Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union head the KGB. He became KGB Chairman on 18 May 1967. On 3 July 1967, he made a proposal to establish a Fifth Directorate (ideological counterintelligence) within the KGB to deal with internal political opposition to the Soviet regime. The Directorate was set up at the end of July and took charge of KGB files on all Soviet dissidents, including Andrei Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In 1968, KGB Chairman Andropov issued a departmental order "On the tasks of State security agencies in combating the ideological sabotage by the adversary", calling for the KGB to struggle against dissidents and their imperialist
KGB Security Troops which monitored/managed national, foreign, and overseas communications, cryptologic equipment, and research and development, and possibly the Sixteenth Directorate (SIGINT and communications interception) which operated the national and government telephone and telegraph systems. Such troops were reportedly employed, along with the MVD's Internal Troops, to suppress public protests and disperse demonstrations, such as that of the Crimean Tatars in July 1987 and those in the republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan in March 1988. Special KGB troops also were trained for sabotage and diversionary missions abroad. Other special KGB troops were intended for counterterrorist and counterinsurgency operations. The uniforms and insignia of