Welcome to Russian History Retold, episode 262, KGB operations in Europe and the U.S.

Part 1.

Last time we talked about the historical relationship between Russia and Poland.

Today we begin a two-part series about the KGB and its spying activities.

My sources for these two episodes are A Failed Empire by Vadislav Zubak, Reds, McCarthyism

in 20th century America by Ted Morgan, and the Sword in the Shield, the Mithrokin Archive

and the secret history of the KGB by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mithrohen.

Before we get too deep into the subject, I'd like to share the numerous name changes

of what was to become the KGB.

While researching this topic, I thought it would come across a Monty Python skit as the

changes in names, leaders and operatives transformed at a blistering pace.

In December 1917, Lenin created a secret police force known as the Czecha.

His name was the All Russian Extraordinary Committee to combat counter-revolution and sabotage.

It was first headed by Felix Droginski, along with Jakov Peters, a Latvian Bolshevik.

Peters would be one of the many former heads of the secret police to be arrested and

executed during one of Stalin's many purges.

On February 6, 1922, the Czecha was turned into the GPU or State Political Directorate.

It was still led by Droginski, but now it was a subsidiary of the NKVD known as the

People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs.

This setup would only last a year and a half, as the GPU would transform into the OGPU or

the All-Union State Political Board.

Nevertheless, Droginski would lead it until his death in 1926, and this is where, of natural

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