Premier Mikhail Gorbachev had already implemented "perestroika" a restructuring of the economy and political structure of the Soviet Union and "glasnost" a policy of openness toward dissidents , but while this placated some of the population, it enraged hard-line Soviet bureaucrats who had grown accustomed to their privileges. As might have been predicted, the KGB was at the forefront of the counter-revolution.
In late , then-KGB head Vladimir Kryuchkov recruited high-ranking members of the Soviet elite into a tight-knit conspiratorial cell, which sprang into action the following August after failing to convince Gorbachev to either resign in favor of its preferred candidate or declare a state of emergency. Armed combatants, some of them in tanks, stormed the Russian parliament building in Moscow, but Soviet President Boris Yeltsin held firm and the coup quickly fizzled out.
Four months later, the U. However, institutions like the KGB never really go away; they just assume different guises. More worrisome, though, is the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin spent 15 years in the KGB, from to , and his increasingly autocratic rule shows that he has taken to heart the lessons he learned there.
It's unlikely that Russia will ever again see a security agency as vicious as the NKVD, but a return to the darkest days of the KGB is clearly not out of the question. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.
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Against the backdrop of the Russian Civil War, the agency carried out the arrests, imprisonments and executions of an estimated more than , suspected enemies of the state during a campaign known as the Red Terror. Under the leadership of Joseph Stalin from , and with powers across the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR , the agency managed labour camps and carried out the policy of agricultural collectivisation.
Fear spread across the USSR as millions of people were sent to gulags, accused of being criminals or political prisoners. The agency was organised into directorates and each was responsible for separate security concerns, including the safety of political leaders, foreign intelligence and internal counterintelligence. Yuri Andropov became head of the KGB in the s, and the security agency began surveillance of dissidents involved in the church.
It also stepped up the persecution of human rights advocates, religious activists and intellectuals, and played a part in suppressing anti-Soviet protests during the Prague Spring in Walker allegedly worked for the KGB until well in the s, when he was arrested. The KGB also recruited CIA officer Aldrich Ames, who divulged the locations and activities of multiple CIA officers stationed all over the world before he was arrested and convicted of espionage in Ames remains in prison to this day.
To perform this task, KGB agents often used extremely violent means. The KGB famously crushed the Hungarian Revolution of , by first arresting the leaders of the movement prior to scheduled negotiations with Soviet officials in Budapest.
Twelve years later, the KGB took a lead role in crushing similar reform movements in the country then known as Czechoslovakia. These latter events, known as the Prague Spring , which occurred in , initially resulted in changes in how Czechoslovakia was governed.
However, Soviet troops were ultimately sent into the country to re-establish Communist Party control. KGB officers then targeted dissidents, including those staging non-violent acts of protest, jailing and, reportedly in some cases, executing them. These agents would appear to sympathize with the cause while later informing on the activities of the group and its leaders. It is an instrument for subversion, manipulation and violence, for secret intervention in the affairs of other countries.
Still, despite its heavy handedness, it failed to defeat a worker-led reform movement in Poland, then a Soviet satellite republic, in the s. It is said that the successful efforts on the part of the anti-Soviet reformers in Poland may have ultimately spurred the downfall of the Communist Bloc.
The FSB occupies the former KGB headquarters in Moscow, and some allege it performs many of the same tasks as its predecessor, in the name of protecting the interests of the Russian government and its leaders.
Truman sworn in as President. Victory Day Declared. President Truman tells Stalin, "We had a new weapon of unusual destructive force. Molotov, " We will have atomic energy too, and much else!
Bill February, Canadian-style hockey rink set up in Moscow. Returns to work as courier. Member of Rosenberg electronic spy ring, Joel Barr disappears in Paris goes to Czechoslovkia, later settles in Soviet Union 25 June, North Korean army, equipped by Soviet Union crosses 38 th parallel; invasion marks start of Korean war.
Georgii Malenkov succeeds him. Start of Hungarian revolt. Radio Free Europe encourages uprising. Soviets eventually send in tanks and troops in November. Pasternak forced to renounce prize. Zhivago not published in USSR until Misses discovering Van Allen radiation belt as tape recorder fails.
First spacecraft to reach another celestial body. First images of far side of moon in human history. President Kennedy announces Soviets spotted building missile bases in Cuba. Brezhenev and A. Kosygin takeover.
Identity revealed next day. Works are read on Radio Liberty. Moscow continues prosecuting non-conformist writers for anti-Soviet activities. Takes 2 years to rebuild launch pad.
Buzz Aldrin Plants U. Flag on Moon. Soviets win first game Olga Korbut captures world attention 13 February, Soviet government deports writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, strips him of Soviet citizenship for books on Stalinism.
Brezhnev replaces as N. Podgorny as nominal head of state chairman of the presidium First Soviet leader to hold both post of general secretary and president at same time. Carter calls Soviet invasion of Afghanistan "most serious threat to peace since the Second World War. Andropov to be general secretary of the CPSU.
Pravda admits fact of downing only on 6 September. Andropov dies of acute kidney problems; K. Soviet Union cites concerns over 'inadequate security' as reason for boycott - really payback for US boycott of Moscow games.
Moscow delays warning its people and world of radiation dangers. Yeltsin criticizes Gorbachev for going to slow in reforms. Within weeks he is dismissed from his party post. Yeltsin resigns and walks out. Yeltsin calls for a General Strike. Coup collapses on 21 August.
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