Fifth Directorate from the struggle with dissidents to the suppression
of corruption. He oversaw KGB activities during nationalist riots in
Alma Ata (1986) and Baku (1990). But in late 1990, Bobkov publicly
criticized Gorbachev, noting in a television interview that he had
been “disillusioned” with Gorbachev. He also complained at Central
Committee meetings about the growth of “informal groups” in the
Baltic Republic and Moscow. Bobkov retired from the KGB in 1991.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he became a security ad-
visor to MOST Bank chair Viktor Gusinskiy and wrote a revealing
memoir about the KGB.BOEVAYA ORGANIZATSIYA.SeeBATTLE ORGANIZATION.BOKIY, GLEB IVANOVICH (1879–?).An Old Bolshevik who was
an active revolutionary for 20 years before the Revolution of No-
vember 1917, Bokiy is one of the creators of Sovietsignals intelli-
gence. He joined the Chekain March 1918 and served first in the de-
fense of Petrograd against White armies and then in Central Asia. In
1920, Bokiy became head of the service’s cryptological service. Al-
though there had been competition between his service and the GRU
in the 1930s, Bokiy molded a small component from both the secu-
rity service and the military intelligence service that became excep-
tionally competent in breaking codes. With information provided
from recruited code clerks, Bokiy’s component read the messages of
many of Moscow’s opponents.
Bokiy, according to one defector, had a reputation as an alcoholic
and a womanizer whose home was the scene of orgies. What proba-
bly sealed his fate, however, was his long association with Old Bol-
sheviks such as Leon Trotsky. He was arrested on 16 May 1937 and
tried by a three-member collegium of the NKVDon 11 November- He may have been shot the evening of his trial, but there are re-
ports that he continued to work for the service in jail until his death
in 1940 or 1941. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.
BOLSHEVIK PARTY. The Bolshevik (Majority) faction of the Rus-
sian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) emerged in 1903, fol-
lowing a party dispute over tactics and organization. The Bolshe-
viks, led by Vladimir Lenin, argued for a party led by professionalBOLSHEVIK PARTY •3506-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:55 AM Page 35