The KGB was the main security and intelligence agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991. It was involved in foreign and domestic espionage, counter-intelligence, secret police, border guarding and state protection. It was dissolved after the collapse of the Soviet Union and replaced by different agencies in Russia and other former Soviet republics.
Some of the major events in the history of the KGB are:
- The KGB was created in 1954 under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, who wanted to curb the power and influence of the previous security chief, Lavrentiy Beria, who was executed after Stalin's death in 1953¹².
- The KGB played a key role in the Cold War, competing with the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies for information, influence and covert operations around the world. It also infiltrated and suppressed dissidents, nationalists and religious groups within the Soviet Union¹².
- The KGB was involved in several high-profile spy cases, such as the defection of Kim Philby and other members of the Cambridge Five, the capture and exchange of Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, the exposure of the Soviet mole Aldrich Ames in the CIA in 1994, and the assassination of Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident, with a poisoned umbrella in London in 1978.
- The KGB also had a significant impact on the political and social history of the Soviet Union and its allies. It supported communist movements and regimes in various countries, such as Cuba, Vietnam, Angola, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. It also attempted to influence or overthrow leaders who were seen as hostile or unreliable, such as Nikita Khrushchev, Alexander Dubček, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Hafizullah Amin and Mikhail Gorbachev.
- The KGB faced several challenges and reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, as the Soviet Union underwent economic and political crises, the rise of nationalism and separatism, and the emergence of glasnost and perestroika. Some KGB officers supported Gorbachev's reforms, while others opposed them and plotted coups against him. The KGB also lost its monopoly on intelligence and security, as new agencies were created or expanded, such as the GRU (military intelligence), the KGB of the Soviet Republics, and the KGB of the Communist Party.
- The KGB was officially abolished on 3 December 1991, after the failed August coup and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Its functions and assets were divided among several successor agencies, such as the SVR (foreign intelligence), the FSB (domestic security), the FSO (state protection) and the Border Service in Russia. Some former Soviet republics, such as Belarus and South Ossetia, retained the name and structure of the KGB for their security services
The KGB also conducted operations in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. One of its networks, the "Red Orchestra", comprised several hundred agents and informers, including agents in the German ministries of foreign affairs, labour, propaganda, and economics. The network provided the Soviets with vital intelligence on the German war plans, military movements, and diplomatic relations. The network was eventually dismantled by the Gestapo, and many of its members were executed. 
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