What preceded the KGB?

Answer 1

Before the Russian Revolution the state security was called the Okhranka. Under Lenin that task was called the Cheka. It underwent several name changes OGPU, NKGB, MGB and then the MVD. It is currently called the FSB, with the foreign branch as the SVR.

Answer 2

Lenin founded the CHEKA (All-russian Extraordinary Commission for the Suppression of counter-revolution and Sabotage) in 1917. Its headquarters were the Lubyanka in moscow.

In1922 the CHEKA became the GPU (secret police).

Later the name changed into OGPU (United State Political Administration).

In 1934, Stalin replaced the OGPU by the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs).

After Stalin's death it became the KGB.

Answer 3

The NKVD The NKVD

There were three or four predecessors to the KGB (the Cheka, the OGPU, NKGB, MVD and more). The one just before the KGB was the MGB, the Ministry for State Security. The MGB was renamed to KGB after its head was executed as a traitor (because he wanted to succeed Stalin after his death).

Answer 4

The Main Directorate of State Security or the GUGB, a part of the NKVD was the forerunner to the KGB.

Answer 5

The KGB was the abbreviation by which the Soviet secret police and intelligence agency was known from 1954-1991.