HISTORICAL

DICTIONARY

OF

PRINGLE

INTELLIGENCE

Russia • Military / Security

Historical Dictionaries of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, No. 5

At its peak, the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) was the largest

secret police and espionage organization in the world. It became so influential

in Soviet politics that several of its directors moved on to become premiers of

the Soviet Union. In fact, Russian president Vladimir V. Putin is a former head

of the KGB. The GRU (Glavnoe Razvedvitelnoe Upravleniye) is the principal

intelligence unit of the Russian armed forces, having been established in 1920

by Leon Trotsky during the Russian civil war. It was the first subordinate to

the KGB, and although the KGB broke up with the dissolution of the Soviet

Union in 1991, the GRU remains intact, cohesive, highly efficient, and with far

greater resources than its civilian counterparts.

The KGB and GRU are just two of the many Russian and Soviet intelli-

gence agencies covered in Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence.

Through a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a chronology, an introductory

essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries, a

clear picture of this subject is presented. Entries also cover Russian and Soviet

leaders, leading intelligence and security officers, the Lenin and Stalin purges,

the gulag, and noted espionage cases.

Robert W. Pringle is a former foreign service officer and intelligence analyst

with a lifelong interest in Russian security. He has served as a diplomat and

intelligence professional in Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Eastern

Europe.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8108-4942-

ISBN-10: 0-8108-4942-

For orders and information please contact the publisher

Scarecrow Press, Inc.

A wholly owned subsidiary of

The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200

Lanham, Maryland 20706

1-800-462-6420 • fax 717-794-

http://www.scarecrowpress.com INTELLIGENCE

HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF

RUSSIAN

& SOVIET&

&

ROBERT W. PRINGLE

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