KGB

American  

Or K.G.B.

1. the intelligence and internal-security agency of the former Soviet Union, organized in 1954 and responsible for enforcement of security regulations, protection of political leaders, the guarding of borders, and clandestine operations abroad.

---

KGB British  

abbreviation

1. the former Soviet secret police, founded in 1954 Compare GRU

---

KGB Cultural  

1. The secret police of the former Soviet Union.

---

Etymology

Origin of KGB

< Russian, for K ( omitét ) g ( osudárstvennoĭ ) b ( ezopásnosti ) Committee for State Security

Example Sentences

As a KGB operative and then an assiduous apparatchik, he avoided attention.

From BBC • May 30, 2026

The monotone transmission recalled the manner in which deep-cover Cold War spies for the KGB and CIA once received orders.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2026

Dmitri had to give up his dream of joining the KGB when his hope that the new president, Boris Yeltsin, would be removed by the remnants of the Communist regime were dashed.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026

When Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia in 2000, a reporter asked what he did as a KGB case officer in Dresden, East Germany.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 22, 2026

By that point, nearly every effort to send a US agent behind the Iron Curtain had failed; the KGB was simply too well entrenched and too vigilant for the Americans to sneak past its nets.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau