Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence

Editor’s Foreword

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Nowhere has intelligence and counterintelligence played quite as

prominent a role as in tsarist Russia and its successor the Union of So-

viet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union, since replaced by the Russian

Federation. Decades, indeed sometimes centuries, before intelligence

gathering became a serious concern in most other parts of Europe, let

alone the United States, the Russian state formed agencies to spy on en-

emies abroad and even more thoroughly on those at home, real or imag-

ined. These agencies expanded exponentially, drawing in ever more

agents and informers, arresting ever more suspects, and executing many

of them or more leniently sending them into exile or slave labor camps.

Although among the most fervent supporters of the regime, the intelli-

gence agencies often subverted the regime and came to dominate it. No

history of Russia can ignore them, and this series would not be complete

without mention of the Oprichnina, Okhrana, GPU, NKVD, KGB,

Smersh, and others. Although considerably tamer, and held on a tighter

leash, there is no doubt that the activities of the Russian Federation’s

SVR and FSB will also be of interest.

This Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence covers

the field admirably. Historically, it reaches back to the time of Ivan “the

Terrible” and includes his sometimes even more destructive successors

during the Soviet period, finally reaching the relative normality of the

present day. It covers the numerous services that emerged during this

long period: those of the tsars, those of the communist regime, and also

the considerably tamer, but nonetheless vast and efficient agencies of to-

day. The services all have major entries, as do the top leaders who cre-

ated and managed them, the intelligence chiefs, prominent national

agents, and foreign spies as well as dissidents, defectors, and traitors.

Most of this is provided by hundreds of dictionary entries, while the in-

troduction puts them in a more comprehensible context. The chronology

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