Joint State Political Directorate

Joint State Political Directorate
Объединённое государственное политическое управление при СНК СССР
	Badge commemorating 15 years of the Cheka–OGPU, issued in 1932
Agency overview
Formed	15 November 1923
Preceding agency	GPU;
Dissolved	10 July 1934
Superseding agency	NKVD;
Type	Secret police
Headquarters	11-13 ulitsa Bol. Lubyanka,; Moscow, RSFSR, USSR
Agency executives	Felix Dzerzhinsky (1923–1926); Vyacheslav Menzhinsky (1926–1934);
Parent agency	Council of People's Commissars

The Joint State Political Directorate (Russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление, IPA: [ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪje]), abbreviated as OGPU (Russian: ОГПУ), was the secret police of the Soviet Union from November 1923 to July 1934, succeeding the State Political Directorate (GPU). Responsible to the Council of People's Commissars, the OGPU was headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky until 1926, then by Vyacheslav Menzhinsky until replaced by the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) within the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD).

The OGPU played an important role in the Soviet Union's forced collectivization of agriculture under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, crushing resistance and deporting millions of peasants to the growing network of Gulag forced labor camps. The OGPU operated both inside and outside the country, persecuting political criminals and opponents of the Bolsheviks such as White émigrés, Soviet dissidents, and anti-communists.