ÁVH: Hungarian State Security (the secret police agency).
BOB: Berlin Operation Base. The name given to the CIA’s station in West Berlin.
CIA: Central Intelligence Agency. A United States government agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior US policymakers.
CPSU: Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
DRE: Cuban Student Revolutionary Directorate (an anti-Castro organisation).
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation. The organisation that protects and defends the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats and enforces the criminal laws of the United States.
FPCC: Fair Play for Cuba Committee. A pro-Castro organisation based in the United States.
FRD: Revolutionary Democratic Front. An anti-Castro Cuban exile organisation that combined a number of smaller groups of like mind.
G-2: Cuban intelligence organisation.
GKKNIR: The Soviet Union’s State Committee for the Coordination of Scientific Research Work. This organisation was formed in 1961 following the reorganisation of the GNTK.
GNTK: The Soviet Union’s State Committee for Science and Technology.
GRU: An acronym for the Russian for ‘Main Intelligence Directorate’, being short for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. (It still exists under the same name but now relating only to Russia.)
HVA: Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, or General Reconnaissance Administration: the foreign intelligence section of the Stasi.
ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.
IRBM: Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile.
JCS: United States ‘Joint Chiefs of Staff’ body.
JM/WAVE: The CIA’s station in Miami.
KGB: Committee for State Security. The most important Soviet Union national security agency covering internal security, intelligence, and the secret police. It operated from 1954 until 1991. See also ‘KGB History’.
KGB History
The Cheka (All-Russian Extraordinary Committee to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage) was established after the October Revolution in 1917. It was under the control of the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs).
In February 1922 the Cheka was replaced by the State Political Directorate (GPU), which was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). In November 1922, when the Soviet Union proper was formed, the GPU had to be reorganised to exercise control over state security throughout the new union. The new organisation was called the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and control of it passed from the NKVD (still an organisation of the RSFSR) to the Council of People’s Commissars.
In 1934 the NKVD was transformed to encompass all of the Soviet Republics (not just Russia) and the OGPU was incorporated into this new NKVD as the Main Directorate for State Security (GUGB).
In February 1941 the sections of the NKVD responsible for military counterintelligence became part of the People’s Commissariats of Defence and the Navy (RKKA and RKKF). The GUGB was separated from the NKVD and renamed the People’s Commissariat for State Security (NKGB). Five months later, after the German invasion, the NKVD and NKGB were reunited. The military counterintelligence sections were returned to the NKVD in January 1942.
In April 1943 the military counterintelligence sections were again transferred to the RKKA and RKKF, becoming SMERSH (an acronym of the Russian for ‘Death to Spies’). At the same time, the NKGB was again separated from the NKVD.
In 1946 all Soviet commissariats were made into ministries. The NKVD became the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and the NKGB was renamed as the Ministry of State Security (MGB).
On 5 March 1953 – the day Stalin died – Lavrentiy Beria merged the MGB back into the MVD, and in a subsequent reorganisation in 1954 Khrushchev once more split the police and security services to make them:
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), responsible for the criminal police and correctional facilities; and,
The Committee for State Security (KGB), responsible for the political police, military counterintelligence, intelligence, personal protection of the leadership, and confidential communications.
KPD: Communist Party of Germany.
MDA: The Soviet Union’s Military-Diplomatic Academy.
MDP: Hungarian Workers’ Party.
MECAS: The British-run ‘Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies’ based in the Lebanon.
MGB: Ministry for State Security. See also ‘KGB History’.
MI5: Originally ‘Military Intelligence 5’, but the title lingered on to become the popular short title of the United Kingdom’s Security Service – the national security intelligence agency that protects the UK against threats to national security from espionage, terrorism and sabotage, against the activities of foreign agents, and against actions intended to overthrow or undermine parliamentary democracy.
MI6: Originally ‘Military Intelligence 6’, but the title lingered on to become the popular short title of the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service. See ‘SIS’.
MRBM: Medium-Range Ballistic Missile.
MVD: Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs.
NASA: The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
NKGB: People’s Commissariat for State Security. See also ‘KGB History’.
NKVD: People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs. See also ‘KGB History’.
OVIR: The Soviet Union’s Visa and Registration Department.
RD: Revolutionary Directorate. A Cuban anti-Communist organisation.
SAM: Surface-to-air missile.
SGA: Special Group Augmented. A United States group of senior military, political and CIA personnel with the task of overseeing the activities of Operation Mongoose.
SIS: Secret Intelligence Service. Also commonly known as MI6. The United Kingdom agency that provides a global covert capability to promote and defend the national security and economic well-being of the United Kingdom.
SMERSH: An acronym of the Russian for ‘Death to Spies’. It was the nickname given by Stalin to his new security organisation, the ‘Main Counterintelligence Directorate’.
Stasi: East German Ministry for State Security. In essence, the East German secret police.
UB: Polish Military Intelligence organisation.
USSR: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
WWI, WWII, WWIII: First World War, Second World War, Third World War.