NKGB

Abbreviation for Narodnyi kommissariat gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti (The People’s Commissariat of State Security), a Soviet government agency that was detached from the NKVD from February to July of 1941 and again from April 1943 until March 1946. The agency was headed by Narcom Vsevolod Merkulov. NKVD foreign intelligence came under the NKGB’s First Directorate and was headed by Pavel Fitin.