KGB
The Committee for State Security was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 13 March 1954 until 3 December 1991. As a direct successor of preceding agencies such as the Cheka, GPU, OGPU, NKGB, NKVD and MGB, it was 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 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.
Some of the key events about KGB
- 1937Conducted mass executions and deportations during the Great Purge
- 1940Orchestrated the Katyn massacre of Polish officers and intelligentsia
- 1953Fabricated the "Doctors' Plot" to purge Jewish doctors
- 1954Established a foreign intelligence division to gather information abroad
- 1956Violently suppressed the Hungarian Revolution
- 1957Created a special department to combat economic crimes and corruption
- 1962Arrested and executed Soviet spy Oleg Penkovsky
- 1967Formed an elite counter-terrorism unit called "Alpha Group"
- 1968Led the invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring
- 1971Established a computer center to modernize intelligence gathering and analysis
- 1973Implemented advanced surveillance technologies to enhance operational capabilities
- 1979Assassinated the Afghan president, leading to Soviet invasion
- 1982Developed a specialized division for combating organized crime
- 1983Shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, killing all 269 people on board
- 1985Expanded international cooperation efforts with foreign intelligence agencies
- 1985Kidnapped and tortured American journalist Nicholas Daniloff
- 1988Played a role in negotiating the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan
- 1989Assisted in the peaceful resolution of conflicts during the fall of the Berlin Wall
- 1989Violently suppressed pro-independence protests in Tbilisi, Georgia
- 1991Helped maintain stability during the dissolution of the Soviet Union
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