Committee for State Security of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic

The Committee for State Security of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (KGB of the BSSR; Belarusian: Камітэт дзяржаўнай бяспекі Беларускай ССР; Russian: Комитет государственной безопасности Белорусской ССР) was the main state security organization in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was a branch of the Committee for State Security of USSR.^[1]

History

In the early 20th century, the Russian Cheka led by Felix Dzherzhinsky began operating on Belarusian land. On 1 March 1922, under the auspices, Central Executive Committee of the BSSR, a State Political Directorate is formed. The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the KGB's predecessor agency, was in the mid-1950s involve in mant Stalinist purges around the country, especially on Belarus. In March 1954, the central government in Moscow began reforms for the Soviet Interior Ministry, during which the Committee for State Security (KGB), was a subordinate agency under Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. On 19 May 1954, the Soviet government in Belarus made the decision to form a republican affiliate of the KGB, led by Alexander Perepelitsyn. In December 1978, the KGB of the BSSR became an independent institution of the national agency, having responsibility for all assets in Belarus. In September 1991, the Supreme Soviet of Belarus renamed the KGB of the BSSR to the KGB of the Republic of Belarus, which became the new national security body of the state. A month earlier, the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic signed, effectively declaring Belarus an independent state from the USSR.