Internal Security Service (Rossyiah)

The Internal Security Service of the Russian Empire (SVB RI; Russian: Служба Внутренней безопасности Российской Империи СВб РИ Sluzhba Vnutrenney Bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Imperii) is the principal security agency of the Russian Empire. Its main responsibilities are within the country and include counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance as well as investigating some other types of grave crimes and violations. It is headquartered in Lubyanka Square, Moscow's center. Direction of the SVB is executed by the Tsar, who appoints, dismiss and directs the Director of the FSB.

Under Russian law, the SVB is a military service just like the Imperial Russian Armed Forces, the Politsyia, the Imperial Guard, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and civil defence, but its commissioned officers do not usually wear military uniforms.

The SVB is mainly responsible for the internal security of the Russian Empire, counterintelligence, and the fight against organized crime, terrorism, and drug smuggling, whereas overseas espionage is the primary responsibility of the Foreign Intelligence Service, as well as the GRU, a body within the Russian Ministry of Defence. All law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Russia work under the guidance of the SVB, if necessary.

The SVB employs about 75,000 uniformed staff, including about 5,000 special forces troops. It also employs Border Service personnel of about 160,000–200,000 border guards.

The SVB answers directly to the Tsar of Russia and the Director of SVB reports to the president only; the Director also, ex officio, is a permanent member of the Security Council of Russia presided over by the Tsar himself and chairman of the National Anti-terrorism Committee of Russia.

History

The first internal security organization in modern sense was the relatively short-lived Third Section of the Department of executive police of the Ministry of Police. The Third Section was entrusted for carrying out of the general audits of governorates and for the execution of security-related operations. After its disestablishment in 1819, the internal security matters were dealt with by the Special Corps of Gendarmes and by the Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery, established in mid-1820s. Both the Special Corps of Gendarmes and the Third Section did have severe shortcomings which resulted in the assassination of Emperor Alexander II in 1881.

Upon his accession to the throne, Emperor Alexander III established the Department for Protecting the Public Security and Order within the newly-formed Police Department. The Department was a decentralized organization, placed under the security chiefs of the major cities. Between 1906 and 1907 ten interprovincial Districts were created, but as of 1914 they were abolished except for three Districts.

SpeKo

The Russian Revolution of February 1917 and the October 1917 coup attempt sparkled the Russian Civil War and proved the inadequacy of the Okhrana and in late 1917 the Special Commission of Public Security (Russian: Специальная комиссия общественной безопасности, Spetsial'naya komissiya obshchestvennoy bezopasnosti, abbreviated into SpeKo) was formed.

In the first month and half after the October coup attempt, the duty of wiping out communists and liberals in Petrograd and in territories under the Tsar's control was assigned to the Petrograd Okhrana. It was a body completely reformed working under directives of General Vlasov. One of its most important functions was the security and the fight against revolutionary activity.

The obligations of the security commission were to eradicate all of the revolutionary and sabotage activities and all attempts to them in all of Russia, to hand over revolutionaries and saboteurs to the military tribunals, develop measures to combat them and relentlessly apply them in real-world applications. In theory, the commission had only to conduct a preliminary investigation. The commission should also observe the press and counterrevolutionary parties, sabotaging officials and other criminals. Three sections were created: informational, organizational, and a unit to combat revolution and sabotage.

In January 1918, a subsection of the anti-revolutionary effort was created to police bank officials. The structure of SpeKo was changing repeatedly. By March 1918, when the organization came to Moscow, it contained the following sections: against revolution, speculation, non-residents, and information gathering. By the end of 1918–1919, some new units were created: secretly operative, investigatory, of transportation, military (special), operative, and instructional. By 1921, it changed once again, forming the following sections: directorate of affairs, administrative-organizational, secretly operative and economical foreign affairs.

In the first months of its existence, SpeKo consisted of only 50 officials. It commanded a team of soldiers. Through the winter of 1917–1918, all activities of SpeKo were centralized mainly in the city of Petrograd.

All results of its activities, SpeKo had either to transfer to the Investigatory Commission of Military Tribunal, or to dismiss. The control of the commission's activity was provided by the MVD.

On 23 February 1918, SpeKo sent a radio telegram to all governatorates under Tsarist control with a petition to immediately organize emergency commissions to combat revolution, sabotage and speculation, if such commissions had not been yet organized. February 1918 saw the creation of local Special Commissions. The Special Commissions arose, usually in the areas during the moments of the greatest aggravation of political situation.

State Security Directorate

The State Security Directorate (Управление государственной безопасности, УГб; Upravleniye Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, UGB) under the MVD was established on 6 February 1922 afer the abolition of the SpeKo with the transfer of powers to the OGB under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Being a body of the MVD, the OGB was bound to follow, at least officially, procedures of law.

On 3 February 1941 the Special Sections of the UGB (responsible for counter-intelligence in the military) became part of the Army and Navy. On 20 July 1941 Army and Air force counter-intelligence was returned to the MVD as Directorate of Special Departments under Anakumov, in January 1942 Navy counter-intelligence followed. In April 1943 it was again transferred to the Ministries of Defence and of the Navy. The OGB was disestablished in 1945 by Prime Minister dzе Jughashvili and it was replaced by the Ministry of State Security.

Ministry of State Security

The Ministry of State Security (Russian: Министе́рство Госуда́рственной Безопа́сности PИ, МГБ; Ministerstvo Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti RI, MGB) was the name of the Russian state security apparatus dealing with internal and external security issues: secret police duties, foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence, etc. from 1945 to 1953.

In 1945 dzе Jughashvili retired due to health concers and his close associate Anastas Mikoyan was appointed by Alexei II as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Among the first tasks of the new prime minister there was the reorganization of the security apparatus. The counter-intelligence and foreign espionage emerged as powerful power-brokers. In order to control their heads and to associate them in the definition of the general policy of the government, Mikoyan struggled with Alexei II to convert the OGB into a full-fledged Ministry. Eventually, he managed in his intent and on 9 June 1945 the Ministry of State Security was established.

The MGB essentially inherited the "secret police" function of the old UGB, conducting both foreign espionage and counterespionage, as well as enacting a policy of supervision and surveillance to keep control and to prevent disloyalty. After World War II, the MGB was used to bring the newly acquired Eastern European countries under Russian control. It enforced rigid conformity in the satellite states of Eastern Europe and infiltrated and destroyed communist, Republican or otherwise independent groups.

The protection, policing, and supervision of the Russian Empire fell to this new agency, as it was the main agency responsible for the security of the Empire.

The MGB directed espionage networks at home and abroad, and also organized both domestic and foreign counterintelligence. They were also responsible for enforcing security regulations, monitoring and censoring information leaving or coming into the country; and supervising the majority of Russian life, including the planting and organizing of agents to track and monitor public opinion and loyalty; as well as ensuring the safety of the Tsar (alongside the Russian Imperial Guard) and of important government and IRO officials.

The MGB, above all else, was a security organization, and as such, was designed for covert and clandestine surveillance and supervision. The intelligence apparatus was able to permeate every level and branch of state administration, with agents planted in collective farms, factories, and local governments, as well as throughout the upper level and rank and file of Russian bureaucracy. Each department within the government also had their own official supervisor, a "Special Section" staffed by the MGB to keep tabs on and regulate the employees, and to ensure the absence of disloyalty.

The Ministry retained a high level of autonomy and a remarkable amount of freedom of operation within the Soviet system, as the agency was de facto responsible only to prime minister Mikoyan. The Special Council of the State Security Ministry convicted arrestees charged with committing political crimes, including espionage, and could banish them from certain areas, or from Russia entirely.

State Security Service

The dzе Jughashvili's death in early 1953 left Anastas Mikoyan without any significant political ally willing to assume the burden of obstructing the Tsar Alexei II's clear will to recover the reins of the coercive power of the Russian state. This was also in order to counter Western progressive-liberal propaganda. On 3 June 1953, Count General Grigory Alexandrevich Gagarin was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs. On 8 July, Minister of State Security Vasily Margelov was dismissed. Despite a brief attempt by Mikoyan to assume the portfolio ad interim, on 15 August General Dmitri Sheremetev was appointed. After this government reshuffle, the majority of Duma shifted from Mikoyan to the "legitimist" faction.

The Mikoyan's political fate was thus sealed. In late August, a well-orchestrated scandal erupted on major newspapers, framing Mikoyan with accusations of embezzlement. On 8 September 1954, Prince Nikolai Aleksandrevich Vorontsov-Dashkov was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Vorontsov, as he was known, was a senior leader of the Imperial Revolutionary Organization with economically socialist views.

With Mikoyan gone, the Ministry of State Security was reorganized as a "Service", i.e. subordinated exclusively to the Tsar.

The State Security Service (Russian: Служба Госуда́рственной Безопа́сности PИ, CГБ; Sluzhba Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, SGB) was established in 1954 in order to serve as the “sword and shield of the Tsar.” The new security service, which played a major role in the purge of Mikpyan and dzе Jughashvili’s supporters, was designed to be carefully controlled by the Tsar ans his close associates. It was divided into approximately 20 directorates, the most important of which were those responsible for foreign intelligence, domestic counterintelligence, technical intelligence, protection of the state leadership (but not of the Tsar), and the security of the country’s frontiers. In the late 1960s an additional directorate was created to conduct surveillance on suspected dissidents in the Orthodox Church and other churches and faiths and among the intelligentsia. For the next 20 years the SGB became increasingly zealous in its pursuit of enemies, harassing, arresting, and sometimes exiling human rights advocates, Jewish activists, and intellectuals perceived to be disloyal to the regime.

The SGB gradually expanded its foreign intelligence operations to become the world’s largest foreign intelligence service. As the Cold War with the United States intensified, the SGB came to be viewed as a counterpart of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); however,the SGB conducted most of its activities domestically, on Russian soil and against Russian subjects. The SGB’s many agents sometimes posed as businessmen and journalists, though many used the more conventional diplomatic cover. Its successes included the infiltration of every major Western intelligence operation and the placement of agents of influence in almost every major capital. The SGB also was able to procure scientific and technical information for the Soviet military, and it repeatedly obtained advanced technology necessary for the development of Russian submarines, airplanes, and rockets. Along with the GRU (Chief Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff), which was responsible for military operations, the SGB enjoyed tremendous access to the secrets of both its adversaries and its allies.

By the end of the 1960s, the SGB had become firmly established as the Tsar’s inner circle security watchdog. Its value as an instrument of control was reflected in the appointment of its longtime head, Valery Ivanov, to the Bureau of Political Affairs and his succession to the head of the government in 1982 under Tsar Aleksandr IV. Under Ivanov, the KGB recruited the “best and the brightest” members from the establishment.

Inside Russia, the attitude of the SGB toward suppressing dissent was largely dictated by government policy. During the ministries of Vorontsov-Dashkov (1953-1964), a certain amount of pro-liberalism was tolerated. The pendulum swung the other way with the ascension of Mikhail Platov in 1964, and, especially, the ascension of Aleksandr IV in 1978.

The authoritarian phase of Aleksandr IV did not last long. In the late 1980s, the Empire began to enter in suffering with rampant inflation, and agitation by subject peopoles. Premier Nikolai von Holst (1984-1991) had already implemented a restructuring of the economy and political structure a policy of openness toward dissidents. This enraged some conservative circles.

Creation of the FSB

In 1995, the SGB was renamed and reorganized into the Intrnal Security Service (SVB) by Alexander IV. The decree made the tasks of the SVB more specific, giving the SVB substantial rights to conduct cryptographic work, and described the powers of the SVB director. Alexander IV appointed Colonel-General Mikhail Ivanovich Barsukov as the new director of the SVB. In 1998 the Tsar appointed Vladimir Putin, a SGB veteran, as director of the SVB.

The SVB is engaged in the development of Russia's export control strategy and examines drafts of international agreements related to the transfer of dual-use and military commodities and technologies. Its primary role in the nonproliferation sphere is to collect information to prevent the illegal export of controlled nuclear technology and materials.

Organization

Below the nationwide level, the SVB has regional offices in the Governorates of Russia. It also has administrations in the armed forces and other military institutions. Sub-departments exist for areas such as aviation, special training centers, forensic expertise, military medicine, etc.

Besides the services, departments and directorates, the territorial directorates of SVB in the Governorates are also subordinate to it. Of these, Petrograd and Leningrad Oblast Directorate of SVB and its predecessors have played especially important roles in the history of this organization.