The KGB (Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti)

The KGB (КГБ) is the common abbreviation for the (Russian: Комитет государственной безопасности​, or, Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti or Committee for State Security). It is the national security agency of the Soviet Union, and its premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time. It is run by Chairman Vladimir Skonrezy, who has been running it since 1967.

The KGB classified its spies as agents (intelligence providers) and controllers (intelligence relayers). The false-identity legend assumed by a USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, the life of either a "live double" (participant to the fabrication) or a "dead double" (whose identity is tailored to the spy). The agent then substantiated his or her legend by living it in a foreign country, before emigrating to the target country; thus the sending of US-bound illegal residents via the Soviet residency in Ottawa, Canada. Tradecraft included stealing and photographing documents, code-names, contacts, targets, and dead letter boxes, and working as "friend of the cause" agents provocateur who infiltrate the target's group to sow dissension, influence policy, and arrange kidnappings and assassinations.







ABOVE: KGB in a Georgian bar, during an investigation in Tbilisi Crime.