Viktor Chebrikov

Who was Viktor Chebrikov?

Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov was a Soviet Union public official and security administrator and head of the KGB from December 1982 to October 1988.

Born in the industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine on 27 April 1923, he finished military school in 1942 and served in World War II as a battalion commander. After the war Chebrikov wanted to continue his military career, but was refused by the prestigious Frunze Military Academy because of his bad eyesight; abandoning his military ambitions, he earned an engineering degree, joined the Communist Party in 1950, and embarked on a political-administrative career, rising through the Ukrainian party ranks until he became First Secretary of the Dnipropetrovsk Party Committee in 1961. In 1967, he was brought to Moscow as personnel manager for the Central Committee. He was Deputy chairman of the KGB under Yuri Andropov from 1968-1982. They began an anti-corruption drive that continued until Andropov's death. Following a brief period under Konstantin Chernenko, Chebrikov was appointed head of internal security under Mikhail Gorbachev.