Making use of recently-released Russian archives, and drawing on interviews with former and current KGB officers, this book traces the history and evaluates the present state of the KGB's institutions of repression. Amongst its findings is that former leaders and officers of the KGB have been able to maintain much of their grip on power through the new Ministry of Security, and that Mikhail Gorbachev's meteoric rise to power was helped by his connections within the KGB - a view supported by Gorbachev's strengthening of the security agency during his tenure of office. Maintaining deeply-inculcated professional traditions developed and refined since the Bolsheviks founded the Cheka, today's Russian security and intelligence officers continue to refer to themselves as chekisti. In so doing, they carry forward the legacy of a security force designed to deprive the citizenry of their civil, political, economic and human rights. This book examines that fearful lineage and assesses the threat posed to Russia's fledgling democracy by its own security forces.