{{Short description|Soviet-Russian KGB functionary (1925-2019)}} {{family name hatnote|Denisovich|Bobkov|lang=Eastern Slavic}} {{Infobox military person | name = Filipp Denisovich Bobkov | native_name = Филипп Денисович Бобков | native_name_lang = ru | image = BobkovFD.jpg | caption = Bobkov in 2012 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|12|1|df=y}} | death_date = {{death date and age|2019|6|17|1925|12|1|df=y}} | birth_place = Chervona Kam'yanka, [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]], [[Soviet Union]]<br>(now [[Ukraine]]) | death_place = [[Moscow]], [[Russia]] | nickname = KGB's Brain | allegiance = [[Soviet Union]] | branch = [[Red Army]] <small>(until 1945)</small><br>[[People's Commissariat for State Security|NKGB]] <small>(1945–1946)</small><br>[[Ministry of State Security (Soviet Union)|MGB]] <small>(1946–1953)</small><br>[[KGB]] <small>(1953–1992)</small> | service_years = 1942–1992 | rank = [[Army General (Soviet rank)|Army General]] | commands = Fifth Main Directorate of the KGB | battles = {{tree list}} * [[World War II]] ** [[Operation Büffel]] ** [[Battle of Smolensk (1943)|Battle of Smolensk]] ** [[Baltic offensive]] ** [[Courland Pocket|Battles of the Courland Bridgehead]] * [[Jeltoqsan]] * [[Sumgait pogrom|Sumgait massacres]] * [[January Events]] {{tree list/end}} | awards = {{Order of Lenin}} {{Order of Lenin}} {{Order of Lenin}} {{Order of the October Revolution}} {{Order of the Red Banner of Labour}} {{Medal "For Battle Merit"}} {{Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"}} {{Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"}} {{Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"}} {{Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"}} {{Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"}} {{Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"}} {{Medal of Zhukov}} {{Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow"}} {{Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR"}} {{Medal "For Strengthening of Brotherhood in Arms"}} {{Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy"}} {{Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"}} {{Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"}} {{Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"}} {{Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"}} }} '''Filipp Denisovich Bobkov''' ({{langx|ru|Фили́пп Дени́сович Бобко́в}}; 1 December 1925 – 17 June 2019) was a Soviet and Russian [[KGB]] functionary, who worked as the chief of the [[KGB]] subunit responsible for repressing dissent (Fifth Main Directorate), which was responsible for suppression of internal dissent in the former [[Soviet Union]]. He was widely regarded as the chief KGB ideologist or "KGB brain."<ref>Жирнов, Евгений (Zhirnov, Evgeny) (12 May 2000). [http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=18086 Одна жизнь Филиппа Денисовича]. One life of Filipp Denisovich (in Russian). ''[[Kommersant]]''. Retrieved 15 January 2021.</ref>
==Service in the Soviet secret services== Bobkov began his career in the Soviet secret services—then known as the [[People's Commissariat for State Security]], or NKGB—in 1945, under the guidance of [[Lavrentiy Beria]]. In the power struggles that followed the death of Soviet leader [[Joseph Stalin]], Bobkov survived Beria's removal and execution, and later outlasted eleven subsequent chairmen of the [[Ministry of State Security (Soviet Union)|Ministry of State Security]] (MGB) and KGB. During the 1970s and 1980s, he "effectively became the KGB's real chairman, although officially he held the post of first deputy," according to Russian investigative journalist [[Yevgenia Albats]].<ref> [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374527385/ ''The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia - Past, Present, and Future''], by [[Yevgenia Albats]] and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. 1994. {{ISBN|0-374-18104-7}}.</ref>
===Creation of front organizations=== Bobkov was very instrumental in creation of KGB-controlled political organizations, such as the [[Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public]], established in 1983. He also allegedly invented the [[Liberal Democratic Party of Russia]], according to Soviet Politburo member [[Alexander Yakovlev]]. However, Bobkov denied these allegations, saying that he did not support the creation of a "[[Sergei Zubatov|Zubatov]]-style pseudo-party under KGB control, which directs interests and sentiments of certain social groups."<ref>[[Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev]] ''Time of darkness'', Moscow, 2003, {{ISBN|5-85646-097-9}}, page 574 ({{langx|ru|Яковлев А. Сумерки. Москва: Материк 2003 г.}}). The book provides an official copy of a document providing the initial LDPR funding (3 million rubles) from the [[CPSU]] money</ref>
===Ethnic conflicts=== As described in his official biography, Bobkov was personally engaged in resolving ethnic conflicts in the Soviet Union. This included incidents such as the [[Sumgait pogrom]], the [[January Events (Lithuania)|January Events]] in Lithuania, the 1989 tribal clashes in Uzbekistan, and the [[Jeltoqsan]]. Former Politburo deputy and reformist leader Alexander Yakovlev, however, has claimed that Bobkov did not solve these conflicts, but rather created them in an effort to maintain the power of the KGB by showing its necessity.<ref>[[Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev]] ''Time of darkness'', Moscow, 2003, {{ISBN|5-85646-097-9}}, page 551 ([[Russian language|Russian]]: Яковлев А. Сумерки. Москва: Материк 2003 г.)</ref>
===Perestroika=== According to Bobkov, [[perestroika]] had been invented by him and his KGB colleagues: "We in the KGB contributed quite a bit to the process of perestroika because [...] without it the Soviet Union could not move ahead."<ref>J. Michael Waller ''Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today.'', Westview Press. Boulder, CO., 1994., {{ISBN|0-8133-2323-1}}</ref>
Documents discovered by political scientist [[Robert van Voren]] in the [[Stasi]] archives show that in summer 1989 Bobkov came to Berlin and told Stasi Director [[Erich Mielke]] that [[German reunification]] was the work of mentally ill persons.<ref name="Trehub">{{cite news|author=Trehub, Hanna|title=Political Madness: Dutch Sovietologist Robert van Voren speaks about Soviet repressive psychiatry and its surviving offshoots|url=http://ukrainianweek.com/Society/72920|accessdate=25 February 2014|work=[[The Ukrainian Week]]|date=22 February 2013}}</ref>
Bobkov allegedly supervised the transfer of Communist Party money to foreign banks prior to the [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=-dPpeeU84h0C&pg=PA317&dq=Bobkov+KGB&sig=nAZhtnZZwIUt6mHc3AdzzjK2QOc Transfer of Communist Party money]</ref><ref name=Stringer2003>[[:ru:Нерсесов, Юрий Аркадьевич|Нерсесов, Юрий]] (23 January 2003). [http://stringer-news.com/Publication.mhtml?PubID=1736&Menu=&Part=39 Жертвы иудейской войны]. stringer-news.ru website. Retrieved 3 June 2021.</ref> In October 1990, Bobkov ordered the creation of [[front organization|commercial firms]] and banks, which were managed by KGB officers and their "trusted contacts." The project was funded by KGB and Party money, "which made up almost 80% of the amount invested in the new banks, stock exchanges, and businesses in 1990-1991," according to the testimony of Richard Palmer to the [[United States Congress]] regarding Soviet infiltration of the Western financial system.<ref>[http://www.russianlaw.org/palmer.htm STATEMENT OF RICHARD L. PALMER], PRESIDENT OF CACHET INTERNATIONAL, INC. ON THE INFILTRATION OF THE WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM BY ELEMENTS OF RUSSIAN ORGANIZED CRIME BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES ON SEPTEMBER 21, 1999</ref> [[Nikolay Kruchina]], a high ranking [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] official who was officially responsible for supervising the Communist Party money, fell to his death from the window of his luxury apartment in Moscow soon after the events.
===Post-Soviet Russia=== Bobkov officially retired in 1991 and organized a private security service in the [[Media Most]] company called SB MOST Group ({{langx|ru|СБ „Группы МОСТ“}}), which included thousands of his former KGB colleagues.<ref name=Stringer2003/><ref>{{cite news |last=Grove |first=Lloyd |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/04/07/russky-business/5fc93480-5ba4-4352-998e-d37ce55c8a27/ |title=Russky business |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=7 April 1995 |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-date=6 March 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210306022112/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/04/07/russky-business/5fc93480-5ba4-4352-998e-d37ce55c8a27/}}</ref><ref>[http://www.rosvesty.ru/numbers/1762/nongrata/ Ideologist for all times] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051108090332/http://www.rosvesty.ru/numbers/1762/nongrata/ |date=2005-11-08 }}, by Felix Shemedlovsky, Russian Vedomosti</ref><ref name="Apolitical Gusinsky">Григорьев, Андрей (Grigoriev, Andrei) (28 March 2000). [https://archive.today/20130416234759/http://www.ko.ru/document.php?id=1509 Аполитичный Гусинский]. Apolitical Gusinsky. (in Russian). ''«Компания»'' — деловой еженедельник (''Company''). [https://web.archive.org/web/20120212201126/http://ko.ru/articles/1509 Archived] from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2021.</ref> The entire archive of 5th KGB Main Directorate was taken to Media-Most.<ref name=Stringer2003/><ref>[http://www.rosvesty.ru/numbers/1762/nongrata/ Ideologist for all times] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051108090332/http://www.rosvesty.ru/numbers/1762/nongrata/ |date=2005-11-08 }}, by Felix Shemedlovsky, Russian Vedomosti, [http://www.flb.ru/info/33789.html A slightly different version]</ref> This security service allegedly organized an attempted assassination of Russian oligarch [[Boris Berezovsky (businessman)|Boris Berezovsky]] in 1994.<ref name="Apolitical Gusinsky"/> On 3 July 2000, the FreeLance Bureau (FLB) under its editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov released what was called ''Russiagate'' ({{langx|ru|"Рашенгейт"}}) or the “Database of SB MOST Group” ({{langx|ru|«База данных СБ „Группы МОСТ“»}}) although Sokolov stated that in addition to the MOST Group Security Bureau's database, Sokolov released other files, transcripts, etc from the FSB and other security structures as well.<ref>{{cite news |last=Нехорошев |first=Григорий (Nekhoroshev, Grigory) |url=https://www.ng.ru/events/2000-07-04/2_flb.html |title=FLB.RU ПОДГОТОВИЛО ГРАНДИОЗНЫЙ СКАНДАЛ. В нем затрагивается более трехсот имен известных людей РФ |trans-title=FLB.RU PREPARED A GREAT SCANDAL . It touches on more than three hundred names of famous people of the Russian Federation |language=ru |work=[[Nezavisimaya Gazeta|Независимая Газета]] (Nezavisimaya Gazeta) |date=3 July 2000 |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-date=27 January 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010127203200/https://www.ng.ru/events/2000-07-04/2_flb.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1347355.html |title=(Un)Civil Societies Report: July 13, 2000 |work=[[Radio Free Europe]] |date=13 July 2000 |access-date=5 March 2021 |quote=See section ''RUSSIAN WEB SITE PUBLISHES EXTENSIVE "RUSSIAGATE" DATABASE...''}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Челноков |first1=Алексей (Chelnokov, Alexey) |last2=Плужников |first2=Сергей (Pluzhnikov, Sergey) |last3=Соколов |first3=Сергей (Sokolov, Sergey) |author1-link=:ru:Челноков, Алексей Сергеевич |author3-link=:ru:Соколов, Сергей Викторович |url=http://www.flb.ru/bdrussiangate.html |title="Рашенгейт" |trans-title="Rashengate" |language=ru |work=[[:ru:Агентство федеральных расследований|Журналистское агентство Free Lance Bureau (FLB)]] (flb.ru) |date=3 July 2000 |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-date=18 August 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010818093946/http://www.flb.ru/bdrussiangate.html}}</ref>
His daughter Dasha or Daria Bobkova ({{langx|ru|Дарья Бобкова}}) heads the Spanish branch of Most-Bank ({{langx|ru|Мост-Банк - Испанский}}).<ref name="Apolitical Gusinsky"/>
He also worked as a personal security adviser of Russian Parliament speaker [[Ruslan Khasbulatov]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=LMDQwnArs3EC&pg=PA295&dq=Bobkov+KGB&lr=&sig=ds6HwV2xPXH4EgOsufeK79dxCO0 Personal security adviser of Ruslan Hasbulatov]</ref>
Bobkov died on 17 June 2019.<ref>{{cite news |title=Philipp Bobkov, senior KGB officer who helped stamp out dissent in the former Soviet Union – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/06/20/philipp-bobkov-senior-kgb-officer-helped-stamp-dissent-former/ |access-date=16 September 2023 |work=The Telegraph |date=20 June 2019}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.peoples.ru/military/general/bobkov/index.html His official biography (Russian)] * {{YouTube|bnhcto4vpXI|Philipp Bobkov "A guest at Dmitry Gordon", 2013, 61 min}} *{{Find a Grave}} {{Army Generals (Soviet Union)}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bobkov, Philipp}} [[Category:1925 births]] [[Category:2019 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Russian male writers]] [[Category:21st-century Russian male writers]] [[Category:People from Kirovohrad Oblast]] [[Category:Writers from Moscow]] [[Category:Members of the Central Committee of the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] [[Category:Recipients of the Medal "For Courage" (Russia)]] [[Category:Recipients of the Medal "For Distinction in Guarding the State Border of the USSR"]] [[Category:Recipients of the Medal of Zhukov]] [[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin]] [[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour]] [[Category:Army generals (rank) of the Soviet Union]] [[Category:KGB officers]] [[Category:Russian bibliophiles]] [[Category:Soviet male writers]] [[Category:Burials at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery]]