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Soviet Union [USSR] Personnel
Party personnel policy toward the KGB was designed not only to
ensure that the overall security needs of the state were met by
means of an efficient and well-functioning political police
organization but also to prevent the police from becoming too
powerful and threatening the party leadership. Achieving these two
goals required the careful recruitment and promotion of KGB
officials who had the appropriate education, experience, and
qualifications as determined by the party. Judging from the limited
biographical information on KGB employees, the Komsomol and the
party were the main sources of recruitment to the KGB. Russians and
Ukrainians predominated in the KGB; other nationalities were only
minimally represented. In the non-Russian republics, KGB chairmen
were often representatives of the indigenous nationality, as were
other KGB employees. In such areas, however, KGB headquarters in
Moscow appointed Russians to the post of first deputy chairman, and
they monitored activities and reported back to Moscow.
Career patterns indicate that the KGB was a highly professional
bureaucratic group with distinct characteristics that set it off
from other Soviet elites. After the purges at the top levels of the
police apparatus and the introduction of party and other cadres
into the newly created KGB in 1954, the influx of outsiders was
small, except at the very highest levels. Turnover rates were low
in the KGB as compared with other bureaucracies, and KGB officials
enjoyed security of tenure, as well as numerous material rewards.
The KGB became--and in the 1980s remained--a closed bureaucracy of
specialists, similar to the military. The homogeneity of their
backgrounds and their sense of eliteness created a strong esprit de
corps among KGB officials.
Data as of May 1989
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