History UsefulNotes / MoscowCentre

* Marvel's ComicBook/BlackWidow was an ex-KGB agent, while her successor, Yelena Belova, worked for the FSB.
** Additionally, ComicBook/BuckyBarnes was, as the Winter Soldier, the KGB's most feared assassin.

By the way, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}} Belarussian]] branch of the KGB wasn't dissolved. [[TheRemnant It still exists under this very name]], though at least border control functions were transferred to a separate committee. Contrast with neighboring former Soviet republic Lithuania, which has turned their old KGB building into a museum of sorts against such forces (having been subject to [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia the Okhrana]], the [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Gestapo]], ''and'' the KGB will give you a healthy distaste for secret police[[note]]Even their current agency closest to filling that niche, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Security_Department_of_Lithuania VSD]], is significatly defanged: anti-corruption activities were handed over to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Investigation_Service STT]], and border guard and financial crime investigation to their Ministry of Interior. Curiously, foreign intelligence gathering is still VSD's responsibility.[[/note]]).

It's said that Beria [[DirtyCoward begged for his life before he was shot]], something people considered a kind of poetic justice given that he sent so many others to their deaths without mercy (to give a measure of the difference in accounts about him, other rumors claim he actually tried an OpenShirtTaunt, but failed due to the high quality of said shirt). Another rumor is that during his arrest he, surprised and agitated, was personally shot by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, whom Khruschev reportedly brought specifically in case of him resisting, and his later public process was actually a sham. This rumor probably inspired the similar scene in Creator/DavidWeber's ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington Ashes of Victory]]'', with [[spoiler:Admiral Theisman shooting the Committee of Public Safety Chairman and StateSec's head Oscar Saint-Just, allegedly based in large part on Beria]].

[[BigEntrance (CRASH)]] [[TalkToTheFist (SLAP)]]\\

[[TalkToTheFist (SLAP)]]\\
'''''We're asking the questions here!'''''

* Several other acts of sabotage and assassination. It isn't unusual for Police in European states to occasionally dig up booby traps (called ''Molniya'' Devices - Russian for "Lightning") and document piles left behind by the KGB. [[RagnarokProofing Some are still active]], often with fatal consequences for the ones making the discovery.

The KGB also engaged in some other assassination operations, mainly of defectors, working with other allied organisations to do this. The most infamous was the 1978 assassination of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Markov Georgi Markov]], a Bulgarian living in London, involved an umbrella firing pellets filled with Ricin. The statute of limitations recently expired on that case, [[KarmaHoudini with no one being brought to justice]]. They were suspected to have been behind the attempted assassination of (Polish) Pope John Paul II in 1981 by Mehmet Ali Agca - which turned out to be a false assumption as the assassin claimed that it had been ordered by the Iranians. Allegations that Lee Harvey Oswald was in the KGB's employ have little to substantiate them. The service itself, however, naturally denied all these accusations, stating that they renounced such methods since just after the war. [[ImplausibleDeniability But then, they would say that, wouldn't they?]]

In addition to killing people, the KGB also liked to engage in sexual compromise operations (which they called ''Kompromat'') and sent forged documents purporting to be from Western intelligence agencies etc. to unsuspecting or friendly journalists. It's alleged that their successor, the FSB, still does the honey trap thing. Any comment on the relevance of this to current affairs [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment is best discussed elsewhere.]]

By the way, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}} Belarussian]] branch of the KGB wasn't dissolved. [[TheRemnant It still exists under this very name]], though at least border control functions were transferred to a separate committee. Contrast with neighboring former Soviet republic Lithuania, which has turned their old KGB building into a museum of sorts against such forces (having been subject to [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia the Okhrana]], the [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Gestapo]], ''and'' the KGB will give you a healthy distaste for secret police -- even their current agency closest to filling that niche, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Security_Department_of_Lithuania VSD], is significatly defanged: anti-corruption activities were handed over to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Investigation_Service STT], and border guard and financial crime investigation to their Ministry of Interior).

* First Chief Directorate (Foreign Operations): [[ShapedLikeItself Dealt with foreign operations]]. This moved out of the overcrowded Lubyanka Building to a dedicated facility (now SVR HQ) in Yasenevo in the early 1970s. During this time, the man assigned to move the archives - a chap called Vasiliy Mitrokhin - took extensive notes on them, [[TheMole which he would later take to the UK.]] Most of what we know of the KGB today comes from his work.
** This included Vympel - also known as Directorate T. It was a special operations group dealing in things like sabotage.
** The most infamous part, however, was Directorate S - also known as the Illegals Division. These were the spies who [[TheInfiltration infiltrated into other nations]], with [[DeepCoverAgent deep-cover identities]] and [[ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory perfect secrecy]]. [[ParanoiaFuel Many of them are still active.]]
** There was also Service A - whose job was disinformation. They did stuff like putting fake articles and news items into Newspapers, Journals, Radio and TV Broadcasts, and generally screwing with the public's mind. That's right, [[UrExample these guys were dealing in "Fake News" before it was even a thing]]. How effective it was, is somewhat hazy, [[MilesGloriosus since they had the bad habit of exaggerating their success]]. They're still at it, just more discreet. The actual impacts of this, or lack thereof, [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment are best discussed elsewhere]].
** There was Line X - who stole scientific and technological data. They infiltrated firms like Lockheed Martin and Boeing to swipe their plans, as well as details on defence contracts by the US Military and other military secrets worldwide. The biggest Line X source was Japan, which was prone to corporate corruption and which, consequently, provided a wealth of data on classified military projects as well as vital science and technology data. The overall failure was simply that the USSR's economic model was [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption too inefficient to apply the stolen concepts properly]].

After its role in the failed August 1991 coup, the organisation was dissolved, being separated into several independent agencies, such as the FSO (Federal Protection Service), FSK (Federal Counterintelligence Service), etc. This model, however, proved largely unworkable, and most of these services were later reamalgamated into one. This KGB successor, the FSB (''Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti'' - Federal Security Service) is now the main domestic security service. Foreign intelligence, on the other hand, remained independent, called the SVR (''Sluzhba Vneshnei Razvedki'' - Foreign Intelligence Service), something that fiction writers tend to forget.

The FSB also inherited the Border Guard service from the KGB, including its maritime component, and as such is also responsible for Coast Guard duty. This FSB's pocket navy is not that big and is armed with relatively small warships, but most of them are quite modern and well equipped, compared with the Navy proper, as the FSB tended to be better financed and had lower operational expenses, so it could afford ordering new ships. Same is the situation with the land component, the Border Troops. In times of war both are to be folded into the regular military.

By the way, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}} Belarussian]] branch of the KGB wasn't dissolved. [[TheRemnant It still exists under this very name]]. Contrast with neighboring former Soviet republic Lithuania, which has turned their old KGB building into a museum of sorts against such forces (having been subject to [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia the Okhrana]], the [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Gestapo]], ''and'' the KGB will give you a healthy distaste for secret police).

* In ''Anime/BlackLagoon'', a former KGB officer shows up as a contact of [[TheBaroness Balalaika]] during the Yakuza arc: since she's a former Soviet army officer, she hates his guts and ends up framing him for some of her activities against the Yakuza she's fighting; when they then kill him, she's able to justify escalating her actions against the Yakuza to her superiors.

''We're asking the questions here!''

''We're asking the questions here.''

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Roleplay/Covert81'' features a fictional black ops section of the KGB called Chameleon[[note]]The word is almost identical in Russian and English, except in Russian it's [[XtremeKoolLetterz Khameleon]][[/note]]. It is placed under the Fifteen Directorate (Security of Government Installations) for concealment reasons.
[[/folder]]

It's said that Beria [[DirtyCoward begged for his life before he was shot]], something people considered a kind of poetic justice given that he sent so many others to their deaths without mercy (to give a measure of the difference in accounts about him, other rumors claim he actually tried an OpenShirtTaunt, but failed due to the high quality of said shirt). Another rumor is that during his arrest he, surprised and agitated, was personally shot by [[FourStarBadass Marshal Georgy Zhukov]], whom Khruschev reportedly brought specifically in case of him resisting, and his later public process was actually a sham. This rumor probably inspired the similar scene in Creator/DavidWeber's ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington Ashes of Victory]]'', with [[spoiler:Admiral Theisman shooting the Committee of Public Safety Chairman and StateSec's head Oscar Saint-Just, allegedly based in large part on Beria]].

Beria was less trigger-happy but, unfortunately, [[AxeCrazy completely insane]]. That said, another take on Beria views him as a pragmatic man (and also a serial rapist) who was brought in specifically to do something with the unholy mess the Great Purges turned into. Since he was the first person to lose in the political infighting which came after Stalin's death, there is plenty of opportunity to suspect WrittenByTheWinners and scapegoating in his case, with a number of researchers denying the sexual crimes as well, but that's [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment a subject yet to be resolved]].

In addition to killing people, the KGB also liked to engage in sexual compromise operations (which they called ''Kompromat'') and sent forged documents purporting to be from Western intelligence agencies etc. to unsuspecting or friendly journalists. It's alleged that their successor, the FSB, still does the honey trap thing. Any comment on the relevance of this to current affairs [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement is best discussed elsewhere.]]

** There was also Service A - whose job was disinformation. They did stuff like putting fake articles and news items into Newspapers, Journals, Radio and TV Broadcasts, and generally screwing with the public's mind. That's right, [[UrExample these guys were dealing in "Fake News" before it was even a thing]]. How effective it was, is somewhat hazy, [[MilesGloriosus since they had the bad habit of exaggerating their success]]. They're still at it, just more discreet. The actual impacts of this, or lack thereof, [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement are best discussed elsewhere]].

'''Not to be confused with the {{GRU}}'''

It is important to not to confuse the KGB with the {{GRU}} (''Glavnoje Razvedyvatel'noje Upravlenije''- Main Intelligence Directorate). The latter, still existing, is a military intelligence service and existed partly as a military check on the power of the KGB. The GRU primarily focused on external intelligence and security, while the KGB dealt with the internal, but there are exceptions to this rule in both camps. Regardless, the KGB gets more attention in fiction.

* In ''Anime/BlackLagoon'', a former KGB officer shows up as a contact of [[TheBaroness Belalika]] during the yakuza arc. Since she's a former Soviet army officer, she hates his guts and ends up framing him for some of her activities against the yakuza she's fighting. When they then kill him, she's able to justify escalating her actions against the yakuza to her superiors.

* ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'': Kirill (played by Creator/KarlUrban) is an FSB agent who works as a gun-for-hire for oligarch Yuri Gretkov to assassinate Bourne and frame him for the theft of CIA documents. This fails, so Bourne later tracks him to Moscow.
* ''Film/TheAssignment1997'' involves a plot to frame terrorist Carlos the Jackal as a CIA informant so the KGB will kill him. The climax has a KGB Alfa Group assaulting the safehouse that Carlos is staying in.

* A great number of Film/JamesBond villains (in the books anyway) are Soviet agents of some sort. In the films, the KGB-affiliated bad guys are usually renegades -- General Gogol, the head of the KGB for most of the Roger Moore era, only goes as far as FriendlyEnemy status in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', and in ''Film/AViewToAKill'' he even gives Bond a medal.

* A majority of Creator/TomClancy's fictional works involve the KGB or its successors. Until the ''Literature/TheSumOfAllFears'', people of Moscow Centre were always cast as the antagonists, though infrequently as outright villains.

* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry2LookingForLoveInSeveralWrongPlaces'' has Larry evade the KGB after he accidentally steals an onklunk holding top secret U.S. government microfiche, unbeknownst to him. If he ever gets captured. he will be '''TORTURED TO DEATH''' by the KGB with... alto saxophone reeds.

* One episode of ''Series/DeadliestWarrior'' featured agents of this group versus that of the {{CIA}}.

Stalin [[EvenEvilHasStandards never trusted or liked Beria]], who had a well-deserved reputation as a [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil depraved sexual predator]], even if he did consider him a useful attack dog. Stalin once went crazy with worry upon hearing that his own beloved daughter was alone in a house with the NKVD chief, and sent armed men to escort her away. Even as early as 1942, he told Beria's personal aide to "Send me everything this asshole writes down," just in case the need arose to have him purged like his predecessors (doesn't say that much, actually; in Stalin's times, it was normal and none too secret procedure with all officials, since he could feel the need to purge anyone sooner or later).

* ''Film/TheAssignment1997'' involves a plot to frame terrorist Carlos the Jackal as a CIA informant so the KGB will kill him. The climax has a KGB Alpha Group assaulting the safehouse that Carlos is staying in.

* ''[[VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry Leisure Suit Larry 2]]'' has Larry evade the KGB after he accidentally steals an onklunk holding top secret U.S. government microfiche, unbeknownst to him. If he ever gets captured. he will be '''TORTURED TO DEATH''' by the KGB with... alto saxophone reeds.

The name of this title is the way Soviet intelligence is referred to in the works of Creator/JohnLeCarre, but was also an internal name used by the KGB. Soviet spies in other countries, like Stirlitz from ''Seventeen Moments of Spring'', used the "Centre" moniker to denote their bosses in Moscow.

** There was Line X - who stole scientific and technological data. They infiltrated firms like Lockheed Martin and Boeing to swipe their plans, as well as details on defence contracts by the US Military and other military secrets worldwide. The biggest Line X source was Japan, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive which was prone to corporate corruption]] and which, consequently, provided a wealth of data on classified military projects as well as vital science and technology data. The overall failure was simply that the USSR's economic model was [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption too inefficient to apply the stolen concepts properly]].

After its role in the failed August 1991 coup, the organisation was dissolved, being separated into several independent agencies, such as the FSO (Federal Protection Service), FSK (Federal Counterintelligence Service), etc. This model, however, proved largely unworkable, and most of these services were later reamalgamated into one. This KGB successor, the FSB (''Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti'' - Federal Security Service) is now the main domestic security service. Foreign intelligence, on the other hand, remained independent, called the SVR (''Sluzhba Vneshnei Razvedki'' - Foreign Intelligence Service), something that fiction writers [[CriticalResearchFailure tend to forget]].

* Former KGB agents show up all the time in ''Series/BurnNotice''; most frequently, they are no longer in government service (typically as freelance assassins, "[[PrivateMilitaryContractors security consultants]]", or [[TheMafiya gangsters]], although sometimes they show up in association with TheCartel, especially if the Cartel in question is Venezuelan). A few show up as legitimate or only half-shady business owners (the businesses usually being [[CoolestClubEver nightclubs]]). The Russians who are in government service tend to be portrayed much more sympathetically.

After its role in the failed August 1991 coup, the organisation was dissolved, being separated into several independent agencies, such as the FSO (Federal Protection Service), FSK (Federal Counterintelligence Service), etc. This model, however, proved largely unworkable, and most of these services were later reamalgamated into one. For several years, this KGB successor was the main domestic security service, the FSB (''Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti'' - Federal Security Service). Foreign intelligence, on the other hand, remained independent, called the SVR (''Sluzhba Vneshnei Razvedki'' - Foreign Intelligence Service), something that fiction writers [[CriticalResearchFailure tend to forget]].

* ''AlphaProtocol'': Alexi Dravic. He is [[TheGhost only mentioned]] in one paragraph in the Alpha Protocol dossier, but he is (was?) apparently ex-KGB and a major rival of [[TheHandler Yancy Westridge]]. He is seemingly a legend amongst the espionage community, enough to earn him the moniker of "[[RedBaron Red Baron]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast of modern espionage]]".

* Getting five agents, later known as the Cambridge Five, into pretty high positions in British intelligence, including the infamous Kim Philby, who wound up running the Russia desk. Apparently the irony was not lost on him. They almost got Philby to the head of SIS itself before SIS caught on and he defected to the USSR.

The KGB also engaged in some other assassination operations, mainly of defectors, working with other allied organisations to do this. The most infamous was the 1978 assassination of Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian living in London, involved an umbrella firing pellets filled with ricin. The statute of limitations recently expired on that case, with no one being brought to justice. They ''may'' have been behind the attempted assassination of (Polish) Pope John Paul II in 1981. Allegations that Lee Harvey Oswald was in the KGB's employ have little to substantiate them. The service itself, however, naturally denied all these accusations, stating that they renounced such methods since just after the war. But then, they would say that, wouldn't they?

However, not all of these attacks were successful. One low moment for the KGB in 1954 being when an officer by the name of Nikolai Khokhlov sent to supervise the assassination of a lead figure of a Frankfurt-based group of Russian anti-communists, went to his target's flat, told the guy that had been sentenced to death by Moscow and that he was in charge of the group sent to kill him... but that he wasn't going to kill him. Then (once the target had presumably calmed down) Khokhlov, who had an attack of conscience, went to the authorities to defect and much publicity ensued. His wife back in the USSR (who said she would leave him if he did the murder) got sentenced to five years of internal exile and three years later, tried to kill him with thallium or polonium, but he survived. He eventually ended up a psychology professor in California and survived until 2006.

In addition to killing people, the KGB also liked to engage in sexual compromise operations and sent forged documents purporting to be from Western intelligence agencies etc. to unsuspecting or friendly journalists. It's alleged that their successor, the FSB, still does the honey pot thing. Any comment on the relevance of this to current affairs is best discussed elsewhere.

After its role in the failed August 1991 coup, the organisation was dissolved, being separated into several independent agencies, such as the FSO (Federal Protection Service), FSK (Federal Counterintelligence Service), etc. This model, however, proved largely unworkable, and most of these services were later reamalgamated into one. For several years, this KGB successor was the main domestic security service, the FSB (Federal Security Service). Foreign intelligence, on the other hand, remained independent, called the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service), something that fiction writers tend to forget.

* First Chief Directorate (Foreign Operations): [[ShapedLikeItself Dealt with foreign operations]].
** Possibly included Vympel, a special operations group dealing in things like sabotage.
** This moved out of the overcrowded Lubayanka to a dedicated facility (now SVR HQ) in Yasenevo in the early 1970s... during which time, the man assigned to move the archives took extensive notes on them, which he would later take to the UK...
* Second Chief Directorate: Internal political control.