Changes

The '''Committee for State Security''' was the "Sword and Shield" of the Communist party of the Soviet Union.  While its primary function was internal repression of people's basic rights, an external reconnaissance division as it is called, or intelligence organization, also handled spreading the gospel of Marxist international workers revolution to overthrow exiting legitimate governments worldwide, or "the bourgeois order" as Marxists refer to it.

The '''Committee for State Security''' (Russian: ''Комитет государственной безопасности'') was the "Sword and Shield" of the Communist party of the [[Soviet Union]].  While its primary function was internal repression of people's basic rights, an external reconnaissance division as it is called, or intelligence organization, also handled spreading the gospel of [[Marxist]] international workers revolution to overthrow exiting legitimate governments worldwide, or "the bourgeois order" as Marxists refer to it.

During its existence the Committee had many names, finally adopting '''KGB''' in 1954 which was used until the dissolution of the Soviet Empire in 1992.  Historians and writers have often in retrospect used the name KGB to refer to all its predecessor organizations going back to the founding of the Soviet Union.

During its existence the Committee had many names, finally adopting '''KGB''' in 1954 which was used until the dissolution of the Soviet Empire in 1992.  Historians and writers have often in retrospect used the name KGB to refer to all its predecessor organizations going back to the founding of the Soviet Union.

At the July 1920 Second Congress of the Communist International [[Comintern]], General Secretary of the Communist Party [[V.I. Lenin]] told delegates "we must everywhere build up a parallel illegal organisation".<ref>[http://ciml.250x.com/archive/comintern/termsadm.html]</ref>

At the July 1920 Second Congress of the Communist International [[Comintern]], General Secretary of the Communist Party [[V.I. Lenin]] told delegates "we must everywhere build up a parallel illegal organisation".<ref>[http://ciml.250x.com/archive/comintern/termsadm.html]</ref>

==KGB in the US 1921-1943==

==Founding==

While as a purely technical matter, the KGB was not the only organization seeking subversion and overthrow of legitimate government from the early days of the Workers Revolution.  [[Alger Hiss]] for example, was an agent of Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU) and not strictly speaking the KGB.  This has led to some confusion even today because technically Alger Hiss was not a KGB Agent, but rather a GRU Agent. Below is a table listing eight different Soviet intelligence entities operating in the United States between the period of 1921 and 1943.

 

The OGPU was responsible for overseeing the Belomar (White Sea) Canal [[infrastructure]] project. [[Alexander Solzhenitsyn]] notes "[[Stalin]] simply needed a great construction project somewhere" to reduce [[unemployment]] and estimates that 100,000 workers, perhaps more, died during the first winter of work on the Canal.<ref>Alexander Solzhenitsyn, ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'', Vol. II [New York: Harper & Row, 1975], pp. 86 - 98.</ref>

 

The NKVD was responsible for the construction and maintenance of highways.  The labor for infrastructure projects came from the corrective labor camps, or [[concentration camps|GULAG]]s.<ref>Joseph A. Michela, Military Attache Moscow Report 1903, "N.K.V.D. of the U.S.S.R.," 14 April 1941, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] Library, [[Harry Hopkins]] Papers, "MID Reports--USSR--Volume V," box 190. [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/5c.gif p.4].</ref>

 

 

The KGB was not the only Soviet intelligence organization seeking to subvert and overthrow legitimate foreign governments.  [[Alger Hiss]] for example, was actually an agent of Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU), not the KGB.  This has led to some confusion even today.  

 

Below is a table listing eight different Soviet intelligence entities operating in the [[United States]] between the period of 1921 and 1943.

*[[Comintern]]

*[[Comintern]]

*[[CPUSA]]; (although CPUSA membership was legal among ''certain'' people at ''certain'' times, membership among government employees and employees of government contractors involved in the war effort, or "defense contractors relating to National Security", to use post-1947 terminology, was clearly illegal.

*[[CPUSA]]; (although CPUSA membership was legal among ''certain'' people at ''certain'' times, membership among government employees and employees of government contractors involved in the war effort, or "defense contractors relating to National Security", to use post-1947 terminology, was clearly illegal.)

*CPUSA '''secret apparatus'''

*CPUSA '''secret apparatus'''

*[[KGB]] "legals", i.e. KGB agents registered in the United States on valid visas, operating under a ''[[Rezident]]'' and illegally engaged in espionage. {For the purpose of discussion on this page, KGB is used to encompass all pre-1954 predecessor names conducting foreign intelligence, [[Cheka]] or [[VChK]] (1917-22), the [[Gosudarstvennoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie|GPU]] (1922-23), the [[OGPU]] (1923-34), the [[NKVD]] (1934-41, 1941-43), the [[NKGB]] (1941, 1943-46), the [[MGB]] (1946-47, 1952-53), the [[KI]] (1947-52), the [[MVD]] (1953-54), and the KGB (1954-91)}

*KGB "legals", i.e. KGB agents registered in the United States on valid visas, operating under a ''[[Rezident]]'' and illegally engaged in espionage. {For the purpose of discussion on this page, KGB is used to encompass all pre-1954 predecessor names conducting foreign intelligence, Cheka or [[VChK]] (1917–22), the [[Gosudarstvennoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie|GPU]] (1922-23), the [[OGPU]] (1923–34), the [[NKVD]] (1934–41, 1941–43), the [[NKGB]] (1941, 1943–46), the [[MGB]] (1946–47, 1952–53), the [[KI]] (1947-52), the [[MVD]] (1953–54), and the KGB (1954-91)}

*'''KGB "Illegals"'''; agents operating under "deep cover", maybe native born maybe immigrant, and operating under their own separate ''[[Rezident]]'', (or "Station Chief", to use an analogous CIA term).

*'''KGB "Illegals"'''; agents operating under "deep cover", maybe native born maybe immigrant, and operating under their own separate ''[[Rezident]]'', (or "Station Chief", to use an analogous CIA term).

*[[GRU]], Soviet Military Intelligence (under its own ''[[Rezident]]'').

*[[GRU]], Soviet Military Intelligence (under its own ''[[Rezident]]'').

==Illegals==

==Illegals==

Illegals are parallel organizations set up independently from the two main intelligence organizations (KGB & GRU), under their own separate station chief, or ''Rezident'', for the contingent purpose should a break in diplomatic relations occur, and all legal operatives with valid passports are expelled, a parallel espionage organization remains in place.  Also, they still may be engaged in highly secret ongoing activities, and their absolute highest concern is to avoid detection.  They are "[[Sleeper_agent#Sleeper_Agents_in_Espionage|sleeper cells]]", to use a term recently popularized by American news organizations.

Illegals are parallel organizations set up independently from the two main intelligence organizations (KGB & GRU), under their own separate station chief, or ''Rezident'', for the contingent purpose should a break in diplomatic relations occur, and all legal operatives with valid passports are expelled, a parallel espionage organization remains in place.  Also, they still may be engaged in highly secret ongoing activities, and their absolute highest concern is to avoid detection.  They are "[[Sleeper agent#Sleeper Agents in Espionage|sleeper cells]]", to use a term recently popularized by American news organizations.

==References==

==Collapse of the USSR==

==See also==

==See also==

*[[Soviet spies in America (1921-1948)]]

*[[Soviet spies in America (1921-1948)]]

==External links==

==External links==

*[http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/09/06/015.html Historians Put Once-Secret KGB Files Online], ''Moscow Times'', September 6, 2007, Issue 3737, Page 3.

*[http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/09/06/015.html Historians Put Once-Secret KGB Files Online], ''Moscow Times'', September 6, 2007, Issue 3737, Page 3.

*[http://www.kgbdocuments.eu/ Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania]

*[http://www.kgbdocuments.eu/ Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania]

* John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, Alexander Vassiliev, ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America''

* [[John Earl Haynes]], [[Harvey Klehr]], [[Alexander Vassiliev]], ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America''

 

[[Category:Espionage]]

[[Category:Espionage]]

[[Category:Soviet Union]]

[[Category:Soviet Union]]