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Having helped the Soviet government to control society through repression and intimidation, the KGB was also actively involved in overseas reconnaissance and counterintelligence at home. The Soviets paid special attention to this and to finances, making the KGB one of the most powerful and well-known special services in the world.
The First General Board of the KGB of the USSR, the PGU, participated in espionage in foreign countries. It consisted of many different departments that were in charge of intelligence operations planning, technical means, agent work, documents, radio communication, encryption, analysis of the obtained data.
Second, no less important was the task of Soviet security, the fight against foreign intelligence activities within the Soviet Union. The Second General Board of the KGB was responsible for counterintelligence.
Separate departments followed the foreigners who came to the USSR: tourists, journalists, students, specialists in various fields, participants of sports and cultural events. Each of them was seen as a potential agent of a foreign special service. Foreigners were provided separate hotels and restaurants with undercover surveillance equipment and KGB-trained personnel, and access to permitted areas was restricted.
The embassies of the “capitalist” states and their personnel were constantly monitored. Diplomatic immunity was a very favorable means of covering up intelligence activities, making embassies often the main intelligence centers.
The Soviet government, the KGB leadership, used to be proud of captured spies; it was an important part of propaganda warfare and communist ideology.
The Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Center has prepared a virtual exhibition entitled “Foreign explorers and their equipment detained by the KGB”, which shows a series of photographs prepared by the KGB for propaganda and educational purposes on foreign explorers, equipment and confiscated weapons. The exhibition can be found here:
https://slides.com/lggrtc/kgb-sulaikyti-uzsienio-zvalgai-ir-ju-iranga/fullscreen?token=q-a_eBhC
The material used in the virtual exhibition is stored in the collection “Activities of the Soviet repressive agencies” of the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Struggles.
