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The Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (or NKVD) (Russian: Народный комиссариат внутренних дел - People's Commisariat for Interior Affairs) was an agency that handled a number of the USSR's affairs of state; it was best known as the secret police of the Soviet Union. In addition to its state security and police functions, however, some of its departments handled other matters, such as transport, fire guards, border troops, etc.
Evolution of NKVD structure and tasks After the October Revolution of 1917, the Soviet government created its own secret police force, the Cheka (the Russian acronym for All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Suppression of Counterrevolution and Sabotage), led by Felix Dzerzhinsky. The Cheka was reorganized in 1922 as the GPU (State Political Administration [or Directorate]), later known as the OGPU (Unified State Political Administration).
The NKVD was created in early 1920s to handle all security functions. In 1934 the functions of the OGPU were transferred to the NKVD, which was also responsible for all detention facilities (including the forced labor camps, known as the Gulag) as well as for the regular police.
Other NKVD departments dealt with:
and other related tasks.
At various times NKVD had the following Chief Directorates, abbreviated as "ГУ" - главное управление.
- ГУГБ - государственная безопасность, of State Security
- ГУРКМ - рабоче-крестьянская милиция, of workers' and peasants' militsiya
- ГУПВО - пограничная и внутренняя охрана, of border ad internal guards
- ГУПО - пожарная охрана, of fire guards
- ГУШосдор - шоссейные дороги, of highways
- ГУЖД, железные дороги, of railways
- ГУЛАГ - GULAG
- ГЭУ - экономика, of economics
- ГТУ - транспорт, of transport
- ГУВПИ - военнопленных и интернированных, of POW and interned
On 8 February 1941, the Special Sections of the NKVD (responsible for counter-intelligence in the military) were included to the Army and Navy (RKKA and RKKF, respectively) where they became the SMERSH (from Smert' Shpionam or "Death to Spies").
In April 1943, GUGB department was removed from NKVD and renamed first into NKGB, then MGB, and, finally, KGB. In 1946, the NKVD was transformed into the MVD. Thus, the once united NKVD was split into two independent agencies:
- MVD (Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del - Ministry of Interior), responsible for criminal police, correctional facilities and fire rescue;
- KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti - Committee of State Security) - responsible for political police, counter-intelligence, intelligence, personal protection and confidential communications.
NKVD's law violation and military crimes record See Category:Soviet political repressions for detailed articles on the issue.
Implementing the Soviet internal politics with respect to perceived enemies of the state ("enemies of the people"), the agency conducted arrests and executions of Soviet and foreign citizens. Scholars believe that millions were rounded up and sent to GULAG camps and hundreds of thousands summarily shot. Formally, most of those people were convicted by NKVD troikas ("triplets") - special martial courts. Evidentiary standards were very low; a tip off by an anonymous informer was considered sufficient ground for arrest. Usage of "physical means of persuasion" was sanctioned by a special decree of the state, which opened the door to numerous abuses, documented in reocllections of victims and members of NKVD themselves. Hundreds of mass graves resulting from such operations were later discovered throughout the country. Documented evidence exists that NKVD committed mass extrajudicial executions, guided by secret "plans". Those plans established the number and proportion of victims (officially "public enemies") in given region, e.g. the quotas for clergy, Jews, former nobles etc., regardless of personality.
The families of the repressed, including children, were also automatically repressed according to NKVD Order no. 00486.
Chronologically, the purges were organized in certain waves following the recent political trends in the Communist Party, the CPSU. E.g., the campaigns among medics ("The Case of Doctors"), engineers ("Shakhty Case"), party and military elite (so-called "fascist plots"). Distinctive and permanent purging campaigns were conducted against non-Russian nationalities (Ukrainians, Tartars, Germans and many others - they were accused of "bourgeois nationalism", "fascism" etc.) and religious activism. Despite that, it is important to note that Russians formed the majority of NKVD victims.
A number of mass operations of the NKVD were related to prosecution of the whole ethnic categories, see Population transfer in the Soviet Union.
NKVD agents became not only executioners, but also one of the largest groups of their own victims. The majority of 1930s agency staff (hundreds of thousands), including all commanders, were executed.
During World War II, NKVD units were used for rear area security, including halting deserters. On "liberated" territory, the NKVD and later NKGB carried out mass arrests and deportations.
NKVD's intelligence unit organized overseas assassinations of ex-Soviets and foreigners that were regarded the enemies of USSR. Among officially confirmed victims of such plots are:
After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev started the campaign against NKVD purges. During 1950s-1980s, thousands of victims were legally "rehabilitated", i.e. acquitted of guilt and had their rights restored. Many of the victims and their relatives refused to apply for rehabilitation due to fear or lack of documents. Still, the rehabilitation was defective: in most cases the formulation was "due to lack of evidence of the case of crime", a Soviet legal slang that effectively said "there was crime, but unfortunately we cannot prove it". Only a limited number of persons were rehabilitated with the formulation "cleared of all charges".
With very few exceptions, NKVD agents have not been officially convicted for the particular violation of somebody's rights. Legally, those agents executed in 1930s were also "purged" without legitimate criminal investigation and court decision. In 1990s-2000s, a small number of ex-NKVD agents living in Baltic states were convicted for their crimes against local population.
For now, still alive ex-agents receive generous pensions and privileges established by USSR government and later confirmed by all the CIS countries. They are not persecuted in any way despite being later recognized by some of their victims.
Achievements of NKVD Regarding the criminal nature of NKVD's domestic activities, it would be blasphemous to study its state security and counter-intelligence achievements. Although the agency's victories in intelligence are more justified and internationally-known. Among them are: - Establishment of wide-spread spy network within Comintern;
- Successful infiltration of Richard Sorge, "Red Capella" and other agents who alerted Stalin of forthcoming Nazi invasion to USSR (see World War II) and later assissted Red Army during the war;
- Recruiting dozens of other agents who showed their worth in the Cold War intelligence operations of MGB-KGB.
NKVD have averted several confirmed plots to assassin Joseph Stalin.
The most unexpected part of NKVD achievements is its role in Soviet science and arms development. On the initiative of Lavrenty Beria (the last and most influential commander of the agency), hundreds of researchers and engineers were arrested and placed in the privileged semi-prison institutes (much more comfortable than GULAG), colloquially known as sharashkas. Continuing their studies there and later released, some of them became the leaders of the world science and technology. Among such "sharashka" members are Sergey Korolev, the head designer of Soviet space mission in 1961, and Vladimir Tupolev, the famous airplane designer.
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