Committee for State Security of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic

The Committee for State Security of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (KGB of the BSSR; Belarusian: Камітэт дзяржаўнай бяспекі Беларускай ССР; Russian: Комитет государственной безопасности Белорусской ССР) was the main state security organization in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was a branch of the Committee for State Security of USSR.

The KGB emblem.

Committee for State Security in Minsk

History

In the early 20th century, the Russian Cheka led by Felix Dzherzhinsky began operating on Belarusian land. On 1 March 1922, under the auspices, Central Executive Committee of the BSSR, a State Political Directorate is formed.  The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the KGB's predecessor agency, was in the mid-1950s involved in many Stalinist purges around the country, especially on Belarus. In March 1954, the central government in Moscow began reforms for the Soviet Interior Ministry, during which the Committee for State Security (KGB), was a subordinate agency under Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. On 19 May 1954, the Soviet government in Belarus made the decision to form a republican affiliate of the KGB, led by Alexander Perepelitsyn. In December 1978, the KGB of the BSSR became an independent institution of the national agency, having responsibility for all assets in Belarus. In September 1991, the Supreme Soviet of Belarus renamed the KGB of the BSSR to the KGB of the Republic of Belarus, which became the new national security body of the state. A month earlier, the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic signed, effectively declaring Belarus an independent state from the USSR.

Chairmen

Chairmen of Cheka of BSSR

• (1918–1920)
• (1920–1921)

Chairmen of GPU under the Government of BSSR

• (1921–1923)
• (1923–1924)
• Filipp Medved (1924–1925)
• (1925–1929)
• (1929–1931)
• Stanislav Redens (1931)
• (1931–1932)
• Leonid Zakovsky (1932–1934)

People's Commissars of Internal Affairs of BSSR

• Leonid Zakovsky (1934)
• Izrail Leplevsky (1934–1936)
• (1936—1937)
• (1937–1938)
• (1938)
• Lavrentiy Tsanava (1938–1946)

Ministers of State Security of BSSR

• Lavrentiy Tsanava (1946–1951)
• (1951–1954)

Chairmen of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of BSSR

• Alexander Perepelitsyn - April 6, 1954 – August 31, 1959
• Vasily Petrov - October 13, 1959 – August 10, 1970
• Yakov Nikulkin - June 23, 1970 – August 4, 1980
• Veniamin Baluev - August 4, 1980 – November 24, 1990
• Eduard Shirkovsky - November 16, 1990 – September 1991

See also

• Soviet repression in Belarus
• KGB (Belarus)

References

1. "Комитет государственной безопасности Республики Беларусь". www.kgb.gov.by (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2016-06-08. Retrieved 2017-09-10.