FAPSI
Russian government agency
FAPSI (Russian: ФАПСИ) or Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information (FAGCI) (Russian: Федеральное Агентство Правительственной Связи и Информации) was a Russian government agency, which was responsible for signal intelligence and security of governmental communications.
The present-day FAPSI successor agencies are the relevant departments of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) as well as the Special Communications Service of Russia (Spetssvyaz) (part of the Federal Protective Service of the Russian Federation) (FSO RF).
History
Creation
FAPSI was created from the 8th Main Directorate (Government Communications) and 16th Directorate (Electronic Intelligence) of the KGB. It is the equivalent to the USA National Security Agency. On September 25, 1991, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev dismantled the KGB into several independent departments. One of them became the Committee on Government Communications under the President of Soviet Union. On December 24, 1991 after the disbanding of the Soviet Union the organization became the Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information under the President of Russian Federation.
Dissolution
On March 11, 2003 the agency was reorganized into the Service of Special Communications and Information (Spetssvyaz, Spetssviaz) (Russian: Служба специальной связи и информации) of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB RF). On August 7, 2004, Spetssviaz was incorporated as a structural sub unit of the Federal Protective Service of the Russian Federation (FSO RF).
Structure
According to the press, the structure of FAPSI copied the structure of the US National Security Agency, it includes:
Chief R&D Directorate (Главное научно-техническое управление)
Chief directorate of government communications
Chief directorate of security of communications
Chief directorate of information technology (Главное управление информационных систем)
Special troops of FAPSI
Academy of Cryptography
Military School of FAPSI in Voronezh, sometimes referred as the world largest hacker's school
Military school of communications in Orel
Moscow Department of Penza Scientific Research Electrotechnics Institute (МО ПНИЭИ), manufacturer of software and hardware used by the above agencies
Chiefs
16th Directorate of the KGB
Nikolai Nikolaevich Andreev (1968–1973)
Major-General Igor Vasilievich Maslov (1973–?)
Committee on Government Communications under President of Soviet Union
General Aleksandr Vladimirovich Starovoitov (1991)
Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information
General Aleksandr Vladimirovich Starovoitov (1991–1998)
Vladislav Petrovich Sherstyuk (1998–1999) – former chief of Radio-electronics intelligence department of the agency
Vladimir Georgievich Matyukhin (1999–2003) – a civilian specialist on cryptography and data protection
Service of Special Communications and Information (FAPSI successor)
Yuri P. Kornev (2003–2010)
Aleksey Mironov (since 2010)
FAPSI and the Internet
FAPSI was always interested in monitoring of Internet activities.
In 1994 it bought major Russian internet provider of that time RELCOM. According to their explanation they were not interested in interception of the network traffic, but in Internet experience of the firm and in utilization of "FAPSI's excess computing power and network bandwidth".
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “FAPSI” as russian government agency. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as russian government agency. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1400115. The first chronological checks are 1991, 2003, 2004 and 1968.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “FAPSI”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow FAPSI primary sources, FAPSI archive and FAPSI research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “FAPSI”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “FAPSI” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.