Active reserve (KGB) officers with a military rank who worked undercover in the Soviet Union. "Trusted contacts" were high placed civilians who collaborated with the KGB without signing any official working agreements, such as directors of personnel departments at various institutions, academics, deans, or writers and actors. Informers were citizens secretly recruited by the KGB, sometimes using forceful recruitment methods, such as blackmail. The precise number of people from various categories remains unknown, but one of the estimates was 11 million "informers" in the Soviet Union, or one out of every eighteen adult citizens The active reserve was established by Yuri Andropov in
Active reserve (KGB) positions in the Russian power elite were occupied by acting or undercover officers of the Russian state security services, such as the FSB and SVR, the official successors of the KGB. "The only difference between them [officers of active reserve] and regular civil-servants is that they have an extra duty: writing reports every month for the FSB. They are the eyes of the master”, said sociologist Olga Krychtanovskaia. Undercover staff of the KGB included three major categories: (a) the active reserve; (b) the "trusted contacts" (or "reliable people"), and (c) "civilian informers" (or "secret helpers"). The "active reserve" included KGB