KGB
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The Committee for State Security, abbreviated as KGB was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies includin
Cell doors at the KGB Cells Museum in Tartu, Estonia in 2007
KGB special operative Igor Morozov (left) sits on top of the BTR-60 armoured vehicle during his assignment to the Badakhshan Province, c. 1982.
Head of KGB in Lithuania Eduardas Eismuntas, January 1990
The former building of the KGB in Vilnius, Lithuania
Cheka
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The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, abbreviated as VChK, and commonly known as the Cheka, was the first Soviet secret police organization. It was established on 20 December 1917 by the Council o
KGB
…the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, OGPU, and NKVD. Attached to the Council of Ministers, it was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", carrying out internal…
Chekists frequently dressed in black leather, allegedly following the example of Yakov Sverdlov (pictured here in 1918).
Members of the presidium of VCheKa (left to right) Yakov Peters, Józef Unszlicht, Abram Belenky (standing), Felix Dzerzhinsky, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, 1921
Smolny, the seat of the Soviet government in 1917 (pictured in 2004)
Grigory Petrovsky