ABSTRACT
Given the highly sensitive nature of the Committee of State Security's (KGB) role in the Soviet political system, it is not surprising that official sources are reticent about its functions and organization and even less forthcoming on how it is controlled by the party. The KGB is a union-republic state committee operating through corresponding state committees of the same name in the fourteen non-Russian republics. As a rule, union-republic ministries and agencies are less centralized than all-union ministerial agencies because some of their functions devolve to the branches. KGB officers have military ranks analogous to those of the Soviet army. Although the Soviet security police has always been a state rather than a party institution, the party has considered this agency to be its own vital arm and has sought to maintain the closest supervision and control over its activities. The KGB is included in the category of investigative organs and thus is under the formal purview of the AO Department.
