The main functions of the KGB were foreign intelligence , counterintelligence , operational-search activities , protection of the state border of the USSR, protection of the leaders of the CPSU (until 1990) and the Government of the USSR , organization and provision of government communications, as well as the fight against nationalism , dissent , crime and anti-Soviet activities. The KGB was also tasked with providing the Central Committee of the CPSU (until March 14, 1990) and the highest bodies of state power and administration of the USSR with information affecting state security and defense of the country, the socio-economic situation in the Soviet Union, and questions of the foreign policy and foreign economic activity of the Soviet state and the Communist party .

The USSR KGB system included fourteen ^[5] republican state security committees on the territory of the republics of the USSR ; local bodies of state security in autonomous republics, territories, regions, individual cities and regions, military districts, formations and units of the army, navy and internal troops , in transport; border troops; government communications troops; military counterintelligence agencies; educational institutions and research institutions; as well as the so-called " first departments " of Soviet institutions, organizations and enterprises.