Russian intelligence servicesand is directly subordinate to the
president of the Russian Federation.FEDORCHUK, VITALII VASILYEVICH (1918– ). Born into a
Ukrainian peasant family, Fedorchuk entered the security service in- During World War II, he worked in Smershand in 1946 was
transferred to the Third (Military Counterintelligence) Chief Direc-
torate. Fedorchuk rose quickly in the KGBand in 1970 was made
chair of the Ukrainian KGB. After the Prague Crisis of 1968,
Moscow apparently feared that Ukrainian nationalism was a threat to
the Soviet system, and Fedorchuk was given wide latitude to stamp
out all religious or political dissent.
The Ukrainian émigrépress reported that the KGB murdered a
number of dissidentUkrainian Catholic leaders in an effort to quash
political opposition in the western Ukraine during the 1970s, when
Fedochuk headed the service. As chief of the Ukrainian KGB, Fe-
dorchuk earned a reputation in Moscow for toughness and ideologi-
cal orthodoxy. In May 1982, when Yuri Andropoventered the Cen-
tral Committee Secretariat, Fedorchuk was brought to Moscow to
head the KGB. According to most scholars, Fedorchuk’s appointment
represented a compromise within the aging Leonid Brezhnevlead-
ership; Fedorchuk apparently had no political ambition and was seen
as a competent and loyal senior KGB officer.
In December 1982 Fedorchuk was replaced by Viktor Chebrikov
and transferred to the MVD(Ministry of Internal Affairs). As MVD
chief with rank of army general, Fedorchuk worked first with An-
dropov and then with Mikhail Gorbachevto purge and reform the
police. His efforts were not successful, though a number of senior
MVD officers were arrested and tried for corruption and malfea-
sance. In 1986, Fedorchuk was offered honorable retirement and as-
signed to the Group of General Inspectors of the Ministry of Defense.
FEDOTOV, PETR VASILYEVICH (1900–1963). After 16 years ser-
vice in the provinces, Fedotov was brought to Moscow by Nikolai
Yezhovto head the NKVD’s Secret Political Department in 1937.
During World War II, he headed the NKVD’s counterintelligence
directorate and was promoted to lieutenant general in 1945. From
1946 to 1949 he served asJoseph Stalin’s chief of foreign intelli-82 •FEDORCHUK, VITALII VASILYEVICH (1918– )06-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:55 AM Page 82