Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence

nuclear proliferation, and international crime. This list is, of course,

hardly complete. The SVR is active in a number of countries, col-

lecting political and economic intelligence. Since 1991, SVR officers

have been expelled from a number of Western and Eastern European

states, as well as the United States.

According to the SVR website, the new foreign intelligence ser-

vice has kept the bureaucratic structure of the First Chief Directorate.

Deputy directorates of the service are charged with bureaucratic

oversight of major components such as geographic departments, and

directorates deal with technical collection, foreign counterintelli-

gence, and illegals. The service remains confident and competent:

since its foundation it has run agents inside the U.S. intelligence com-

munity. Like the First Chief Directorate, the SVR is not risk adverse:

in 1999 an SVR officer was expelled from the United States for plac-

ing a bugging device in the secretary of state’s conference room.

• T –

TERRORISM. SeeCOUNTERTERRORISM.

THIRD CHIEF DIRECTORATE.SeeKGB ORGANIZATION.

THIRD SECTION.Following a failed coup by liberal officers in De-

cember 1825, Tsar Nicholas I sanctioned the first modern Russian se-

curity service, the Third Section of the Imperial Chancery in 1826.

The Decembristrisings indicated to Nicholas and his more conser-

vative advisors that there was a need for greater surveillance of the

population. The Third Section worked in concert with the paramili-

tary Corps of Gendarmes to extend its reach to urban and rural areas.

The Russian archives show that Nicholas paid a great deal of atten-

tion to the staffing of the Third Section, and he read and commented

on its reporting.

From its beginning, the Third Section targeted intellectuals sus-

pected of revolutionary thoughts and deeds. Count Aleksandr Benk-

endorff, head of the section in 1826–1844, and his successors tended

to rely on informersand agents provocateurs employed by the Corps

of Gendarmes. Despite efforts to modernize the Third Section, it

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