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Soviet Union [USSR] Functions and Internal Organization
As a state committee with ministerial status, the KGB operated
on the basis of a statute (polozhenie), confirmed by the
Council of Ministers, that set forth in legal terms the KGB's
powers and duties. Unlike the majority of statutes governing
ministerial agencies, the KGB's statute was not published.
Nevertheless, Soviet textbooks on administrative law offered useful
statements about the KGB's role and functions. The KGB's tasks were
generally defined in official Soviet publications as encompassing
four areas: the struggle against foreign spies and agents, the
exposure and investigation of political and economic crimes by
citizens, the protection of state borders, and the protection of
state secrets. In addition, the KGB was charged with a wide range
of preventive tasks, which were designed to eliminate the causes of
both political and ordinary crimes. In other words, the KGB was
tasked with ferreting out potential threats to the state and
preventing the development of unorthodox political and social
attitudes among the population.
Official Soviet sources did not discuss the internal structure
of the KGB in detail. Nevertheless, some information on KGB
organization and functions has been revealed by Soviet defectors
and other sources. In 1988 the KGB had five chief directorates and
three known (possible another) directorates that were smaller in
size and scope than the chief directorates, as well as various
other administrative and technical support departments
(see
fig. 37). Western estimates of KGB manpower have ranged from 490,000 in
1973 to 700,000 in 1986.
The First Chief Directorate was responsible for all foreign
operations and intelligence-gathering activities. It was divided
into both functional services--training and management of covert
agents, intelligence analysis, and collection of political,
scientific, and technological intelligence--and geographic
departments for different areas of the world.
The Second Chief Directorate was responsible for internal
political control of Soviet citizens and foreigners residing within
the Soviet Union, including both diplomats and tourists. The Fifth
Chief Directorate also dealt with internal security. Created in the
late 1960s to combat political dissent, it took up some of the
tasks previously handled by the Second Chief Directorate. The Fifth
Chief Directorate had special operational departments for religious
dissent, national minorities, the intelligentsia and the artistic
community, and censorship of literature. The Seventh Directorate
handled surveillance, providing personnel and technical equipment
to follow and monitor the activities of both foreigners and suspect
Soviet citizens. Much of this work was centered in the Moscow and
Leningrad areas, where tourists, diplomats, foreign students, and
members of the Soviet intelligentsia were concentrated. The Eighth
Chief Directorate was responsible for the highly sensitive area of
communications. This directorate provided technical systems,
including cipher systems, for other KGB departments and government
agencies and also monitored and deciphered foreign communications.
The KGB had at least three additional directorates: the Third
Chief Directorate, which dealt with military counterintelligence
and political surveillance of the Soviet armed forces; the Border
Troops Directorate, which protected Soviet land and sea borders;
and the Ninth Directorate, which guarded the Kremlin and key
offices of the CPSU.
In addition to the various directorates and a special network
of training and education establishments, the KGB had a personnel
department, a secretariat, a technical support staff, a finance
department, an archives, an administration department, and a party
committee. Most of these bodies had counterparts within the
different directorates. Party committees, which existed in every
Soviet organization, handled political indoctrination of personnel.
Heads of party committees arranged regular meetings to discuss
party matters and served as liaisons between the party and the KGB
at various levels, although party membership was probably universal
among KGB employees. At the republic level, KGB organization was
probably similar to that of the central KGB, although republic KGBs
did not supervise units of the Border Troops, which were
administered centrally. Nor did they include functions of the Third
Chief Directorate, which was organized primarily along military
service lines or by military district. In addition, functions such
as communications and foreign espionage may have been administered
only in Moscow.
Data as of May 1989
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