Ministry of State Security (Soviet Union)

Chronology of Soviet
security agencies

1917–22

Cheka of the Sovnarkom of the RSFSR
(All-Russian Extraordinary Commission)

1922–23

GPU of the NKVD of the RSFSR
(State Political Directorate)

1923–34

OGPU of the Sovnarkom of the USSR
(Joint State Political Directorate)

1934–41
1941–43

NKVD of the USSR
(People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs)

1941
1943–46

NKGB of the USSR
(People's Commissariat for State Security)

1946–53

MGB of the USSR
(Ministry of State Security)

1953–54

MVD of the USSR
(Ministry of Internal Affairs)

1954–91

KGB of the Council of Ministers of the USSR
(Committee for State Security)

The Ministry of State Security (Russian: Министерство государственной безопасности, romanized: Ministerstvo gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti, IPA: [mʲɪnʲɪˈsʲtʲerstvə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ]), abbreviated as MGB (Russian: МГБ), was a ministry of the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1953 which functioned as the country's secret police. The ministry inherited the intelligence and state security responsibilities of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB). The MGB was led by Viktor Abakumov, the head of SMERSH during World War II, until Stalin's death in 1953, upon which it was merged into an enlarged Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD).