i Data from Kokurin and Petrov, Lubyanka, pp. 7-102; Waller, J. M., Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today (Boulder, CO): Westview Press, 1994), pp. 118-141, and Knight, A., Spies Without Cloaks: The KGB’s Successors (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 30-37; Mlechin, L., Predsedateli KGB: Rassekrechennye sud’by [The KGB Chairmen: Declassified Biographies] (Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 1999a), pp. 648-649 (in Russian).
ii The Special Council (OSO), an out-of-judicial tribunal, was established under the NKVD in 1934. At first the OSO was in charge of the decisions on the administrative exile of persons “dangerous for the society,” the imprisonment in labor camps up to 5 years, and the expulsion of foreign citizens from the USSR (p. 274 in Chebrikov, Victor M., G. F. Grigorenko, N. A. Dushin, and F. D. Bobkov (eds.) Istoriya sovetskikh organov gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti. Uchebnik. “Sovershenno sekretno” [History of the Soviet Security Service. A Textbook. “Top Secret”] (Vysshaya Shkola KGB: Moscow, 1977), 600 pp. (in Russian). Available at www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/documents.htm. The Commissar/Minister of Internal Affairs (or State Security) chaired the OSO, and his deputies were the Council members. In 1937, the 5-year limit was increased to 10 years. In the mid–1940s—early 1950s, the OSO applied sentences of 20 and 25 years, and in 1953, for lifetime imprisonment. The OSO existed under the MVD until 1950. From 1946 till March 1953 there was the OSO under the MGB, and from March 1953 till September 1953 the OSO was under the MVD. It was disbanded on September 1, 1953 (Rossi, Jacques, The Gulag Handbook [Paragon House: New York, 1989], pp. 271-272; Kokurin and Petrov, Lubyanka, pp. 130-131).
| Name of the Chairman1 | Security Service2 | Years |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Dzerzhinsky, Feliks Edmundovich | VCheKa/GPU/OGPU | 1917 (Dec.)—1926 (July) |
| 2. Menzhinsky*, Vyacheslav Rudolfovich | OGPU | 1926 (July)—1934 (May) |
| 3. Yagoda*, Genrikh Grigoryevich | NKVD | 1934 (July)—1936 (Sept.) |
| 4. Yezhov*, Nikolai Ivanovich | NKVD | 1936 (Sept.)—1938 (Nov.) |
| 5. Beria*, Lavrentii Pavlovich | NKVD | 1938 (Nov.)—1945 (Dec.) |
| 6. Merkulov*, Vsevolod Nikolaevich | NKGB | 1941 (Feb.—July) |
| 7. Merkulov*, Vsevolod Nikolaevich | NKGB/MGB | 1943 (April)—1946 (May) |
| 8. Kruglov*, Sergei Nikiforovich | NKVD | 1945 (Dec.)—1946 (March) |
| 9. Abakumov*, Viktor Semyonovich | MGB | 1946 (May)—1951 (July) |
| 10. Kruglov*, Sergei Nikiforovich | MVD | 1946 (March)—1953 (March) |
| 11. Ogol’tsov*, Sergei Ivanovich | Acting, MGB | 1951 (Aug.—Dec.) |
| 12. Ignatiev*, Semyon Denisovich | MGB | 1951 (Dec.)—1953 (March) |
| 13. Beria*, Lavrentii Pavlovich | MVD | 1953 (March—June) |
| 14. Kruglov*, Sergei Nikiforovich | MVD | 1953 (June)—1956 (Jan.) |
| 14. Serov*, Ivan Aleksandrovich | KGB | 1954 (March)—1958 (Dec.) |
| 15. Shelepin, Aleksandr Nikolaevich | KGB | 1958 (Dec.)—1961 (Nov.) |
| 16. Semichastny, Vladimir Yefimovich | KGB | 1961 (Nov.)—1967 (May) |
| 17. Andropov*, Yurii Vladimirovich | KGB | 1967 (May)—1982 (May) |
| 18. Fyodorchuk, Vitalii Vasilyevich | KGB | 1982 (May—Dec.) |
| 19. Chebrikov, Viktor Mikhailovich | KGB | 1982 (Dec.)—1988 (Oct.) |
| 20. Kryuchkov*, Vladimir Aleksandrovich | KGB | 1988 (Oct.)—1991 (August) |
| 21. Shebarshin, Leonid Vladimirovich | Acting, KGB | 1991 (August 22) |
| 22. Bakatin*, Vadim Viktorovich | KGB/MSB | 1991 (August—December) |
| 23. Primakov*, Yevgenii Maximovich | TsSR/SVR | 1991—1996 (Jan.) |
| 24. Barannikov, Viktor Pavlovich | MBVD | 1991 (Dec.)—1992 (Jan.) |
| 25. Ivanenko, Viktor Valentinovich | AFB | 1992 (Jan., one week) |
| 26. Barannikov, Viktor Pavlovich | AFB/MB | 1992 (Jan.)—1993 (Sept.) |
| 27. Golushko*, Nikolai Mikhailovich | MB/FSK | 1993 (Dec.)—1994 (Febr.) |
| 28. Stepashin*, Sergei Vadimiovich3 | FSK/FSB | 1994 (Febr.)—1995 (June) |
| 29. Barsukov, Mikhail Ivanovich | FSB | 1995 (July)—1996 (June) |
| 30. Kovalev, Nikolai Dmitrievich | FSB | 1996 (July)—1998 (July) |
| 31. Putin*, Vladimir Vladimirovich4 | FSB | 1998 (July)—1999 (August) |
| 32. Patrushev, Nikolai Platonovich | FSB | 1999 (August)—present |
| 33. Trubnikov*, Vyacheslav Ivanovich | SVR | 1996 (Jan.)—2000 (May) |
| 34. Lebedev, Sergei Ivanovich5 | SVR | 2000 (May)—present |