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KGB
The Committee for State Security (Russian: Комитет государственной безопасности) was the "Sword and Shield" of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. It was divided into a number of Directorates with various responsibilities. These included internal security and the suppression of dissent, security of nuclear warheads, personal protection of CPSU members, signals intelligence (SIGINT) and the security of the USSR's borders. However its main function was foreign espionage.
During its existence the Committee had many names, finally adopting KGB in 1954 which was used until the dissolution of the Soviet Empire in 1992. Historians and writers have often in retrospect used the name KGB to refer to all its predecessor organizations going back to the founding of the Soviet Union.
At the July 1920 Second Congress of the Communist International Comintern, General Secretary of the Communist Party V.I. Lenin told delegates "we must everywhere build up a parallel illegal organisation".[1]
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KGB in the US 1921-1943
While as a purely technical matter, the KGB was not the only organization seeking subversion and overthrow of legitimate government from the early days of the Workers Revolution. Alger Hiss for example, was an agent of Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU) and not strictly speaking the KGB. This has led to some confusion even today because technically Alger Hiss was not a KGB Agent, but rather a GRU Agent. Below is a table listing three different Soviet intelligence entities operating in the United States between the period of 1921 and 1943.
- CPUSA secret apparatus
- KGB "legals", i.e. KGB agents registered in the United States on valid visas, operating under a Rezident and illegally engaged in espionage. {For the purpose of discussion on this page, KGB is used to encompass all pre-1954 predecessor names conducting foreign intelligence, Cheka or VChK (1917-22), the GPU (1922-23), the OGPU (1923-34), the NKVD (1934-41, 1941-43), the NKGB (1941, 1943-46), the MGB (1946-47, 1952-53), the KI (1947-52), the MVD (1953-54), and the KGB (1954-91)}
- GRU, Soviet Military Intelligence (under its own Rezident).
Illegals
"Illegals" are officers of an intelligence agency who operate without diplomatic cover. In the case of the KGB and GRU, illegals were either covered as members of trade or cultural delegations or were given intensive cultural and language training and infiltrated into target countries in the guise of non-Soviet nationals. It is likely that this practice is continuing. Illegals generally operate independently of "legal" officers with diplomatic immunity, to avoid being exposed by counter-intelligence agency surveillance of the legals. Soviet, and later Russian, practice is for illegals to be controlled by their own Rezident who will not have an open intelligence role. This Rezident will typically be a member of a diplomatic mission, but not one who is in a position either likely to attract suspicion or junior enough to be expelled during "tit for tat" diplomatic manoeuvres. Non-diplomats such as drivers or security staff have often been cover roles for illegal Rezidents.
References
See also
External links
- V.I. Lenin, Terms of Admission into Communist International (July, 1921) "must everywhere build up a parallel illegal organisation"[2]
- [3] for the interfacing of KGB, Soviet Defense Ministry, and Soviet General Secretary in the matter of Korean Airlines Flight 007 Black Box
- Historians Put Once-Secret KGB Files Online, Moscow Times, September 6, 2007, Issue 3737, Page 3.
- Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania
- John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, Alexander Vassiliev, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America
