KGB

The Committee for State Security, or KGB, was the name of the main Soviet Security Agency and intelligence agency, as well as the main secret police agency from 13 March 1954 to 6 November 1991. The KGB's domain was roughly comparable to that of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) combined with the counterintelligence, the internal security division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the security of the Federal Protective Service and the Secret Service.

The KGB was dissolved due to the participation of its chief, Colonel General Vladimir Kryuchkov, in the August 1991 coup attempt designed to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev. He used many of the KGB's resources to aid the coup attempt. Kryuchkov was arrested, and General Vadim Bakatin was appointed Chairman on 23 August 1991 with a mandate to dismantle the KGB. On 6 November 1991 the Russian KGB officially ceased to exist, though its successor organization, the Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, or FSB, is functionally extremely similar to the KGB.