KGB is the Soviet Union’s abbreviation of Committee for State Security, which is similar to USA’s CIA.
The KGB was established in 1954 and lasted till 1991, but it was merely an evolved form of the early Cheka during Lenin’s rule. The KGB was a new approach for the Soviet system. After Stalin’s death this agency was establish with intent of leaving behind earlier outrageously violent approaches. This secret police organization that was running during the Soviet era had some main responsibilities to take care of. A few of these responsibilities were to protect the country’s political leadership, to watch over border troops, and the overall protection of the citizens. While the KGB was for the better of the citizens they did operate very corrupt, using terror tactics at times to protect the privacy of their government.The corrupt acts that the KGB operated on to conceal the governments privacy involved investigating any crime against the government, they controlled and screened all the information that made it public, and any political criminals crimes were dealt with by the KGB and punishment mostly overseen. The intents for this new secret agency may have been much less violent, but they had much more intelligence on their side. The KGB would frequently take orders to blackmail westerners to become Soviet spies with sometimes intentions of kidnapping or even assassinating their targets.
Using planned out methods to gather information on enemy nations. The KGB was also coincidentally formed and abolished at the beginning and end the race for nuclear weapons. Was this secret police formed for the good of the people or was it just a way for the Soviet Union to snoop around with rival nations that were striving for the top spot in the superpower race? People do have every right to believe that the KGB was one of the sneakiest agencies because of its 500,000 members that were strictly assigned to spying. With little to no information let out to the public about all of their operations and intents for later years the KGB had been violating the citizen’s rights and national laws via espionage or illegally obtaining information. All citizen’s backgrounds and lives were recorded with the secret police’s ease of access, yet the citizens had no clue what the government was sending out the KGB to do behind their backs. Over time the citizens of the Soviet Union grew to despise the KGB’s methods and how secretive they were being with information that should be open to the people that are loyal to this nation. If the government could not trust the people how can the people possibly trust the government. This quote said by Mikhail Baryshnikov, a Soviet Union, citizen displays the fear of the government system; “I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.” The KGB rapidly dispersed by the end of the cold war considering there was no more spying to be done and the need for this police system had not gone over well with the people of the nation. All systems need to show loyalty to the people if they want to gain trust, but if secrets are held and fear rises, the organization will only take steps back in developing a powerful country.WC: 553
