The Secret Police/KGB/NKVD was a very interesting part of the World War Two era Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. They served during Stalin’s rule of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, after Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov, known as Vladimir Lenin. They were the secret police that removed all who made any notion to undermine Joseph Stalin.
Cheka was the original name for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics security organization. It was short for the name Vecheka, which in turn was an acronym for the “All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage,” when translated into English ("The Cheka - History Learning Site"). The Cheka was created by emergency decree on December 20th1917 and its first leader was
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This resulted in the peasants hoarded food and causing a widespread famine. Million were deported by OGPU agents, hundreds of thousands executed for even the slightest resistance (“History of the Cheka – NKVD – KGB – FSB”). The forced famine is said to have killed almost fifteen million people during this time in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Once again, this organization gained a different title and abbreviation. It became known as the NKVD, an acronym for the People’s Commissariat For Internal Affairs when translated into english ("History of the Cheka - OGPU - NKVD - MGB - KGB - FSB."). This took place in 1934. Joseph Stalin gave this organization unrestricted control that was responsible only to Joseph Stalin himself. At the head of the organization was placed Genrik Yagoda. This man was thought to be evil and spiteful, and he was very disliked among most all of the Union of Soviet Socialist …show more content…
Zinoviev and Kamenev were two of the first to be killed. Yagoda himself was purged for irrational reasons and replaced by a five foot Nikolai Yezhov, he would be known as the “bloody dwarf,” his era would be called Yezhovshchina, or time of Yezhov (“History of the Cheka – NKVD – KGB – FSB”). In 1937, however, Yagoda was executed and the Yezhov was given free reign by Joseph Stalin. The NKVD arrested and shot millions. They purged the entire upper officer corps. Yezhov was replaced by Lavrenti Beria, a close friend of Joseph Stalin. Beria then purged the NKVD and saw to it that Yezhov was executed. By 1946, the NKVD was organized a very many times until it finally became well known under the abbreviation of the KGB. The Duties and the methods of the KGB, NKVD, or Secret Police, however, remained in whole, the same for all intents and purposes, but it still did not stay the same
The organization I have chosen for this essay is CSIS ( Canadian Security Intelligence Service ). CSIS closely resembles The Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) or British Security Intelligence Service. I have chosen this organization because I have great interest in becoming an employee of CSIS in the future. This essay will provide brief history of CSIS, the responsibilities of CSIS for Canada, and the application process for an entry – level position. These will be further discussed in greater detail as the essay goes on.
The Web. 16 Feb. 2014 "Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). " International Military and Defense Encyclopedia. Ed. Trevor N. Dupuy, a.k.a.
Under a backdrop of systematic fear and terror, the Stalinist juggernaut flourished. Stalin’s purges, otherwise known as the “Great Terror”, grew from his obsession and desire for sole dictatorship, marking a period of extreme persecution and oppression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s. “The purges did not merely remove potential enemies. They also raised up a new ruling elite which Stalin had reason to think he would find more dependable.” (Historian David Christian, 1994). While Stalin purged virtually all his potential enemies, he not only profited from removing his long-term opponents, but in doing so, also caused fear in future ones. This created a party that had virtually no opposition, a new ruling elite that would be unstoppable, and in turn negatively impacted a range of sections such as the Communist Party, the people of Russia and the progress in the Soviet community, as well as the military in late 1930 Soviet society.
Topic Sentence: The KGB, otherwise known as the Committee of State Security, was the world's largest spy and state-security group; the NKVD, or People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, was involved in almost all aspects of life of everyday people in the Soviet Union.
In 1934, Sergey Kirov a rival to Stalin was murdered. Stalin is believed to have been behind the assassination, he used it as a pretext to arrest thousands of his other opponents who in his words might have been responsible for Kirov’s murder. These purges not only affected those who openly opposed Stalin but ordinary people too. During the rule of Stain o...
Under the rule of Joseph Stalin, millions of people were killed. They were also tortured in cells called the GULAG and they were brainwashed to kill others. Stalin also killed many high-ranking officials and rivaling army members during his purges. Stalin struck fear in everyone around him and could not be trusted, but was so powerful that everyone respected him. They knew what he could do to them and they did their best to listen to all of his commands. With all the deaths that Stalin caused and how he governed his people actually alerted followers to implement this type of
All over the world, countries have created a type of secret police. The international term secret police can always be applied whether it is the United States CIA or Britain's MI6. As for Russia the name of their secret police was Cheka. The secret police, Cheka, was the Bolsheviks security force formed in 1917 by Vladimir Lenin. The purpose of this force was to carry out arrest, detentions, and executions without process of law. Cheka regularly used violence and torture publicly or privately to prove a point to others with mere thoughts of going against the soviet regime. Cheka was basically a military and security system of the Bolshevik communist government.
they eliminated rebellions during the revolutions, for example, the slaughtering of any animal who spoke against Napoleon or his choices and they conducted foreign intelligence operations, The Dogs stayed by Napoleon's side as he negotiated with Pilkington. "I know not every mom is a secret KGB spy but every mom has this whole other life. Every dad and every person has this whole other life."(Quote it in Keri Russell) This quote talks about KGB spies and officers leading secret lives, hiding their work from friends, family, and anyone else involved in their personal lives. They changed as people, turning violent and rough when they might have been kind and gentle beforehand. These struggles when on for many year until November 6, 1991, the KGB were free and were able to carry on with their normal
The Significance of the Use of Espionage During the Cold War During the Cold War there was an increase in the amount of funding and resources devoted to espionage which was helpful to both the USA and USSR. Because there was no fighting, spies became the main use in the battle for the supremacy. The definition of espionage is the act or practice of spying or of using spies to obtain secret information, such as about another government. It is whereby governments gain the systematic use of spies to get military or political secrets. It was used to gain information on the enemy as well as to increase the influence upon areas where conflicts of ideologies being fought over.
The Party believed that if the problem was not openly discussed the analogy “out of sight, out of mind” would apply. Stalin, through the coercive machinery, helped mute out all opposition. and purge all his personal opponents. The OGPU later became the OGPU. NKVD] were used to purge the political dissidents in the USSR.
The Central Intelligence Agency The CIA is one of the U.S. foreign intelligence agencies, responsible for getting and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. government. The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Defense Department's Defense Intelligence Agency comprise the other two. Its headquarters is in Langley, Virginia, across the Potomac River from D.C. The Agency, created in 1947 by President Harry S. Trueman, is a descendant of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) of World War 2. The OSS was dissolved in October 1945 but William J. Jonavan, the creator of the OSS, had submitted a proposal to President Roosevelt in 1944.
The NKVD, transformed by Stalin from the original secret police set up in 1917 known as the Cheka, was a secret police service formed in 1934 with Genrikh Yagoda as executive until 1936. The NKVD was a law enforcement agency of the Soviet Union that had direct power over the Communist Party. This secret police organisation was no longer controlled by the party, but rather it controlled the party and only Stalin stood above it. Although the agency contained a regular, public police force of the USSR that included traffic police, firefighters and border guards, the agency ultimately directed mass executions that were not legally authorised, directed labour camps, inhibited resistance and were responsible for mass deportations to deserted regions. The main role of the NKVD was to enforce Stalinist policy, impacting society as people became frightened of the police, rather than feeling safe, until it dissolved in 1946.
By creating the Red Army, Stalin was able to become a brutal dictator that ruled for so long, and he was also able to completely suppress the people so he could carry on the communist ideology. The concept of the Soviet Gulag was another effect of Stalin’s leadership style. It consisted of systems of labor camps, to which millions of people during Stalin’s reign were exiled. “Approximately, 50 million people from all over the Soviet Union perished in the gulag during Stalin’s reign, succumbing to starvation, exposure, execution, and mistreatment. Anyone whom Stalin considered to be a threat or potentially subversive was sent to Siberia”
Throughout the years most country's governments have established some sort of secret police. No matter what the government called it, whether it is the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or her Majesty's secret service (MI6), whatever name the government used, the international term of "secret police" could always be applied. Many agencies of secret police have had their success and failures, some more than others. The KGB, which in English means "the Committee of Public Safety," has had their share of both successes and failures. Most secret police agencies have been used primarily to obtain information from other countries. This was also a primary goal for the KGB, but one of their other goals, which was just as important, was to keep unwanted outside information from the Russian people. This was only one out of many the KGB's objectives. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to prove that the actions of the KGB were, all in all, a success.
Much like Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin was one of the most ruthless and despised people in the recorded history of the world. Stalin though his policies found it fit to abused his people in any way he saw fit. This man started what history now calls "The Great Purges."