The Russians led by Tsar Nicholas II fought against the Germans in the First World War. The war killed many Russian soldiers who had been inadequately supplied and nourished, and caused widespread hunger throughout all of Russia. As hunger and famine spread throughout the country, many Russians began to speak out against Tsar Nicholas II and his ability to lead the country. Revolution hit Russia led by Alexander Kerensky, leader of the Mensheviks.

Kerensky was able to create a short-lived government that was quickly overthrown by Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), leader of the Bolsheviks. Lenin's real name was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, but he had chosen the false name of Lenin to operate safely prior to the Russian Revolution in Tsarist controlled Russia. Lenin and Leon Trotsky leader of Lenin's Red Army negotiated a treaty with the Germans known as the Brest-Litovsk treaty. It pulled Russia out of WWI, made peace with Germany, and allowed the Germans to focus on their Western Front in France, to the dismay of the Allies: England, France, and the United States. Once the Romanovs, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were out of power, they were taken to Ekaterinburg where they were assassinated by Lenin's forces.

Lenin was very weary of the American Relief Administration (ARA) that brought food to Russia's millions of starving people, because he believed that they were using food as a subversive tool to remove him from power. Herbert Hoover, an American, who brought food and medical care to Europe and Russia, ran the ARA.

Vladimir Lenin chose Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, as the head of the “Cheka (the first Soviet secret police and intelligence service) on December 10, 1917.” There is another date given by another source that says that the Cheka was established on December 20, 1917. Dzerzhinsky was born to a well to do polish family on September 11, 1877, near Minsk, Russia. Lenin needed Dzerzhinsky to run the secret police to prevent dissention from other organizations against the new Communist Party.

Russia was still in turmoil, and Lenin could not take any chances from any threats against his power. Known as the “Knight of the Revolution,” Dzerzhinsky was the perfect man for the job because of his ruthlessness and ability to get matters taken care of, without any remorse for his actions.

The Cheka went through several name and organizational changes in Russia. Depending on the situation in Soviet Russia, the Soviet Secret Police created different departments within the Cheka to ensure that Communism retained its power. Lenin was constantly worried that members of the White Guards were plotting to destroy the Communist State that he had created, and he was willing to do anything to protect his position of power.

Lenin ordered the Cheka to keep tabs on the location of the White Guards and to inform him of their operations. The INO, the foreign intelligence department of the Cheka, recruited agents to gather intelligence outside of Russia and report back to their superiors the plans of Western Nations believed to be plotting against the Soviets.

Soviet intelligence operated in several countries during the 1920’s including: Poland, Turkey, Switzerland, France, and Japan. In order to obtain information from Japan the INO recruited the mail couriers that delivered the official Japanese correspondence allowing Russian agents to secretly read and intercept the mail. The Japanese correspondence revealed that there was intent on Japan’s part to conquer China militarily.

Joseph Stalin, whose real name was Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, took over Russia’s leadership after Lenin’s death in 1924. Stalin was constantly worried that there were plans to remove him from power. He became paranoid and had problems distinguishing between party members and his true enemies. He perceived threats from every direction that caused him to use the Secret Police with more intensity than they had been used before.

There was a sense of fear in Russia and Stalin sent many people to their deaths in his Gulags (labor camps). Stalin used the OGPU to seek out any dissidents whether they were real or unreal to appease his paranoia; this included one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky. According to Stalin, Trotsky had become too powerful to remain in Russia. Trotsky had been exiled to Turkey and he tried to establish a base for his followers, but was not successful there or in France. Trotsky later moved to Mexico in 1937, and was later assassinated in Mexico City, Mexico in 1940.

Soviet Intelligence was not confined solely as a state operation and was thriving within the Russian military. The Glavnoe Razvedyvatelnoe Upravlenie (GRU), was the Russian military’s parallel version of the CHEKA/KGB. The GRU was the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the military. The GRU conducted covert operations and ran several spy rings in different countries such as the “Tokyo Spy Ring,” and the “Dora Ring.” The GRU’s conducted its operations to further the interests of the Soviet military in order to gain the upper hand against their enemies.

The following is the list of dates and names of the Soviet Secret police as it evolved:

December 1917 Cheka
February 1922 GPU
July 1923 OGPU
July 1934 GUGB
February 1941 NKGB
July 1941 GUGB
April 1943 NKGB
March 1946 MGB
March 1953 MVD
March 1954 KGB

References:

(1) Herbert Romerstein and Stanislav Levchenko, The KGB Against The “Main Enemy” (Lexington Books: Lexington, 1989), xi.

(2) Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB (Basic Books: New York, 1999), 23.

(3) Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, xv.

Tag: KGB - Komitet Gosudastvennoy Bezopasnosti