Hence, during the Second World War (1939–45)—at the Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945) conferences—Big Three Ally Joseph Stalin of the USSR, was better informed about the war affairs of his US and UK allies than they were about his.

Mar 29, 2022 · As the Soviet Union's primary secret intelligence agency during the Cold War, the KGB gained notoriety for its widespread global espionage. But the organization—and its communist-era...

Mar 3, 2025 · As Joseph Stalin consolidated his power and directed the modernization of the Soviet Union, the OGPU implemented the forced collectivization of agriculture and the deportation of the kulaks (wealthy peasants) and staged show trials of “enemies of the people.”

Joseph Stalin (ruled 1924-1953) ranks with Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot as one of the 20th century's greatest villains. Stalin was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of Russians. Among the victims were women, children and some of his closest friends.

Mar 1, 2018 · Its precursor was the People’s Commissariat for State Security, or NKGB, which operated immediately prior to and during World War II when Joseph Stalin was the head of state.

Feb 16, 2018 · When Stalin saw John Wayne’s power as an virulent anti-Communist, he sent (allegedly) more than one hit squad to kill him.

Though the KGB as we know it was formally established post-Stalin, its predecessor organizations played a pivotal role in enforcing Stalin's totalitarian rule. Under Stalin's command, the secret police transformed into a formidable apparatus of repression and terror, culminating in the infamous Great Purge or the Great Terror of the late 1930s.

The KGB, the Soviet Union's vast secret police and espionage apparatus, technically was dismantled decades ago. But it still exists under a new name.

Nov 1, 2019 · Only after the death of Stalin did the KGB, or Commissariat for State Security, formally come into being. Despite its fearsome reputation in the west, the KGB was actually more effective in policing the U.S.S.R. and its eastern European satellite states than in fomenting revolution in western Europe or stealing military secrets from the U.S.

After Stalin’s death in 1953 and the founding of the KGB, the Soviet government promised that its secret police would be subject to collective party scrutiny on all levels as a way of preventing rulers from using secret operatives against each other.