Neighbors

Professional slang, originating with KGB predecessor agencies, used to identify officials of the Soviet diplomatic and military intelligence services. The term reflects the physical proximity of the buildings of the KGB and its predecessors to the Commissariat, or Narcomat, of Foreign Affairs in Bolshaya Lubyanka Street (until the early 1950s, when the Commissariat moved to another building). Initially, GB officers used the term “neighbors” to designate the diplomats across the street. Later, the term “neighbors” was used by NKVD foreign intelligence to designate the military intelligence service or its officers, who were also sometimes called “military neighbors.” In World War II Soviet intelligence cipher correspondence that was decoded in the course of Operation Venona, “neighbors” was the code name for members of another Soviet intelligence service.