The KGB, or Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction" in the Soviet Union, carrying out internal security, foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence, and secret police functions. The KGB was established in 1954 to serve as the "sword and shield of the Communist Party". Its tasks were generally defined in official Soviet publications as encompassing four areas: the struggle against foreign spies and agents, the exposure and investigation of political and economic crimes by citizens, the protection of state borders, and the protection of state secrets. The KGB was tasked with ferreting out potential threats to the state and preventing the development of unorthodox political and social attitudes among the population. The KGB gradually expanded its foreign intelligence operations to become the worlds largest foreign intelligence service. The KGB was succeeded by the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) of Russia in August 1991, which was succeeded by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) .