The KGB constant: 20 years as deputy chairman under four chiefs
As Yeltsin recalled, when the Sverdlovsk KGB chief said 'we work amicably with the party,' Pirozhkov barked: 'General Kornilov, stand up! You are obliged to work under the leadership of party organs.'
A member of the war generation who volunteered at 18 in 1942 and fought through the liberation of Minsk and Warsaw to the Battle of Berlin, ending the war as a participant in the Berlin Victory Parade. After rising through Komsomol and party ranks to become Second Secretary of the Altai Kraikom, he was assigned by Politburo decision to the KGB in 1968, heading the Personnel Directorate and then the Party Committee before serving as Deputy Chairman from 1971 to 1991. His nearly twenty-year tenure under four successive chairmen (Andropov, Fedorchuk, Chebrikov, and Kryuchkov) is unmatched in KGB history; he oversaw personnel policy, structural reorganization, and counterterrorism operations including supervision of the newly formed Alpha Group, and after retirement led the FSB Veterans Council.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1942–1945Volunteered; 316th Guards Mortar Regiment through Minsk, Warsaw, Berlin; Victory Parade participant
- 1946–1968Komsomol and party cadre in Altai, rising to Second Secretary of the Altai Kraikom
- 1968–1970Head of the KGB Personnel Directorate
- 1970–1971Secretary of the KGB Party Committee
- 1971–1991Deputy Chairman of the KGB — personnel, structure, counterterrorism including Alpha Group
- 1991–2009Chairman of the FSB Veterans Council
Related historical events
From party cadre to head of KGB personnel and party organization
Pirozhkov began his postwar career in the Komsomol in 1946 and advanced through party organization in Altai. After studying at the Higher Party School under the CPSU Central Committee from 1954 to 1957, he served as an instructor in the Altai regional party committee, first secretary of a district committee, and head of a party-organizational department. He became a regional party committee secretary in May 1967 and its second secretary in March 1968. In September that year, a Politburo decision transferred him to state security, where he headed the KGB Personnel Directorate. From May 1970 to March 1971 he was secretary of the KGB Party Committee.
After joining the KGB in September 1968, Pirozhkov remained a member of its Collegium until January 1991. Appointed deputy chairman in March 1971, he held that post until 29 January 1991. A posthumous statement by the FSB credited him with contributing to the agency’s personnel policy and structural development, and said that special counterintelligence and counterterrorism operations had been conducted under his leadership. This is the agency’s official account in its obituary notice. After leaving office, he chaired the FSB Veterans Council.