missions. For example, its First Department ran operations against
the American embassy; the Second Department focused on the
British embassy. The Second Chief Directorate also tried to recruit
foreign business people and students, who could be developed into
assets with access to political and commercial information. It was the
Soviet Union’s Federal Bureau of Investigation but was far larger and
more powerful within the country’s bureaucracy than any Western se-
curity service.
The Third Chief Directorate was established to ensure the loyalty
of the military during the Russian civil war. It assigned officers to
military units at the battalion (1,000 members) level and above. Dur-
ing the Great Patriotic War, the Third Chief Directorate operated as
Smershand assumed the role of guardian of the Red Army. The Third
Chief Directorate also was responsible for the security of the cadre of
the MVD(Ministry of Internal Affairs), the police.
The Fifth Directorate was created by Yuri Andropovin 1967 to
monitor developments within the intelligentsia. It was responsible for
monitoring dissent in religious organizations and ethnic groups
throughout the country. During the Stalin years, the Secret Political
Directorate had similar responsibility for surveillanceof the popula-
tion. The Fifth recruited informantsin every church congregation
and academic institute in the country. Through its connections with
Glavlit, it kept its finger on the intellectual pulse of a country of
230,000,000 people. It also issued warningsto suspected dissidents.
The Seventh Directorate was responsible for physical and techni-
cal surveillance operations against enemy agents and dissidents. It
used a variety of tracking chemicals, such as metka, to track targets.
The Eighth and 16th Chief Directorates were responsible for the
security of state communications and the breaking of foreign com-
munications, respectively. After the fall of the Soviet Union, they
were folded into the FAPSI(Federal Agency for Government Com-
munications and Information).
The Ninth Directorate was responsible for the security of the
party’s leadership. Along with the 15th Chief Directorate, it was re-
sponsible for the control of sensitive installations ranging from the
Kremlin to nuclear weapons facilities. The Ninth was also known as
the Okhrana, a nickname stemming from the tsarist Okhrana. It had
many of the same responsibilities as the U.S. Secret Service. TheKGB ORGANIZATION • 12906-313 G-P.qxd 7/27/06 7:56 AM Page 129