2006, the FSB presented a list of 17 terrorist organizations recognized by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation , to Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, which published

9240-538: The spot where Catherine the Great had once headquartered her secret police. The building was designed by the architect Alexander V. Ivanov. It is noted for its parquet floors and pale green walls. Belying its massiveness, the edifice avoids an impression of heroic scale: isolated Palladian and Baroque details, such as the minute pediments over the corner bays and the central loggia , are lost in an endlessly repeating palace facade where three bands of cornices emphasize

9345-417: The tens of millions but research in the state archives vindicated the lower estimates, while adding that the popular press has continued to include serious errors that should not be cited, or relied on, in academia." UCLA historian J. Arch Getty wrote of Solzhenitsyn's methodology that "such documentation is methodologically unacceptable in other fields of history" and that "the work is of limited value to

9450-559: The text comprises seven sections divided into three volumes: parts 1 to 2, parts 3 to 4, and parts 5 to 7. At one level, the Gulag Archipelago traces the history of the system of forced labor camps that operated in the Soviet Union from 1918 to 1956. Solzhenitsyn begins with Vladimir Lenin 's original decrees that were made shortly after the October Revolution ; they established the legal and practical framework for

9555-437: The text still on Soviet soil. This was achieved by interrogating Elizaveta Voronyanskaya, one of Solzhenitsyn's trusted typists who knew where the typed copy was hidden. Within days of her release by the KGB she was found hanged in the stairwell of her apartment on the 3rd of August 1973. She had apparently either hanged herself or been murdered. Solzhenitsyn had wanted the manuscript to be first published in Russia, but knew this

9660-418: The theoretical, legal, and practical origins of the Gulag system at Lenin's feet, not Stalin's. According to Solzhenitsyn's testimony, Stalin amplified a concentration camp system that was already in place and this was significant because he said many Western intellectuals considered the Soviet prison camp system to be a Stalinist aberration. Solzhenitsyn claims that although many practices had been stopped,

9765-543: The time of Nikita Khrushchev 's Secret Speech (" On the Personality Cult and its Consequences "). Khrushchev gave the speech at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , denouncing Joseph Stalin 's personality cult , his autocratic power, and the widespread surveillance of all classes of people that pervaded the Stalin era. Parallel to this historical and legal narrative, Solzhenitsyn follows

9870-687: The two-year period. In a high-profile case of foreign espionage, the FSB said in February 2012 that an engineer working at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome , Russia's main space center for military launches, had been sentenced to 13 years in prison on charges of state treason. A court judged that the engineer had sold information about the testing of new Russian strategic missile systems to the American CIA . A number of scientists have been accused of espionage and illegal technology exports by

9975-464: The typical course of a zek through the Gulag. This was a slang term for an inmate , derived from the widely used abbreviation z / k for zakliuchenny ("prisoner"). He started with arrest, show trial , and initial internment, continuing with the transport to the Gulag. In that setting, he explored the treatment of prisoners and their general living conditions, slave labor gangs and the technical prison camp system, camp rebellions and strikes, such as

10080-412: Was a little lamb, too. The imagination and spiritual strength of Shakespeare's evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses. Because they had no ideology . Ideology – that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes.... That

10185-631: Was acquitted in 1999 after spending several years in prison (his case was sent for re-investigation 13 times while he remained in prison). In August 2021, the FSB arrested plasma physics -expert Alexander Kuranov, chief designer of the Hypersonic Systems Research Center (NIPGS in Russian) in St. Petersburg . Kuranov is suspected of passing secret information to a foreigner about hypersonic technology; he oversaw concept design on

10290-517: Was arrested in early 2024 in Yekaterinburg and charged with "treason" for sending $ 51.80 to Razom , a New York City -based nonprofit organization that sends humanitarian assistance to Ukraine . The FSB accused Karelina of taking part in "public actions to support the Kyiv regime." She initially faced life in prison, but pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In August 2024,

10395-428: Was commissioned to enlarge the building. By 1947, his new design had doubled Lubyanka's size horizontally, with the original structure taking up the left half of the facade (as viewed from the street). He added another storey and extended the structure by incorporating backstreet buildings. Shchusev's design accentuated Neo-Renaissance detailing, but only the right part of the facade was constructed under his direction in

10500-539: Was faced with increased levels of terrorism . FSB Spetsnaz units Alpha Group and Vympel played a key role in hostage rescue operations during the Moscow theater siege and the Beslan school siege . Their performance was criticised due to the high number of hostage casualties. In 2006, the FSB successfully killed Shamil Basayev , who was behind the Beslan tragedy and several other high-profile terrorist acts. According to

10605-592: Was how the agents of the Inquisition fortified their wills: by invoking Christianity ; the conquerors of foreign lands, by extolling the grandeur of their Motherland; the colonizers, by civilization ; the Nazis , by race ; and the Jacobins (early and late), by equality, brotherhood, and the happiness of future generations... Without evildoers there would have been no Archipelago." Solzhenitsyn painstakingly laid

10710-497: Was impossible under conditions then extant. After Solzhenitsyn learned of Voronyanskaya's death he decided to allow its publication in Paris. The first edition of the work was published in Russian by the Parisian publishing house YMCA-Press (founded by Russian immigrants) a few days after Christmas 1973. They had received a go-ahead from Solzhenitsyn but had decided to release the work about ten days earlier than he had expected. News of

10815-649: Was persuaded to invade Ukraine by a small group of his closest associates, especially Nikolai Patrushev , Yury Kovalchuk and Alexander Bortnikov . According to some experts, Bortnikov played a key role in Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. According to a report of the Royal United Services Institute citing interviews officers and analysts of Security Service of Ukraine , the FSB Ukraine team greatly expanded July 2021, and by February 2022 it had "around 200 officers" although most teams consist of only 10–20. Before

10920-502: Was referred to as "the tallest building in Moscow", since Siberia (a euphemism for the Gulag labour camp system) could be seen from its basement. The prison is on the top floor, but since there are no windows on that floor, most prisoners, and therefore popular conception, thought they were being detained in its basement. During the Great Purge , the offices became increasingly cramped due to staff numbers. In 1940, Aleksey Shchusev

11025-533: Was transferred from the military to the FSB in January 2001. While the army lacked technical means of tracking the guerrilla groups, the FSB suffered from insufficient human intelligence due to its inability to build networks of agents and informants. In the autumn of 2002, the separatists launched a massive campaign of terrorism against the Russian civilians, including the Dubrovka theatre attack . The inability of

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