Main Directorate of State Security

Main Directorate of State Security
Главное управление государственной безопасности
Agency overview
Formed	10 July 1934; 20 July 1941
Preceding agencies	Cheka (1917–1922); GPU (1922–1923); OGPU (1923–1934);
Dissolved	3 February 1941; 14 April 1943
Superseding agency	NKGB (1941)/(1943–1946);
Type	Intelligence agency; Secret police
Jurisdiction	Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union
Headquarters	Lubyanka Building, 2 Bolshaya Lubyanka Street, Moscow, Soviet Union
Agency executives	Genrikh Yagoda (1934–1936); Yakov Agranov (1936–1937); Mikhail Frinovsky (1937–1938); Lavrentiy Beria (1938); Vsevolod Merkulov (1938–1941)/(1941–1943);
Parent agency	People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs

The Main Directorate of State Security (Russian: Glavnoe upravlenie gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti, Главное управление государственной безопасности, ГУГБ, GUGB) was the name of the Soviet Union's most important security body within the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs NKVD USSR. At the time of its existence, which was from July 10, 1934 to February 3, 1941, the GUGB reflected exactly the Secret Operational Directorate within OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars, which operated within OGPU structure from 1923 to 1931/32. An intelligence service and secret police from July 1934 to February 1941, it was run under the auspices of the Peoples Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD). Its first head was first deputy of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs (then Genrikh Yagoda), Commissioner 1st rank of State Security Yakov Agranov.