Vladimir Kryuchkov diplomatic service, stationed in Hungary until 1959. He then worked for the Communist Party Central Committee for eight years, before joining the KGB in 1967 together with his patron Yuri Andropov. He was appointed head of the First Chief Directorate (FCD) in the summer of 1971 (upon the order of Andropov)(See Vladimir Kryuchkov, 1996) (the KGB Foreign Operations) and Deputy Chairman in 1978. In 1988, he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army and became KGB Chairman. In 1989–1990, he was a member of the Politburo. A political hard-liner, Kryuchkov was among the members of the Soviet
KGB a military service governed by army laws and regulations, in the same fashion as the Soviet Army or MVD Internal Troops. While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two online documentary sources are available. Its main functions were foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence, operative-investigatory activities, guarding the State Border of the USSR, guarding the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government, organization and ensuring of government communications as well as combating nationalism, dissent, and anti-Soviet activities. In 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the KGB was split into the Federal Security Service and