ABSTRACT
This chapter presents biographical information on leading members of the state security apparatus since Stalin’s death. It examines both patterns of appointments and turnover in different posts and the changes in the party and government status of Committee of State Security (KGB) officials from 1954 to the present—Central Committee membership, republic party bureau membership, attendance at party congresses, and representation on USSR and republic Supreme Soviets. The information provided in the foregoing tables offers a general picture of the KGB elite; however, rather selective nature of the sample and disparities in the positions of those included do not allow for an examination of such questions as tenure and turnover. The sparsity of data on first deputy and deputy KGB chiefs for the republics, Moscow, and Leningrad precludes making numerical estimates on the turnover rate and average tenure for this group. The typical KGB employee is presented as one who spent most of his career in the security organs and who gained a higher education.
