Set up as a 'temporary' measure by Lenin shortly after the revolution, the early years of the KGB soon became synonymous with mass executions during the Red Terror of the early 1920s.
By August 1949, at least five years earlier than expected, the USSR became the world's second superpower, thanks to its spies who had stolen America's atomic secrets.
Coup d'etats, assassinations, sex scandals, radioactive poisoning - it's the stuff of a James Bond movie. But in today's Russia, this is all very real.
