The USSR security system was enormous. And there were several reasons for this. As is known, the birth of the Soviet state was characterized by large-scale revolutionary chaos: a mass of internal and external threats, their convergence, civil war, intervention and sabotage; there were also contradictions within the Bolshevik elite itself. This could not but cause an avalanche-like increase in the functions, operational units and technical personnel of the Cheka. The Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. - the open struggle, which culminated in the Great Victory of the Soviet people, demanded that millions be put under arms, and they, too, were brought into “large battalions.” The further evolution of intelligence agencies is a response to the steady increase in external threats from the West during the Cold War. So many, many factors contributed to the quantitative growth of the USSR security organization. And yet, when the time came and “thunder struck”, she was unable to cope with the threat that really hung over the country, the party and the people.