KGB

The KGB (Комите́т Госуда́рственной Безопа́сности (КГБ)), translated in English as Committee for State Security, is the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954. As a direct successor of preceding agencies such as the Cheka, NKGB, NKVD and MGB, the committee was attached to the Council of Ministers. It is the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", acting as internal security, intelligence and secret police. Similar agencies are constituted in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from Russian SFSR, and consisted of many ministries, state committees and state commissions.

The agency is a military service governed by army laws and regulations, in the same fashion as the Soviet Army or MVD Internal Troops. While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two online documentary sources are available.Its main functions are foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence, operative-investigatory activities, guarding the State Border of the USSR, guarding the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government, organization and ensuring of government communications as well as combating nationalism, dissent, and anti-Soviet activities.