List of Soviet secret police agencies, the Soviet secret police agencies and their different names are as follows chronologically.

Note. For most items listed there the secret policy operations were only a part of their functions.

The first secret police after the Russian Revolution, created by Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as chekists, a name that is still applied to people under the FSB of Russia, the KGBs successor.

• Cheka (Also called Vecheka) - "All-Russian Extraordinary Committee to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage"
  • Felix Dzerzhinsky 1917 - 1918
  • Yakov Peters 1918
  • Felix Dzerzhinsky 1918 - 1922

February 8, 1922 Cheka becomes GPU, a section of NKVD.

• NKVD - "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs"
  • GPU - State Political Directorate
    • Felix Dzerzhinsky 1922 - 1923

In 1923 GPU changed to OGPU but remained under the auspices of the NKVD.

Both GUGB and NKVD are headed by the same person.

• • NKVD + OGPU - "Joint State Political Directorate" or "All-Union State Political Board"
    • Felix Dzerzhinsky 1923 - July 1926
    • Vyacheslav Menzhinsky July 1926 - May 1934

July 1934 (O)GPU renamed to GUGB.

• • NKVD + GUGB - "Main Directorate for State Security"
    • Genrikh Yagoda 1934 - 1936
    • Nikolai Yezhov 1936 - 1938
    • Lavrenty Beria 1938 - 1945

The GUGB of NKVD is separated into the NKGB.

• NKGB - "People's Commissariat for State Security"
  • Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov February 3, 1941 - July 20, 1941

NKGB folded back into NKVD

• • Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov July, 1943 - 1946

In 1946 all People's Commissariates are renamed to Ministries

• MGB - "Ministry for State Security"
  • Viktor Semionovich Abakumov 1946 - 1951
  • Semion Denisovich Ignatiyev 1951 - 1953
  • The East German secret police, the Stasi, took their name from this iteration.

MVD (Formerly NKVD, sans secret policing) and MGB (The formerly independent secret police) in March 5, 1953 are merged into the MVD by Lavrenty Beria.

• MVD - "Ministry of Internal Affairs"
  • Sergey Nikiforovich Kruglov March, 1953 - March, 1954

Beria is purged and the MVD divests itself again of the functions of secret policing. The again (As of March 13, 1954) newly independent force becomes the KGB. Now after renames and tulmults, the KGB remains stable untill 1991.

• KGB - Committee for State Security
  
  • Ivan Serov March 13, 1954 - December 8, 1958
  • Aleksandr Shelepin December 25, 1958 - November 13, 1961
  • Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny November 13, 1961 - May 18, 1967
  • Yuri Andropov May 18, 1967 - May 26, 1982
  • Vitaliy Fedorchuk May 26, 1982 - December 17, 1982
  • Viktor Chebrikov December 17, 1982 - October 1, 1988
  • Vladimir Kryuchkov October 1, 1988 - August 22, 1991
  • Leonid Shebarshin August 22, 1991 - August 23, 1991 (Acting)
  • Vadim Bakatin August 23, 1991 - October 22, 1991

After the State Emergency Committee fails to overthrow Gorbachev and Yeltsin takes over, General Vadim Bakatin is given instructions to dissolve the KGB.

Related article

• Okhranka, secret police of Imperial Russia

External links

• History of FSB (http://www.fsb.ru/history/organi.html)