What does KGB stand for? It abbreviates the Russian name Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, which means Committee for State Security. The KGB was the main security and intelligence agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until the country broke apart in 1991.
It combined jobs that the United States splits among several agencies: spying abroad, catching foreign spies at home, guarding the borders and watching its own citizens for political activity the government opposed. That mix of roles is why the name still stands for Cold War espionage in books, films and history classes.
Quick facts
Stands for
Komitet Gosudarstvennoy BezopasnostiIn English
Committee for State SecurityType
Initialism from RussianHow to say it
K G B in English; "ka ge be" in RussianActive
1954 to 1991Country
Soviet Union (USSR)Successors in Russia
FSB (domestic) and SVR (foreign intelligence)
What does KGB stand for in Russian and English?
| Letter | Russian word | English |
|---|---|---|
| K | Komitet | Committee |
| G | Gosudarstvennoy | State (of the state) |
| B | Bezopasnosti | Security |
In Cyrillic the name is written Комитет государственной безопасности and shortened to КГБ. English kept the letters in the same order, so KGB reads as "committee, state, security" rather than the more natural English order. Spellings of the Russian words vary a little when moved into Latin letters, such as Gosudarstvennoi.
What the KGB did
- Foreign intelligence: recruiting agents and gathering secrets in other countries.
- Counterintelligence: finding and stopping foreign spies inside the Soviet Union.
- Internal security: monitoring people and groups seen as political threats, including writers, religious groups and dissidents.
- Border troops: guarding the long Soviet frontier.
- Protection of leaders: guarding top officials and key government sites.
Its headquarters stood on Lubyanka Square in central Moscow, and "the Lubyanka" became a common nickname for the agency itself. Historians generally describe the KGB as both an intelligence service and a secret police force.
Where the KGB came from
The KGB was the last in a long line of Soviet security bodies. The first was the Cheka, set up in 1917 soon after the revolution. It was followed by agencies with other short forms, including the GPU, OGPU, NKVD and MGB, as the state reorganized its police and intelligence work. In 1954, after the death of Joseph Stalin, these functions were brought together under the new Committee for State Security.
The country the agency served is covered on the USSR page.
What happened to the KGB
In August 1991, a group of hardline officials, including the head of the KGB, tried to seize power in Moscow. The attempt failed within days. Later that year the agency was broken up, and by the end of December the Soviet Union itself no longer existed.
Its duties passed to new agencies in the independent countries. In Russia, domestic security went to a service now called the FSB, the Federal Security Service, and foreign intelligence went to the SVR, the Foreign Intelligence Service. Belarus kept the KGB name for its own state security agency.
In a history textbook: "KGB officers posing as diplomats worked from embassies abroad." Here KGB means the Soviet agency, and the sentence describes a common Cold War method of placing intelligence officers under official cover.
KGB vs CIA, FBI and other agencies
| Agency | Country | Main role |
|---|---|---|
| KGB | Soviet Union | Foreign spying, counterintelligence, internal security, borders |
| CIA | United States | Foreign intelligence |
| FBI | United States | Federal law enforcement and domestic counterintelligence |
| NSA | United States | Signals intelligence and code breaking |
| GRU | Soviet Union, then Russia | Military intelligence, separate from the KGB |
The comparison is only rough. The KGB held powers that, in the United States, are split among separate agencies with different legal limits. Spy services, armies and federal offices from many countries are listed with their full names among our government and military acronyms.
Saying and using KGB today
English speakers say it letter by letter, "K G B," which makes it an initialism. In Russian it sounds like "ka ge be." In writing it always appears as three capitals without periods.
- "Her grandfather's letters were read by the KGB."
- "The museum has a room on KGB spy gadgets."
- "The novel follows a KGB officer in Berlin."
- "After 1991, the KGB's files became a major source for historians."
People also use "KGB" as a joke for anyone who seems to be watching closely, as in "my mom runs the house like the KGB." That use is casual and not about the real agency.
Questions people ask
What does KGB stand for in English?
Translated, the name means Committee for State Security. The letters come from the Russian Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.
Does the KGB still exist?
Not in Russia. The Soviet KGB was dissolved in 1991, and its work passed to new agencies such as the FSB and SVR. Belarus still uses the name KGB for its own security service.
When was the KGB formed?
It was formed in 1954, bringing together security and intelligence work handled by earlier Soviet agencies. Those earlier bodies date back to the Cheka of 1917.
Was the KGB like the CIA?
Partly. Both ran foreign intelligence, but the KGB also handled internal security, border guards and political policing. In the United States those jobs are divided among different agencies.
What replaced the KGB?
In Russia, the FSB took over domestic security and counterintelligence, and the SVR took over foreign intelligence. Other former Soviet republics created their own services.