The last chairman of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR, who went on to serve the security services of three states: USSR, Ukraine, and Russia
Like the title of his memoir, he served in the special services of three states — the USSR, Ukraine, and Russia. In 1994 he refused Yeltsin's demand to block the amnesty for the October 1993 prisoners, resigned, and said he had kept his oath as a Russian officer to the people.
Nikolai Golushko was a Soviet state security officer who rose through the KGB's Fifth Directorate, responsible for ideological counterintelligence and the suppression of dissent, to become the last chairman of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR (1987–1991). After the dissolution of the USSR, he briefly headed Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) before moving to Russia, where he served as Minister of Security and Director of the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK), making him one of the rare figures to have led security agencies in three states. He resigned as Russia's security minister in early 1994 after clashing with President Yeltsin over the amnesty for participants in the October 1993 crisis, and later published a memoir titled In the Special Services of Three States.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1959–1963Investigator, Kemerovo Prosecutor's Office
- 1963–1974KGB Kemerovo Oblast, operative → Deputy Chief of 5th Department
- 1974–1983Chief of 2nd Department (nationalism), 5th Directorate, KGB USSR
- 1983–1984Deputy Chief, 5th Directorate, KGB USSR
- 1984–19871st Deputy Chief of KGB Secretariat, Head of KGB Duty Service
- 1987–1991Chairman, KGB of the Ukrainian SSR; Member, KGB Collegium of the USSR
- 1991Acting Chairman, Security Service of Ukraine (SNBU)
- 1992–19931st Deputy Minister of Security, Russian Federation
- 1993Minister of Security, Russian Federation
- 1993–1994Director, Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK), Russia
Reporting and political surveillance in the late Ukrainian KGB
After becoming chairman of the Ukrainian republican KGB in 1987, Golushko headed the agency responsible for intelligence reports reaching the republic's political leadership. The Ukrainian KGB monitored foreign visitors and Ukrainian organizations abroad, as well as anti-Soviet leaflets and graffiti, religious communities, informal youth cultures, and collective work refusals and strike activity. These were not simply incident reports. For example, the authorities described strikes as “refusals to go to work” and sought to prevent workers’ demands over wages and conditions from developing into independent union organization or political claims. The security service thus both monitored social grievances and worked to contain their political organization.
Reports around the August 1991 coup attempt also expose limits in this intelligence production. A 2020 report examining Ukrainian KGB documents states that two situation reports signed by Golushko were sent two days apart to Leonid Kravchuk, chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet. The article points to analytical errors and bureaucratic bias in the reports. Information produced under the agency chief’s responsibility reached the political leadership, but did not necessarily represent social conditions accurately. Golushko remained chairman of the republican KGB until September 1991 and then served as acting chairman of Ukraine’s National Security Service until November.