The MGB (Russian: МГБ), an initialism for Ministerstvo gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti SSSR (Russian: Министе́рство госуда́рственной безопа́сности СССР; IPA: [mʲɪnʲɪˈsʲtʲɛrstvə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪnnəj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ], translated in English as Ministry for State Security), was the name of the Soviet intelligence agency from 1946 to 1953. It, for all intents and purposes, succeeded the NKVD, with the MGB maintaining fearsome reputation of the NKVD until it was replaced by the KGB.