Upon graduating in 1975, Putin fulfilled his childhood dream by joining the KGB (Committee for State Security). He underwent initial training at the 401st KGB School in Okhta, Leningrad. Entry into the "Chekist" brotherhood (named after the Cheka, the first Soviet secret police) gave him a new identity – that of being part of the Communist Party's "sword and shield."
His career began in the Second Chief Directorate (counterintelligence), where his responsibilities included monitoring foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad. This role involved espionage, recruiting informants, and suppressing ideological dissent. It was during this period that his human intelligence skills flourished – the art of reading people, identifying their weaknesses, and using them for the benefit of the state. He learned to view society not as a mass of citizens, but as a map of potential threats and resources.
In 1985, after completing advanced training at the Red Banner Institute in Moscow, Putin was assigned to Dresden in East Germany (GDR). Official biographies describe this as a prestigious foreign posting, while Western analysts consider Dresden a backwater compared to espionage hubs like East Berlin. Working under the cover of a translator, Putin became a liaison officer to the Stasi, East Germany's secret police.
His responsibilities in Dresden remain a subject of debate, but he is reported to have been involved in recruiting Westerners visiting Dresden, compiling reports on political sentiments, and coordinating with Stasi officers. It was during this period that he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Significantly, Putin remained largely insulated from the winds of perestroika and glasnost that were beginning to sweep through the Soviet Union. While Gorbachev was unleashing a whirlwind of reforms across the country, Putin was in the frozen, rigidly conservative communist environment of East Germany, largely untouched by the chaotic democratic experiments unfolding in Moscow.
The moment that arrived at the end of 1989 profoundly impacted Putin's KGB career and perhaps his entire life. As the Berlin Wall fell and communist governments across Eastern Europe began to collapse, angry crowds surrounded the Stasi headquarters in Dresden. Putin, fearing the mob would soon attack the nearby KGB villa as well, called the local Soviet tank unit for help. But the response he received was unbearable and shocking:
“We can do nothing without orders from Moscow. And Moscow is silent.”
This silence from the center felt like a betrayal to Putin. It symbolized the paralysis of the state and the abandonment of its sovereignty. He saw firsthand how a superpower could vanish overnight if its leadership faltered. This experience became a cornerstone of his political thinking: that order is paramount, the state must never show weakness, and a power vacuum always leads to chaos.
In 1990, he returned to Leningrad with an old washing machine strapped to the roof of his car—a bitter officer from a defeated empire, who had inwardly resolved that “Moscow would never be silent again.”
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