Stuart M. Kaminsky
Rostnikov vacation
The KGB is a very conservative organization. It's been trained to fight international imperialism, Zionism, the Vatican, Radio Liberty, Amnesty International, Titoists, Maoists, and spying organizations. And now they are left without a job. All these bad names have disappeared from the horizon. And so they either go left, as I did, and I am not alone. But most of them go to the right. They say the country is being betrayed, the country's falling apart. They say we have to stand and fight to the end.
PROLOGUE
The history of the secret police of Russia from the days of the czars to the present is quite convoluted, which is, perhaps, to be expected. The organization has gone through many names and many leaders.
Under the czars, the Okhrana, or the Guard, was created to protect the royal family and its staff from assassination attempts. After the Revolution, at the end of 1917, the Okhrana inspired the Cheka, or Extraordinary Commission, under Felix Dzerzhinsky, who reported directly to Lenin. After Lenin's death in 1922, the Cheka was reorganized and became the GPU, or State Political Administration.
The following year, the name was changed to the OGPU, or United State Political Administration. Eleven years later, in 1934, Stalin murdered the ranking officers of the OGPU and formed theNKVD, or People's Commisariat of International Affairs. In 1941, Stalin renamed the organization NKGB, or People's Commisariat of State Security. Five years later it was renamed once more, this time the MGB, or Ministry of State Security. It wasn't until 1954, however, that the name KGB, or Committee of State Security, was adopted. Who knows when the next change will come.