Vladimir Kryuchkov
Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov (Russian: Владимир Александрович Крючков, scientific transliteration Vladimir Aleksandrovich Krjučkov; * February 29, 1924 in Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd), † November 23, 2007 in Moscow) was from 1 October 1988 to 22 August 1991 Chief of KGB.
Life
Kryuchkov grew up as the son of a laborer in Stalingrad ( until 1925 Tsaritsyn, now Volgograd) on. During the Great Patriotic War, as the war against Germany 1941-1945 is called in Russia, he joined the Komsomol, the youth wing of the CPSU, at. In 1944 he became First Secretary of the County Committee of the Komsomol and moved in 1946 from the post of Second Secretary in the municipality of Stalingrad, where he worked until 1954.
Kryuchkov studied until 1949 Law and was briefly employed by the prosecutor. After studying at the Diplomatic Academy of the Foreign Ministry in 1954, he joined the diplomatic service.
As a Third Secretary of the Embassy in Hungary Kryuchkov met with Yuri Andropov, the Soviet ambassador to Hungary, together. During his further career within the nomenklatura, he was a follower of Andropov. In 1956, he actively participated in the crushing of the Hungarian uprising.
After Andropov in 1957 Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU for relations with the communist parties and workers' parties of Eastern Europe was, he made Kryuchkov 1959 Head of the Division Hungary. At this time, Kryuchkov involved in several books about Hungary and the socialist system.
When KGB
As Chairman of the KGB Andropov in 1967, was moved Kryuchkov also there. He was first appointed Head of the Secretariat of I. Head Office ( Foreign Intelligence ), later became deputy head and finally from 1974 to 1988 Chairman of the First Headquarters. From 1978, he was Deputy Chairman of the KGB. In 1982 he became Colonel-General of the KGB and in 1984 deputy of the Chamber of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet. In 1986 he became a full member of the Central Committee of the CPSU and on 1 October 1988 as Chairman of the KGB, and at the same time appointed to General of the Army. From 1989 he was a full member of the Politburo of the CPSU.
From 1989/90 he took an increasingly conservative political stance on the reform process in the Soviet Union. He was, therefore, as a member of the State Committee for the State of Emergency from 19 to August 22, 1991 co-founder of the unsuccessful August coup against Gorbachev. Kryuchkov was then as KGB chairman Leonid Vladimirovich replaced by Schebarschin and then by Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin. Kryuchkov was sentenced to a prison term for his involvement in the coup, but was pardoned later.
During the presidency of Vladimir Putin Kryuchkov was a frequent guest of the President; he praised Putin's policies and admonished last end of October 2007, the Russian security services together to support the president.