OGPU - Definition and Overview

Ob'edinennoe Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie' (or OGPU) (Combined State Political Directorate, also translated as All Union State Political Board) was the name of the secret police in the Soviet Union in one of the stages of its development.

The OGPU was formed from the State Political Directorate in 1923. With the creation of the USSR a unified organization was required to exercise control over state security throughout the new union. It was incorporated into the NKVD in July 1934. The NKVD in turn evolved into the KGB.

The organization and responsibility of the OGPU was similar to Nazi Germany's Gestapo.

See also

• Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies

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