MGB stood for Ministerstvo Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (Министерство государственной безопасности) - Ministry of State Security, in the USSR.

It was a predecessor of the KGB (secret police).

In March 1953, Lavrenty Beria united the MVD and MGB into one body, the MVD.

This month (July 2004) FSB to be renamed, overhauled, the current FSB "is to be renamed the Ministry of State Security" (MGB), and is to "assume practically all functions of the Soviet-era KGB" - barring any presidential and legislative changes to the reform.

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