Joint State Political Directorate
The Joint State Political Directorate (JSPD) (OGPU; Russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1923 to 1934.
| Объединённое государственное политическое управление при СНК СССР Objedinönnoje gosudarstvennoje političeskoje upravlenije pri SNK SSSR | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 15 November 1923 |
| Preceding agency | |
| Dissolved | 10 July 1934 |
| Superseding agency | |
| Type | Secret police |
| Headquarters | 11-13 ulitsa Bol. Lubyanka, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR |
| Agency executives |
|
| Parent agency | Council of People's Commissars |
The OGPU was formed from the State Political Directorate of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic one year after the founding of the Soviet Union and responsible to the Council of People's Commissars. The agency operated inside and outside the Soviet Union, persecuting political criminals and opponents of the Bolsheviks such as White émigrés, Soviet dissidents, and anti-communists. The OGPU was based in the Lubyanka Building in Moscow and headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky until his death in 1926, and then by Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, until it was reincorporated as the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) of the NKVD in 1934.