The
Joint State Political Directorate (also translated as the
All-Union State Political Administration) was the secret police of the
Soviet Union from 1923 to 1934. Its official name was "Joint State Political Directorate under the
Council of People's Commissars of the USSR" (Russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление при СНК СССР)
, Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye under the SNK of the USSR, or
ОГПУ (
OGPU).