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.
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