EYES AND EARS THE KGB AFTER STALIN.

The article focuses on the establishment and evolution of the KGB (Committee for State Security) in the Soviet Union following Joseph Stalin's death in 1953. Founded in 1954 as a successor to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), the KGB combined elements of reform and continuity, operating as the Soviet regime's primary security and intelligence agency both domestically and abroad. While less brutal than its Stalin-era predecessors, the KGB maintained extensive surveillance, repression, and foreign espionage activities, employing new methods such as "prophylactic measures" to manage dissent and relying on informants within Soviet society. The agency also sought to reshape its public image by emphasizing its revolutionary origins and promoting heroic portrayals of its operatives in Soviet culture. Despite some liberalization after Stalin, the KGB remained a central instrument for protecting Communist Party rule and controlling political nonconformity throughout the post-Stalin decades.