KGB

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KGB

Q: What is the KGB?

The KGB was the foreign intelligence and domestic security agency of the Soviet Union.

Q: When was the KGB created?

The KGB was created in 1954 to serve as the “sword and shield of the Communist Party” in the Soviet Union.

Q: What was the role of the KGB?

The KGB was responsible for foreign intelligence, domestic counterintelligence, technical intelligence, protection of the political leadership, and the security of the Soviet Union's frontiers.

agency, Soviet Union

Also known as: Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti

Written by Robert W. Pringle

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Dec 14, 2024 • Article History

Quick Facts

Russian in full:: Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti

English:: Committee for State Security

Date:: 1954 - 1991

Headquarters:: Moscow

Areas Of Involvement:: intelligence

What is the KGB?

When was the KGB created?

What was the role of the KGB?

News •

A secret agent, the KGB and a ‘witch-hunt’: The ASIO raid that infuriated Australia’s ex-spies • Dec. 11, 2024, 3:58 AM ET (Sydney Morning Herald)

KGB, foreign intelligence and domestic security agency of the Soviet Union. During the Soviet era the KGB’s responsibilities also included the protection of the country’s political leadership, the supervision of border troops, and the general surveillance of the population. Established in 1954, the KGB was the most durable of a series of security agencies starting with the Cheka, which was established in December 1917 in the first days of the Bolshevik government. The Cheka (originally VCHEKA, an acronym derived from the Russian words for All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage) was charged with the preliminary investigation of counterrevolution ...(100 of 1816 words)

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