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{{Short description|Soviet national security agency (1922–1923)}}{{Distinguish|Graphics processing unit|text=[[Graphics processing unit|graphics proceesing unit]], a computer component}}{{more citations needed|date=December 2010}}
{{Infobox government agency
| agency_name     = State Political Directorate
| nativename      = (''GPU pri NKVD RSFSR'')
| nativename_a    = 
| nativename_r    = 
| logo            = GPU 5th anniversary emblem.png
| logo_width      = 
| logo_caption    = Badge commemorating 5 years of the Cheka–GPU
| seal            = 
| seal_width      = 
| seal_caption    = 
| formed          = {{Start date and age|1922|02|6}}
| preceding1      = [[Cheka]]
| dissolved       = {{End date and age|1923|11|15}}
| superseding     = [[Joint State Political Directorate|OGPU]]
| jurisdiction    = 
| headquarters    = [[Lubyanka Building|Lubyanka]],<br />[[Moscow]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|RSFSR]], [[Soviet Union|USSR]]
| latd            = 
| longd           = 
| region_code     = 
| employees       = 
| budget          = 
| minister1_name  = 
| minister1_pfo   = 
| minister2_name  = 
| minister2_pfo   = 
| chief1_name     = [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]] (1922–1923)
| chief1_position = 
| chief2_name     = 
| chief2_position = 
| chief3_name     = 
| chief3_position = 
| chief4_name     = 
| chief4_position = 
| agency_type     = [[Secret police]]<br>[[Intelligence agency]]
| parent_agency   = [[NKVD]]
| child1_agency   = 
| child2_agency   = 
| child3_agency   = 
| child4_agency   = 
| child5_agency   = 
| keydocument1    = 
| website         = 
| footnotes       = 
}}

The '''State Political Directorate''' ({{langx|ru|Государственное политическое управление|Gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye|links=yes}}), abbreviated as '''GPU''' ({{langx|ru|ГПУ}}), was the [[secret police]] of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] from February 1922 to November 1923. It was the immediate successor of the [[Cheka]], and was replaced by the [[Joint State Political Directorate]] (OGPU).

== Name ==
The official designation in line to the native reference is:
*'''Русский:''' = Государственное политическое управление (ГПУ) при Народном комиссариaте внутренних дел (НКВД) РСФСР
*[[Romanization of Russian|'''tr''']] =Gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie (GPU) pri narodnom komissariate vnutrennikh del (NKVD) RSFSR – (GPU pri NKVD RSFSR)
*'''English:''' = State Political Directorate (also State Political Administration) under the People's Commissariat of interior affairs of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR)

==Establishment==
Formed from the [[Cheka]], the original Russian state security organization, on February 6, 1922, it was initially known under the Russian abbreviation '''GPU'''—short for "State Political Directorate under the [[NKVD]] of the RSFSR" ([[Russian language|Russian]]: Государственное политическое управление при НКВД РСФСР, ''Gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravlenie'' under the NKVD of the RSFSR"). Its first chief was the Cheka's former chairman, [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]].

==Mission==
{{Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies}}

===Internal security===
On paper, the new agency was supposed to act with more restraint than the Cheka. For example, unlike the Cheka, it did not have the right to shoot suspected "[[counter-revolutionaries]]" at will. All those suspected of political crimes had to be brought before a judge in normal circumstances.<ref name=Dictators>{{cite book |title=The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia |last=Overy |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Overy |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |location=London |isbn=978-0393020304 |year=2004 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/dictators00rich}}</ref>

===Foreign intelligence===
The 'Foreign Department' of the GPU was headed by a former Bolshevik and party member, [[Mikhail Trilisser]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books/about/In_the_toils_of_the_O_G_P_U.html?id=wn1JAAAAIAAJ Kindermann, Karl Gustav, ''In the Toils of the O.G.P.U.'', Translated by Gerald Griffin; Hurst & Blackett, 1933 Digitized December 5, 2007, p. 149.]</ref> The Foreign Department was placed in charge of intelligence activities overseas, including espionage and liquidation of 'enemies of the people'. Trilisser himself was later liquidated by [[Joseph Stalin]] during the [[Great Purge]] in 1940.

==Disestablishment==
With the creation of the USSR in December 1922, a unified organization was required to exercise control over [[Security agency|state security]] throughout the new union. Thus, on November 15, 1923, the GPU left the Russian NKVD and was reorganized as the all-union '''[[Joint State Political Directorate]]''', also translated as "All-Union State Political Administration". Its official name was "Joint State Political Directorate under the [[Council of People's Commissars of the USSR]]" (Russian: ''Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye'' under the SNK of the USSR, Объединённое государственное политическое управление при СНК СССР), or '''OGPU''' (ОГПУ).

==Personnel==
{| class="wikitable"

! Badge !! Political !! Military
|-
| ''none'' || Cотрудник<br><small>''Employee''</small> ||Kрасноармеец<br><small>''Red Armyman''</small>
|-
| align="center"| [[File:RA A-AF R4-K1 1935.svg|15px]] || Агент 3-го разряда <br><small>'' Agent third category''</small> || Командир отделения <br><small>''Squad commander''</small>
|-
|align="center"| [[ File:RA A-AF R6-K2 1935.svg|35px]] || Агент 2-го разряда<br><small>'' Agent second category''</small> || Помощник командира взвода<br><small>''Assistant platoon commander ''</small>
|-
|align="center"| [[ File:RA A-AF R7-K2 1935.svg|50px]] || Агент 1-го разряда<br><small>'' Agent first category''</small> ||Старшина роты, батареи, батальона, дивизиона<br><small>''First Sergeant of company, battery, battalion''</small>
|-
|align="center"| [[File:RA A-AF F1c-K3 1935.svg|15px]] || Сотрудник особых поручений<br><small>'' Special assignment officer''</small>||Командир взвода<br><small>''Platoon commander''</small>
|-
|align="center"|[[ File:RA A-AF F1-2-K4 1935.svg|35px]] || Нач. оперативного пункта<br><small>'' Head of operative point''</small>||командир роты (полуэскадрона)<br><small>''Company commander (Commander of half-squadron)''</small>
|-
|align="center"| [[ File:RA A-AF F1a-K5 1935.svg|30]]  || Нач. отдела инспекции; Пом. нач. адм.-следственной части<br><small>''Leader of inspection department; Assistant head of investigative unit''</small>||командир батальона (эскадрона)<br><small>''Battalion commander (Squadron commander)''</small>
|-
|align="center"| [[File:Red Army Insignia 6.svg|65px]]  || Пом. нач. отделения; Уполномоч. отдела предварительного дознания; Нач. адм.-следственной части<br><small>''Assistant departemental leader ; Plenipotentiary of preliminary investigation department; Head of investigative unit''</small>||командир полка<br><small>''Regimental commander''</small>
|-
|align="center"|[[ File:RA A-AF F6 1935.svg|15px]] || Военрук инспекции<br><small>''Military director of inspection''</small>||Командир бригады<br><small>''Brigade commander''</small>
|-
|align="center"|[[ File:RA A-AF F7 1935.svg|30px]] || Нач. отделения ГПУ<br><small>''Head of GPU branch''</small>||начальник и комиссар дивизии<br><small>''Chief and commissar of [[Division (military)|division]]''</small>
|-
|align="center"|[[ File:RA A-AF F8 1935.svg|40px]] || Зам. нач. отдела ГПУ<br><small>''Assistant head of GPU department''</small>||Командир корпуса; Зам. нач. штаба войск ГПУ<br><small>''Corps commander; Assistant chief of staff for GPU troops''</small>
|-
|align="center"|[[ File:RA A-AF F9 1935.svg|50px]] || Нач. отдела ГПУ<br><small>''Head of GPU department''</small>||Зам. Пред. ГПУ — Нач. штаба войск ГПУ<br><small>''Deputy chairman of GPU - Chief of staff of GPU troops''</small>
|}

==See also==
* {{section link|Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War|Violence and terror}}
* [[Commanders of the border troops USSR and RF]]
* [[Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{See also|Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War#Violence and terror}}
* Gerson, L. D. (1985). ''The Secret Police in Lenin"s Russia.'' Philadelphia, PA: [[Temple University Press]].
* Nation, R. C. (2018). ''Black Earth, Red Star: A History of Soviet Security Policy, 1917-1991.'' Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
* Ryan, James. (2012). ''Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence.'' London: Routledge.

==External links==
* [http://www.mvdinform.ru/index.php?docid=367 History of the MVD of Russia: 1917–1931] {{in lang|ru}}

{{Secret police of Communist Europe}}
{{Soviet Union topics}}

[[Category:State Political Directorate| ]]
[[Category:Law enforcement agencies of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Soviet intelligence agencies]]
[[Category:Defunct law enforcement agencies of Russia]]
[[Category:Defunct intelligence agencies]]
[[Category:Law enforcement in communist states]]
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Russian intelligence agencies]]
[[Category:Secret police]]
[[Category:1922 establishments in Russia]]
[[Category:1923 disestablishments in Russia]]
[[Category:1923 disestablishments in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Government agencies established in 1922]]
[[Category:Government agencies disestablished in 1923]]