On December 20th, special services celebrate their holiday in the Russian Federation. Their activities are aimed at ensuring the security of our state. Simply put, December 20 is FSB Day.
It is worth noting in advance that this is not a completely correct name. The fact is that FSB Worker Day is also considered a professional holiday for other special services units, for example, FSO and SVR.
It is also worth noting that such a holiday was introduced not so long ago. This happened in 1995, when Russian President Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin issued a decree. However, at the same time, the backstory of such a holiday as FSB Day originates in 1917. Then, in 1917, on December 20th,
SNK (Council of People's Commissars) issued another Decree on the creation of the Cheka (All-Russian Extraordinary Commission). The main duty of this body was the fight against counter-revolutionary and sabotage forces in the young USSR. The first chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission was
Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky. It is also worth recalling that the Cheka employees were called Chekists. Accordingly, until 1995, FSB Day in Russia was
Chekist Day.Naturally, in those days the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission was needed only in order to properly disseminate the
dictatorship of the proletariat. There were a large number of departments, the name of each of which speaks for itself: the counterintelligence department (it included nonresident, organizational, and military subdivisions). Next is the anti-speculation department, which again consisted of several sub-departments: the fight against smuggling, official crimes and counter-revolution. Going deeper into history, it should also be noted that the number of Cheka employees tripled only in the first year of the commission's existence.
Over time, the Cheka changed, underwent various reorganizations, even changed its name (NKVD, and after the KGB). But until 1995 December 20 was Chekist Day. And only after Yeltsin’s decree, this holiday was officially renamed FSB Day.
At the moment, the special
service of the FSB is a single, integrated system of bodies, the main task of which is to ensure state security. Several main areas of activity of the FSB are distinguished: border control, intelligence and counterintelligence, the fight against crime and terrorism, information security.
By the way, it is worth noting that the Day of the FSB in most official documents is registered as the Day of the employee of state security agencies. It is this name that fully reflects its whole essence. As mentioned above, December 20th is a holiday for some other special services of the Russian Federation. It is also worth mentioning that this is what the document signed by Yeltsin in 1995 was called: “On the establishment of the Day of the Security Worker of the Russian Federation”. Nevertheless, the people were led to call this holiday nothing more than FSB Day, which, in principle, in no way changes its main essence.