The Latvian SSR Committee for State Security (KGB, Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti) operated in Latvia under different names (NKVD/NKGB/MGB/KGB) from August 1940 to August 1991. It acted as the secret police, with the aim of suppressing internal dissent against the Soviet regime, using different techniques and a vast web of informers. The organization was liquidated by a decision of the Supreme Council of the Latvian Republic on 24 August 1991.