State Political Directorate

The State Political Directorate (also translated as the State Political Administration) (GPU) was the intelligence service and secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) from February 6, 1922 to December 29, 1922 and the Soviet Union from December 29, 1922 until November 15, 1923.

State Political Directorate
(GPU pri NKVD RSFSR)
Agency overview
Formed6th February, 1922
Preceding agency
Dissolved15th November, 1923
Superseding agency
TypeSecret police
HeadquartersLubyanka Square, Moscow
Agency executive
Parent agencyCouncil of the People's Commissars

Name

The official designation in line to the native reference is:

  • Русский: = Государственное политическое управление (ГПУ) при Народном комиссариaте внутренних дел (НКВД) РСФСР
  • tr =Gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie (GPU) pri narodnom komissariate vnutrennikh del (NKVD) RSFSR – (GPU pri NKVD RSFSR)
  • English: = State Political Directorate (also State Political Administration) under the People's Commissariat of interior affairs of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RFSR)

Establishment
Chronology of Soviet
secret police agencies
1917–1922 Cheka under SNK of the RSFSR
(All-Russian Extraordinary Commission)
1922–1923 GPU under NKVD of the RSFSR
(State Political Directorate)
1923–1934 OGPU under SNK of the USSR
(Joint State Political Directorate)
1934–1941 NKVD of the USSR
(People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs)
1941 MGB of the USSR
(Ministry of State Security)
1941–1943 GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR
(Main Directorate of State Security of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs)
1943–1946 NKGB of the USSR
(People's Commissariat for State Security)
1946–1953 MGB of the USSR
(Ministry of State Security)
1953–1954 MVD of the USSR
(Ministry of Internal Affairs)
1954–1978 KGB under SM of the USSR
(Committee for State Security)
1978–1991 KGB of the USSR
(Committee for State Security)
1991 MSB of the USSR
(Interrepublican Security Service)
1991 TsSB of the USSR
(Central Intelligence Service)
1991 Committee of protection of the USSR state border

Formed from the Cheka, the original Russian state security organization, on February 6, 1922, it was initially known under the Russian abbreviation GPU—short for "State Political Directorate under the NKVD of the RSFSR" (Russian: Государственное политическое управление при НКВД РСФСР, Gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravlenie under the NKVD of the RSFSR"). Its first chief was the Cheka's former chairman, Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Mission
Internal security

On paper, the new agency was supposed to act with more restraint than the Cheka. For instance, unlike the Cheka, it didn't have the right to shoot suspected "counter-revolutionaries" at will. All those suspected of political crimes had to be brought before a judge in normal circumstances.[1]

Foreign intelligence

The 'Foreign Department' of the GPU was headed by a former Bolshevik and party member, Mikhail Trilisser.[2] The Foreign Department was placed in charge of intelligence activities overseas, including espionage and liquidation of 'enemies of the people'. Trilisser himself was later liquidated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge in 1940.

Disestablishment

With the creation of the USSR in December 1922, a unified organization was required to exercise control over state security throughout the new union. Thus, on November 15, 1923, the GPU left the Russian NKVD and was transferred into the all-union Joint State Political Directorate, also translated as "All-Union State Political Administration". Its official name was "Joint State Political Directorate under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR" (Russian: Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye under the SNK of the USSR, Объединённое государственное политическое управление при СНК СССР), or OGPU (ОГПУ).

Personnel
BadgePoliticalMilitary
noneCотрудник
Employee		Kрасноармеец
Red Armyman
Агент 3-го разряда
Agent third category		Командир отделения
Squad commander
Агент 2-го разряда
Agent second category		Помощник командира взвода
Assistant platoon commander
Агент 1-го разряда
Agent first category		Старшина роты, батареи, батальона, дивизиона
First Sergeant of company, battery, battalion
Сотрудник особых поручений
Employee with special assignments		Командир взвода
Platoon commander
Нач. оперативного пункта
Head of operative point		командир роты (полуэскадрона)
Company commander (Commander of half-squadron)
Нач. отдела инспекции; Пом. нач. адм.-следственной части
Leader of inspection department; Assistant head of investigative unit		командир батальона (эскадрона)
Battalion commander (Squadron commander)
Пом. нач. отделения; Уполномоч. отдела предварительного дознания; Нач. адм.-следственной части
Assistant departemental leader ; Plenipotentiary of preliminary investigation department; Head of investigative unit		командир полка
Regimental commander
Военрук инспекции
Military director of inspection		Командир бригады
Brigade commander
Нач. отделения ГПУ
Head of GPU branch		начальник и комиссар дивизии
Chief and commissar of division
Зам. нач. отдела ГПУ
Assistant head of GPU department		Командир корпуса; Зам. нач. штаба войск ГПУ
Corps commander; Assistant chief of staff for GPU troops
Нач. отдела ГПУ
Head of GPU department		Зам. Пред. ГПУ — Нач. штаба войск ГПУ
Deputy chairman of GPU - Chief of staff of GPU troops

See also

References
  1. Overy, Richard (2004). The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia. London: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0393020304.
  2. Kindermann, Karl Gustav, In the Toils of the O.G.P.U., Translated by Gerald Griffin; Hurst & Blackett, 1933 Digitized Dec 5, 2007, p. 149.
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