Committee for State Security of USSR founded

On March 13, 1954 under the Decree of the Supreme Soviet Presidium of USSR by sorting out of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the USSR a series of agencies, services and departments was created the union-republic body of the state security (KGB) under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. A Colonel General I. A. Serov, a Hero of the Soviet Union was assigned the president.

The political decision of sorting the state security bodies out of the Ministry of Home Affairs and transforming them into an independent agency was taken by the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party on February 8, 1954 on the basis of a note from the Minister of Home Affairs of the USSR S. N. Kruglov which said that the structure of the Ministry of Home Affairs is very bulky and ‘is not able to provide the appropriate quality of the operative and intelligence work’. In this context it was decided to sort out the operative and security offices and departments, 16 in all out of 40 structure subdivisions of the Ministry, and create on their basis the Committee for State Security under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Moreover it was also decided to cut down 20% of the staff to be passed over to KGB. The staff which remained under the Ministry of Home Affairs was also subject to reduce.

According to the decision of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party the KGB was charged with the following functions: provide foreign intelligence service in capital countries; struggle with espionage, diversions, terrorism and other subversive activities of the foreign intelligence services in the USSR; counter-intelligence activities in the Soviet Army and Navy; organization of encryption and decryption in the country; protection of party and government leaders.

On March 18, 1954 under the order of the KGB president was determined the structure of the new agency as follows: the First Chief Directorate (foreign intelligence service); the Second Chief Directorate (counter-intelligence service); the Third Chief Directorate (military counter-intelligence service); the Eighth Chief Directorate (encryption-decryption); the Fourth Chief Directorate (struggle with anti-Soviet underground organizations, nationalist formations and hostile elements); the Fifth Chief Directorate (counter-intelligence service in the highly important facilities); the Sixth directorate (transport); the Seventh directorate (external supervision); the Ninth directorate (protection of party and government leaders); the Tenth directorate (the department of Moscow Kremlin superintendant); investigative department and 5 independent special departments, the department of the government communication and records and archives department.

On April 2, 1957 the Ministry of Home Affairs passed over to the KGB the frontier troops. In order to manage them was founded the Main Department of frontier troops.

On December 3, 1991 the President of USSR M. S. Gorbachev signed a law ‘On reorganization of the state security bodies’. Under the law the KGB was abolished and for the period of transition on its basis were created the Inter-republic security service and the Central intelligence service of the USSR (at present the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation).

Lit.: Алексушин Г. В. История правоохранительных органов. Самара. 2005; КГБ: Страницы истории [Электронный ресурс] // Чекист.ru. 2002-2013. URL: http://www.chekist.ru/article/961; Север А. История КГБ. М., 2008.