People's Commissariat for State Security

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The People's Commissariat for State Security ( NKGB ) ( Russian: Народный комиссариат государственной безопасности , Narodnij Komissariat Gossudarstwennoi Besopasnosti ) was an independent state commissioner from February to July 1941. It was then separated from the Central Administration for State Security (GUGB) within the NKVD . The Commissariat was again directly subordinate to the Interior Ministry of the USSR .

In 1943 it was again spun off from the NKVD and, as an independent state commissioner, was treated as a ministry .

Under Vsevolod Nikolajewitsch Merkulow , who headed the commissariat both in 1941 and from 1943 to 1946, the NKGB was responsible for Soviet foreign intelligence (1st administration), counter-espionage (2nd administration), transport security (3rd administration), and the organization of Terror and sabotage in the areas occupied by the Germans (4th administration), the government's encryption and intelligence service (5th administration), as well as the protection of the party and state leadership of the Soviet Union (6th administration). From November 1945, the protection of Soviet nuclear research and industry was added as a further area of ​​responsibility (Department K).

The NKGB was renamed the Ministry for State Security (MGB) on March 15, 1946 , which became the predecessor organization of the KGB .

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