KGB

The Soviet Union’s principal state security and intelligence agency from 1954 to 1991, responsible for foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, border security, and political surveillance.

First Chief Directorate: The KGB division responsible for foreign intelligence operations. It conducted the overseas espionage that made the KGB a global intelligence service.
Cheka: The Soviet political police founded in 1917 to suppress counterrevolution and defend the Bolshevik government. It began the institutional lineage of Soviet state security agencies that preceded the KGB.
Ivan Serov: The first chairman of the KGB, serving from its establishment in 1954 until 1958. He led the agency through its initial formation and post-Stalin consolidation.
Dissident movement in the Soviet Union: A loose movement of Soviet citizens who publicly challenged political repression, censorship, or official ideology. KGB surveillance and punishment shaped the conditions under which dissent developed.
Second Chief Directorate: The KGB division responsible for counterintelligence and surveillance of foreign visitors and diplomatic missions inside the Soviet Union. It monitored foreign intelligence activity and contacts within Soviet territory.
OGPU: The Soviet Union’s unified state political administration from 1923 to 1934, responsible for state security and political policing. It was an early predecessor that combined political policing with intelligence work.
Yuri Andropov: A KGB chairman from 1967 to 1982 who later became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. His long leadership made him the KGB’s most prominent institutional figure before becoming Soviet leader.
Samizdat: The clandestine copying and circulation of uncensored literature in the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries. It spread writing beyond the reach of official censorship and security monitoring.
KGB border troops: The armed forces responsible for guarding the Soviet Union’s borders, administered by the KGB. They extended KGB authority from intelligence work to the physical control of borders.
NKVD: The Soviet interior ministry that conducted policing, state security, and mass repression, especially under Stalin. Its security functions formed part of the institutional history inherited by later agencies.

Linked from 16 pages