As a person from a post-Soviet country, I could not but find the institutions of People’s Republic of China oddly familiar. For every major institution of the Communist Russia, I could find a direct equivalent in Communist China.
With one major exception:
China had no KGB
With one major exception:
China had no KGB
For a post-Soviet person, that was a shocking realisation. For us, a gigantic, centralised, all-permeating and all powerful state security system appears to be almost a natural phenomenon. The earth. The sky. Force of gravity. KGB
All basic properties of reality we live in
All basic properties of reality we live in
It was hard to come up with any explanation for why the PRC that evolved in a close cooperation with the USSR, that used to be its client state, that emulated its major institutions, failed to copy this seemingly prerequisite (?) institution of state power
Unexplainable
Unexplainable
So, I tried to reverse the question. Instead of asking why China doesn't have KGB, I asked why the USSR had to built a single window, all-permeating, all powerful state security system in the first place. That was a pretty straightforward question, very much possible to answer
Leviathan of state security was not built to deal with peasants or dissidents. It was built to control the army. That explains its all-encompassing, mammoth character as well as existence of large, well trained and heavily armed troops outside of the regular military structure.
Cheka-GPU-NKVD-MGB-KGB-FSK-FSB has been the central, most iconic and most recognisable institution of Soviet/Russian state built for one purpose, and one purpose only. Preventing military coups and forestalling any possible attempt for the 18th of brumaire in Russia.
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