Committee for State Security of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic

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Committee for State Security of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (KGB ArSSR) was Armenia’s main security and intelligence agency from 1954 to 1991. It was the Armenian branch of the Soviet KGB and worked under the Armenian government, though the Soviet Communist Party could also direct its actions. The agency sometimes sent undercover agents into the Armenian Apostolic Church because the church has long been influential in the country.

Armenia’s security services were reorganized several times before that. The Armenian SSR’s NKVD existed, was dissolved in 1929, and reestablished about five years later as a more organized political department. In 1941 the USSR’s security service split from the NKVD as NKGB and then briefly reunited. On March 13, 1954, the USSR created a republican KGB affiliate for Armenia, which reported to the Armenian Council of Ministers.

In April 1990, the KGB headquarters in Yerevan was burned by rioters after arrests of four people accused of stealing Soviet Army weapons. In September 1991, Armenia’s Declaration of State Sovereignty was signed, and the KGB in Armenia was disbanded in December 1991 and replaced by the National Security Service.