State Political Directorate

(GPU pri NKVD RSFSR)
Honorary Cheka-GPU agent badge (15th Anniversary of the Cheka foundation)
Agency overview
Formed	February 6, 1922; 102 years ago (February 6, 1922)
Preceding agency	Cheka
Dissolved	November 15, 1923; 100 years ago (November 15, 1923)
Superseding agency	OGPU
Type	Secret police
Headquarters	Lubyanka Square, Moscow
Agency executive	Felix Dzerzhinsky (1922–23)
Parent agency	Council of the People's Commissars

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.

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 (RSFSR)

Establishment

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

Chronology of Soviet security agencies
1917–22	Cheka under Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (All-Russian Extraordinary Commission)
1922–23	GPU under NKVD of the RSFSR (State Political Directorate)
1920–91	PGU KGB or INO under Cheka (later KGB) of the USSR (First Chief Directorate)
1923–34	OGPU under SNK of the USSR (Joint State Political Directorate)
1934–46	NKVD of the USSR (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs)
1934–41	GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR (Main Directorate of State Security of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs)
1941	NKGB of the USSR (People's Commissariat of State Security)
1943–46	NKGB of the USSR (People's Commissariat for State Security)
1946–53	MGB of the USSR (Ministry of State Security)
1946–54	MVD of the USSR (Ministry of Internal Affairs)
1947–51	KI MID of the USSR (Committee of Information under Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
1954–78	KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (Committee for State Security)
1978–91	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	KOGG of the USSR (Committee for the Protection of the State Border)
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Internal security

On paper, the new agency was supposed to act with more restraint than the Cheka. For example, unlike the Cheka, it did not 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 reorganized as 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

Badge	Political	Military
none	Cотрудник 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 Special assignment officer	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