Commanders (in chief) – in the meaning of chief, commander, commanding general, supreme commander, or manager, etc. – of the border troops and organs of state security of the USSR and the RF were as follows.
First day of issue cover, 70th anniversary border troops KGB USSR, 1988
There were a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The first secret police after the October Revolution, created by Vladimir Lenin's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka" (ЧК). Officers were referred to as "chekists", a name that is still informally applied to people under the Federal Security Service of Russia, the KGB's successor in Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
