Emblem of the NKVD

The NKVD (Russian: НКВД, Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del listen (help·info)) or People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the leading secret police organization of the Soviet Union that was responsible for political repression during the Stalinist era. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Council of Ministers of the USSR (Совет Министров СССР tr Secret police (sometimes political police) are a Police agency which operates in Secrecy to maintain National security against internal The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 It conducted mass extrajudicial executions, ran the Gulag system of forced labor, suppressed underground resistance, conducted mass deportations of nationalities and "Kulaks" to unpopulated regions of the country, guarded state borders, conducted espionage and political assassinations abroad, was responsible for subversion of foreign governments, and enforced Stalinist policy within Communist movements in other countries. For extrajudicial executions see also Assassination Extra-judicial killings are the illegal killing of leading political trades union dissidents The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. Unfree labour is a generic or collective term for those work relations especially in modern or early modern history in which people are employed against their will Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories deportations of " Anti-Soviet " categories of population often classified Kulaks ( Russian: кула́к kulak " Fist ", by extension "tight-fisted" were a category of rich Peasants in later AssassiNation is the sixth album by Krisiun, released in 2006 on Century Media. Subversion refers to an attempt to overthrow structures of Authority, including the State. Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953

The NKVD was also known for its Main Directorate for State Security (GUGB), which eventually became the Committee for State Security (KGB). KGB ( Transliteration of "КГБ" is the Russian abbreviation of Committee for State Security ( Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosty In addition to its state security and police functions, however, some of its departments handled other matters, such as firefighting, border guards (NKVD Border Troops) and archives. National security is the entire scope of measures undertaken by the Governments of Nation-states in providing assurance of national Sovereignty Police are agents or agencies usually of the executive, empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order through the legitimatized use of force Border Guard, Border Patrol, Border police, or Frontier police is a National security agency that performs Border control, i An archive refers to a collection of historical records and also refers to the location in which these records are kept

History and structure

Main articles: Cheka and Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies

The NKVD Headquarters on Lubyanka Square designed by Aleksey Schusev. The Cheka ( ЧК - чрезвычайная комиссия Chrezvychaynaya Komissiya,) was the first of a succession of Soviet State security The Soviet Union had a succession of Secret police agencies over the course of its existence The Lubyanka is the popular name for the headquarters of the KGB and affiliated Prison on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. Lubyanka Square (Лубянская площадь in Moscow is not far from Red Square. Alexey Viktorovich Shchusev (Алексе́й Ви́кторович Щу́сев September 26, 1873, Kishinev &mdash May 24, 1949

Picture of Dzerzhinsky during a parade in 1936. Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( Polish: Feliks Edmundowicz Dzierżyński, Russian: Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский Belarusian

The October Revolution of 1917 established a new Bolshevik regime, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). The October Revolution (Октябрьская революция Oktyabrskaya revolyutsiya) also known as the Soviet Revolution The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction The Bolsheviks dissolved the old police, then created the NKVD, and Workers' and Peasants' Militsiya under NKVD supervision. Militia (мили́ция mʲi'lʲitsɨja мiлiцiя мiлíцыя милиция milicja miliţia milica milicija/милиција милиција was used as a short However, the NKVD apparatus was overwhelmed by duties inherited directly from the Tsar's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), such as the supervision of the local governments and firefighting, and the new proletarian workforce was largely inexperienced. Tsar csar and tzar redirect here For other uses see Tsar (disambiguation. Realizing that it was left with no capable security force, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR created a secret political police, the Cheka, led by Felix Dzerzhinsky. The Council of the People's Commissars, or the Council of People's Commissars, was the highest government authority under the Bolshevik system after the success Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( Polish: Feliks Edmundowicz Dzierżyński, Russian: Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский Belarusian It gained the right to undertake quick non-judicial trials and executions, if that was deemed necessary in order to "protect the revolution".

The Cheka was reorganized in 1922 as the State Political Directorate or GPU of the NKVD of the RSFSR. The State Political Directorate was the Secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ( RSFSR) and the Soviet Union from 1922 until In 1923, the USSR was formed with the RSFSR as its largest member. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The GPU became the OGPU (Joint State Political Directorate), under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. The Council of the People's Commissars, or the Council of People's Commissars, was the highest government authority under the Bolshevik system after the success The NKVD of the RSFSR retained control of the militsiya, and various other responsibilities.

In 1934, the OGPU was incorporated into the newly-created NKVD of the USSR, becoming the Main Directorate for State Security; the NKVD of the RSFSR ceased to exist and was not resurrected until 1946 (as the MVD of the RSFSR). As a result, the NKVD also became responsible for all detention facilities (including the forced labor camps, known as the Gulag) as well as for the regular police. The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. Police are agents or agencies usually of the executive, empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order through the legitimatized use of force ^[1]

Since its creation in 1934, the NKVD of the USSR underwent many organizational changes; between 1938 and 1939 alone, the NKVD's structure changed three times. ^[2]

On February 3, 1941, the Special Sections of the NKVD responsible for military counterintelligence (CI) became part of the Army and Navy (RKKA and RKKF, respectively). Events 1112 - Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry uniting the fortunes of those two states Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Military counterintelligence of the Red Army and later of the Soviet Army throughout all its history was controlled by the Soviet Secret police (Cheka GPU NKVD The GUGB was separated from the NKVD and renamed the "People's Commissariat for State Security" (NKGB). After the German invasion, the NKVD and NKGB were reunited on 20 July 1941. Operation Barbarossa ( Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the Codename for Nazi Germany 's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II Events 1304 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold The CI sections were returned to the NKVD in January 1942. In April 1943, the CI sections were again transferred to the People's Commissariats (Narkomat) of Defense and the Navy, becoming SMERSH (from Smert' Shpionam or "Death to Spies"); at the same time, the NKVD was again separated from the NKGB. Council of Ministers of the USSR (Совет Министров СССР tr SMERSH (acronym of SMERt' SHpionam, Russ СМЕРть Шпионам Eng Death to Spies) were the counter-intelligence departments in

In 1946, the NKVD of the USSR was renamed as the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), while the NKGB was renamed as the Ministry of State Security (MGB). According to a 1996 radio documentary by the Russian Service of Radio Liberty, the MGB was reduced from being a ministry to a committee because Soviet leaders feared what the MGB might do if the purges were to resume. This article is about the radio broadcast service For the REM In 1953, after the arrest of Lavrenty Beria, the MGB was merged back into the MVD. Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria; Russian: Лаврентий Павлович The police and security services were finally split in 1954 to become:

• The USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), responsible for the criminal police and correctional facilities. A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned and usually deprived of a range of
• The USSR Committee for State Security (KGB), responsible for the political police, CI, intelligence, personal protection (of the leadership), and confidential communications. Secret police (sometimes political police) are a Police agency which operates in Secrecy to maintain National security against internal

NKVD activities

The main function of the NKVD was to protect the state security of the Soviet Union. National security is the entire scope of measures undertaken by the Governments of Nation-states in providing assurance of national Sovereignty This function was successfully accomplished through massive political repression. Political repression is the Persecution of an individual or group for political reasons particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take part

Repressions and executions

See Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union for detailed articles on the issue.

Nikolai Getman "Moving Out". Nikolai Getman (Николай Гетман Микола Ґетьман an artist was born in 1917 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and died at his home in Orel, The Gulag Collection. The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. ^[3]

In implementing Soviet internal policy with respect to perceived enemies of the state ("enemies of the people"), to GULAG camps and hundreds of thousands were executed by the NKVD. The term enemy of the people is a fluid designation of political or class opponents of the group using the term Formally, most of these people were convicted by NKVD troikas ("triplets") — special courts martial. NKVD troika or Troika, in Soviet Union history were commissions of three people employed as an additional instrument of Extrajudicial punishment (внесудебная A court-martial (plural courts-martial) is a Military court. These military courts can determine Punishments for members of the Military subject Evidential standards were very low; a tip off by an anonymous informer was considered sufficient grounds for arrest. Usage of "physical means of persuasion" (torture) was sanctioned by a special decree of the state, which opened the door to numerous abuses, documented in recollections of victims and members of the NKVD itself. Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental is intentionally Hundreds of mass graves resulting from such operations were later discovered throughout the country. Documented evidence exists that the NKVD committed mass extrajudicial executions, guided by secret "plans". Those plans established the number and proportion of victims (officially "public enemies") in a given region (e. g. the quotas for clergy, former nobles etc, regardless of identity). Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given Religion. Nobility is a government-privileged title which may be either hereditary (see Hereditary titles) or for a lifetime The families of the repressed, including children, were also automatically repressed according to NKVD Order no. 00486. The NKVD Order № 00486 instructed about repression of wives of Enemy of the people also known as "traitors of the Motherland members of Right-

The purges were organized in a number of waves according to the decisions of the Politburo of the Communist Party (e. Politburo, short for Political Bureau, Russian Politicheskoye Buro, is the executive organization for a number of Political parties, most notably g. the campaigns among engineers ("Shakhty Case"), party and military elite ("fascist plots"), and medical staff ("Doctors Plot"). An engineer is a person professionally engaged in a field of Engineering. The Doctors' plot ( Russian language: дело врачей (doctors' affair врачи-вредители (doctors-saboteurs or врачи-убийцы Distinctive and permanent purging campaigns were conducted against non-Russian nationalities (including Ukrainians, Poles, Tatars, Germans and many others, who were accused of "bourgeois nationalism", "fascism", etc. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Ukrainians (Українці Ukrayintsi,) are an East Slavic Ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly— Citizens The Polish people, or Poles, (Polacy) are a Western Slavic Ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Tatars ( Tatar: Tatarlar/Татарлар sometimes spelled Tartars, are a Turkic -speaking ethnic group or multiple ethnic groups Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. ) and religious activists.

A number of mass operations of the NKVD were related to the prosecution of whole ethnic categories. Mass operations of the NKVD were carried out during the Great Purge and targeted specific categories of people Whole populations of certain ethnicities were forcibly resettled. Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories deportations of " Anti-Soviet " categories of population often classified Despite this, ethnic Russians still formed the majority of NKVD victims. The Russian people (Русские— Russkie) are an East Slavic Ethnic group, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries

NKVD agents became not only executioners, but also one of the largest groups of victims. Most 1930s agency staff (hundreds of thousands), including all commanders, were executed.

During the Spanish Civil War, NKVD agents, acting in conjunction with the Communist Party of Spain, exercised substantial control over the Republican government, using Soviet military aid to help further Soviet influence. The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted Coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of The Communist Party of Spain ( Partido Comunista de España or PCE) is the third largest national Political party of Spain. The Second Spanish Republic was the system of government in Spain between April 14 1931, when King Alfonso XIII left the country The NKVD established numerous secret prisons around Madrid, which were used to detain, torture, and kill hundreds of the NKVD's enemies. Madrid (pronounced in English in Spanish and colloquially in Spain) is the Capital and largest city of Spain. In June, 1937 Andres Nin, the secretary of the anti-Stalinist POUM, was tortured and killed in an NKVD prison. Andreu Nin Pérez, ( Catalan: Andreu Nin; Spanish: Andrés Nin; February 4 1892, El Vendrell, Tarragona Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 POUM Campesinosjpg|thumb|A POUM poster appeals to peasants "Peasants the land is yours"]]The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM Spanish: Partido Obrero

Cooperation between the NKVD and the Gestapo: In March, 1940 representatives of the NKVD and the Gestapo met for one week in Zakopane, to coordinate the pacification of Poland; see Gestapo–NKVD Conferences. The ( contraction of ge heime Sta ats' po' lizei: "Secret State Police" was the official Secret police of Nazi Germany Zakopane is a town in southern Poland with some 28000 inhabitants (2004 situated in Lesser Poland Province since 1999 (in 1975–98 it was part of Nowy Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland The Gestapo-NKVD conferences were a series of meetings organized in late 1939 and early 1940 whose purpose was the mutual cooperation between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union. The Soviet Union delivered hundreds of German and Austrian Communists to the Gestapo, as unwanted foreigners, together with their documents.

During World War II, NKVD units were used for rear area security, including stopping desertion. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including In Military terminology desertion is the Abandonment of a " Duty " or post without permission from one's Government or superior In liberated territory the NKVD and (later) NKGB carried out mass arrests, deportations, and executions. The targets included both collaborators with Germany and non-Communist resistance movements such as the Polish Armia Krajowa. A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups dedicated to fighting an Invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation The NKVD also executed tens of thousands of Polish political prisoners in 1939-1941. The massacre of prisoners refers to a series of mass executions committed by the Soviet NKVD against prisoners in Poland, the Baltic states,

The NKVD's intelligence and special operations (Inostrannyi Otdel) unit organized overseas assassinations of ex-Soviet citizens and foreigners who were regarded as enemies of the USSR by Josef Stalin. Intelligence (abbreviated int or intel) is not Information, but the product of evaluated information valued for its currency and relevance rather than In most countries special forces (SF is a generic term for highly-trained Military teams/units that conduct specialized operations such as Reconnaissance AssassiNation is the sixth album by Krisiun, released in 2006 on Century Media. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party Among the officially confirmed victims of such plots were:

• Leon Trotsky, a personal political enemy of Stalin and his most bitter international critic;
• Boris Savinkov, Russian revolutionary and terrorist (Trust Operation of the GPU);
• Yevhen Konovalets, prominent Ukrainian political and military leader. Leon Trotsky ( Russian:, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij Boris Viktorovich Savinkov (RussianБорис Викторович Савинков ( 19 January 1879 - 7 May 1925) was a Russian Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Operation Trust (операция "Трест" was a Counterintelligence operation of the State Political Directorate (OGPU of the Soviet Union The State Political Directorate was the Secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ( RSFSR) and the Soviet Union from 1922 until Yevhen Konovalets ( Ukrainian:Євген Олексійович Коновалець June 14, 1891 – May 23, 1938) was a military Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe.
• Guy Leland, French anti-Soviet underground poet

After the death of Stalin in 1953, the new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev halted the NKVD purges. Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (April 17 1894 – September 11 1971 served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 following From the 1950s to the 1980s, thousands of victims were legally "rehabilitated" (i. e. acquitted and had their rights restored). Many of the victims and their relatives refused to apply for rehabilitation out of fear or lack of documents. The rehabilitation was not complete: in most cases the formulation was "due to lack of evidence of the case of crime", a Soviet legal jargon that effectively said "there was a crime, but unfortunately we cannot prove it". Only a limited number of persons were rehabilitated with the formulation "cleared of all charges".

Very few NKVD agents were ever officially convicted of the particular violation of anyone's rights. Legally, those agents executed in the 1930s were also "purged" without legitimate criminal investigations and court decisions. In the 1990s and 2000s a small number of ex-NKVD agents living in the Baltic states were convicted of crimes against the local population. The Baltic states (Balti riigid Baltijas valstis Baltijos valstybės or Baltic countries are three countries in Northern Europe, all members of the

At present, living former agents retain generous pensions and privileges established by the USSR and later confirmed by all of the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. They have not been prosecuted in any way, although some have been identified by their victims.

Intelligence activities

These included:

• Establishment of a widespread spy network through the Comintern. The Comintern ( Com munist Intern ational also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organisation founded in Moscow
• Operations of Richard Sorge, the "Red Orchestra", and other agents who provided valuable intelligence during World War II. Richard Sorge ( Russian: Рихард Зорге ( October 4, 1895 - November 7, 1944) is considered to have been the best Soviet
• Recruitment of important [United States|U. K. ] officials as agents in the 1940s.
• Penetration of British intelligence (MI6) and counter-intelligence (MI5) services. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Secret Intelligence Service ( SIS) colloquially known as MI6 is the United Kingdom 's external Intelligence agency.
• Collection of detailed nuclear weapons design information from the U. S. and Britain.
• Disruption of several confirmed plots to assassinate Stalin.

The NKVD and the Soviet economy

The extensive system of labor exploitation in the GULAG made a notable contribution to the Soviet economy and the development of remote areas. Colonization of Siberia, the North and Far East was among the explicitly stated goals in the very first laws concerning Soviet labor camps. A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in Penal labor. Mining, construction works (roads, railways, canals, dams, and factories), logging, and other functions of the labor camps were part of the Soviet planned economy, and the NKVD had its own production plans. Mining is the extraction of valuable Minerals or other geological materials from the earth usually (but not always from an Ore body In the fields of Architecture and Civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the Building or assembling of Infrastructure "Railroad" and "Railway" both redirect here For other uses see Railroad (disambiguation. Canals are artificial channels for water There are two types of canals water conveyance canals which are used for the conveyance and delivery of water and Waterways A dam is a barrier that divides waters. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water while other structures such as Floodgates, Levees A factory (previously manufactory) or manufacturing plant is an industrial Building where workers manufacture goods Logging is the process in which Trees are cut down for Forest management and Timber. A planned economy or directed economy is an Economic system in which the Government or Workers' councils manages the Economy.

The most unusual part of the NKVD's achievements was its role in Soviet science and arms development. Many scientists and engineers arrested for political crimes were placed in special prisons, much more comfortable than the GULAG), colloquially known as sharashkas. Sharashka (sometimes Sharaga or Sharazhka, шара́шка) was an informal name for secret Research and development These prisoners continued their work in these prisons. When later released, some of them became world leaders in science and technology. Among such sharashka members were Sergey Korolev, the head designer of the Soviet rocket program and first human space flight mission in 1961, and Andrei Tupolev, the famous airplane designer. Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov (often Transliterated as Sergei Korolev) (Серге́й Па́влович Королёв Сергій Павлович Корольов Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev (Андрей Николаевич Туполев November 10 1888 &ndash December 23 1972 was a pioneering Soviet Aircraft designer

After World War II, the NKVD coordinated work on Soviet nuclear weaponry, under the direction of General Pavel Sudoplatov. Pavel Sudoplatov (Пáвел Aнатóльевич Cудоплáтов ( July 7, 1907 – September 26, 1996) was a member of the Intelligence The scientists were not prisoners, but the project was supervised by the NKVD because of its great importance and the corresponding requirement for absolute security and secrecy. Also, the project used information obtained by the NKVD from the U. S>

See also

Katyn massacre 1943 exhumation. Photo made by Polish Red Cross delegation. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an International humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers worldwide who stated

• Attack on the NKVD Camp in Rembertów
• Bykivnia
• Gestapo-NKVD Conferences
• Great Purge
• Holodomor
• Katyn massacre
• Kurapaty
• Mass operations of the NKVD
• NKVD buildings
• NKVD prisoner massacres
• Population transfer in the Soviet Union
• Special Council of the NKVD
• USSR Border Troops
• Vinnytsia massacre

Notes

External links

• NKVD.org: information site about the NKVD
• (Russian) MVD: 200-year history of the Ministry
• (Russian) MEMORIAL: history of the OGPU/NKVD/MGB/KGB