People's Commissars of the NKVD. Troikas of the NKVD of the USSR

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The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR (hereinafter referred to as the NKVD of the RSFSR) was created as the central body of the political administration of the RSFSR for combating crime and maintaining public order.
In addition to the functions of maintaining law and order and protecting state security, he also dealt with public utilities and economic activities. He was appointed his first people's commissar.

On October 28, 1917, by a decree of the NKVD of the RSFSR, a "workers' and peasants' militia" was created, which, thus, is allocated to a body specializing in maintaining law and order and combating "non-political" crime, although the framework that determines which crime is political and which is no, they were very vague.

Already in November 1917, another people's commissar was appointed -.
There is a version that Rykov was dismissed due to the fact that he suffered from chronic alcoholism and was unable to work normally. Later he was appointed Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars - after V.I. fell ill. Lenin: he was appointed precisely because of his inability to work - politically, he meant nothing, and many fought for Lenin's place.
Under the People's Commissar of the NKVD, a collegium is created, which includes:, I.S. Unshlikht, , .

The main activities of the NKVD of the RSFSR were:
– organization, recruitment and the control for the activities of local councils;
– control over the execution of orders of the central authorities in the field(in fact, a combination of repressive functions with control ones);
– protection of the "revolutionary order" and ensuring the safety of citizens;
– general leadership of the police, management execution of punishments and fire protection(Let us explain: those who pass sentences and conduct investigations began to execute punishments - this contradicts the elementary norms of law and condones the violation of the rights of prisoners, practically depriving them of the right to appeal);
– public utilities management(since the institution of propiska and a strict passport regime were introduced, the distribution of housing was also controlled by the NKVD. This made it possible for police control of the population).

As you can see, the protection of order was not in the first place. To be precise - on the third. The list of functions is given in the order in which they are listed in the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the formation of the NKVD of the RSFSR. Later, in 1922, this list has been reproduced, and there the safety of citizens moved even further - to the fifth position.

Created in December 1917, the Cheka was not part of the NKVD of the RSFSR, being an independent body. However, in March 1919, F.E. Dzerzhinsky became People's Commissar of the NKVD, retaining the post of Chairman of the Cheka. The two bodies have, de facto, merged. This entailed a further strengthening of the "repressive component" in the work of the NKVD.

The working apparatus of the NKVD of the RSFSR by the summer of 1918 consisted of the following departments:
– local government;
- local economy;
– financial;
- foreign;
– management of the medical unit;
- veterinary;
- the secretariat;
– press office;
- control and audit commission.

This is how the structure is formed, which, with some changes, has existed for many decades.
The foreign department of the NKVD was engaged in foreign intelligence, the press department - censorship. It's interesting that the control and auditing body of the NKVD had its own – other authorities did not control it; "Your own controller." The department of local economy gradually grew into an economic "empire" - as the Gulag appeared and developed. The department of local authorities later became - already in the OGPU - the Secret Political Department.

On February 6, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the liquidation of the Cheka and the formation of the State Political Administration under the NKVD of the RSFSR, thus transferring control of the police and state security to one department. In August 1923, the People's Commissar of the NKVD of the RSFSR became A.G. Beloborodov(known for leading the execution of the royal family).

On November 15, 1923, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR decided to transform the GPU of the NKVD into the OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. The NKVD of the RSFSR was exempted from the functions of ensuring state security.

After the creation of the USSR, the people's commissariat remained republican.
The NKVD enforced and controlled the execution of government orders on general administration and the “establishment of the protection of revolutionary order”, issued citizens foreign passports and visas to leave the USSR, and was in charge of civil registration: it was also important that the “enemy” could not change a surname or "make" himself a "proletarian origin", so that no one can move freely around the country and receive housing in "regime" cities in order to keep track of the "dispossessed".
There was supervision over the exiles, the circulation of special items and strategic materials, and the circulation of weapons.
The NKVD dealt with the issues of search and inquiry in criminal cases, the registration of criminals, the development of a criminal environment in terms of intelligence, the development of a policy in the field of the execution of punishments.

In January 1928, he became People's Commissar of the NKVD of the RSFSR V.N. Tolmachev(later shot).

December 15, 1930 The NKVD of the RSFSR was liquidated. Its functions were partially transferred to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and partially to the OGPU and the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR, while the OGPU received the right to use both the public police and its undercover apparatus for their own purposes.

The following features are characteristic of the NKVD of the RSFSR:
– combining investigative functions with the execution of punishments. In practice - and with judicial functions, too: any case could be transferred from the NKVD to the GPU, and the chairman both there and there was a common one - F.E. Dzerzhinsky;
- the withdrawal of the NKVD from government control: it subordinated only to the Central Committee of the party;
- taking over functions of the economic body. Later, this logically resulted in use of prison labor;
– political function -"defending the gains of the revolution" meant more than protecting the safety of citizens. The Red Terror was carried out not only by the Cheka, but also by the NKVD of the RSFSR. The fight against "banditism" and "speculation" in the early 1920s, it also followed the line of the NKVD of the RSFSR, no less than along the line of the Cheka.

In the 1920s, the economy came to the fore: the NKVD switched to fighting "nepmen" and "speculators", "foreign exchangers" - and the people's commissariat itself, with its lack of control and close connection with the OGPU, became a place where corruption took place and bribery.

Groundless arrests, searches and exiles - often not even for political reasons, but for personal ones - were in the order of things. Prosecutor's supervision was purely formal. Testimony from those arrested was often forced out by force, and during the years of the Civil War, executions were the most common thing - often even at the place of detention. Recall that the NKVD, together with the Cheka, carried out the policy of red terror.

The material was prepared using archival documents, as well as excerpts from the monograph by K. Skorkin “NKVD RSFSR 1917-1923” M., 2008.

NKVD USSR

People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR- the central body of state administration of the USSR for combating crime and maintaining public order in 1934-1946, later renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.

During the period of its existence, the NKVD of the USSR performed important state functions, both related to the protection of law and order and state security, and in the field of public utilities and the country's economy. Currently, the name of this organization is often associated with violations of the law during the period of repression.

Development of the NKVD of the USSR

The newly created NKVD of the USSR is entrusted with the following tasks:

ensuring public order and state security,
protection of socialist property,
registration of acts of civil status,
border guard,
maintenance and protection of ITU.

To solve these problems, the NKVD creates:

Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB)
Main Directorate of Workers' and Peasants' Militia (GU RKM)
Main Directorate of Border and Internal Security (GU PVO)
Main Directorate of Fire Protection (GUPO)
Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Camps (ITL) and Labor Settlements (GULAG)
Civil status department (see registry office)
Administrative and Economic Department
Finance Department (FINO)
Human Resources Department
Secretariat
Specially authorized department

In total, according to the states of the central apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR, there were 8211 people.

The work of the GUGB was led by the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR G. G. Yagoda. The GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR included the main operational units of the former OGPU of the USSR:

Special Department (OO) counterintelligence and combating enemy actions in the army and navy
Secret Political Department (SPO) fight against hostile political parties and anti-Soviet elements
Economic Department (ECO) combating sabotage and sabotage in the national economy
Foreign Department (INO) intelligence abroad
Operational department (Operod) protection of the leaders of the party and government, searches, arrests, surveillance
Special Department (Special Department) encryption work, ensuring secrecy in departments
Transport department (TO) combating sabotage, sabotage in transport
Accounting and Statistical Department (USO) operational accounting, statistics, archive

Subsequently, reorganizations were repeatedly made, renaming of both departments and departments.

At the same time, the Special Department of the GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR was disbanded, and instead of it, the 3rd Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense (NKO) and the People's Commissariat of the Navy (NK VMF) and the 3rd Department of the NKVD of the USSR (for operational work in the NKVD troops) were created.

In 1934, the OGPU merged with the newly reformed NKVD of the USSR, becoming the Main Directorate of State Security; The NKVD of the RSFSR ceased to exist until 1946 (as the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR). As a result, the NKVD became responsible for all places of detention (including the work camps known as the Gulag) as well as for the regular militia.

Other functions of the NKVD:

General police and crime investigation (police)
Intelligence and Special Operations (Foreign Department)
counterintelligence
Protection of important government officials
and many other tasks.

At various times, the NKVD consisted of the Main Directorates, abbreviated "GU"

GUGB - state security
GURKM - workers' and peasants' militia
GUPVO - border and internal protection
GUPO - fire department
GUSHosdor - highways
Gulag - camps
GEM - economics
GTU - transport
GUVPI - prisoners of war and internees

Activities of the NKVD

Although the NKVD had an important function of state security, the name of this organization is still associated mainly with mass crimes, political repressions and eliminations, war crimes, cruelty towards Soviet and foreign citizens.

The implementation of Soviet domestic policy is associated with the enemies of the state ("enemy of the people"), their mass arrests and executions by the verdict of the court of Soviet and foreign citizens. Millions were exiled to Gulag camps and hundreds of thousands (over about 30 years) were sentenced to capital punishment. Most of these people were convicted by the NKVD troikas - a special phenomenon of the Soviet court. In many cases - mainly during the period of Yezhov - evidence did not play a special role, an anonymous denunciation was enough for an arrest. The use of the "Physical Dialectic of Punishment" was sanctioned by a special decree of the state, which opened the door to numerous abuses in the counting of those arrested and employees of the NKVD itself. The results of such operations were hundreds of mass graves later discovered throughout the country. Documentary evidence proves a "planned system" of mass executions. Such plans showed the number and ratio of victims (officially, "enemies of the people") to certain areas. The families of the repressed, including children, were to be automatically repressed, according to the order of the NKVD No. 00486.

Processes were organized against persons of non-Russian nationalities (including Ukrainians, Tatars, Germans and many others accused of "bourgeois nationalism", "fascism", etc.) and religious figures. The number of mass operations of the NKVD was directed against entire nationalities. The peoples of a certain ethnic group could be forcibly resettled, especially those who during the Second World War actively and en masse collaborated with the Nazi occupiers, acted as pests and saboteurs in the rear of the Red Army. However, the Russians, as the largest nationality in the USSR, nevertheless, made up the majority of the victims of the NKVD.

Employees of the NKVD became not only executioners, but also victims. Most of the NKVD officers (several thousand), including the entire command staff, were executed in the 30s and 40s.

Mass repression

Main article: Destruction of NKVD prisoners

Among the prisoners and those arrested by the NKVD in 1939-1941, a significant part were political activists, religious figures, intellectuals, some officials, military and police officers, including pensioners, activists of national movements, representatives of the "bourgeoisie", etc. The total number of victims is estimated at approximately 100,000 people, including more than 10,000 people in Western Ukraine alone, about 9,000 people in Vinnitsa.

Cooperation between the NKVD and the Gestapo

intelligence activities

It included:

Establishment of a broad intelligence network working for the Comintern
Filtering out spies like Richard Sorge and the Red Chapel intelligence organizations that warned Stalin of the impending Nazi invasion of the USSR and later helped the Red Army in World War II
Training of numerous other agents who showed their talent during the Cold War, through their MGB-KGB intelligence operations.

counterintelligence activities.

On July 17, 1941, the State Defense Committee adopts DECISION No. 187 ss on the transformation of the bodies of the Third Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense from branches in divisions and higher into special departments of the NKVD of the USSR, and the Third Directorate - into the Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD of the USSR.

In DIRECTIVE No. 169 of July 18, 1941, People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR L.P. Beria noted that “The meaning of the transformation of the organs of the Third Directorate into Special Departments with their subordination to the NKVD is to wage a merciless fight against spies, traitors, saboteurs, deserters and all sorts of alarmists and disorganizers. The merciless reprisal against alarmists, cowards, deserters who undermine the power and discredit the honor of the Red Army is just as important as the fight against espionage and sabotage.

DECISION of the State Defense Committee "ON APPROVAL OF THE REGULATIONS ON THE MAIN DEPARTMENT OF COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE "SMERSH".

TO APPROVE THE REGULATION ON THE MAIN DEPARTMENT OF COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE "SMERSH" - (DEATH TO SPIES) AND ITS LOCAL AUTHORITIES.

Chairman of the State Defense Committee I. Stalin.

REGULATIONS On the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence of the People's Commissariat of Defense ("Smersh") and its local bodies

1. General Provisions.

1. The Main Directorate of Counterintelligence of the NPO (“Smersh” - death to spies) was created on the basis of the former Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD of the USSR, is part of the People's Commissariat of Defense. The head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence of the NPO (“Smersh”) is the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, is directly subordinate to the People's Commissar of Defense and carries out only his orders. 2. The tasks of the Smersh bodies.

1. The following tasks are assigned to the Smersh organization:

a) combating espionage, sabotage, terrorist and other subversive activities of foreign intelligence services in units and institutions of the Red Army;

b) the fight against anti-Soviet elements that have penetrated the units and Directorates of the Red Army;

c) taking the necessary agent-operational and other (through the command) measures to create conditions on the fronts that exclude the possibility of enemy agents passing through the front line with impunity in order to make the front line impenetrable to espionage and anti-Soviet elements;

d) the fight against treason and treason in the units and institutions of the Red Army (going over to the side of the enemy, harboring spies and, in general, facilitating the work of the latter);

e) the fight against desertion and self-mutilation on the fronts;

f) verification of military personnel and other persons who were captured and surrounded by the enemy;

g) fulfillment of special tasks of the People's Commissar of Defense.

2. Smersh bodies are exempt from carrying out any other work not directly related to the tasks listed in this section.

5. Organizational structure of the Smersh bodies.

1st Department - intelligence and operational work on the central bodies of the Red Army - the Directorates of the People's Commissariat of Defense.

2nd Division - work among prisoners of war of interest to the Smersh bodies, checking the Red Army soldiers who were captured and surrounded by the enemy.

3rd Division - the fight against enemy agents (paratroopers), thrown into our rear.

4th Department - counterintelligence work on the side of the enemy in order to identify channels for the penetration of enemy agents into units and institutions of the Red Army.

5th Department - leadership of the Smersh bodies of the military districts.

6th Department - investigative.

7th Department - operational accounting, statistics.

8th Department - operational and technical.

9th Department - searches, arrests, installations, surveillance.

10th Department "C" - work on special assignments.

11th Department - cipher communication.

The position is cited with the observance of spelling and punctuation.

NKVD and the Great Patriotic War.

On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, along with the border troops, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR included troops for the protection of railway facilities and especially important industrial enterprises; convoy troops and operational troops.

By the beginning of the war, the NKVD troops consisted of 14 divisions, 18 brigades and 21 separate regiments for various purposes, of which 7 divisions, 2 brigades and 11 operational regiments of internal troops were located in the western districts, on the basis of which in the Baltic, Western and Kiev special districts before the war the formation of the 21st, 22nd and 23rd motorized rifle divisions of the NKVD began. In addition, there were 8 border districts, 49 border detachments and other units on the western border. In the border troops of the NKVD, there were 167,600 military personnel. There were 173,900 military personnel in the internal troops of the NKVD, including:

operational troops (excluding military schools) - 27.3 thousand people;
troops for the protection of railways - 63.7 thousand people;
troops for the protection of especially important industrial facilities - 29.3 thousand people.

In the escort troops, the number of personnel was 38.3 thousand people.

The main task of the border troops of the NKVD of the USSR was considered to be the protection of the state border of the Soviet Union; the fight against saboteurs and the identification of violators of the border regime.

The main task of the operational troops of the NKVD of the USSR was the fight against political and criminal banditry and banditry in the country; detection, blocking, pursuit and destruction of gangs.

The tasks of the railway troops of the NKVD of the USSR were both the protection and defense of the objects of the "steel highways", for which they had, in particular, armored trains.

The combat service of the troops of the NKVD of the USSR for the protection of especially important industrial facilities was based on the principles underlying the protection of the state border.

The main official task of the escort troops of the NKVD of the USSR was the escort of convicts, prisoners of war and persons subject to deportation, and they also carried out external protection of prisoner of war camps, prisons and some objects where the labor of the "special contingent" was used.

The first blow of the German troops 06/22/41. took over 47 land, 6 maritime border detachments, 9 separate border commandant's offices of the NKVD of the USSR on the western border of the Soviet Union from the Barents to the Black Seas. In their plans, the Hitlerite command allotted only 30 minutes to destroy the border outposts. And the border guards stood and fought to the death for days, weeks. One of the first, the head of the frontier post, a graduate of the Saratov 4th school of the border guard and the OGPU troops, Lopatin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Now the Saratov Red Banner Higher Command School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky. In the first months of the war, the NKVD troops actually performed functions unusual for them, performed the tasks of the Red Army, and fought the German troops as motorized rifle units of the Red Army, because the internal troops of the NKVD turned out to be more combat-ready than the Red Army. Brest Fortress. The defense was held for two months by border guards and the 132nd separate battalion of escort troops of the NKVD of the USSR. The city of Brest was hastily abandoned by the Red Army at 8.00 am on 22.6.41. after the battle with the enemy infantry, who crossed the river Bug in boats. In Soviet times, everyone remembered the inscription of one of the defenders of the Brest Fortress: “ I'm dying, but I'm not giving up! Farewell Motherland! 20.VII.41”, but few people knew that it was made on the wall of the barracks of the 132nd separate battalion of escort troops of the NKVD of the USSR.

One of the first results of the work of the military counterintelligence of the NKVD was summed up on October 10, 1941. Special departments of the NKVD and the NKVD barrage detachments for the protection of the rear detained 657,364 military personnel, of which: spies - 1,505; saboteurs - 308; traitors - 2,621; cowards and alarmists - 2,643; disseminators of provocative rumors - 3,987; self-shooters - 1,671; others - 4 371 ».

Defense of Stalingrad. The 10th Infantry Division of the internal troops of the NKVD of the USSR took the first blow and held back the onslaught of the enemy until the approach of the Red Army divisions. The wars of the 41st separate brigade of the NKVD escort troops also took part in the defense of Leningrad and the protection of law and order.

In addition to the manpower and equipment of the enemy destroyed in battles, the internal troops of the NKVD during the entire period of the Great Patriotic War carried out 9,292 operations to combat banditry, as a result, 47,451 were killed and 99,732 bandits were captured, and a total of 147,183 criminals were neutralized. In addition, in 1944-1945, 828 gangs were liquidated by the border troops, with a total number of 48 thousand bandits. During the war years, the railway troops of the NKVD guarded about 3,600 objects on all the railways of the country. Troop guards escorted trains with military and valuable national economic goods.

On June 24, 1945, in Moscow, at the Victory Parade on Red Square, the combined battalion with the banners and standards of the defeated German troops, formed from the military personnel of the NKVD troops, was the first to come out - this was a recognition of the indisputable military merits of the Chekist soldiers shown during the war years (1941-1945). )

NKVD and war economy

As of January 1, 1941, there were 1,929,729 prisoners in the camps and colonies, including approximately 1,680,000 men of working age. In the national economy of the USSR during this period of time, the total number of workers was 23.9 million people, and industrial workers - 10 million people.

Thus, prisoners in the system (GULAG) of the NKVD of the USSR of working age were approximately 7 %" of the total number of workers in the Soviet Union. Consequently, the GULAG could not, in principle, play any significant role in the country's war economy due to the insignificant number of "special contingent" and the lack of a modern industrial and raw material base in the system of the ITU NKVD of the USSR.

Moreover, per 100,000 population, the number of prisoners in the USSR in the 1930s was less than in today's Russia and the United States. So, in the 1930s in the USSR, on average, there were 583 prisoners per 100,000 people population. In 1992-2002 per 100,000 population in modern Russia, on average, there are 647 prisoners, in the USA - 624 prisoners per 100,00 inhabitants. However, by Order of the NKVD of the USSR No. 00767 of June 12, 1941, a mobilization plan was put into effect for the enterprises of the Gulag and Glavpromstroy for the production of ammunition. The following were launched into production: a 50-mm mine, a 45-mm buckshot and a hand grenade RGD-33.

The Gulag really played a significant role in the formation of the Red Army, especially in the first year of the Great Patriotic War. At the request of the leadership of the NKVD of the USSR, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR twice, on July 12 and November 24, 1941, adopted decrees on amnesty and the release of Gulag prisoners. Only under these two decrees until the end of 1941 was sent to staff the Red Army 420 thousand amnestied Soviet citizens, which was equal to 29 divisions according to the war time schedule. In total, during the years of the war, 975 thousands of amnestied and released citizens of the USSR, at the expense of which it was staffed 67 divisions.

During the war years, in the rear of the country, the production of weapons and agricultural products was carried out by a multimillion-strong army of workers freed from military conscription, as well as women and teenagers.

In connection with the conscription into the Soviet Army, as well as the temporary occupation by the Germans of a number of industrial regions, the number of workers and employees throughout the national economy of the USSR decreased in 1943 compared to 1940 by 38%, although the share of industrial workers and employees in the total number of workers and employees in the national economy increased from 35% in 1940 to 39% in 1943.

An additional source of labor for the national economy of the USSR during the period of the war economy was the mobilization of the able-bodied population, not engaged in social labor in the city and countryside, for use in production.

During the period of the war economy of the USSR, the share of female labor seriously increased, and the use of adolescent labor also increased. The proportion of women among workers and employees in the national economy of the USSR increased from 38% in 1940 to 53% in 1942. The proportion of women among skilled industrial workers - among metal welders - also increased from 17% at the beginning of 1941 to 31% at the end of 1942. Among car drivers, the proportion of women over the same period increased from 3.5 to 19% and among loaders - from 17 to 40%.

Workers and employees under the age of 18 in 1939 employed 6% of the total number of workers and employees in industry, and in 1942 this number increased to 15%. Even more significant changes have occurred in the composition of the rural working-age population. The proportion of women among the rural working-age population increased from 52% at the beginning of 1939 to 71% at the beginning of 1943.

With a great delay, the country's leadership recognized the right of the WORKERS OF THE LOGO OF 1941-45. for the benefits of the Participants of the Great Patriotic War.

The internal labor system in the Gulag camps was of great benefit to the Soviet economy and the development of the regions. The development of Siberia, the North and the Far East was the most important task among the first Soviet laws that planted work camps. Mining and engineering (roads, railroad tracks, canals, dams and factories) and other work camp tasks were part of the Soviet planned economy, and the NKVD had its own production plans. The most unusual achievement of the NKVD was its role in Soviet science and technology. Many scientists and engineers were arrested and accused of political crimes and put in special prisons, which were known as "sharashki", where they were forced to work in their specialty. Continuing their research there and liberated later, some of them became world leaders in science and technology. The prisoners of the "sharashka" were such outstanding scientists and engineers as Sergei Korolev, the creator of the Soviet rocket program, who sent the first man into space in 1961, and Andrei Tupolev, the famous aircraft designer.

After the war, the NKVD directed work on Soviet nuclear weapons.

Ranks and insignia of the NKVD

Up until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the NKVD of the RSFSR and the NKVD/NKGB of the USSR used an original system of insignia and positions/ranks, different from military ones. During the time of Yezhov, personal ranks and insignia were established in the police and the GUGB, similar to those in the army, but in fact corresponding to a military rank several ranks higher (for example, in 1939 the captain of state security / police approximately corresponded to an army colonel, a major of state security / police to a brigade commander, senior major - commander and then major general). Since 1937, the General Commissar of State Security has worn marshal's insignia (before that, a large gold star on a red buttonhole with a gold gap). After the appointment of the people's commissar L.P. Beria, this system is gradually unified with the army.

state security

On October 7, “On the special ranks of the commanding staff of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR”, special ranks were established for the commanding staff of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR:

Commissar of State Security 1st rank
Commissar of State Security 2nd rank
Commissar of State Security 3rd rank
Senior Major of State Security
Major of State Security
State Security Captain
senior lieutenant of state security
lieutenant of state security
junior lieutenant of state security
state security sergeant

The Decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of November 26, 1935 "On conferring the title of General Commissar of State Security on comrade G. G. Yagoda" established the title - General Commissar of State Security.

On February 9, new special ranks of state security were established:

The highest commanding staff

General Commissioner of State Security
Commissioner of State Security 1st rank
Commissar of State Security 2nd rank
Commissar of State Security 3rd rank
Commissioner of State Security

Senior commanding staff

Colonel of State Security
Lieutenant Colonel of State Security
Major of State Security

Middle commanding staff

State Security Captain
Senior Lieutenant of State Security
State Security Lieutenant
Junior Lieutenant of State Security

Junior commanding staff

Sergeant Major of the Special Service
Senior Sergeant of the Special Service
Special Service Sergeant
Junior Sergeant of the Special Service

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 6, the special ranks of state security were abolished, and the entire commanding staff of the NKVD and NKGB of the USSR were assigned military ranks established for officers and generals of the Red Army.

Police

Decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of April 26 "On special ranks and insignia of the personnel of the Workers 'and Peasants' Militia of the NKVD of the USSR"

Over time in conducting the NKVD many other units were transferred. So, on August 17, 1934, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution on the inclusion of escort troops in the internal guard of the NKVD of the USSR. On the basis of the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of November 22, 1934, the Department of Forest Protection of the NKVD of the USSR was formed, which on March 15, 1936 was included in the Main Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia, and on July 2, 1936 was transferred to the Main Directorate of Forest Protection and Forest Plantations under the Council of People's Commissars THE USSR. On December 29, 1934, the Main Inspectorate of the Border, Internal Guard and Militia of the NKVD of the USSR was formed. On May 31, 1935, the Department of labor colonies for minors was established as part of the Administrative and Economic Department. On July 15, 1935, the Main Directorate of State Surveying and Cartography was formed (it was under the jurisdiction of the NKVD until September 1938). January 15, 1936 - Department of special construction (construction of bakeries for the storage of the inviolable fund of grain). On January 28, 1936, the Office of the Commandant of the Moscow Kremlin was transferred from the NPO to the NKVD. On March 3, 1936, the Main Directorate for the Construction of Highways was formed. On June 26, 1936, the Central Directorate of Weights and Measures was transferred to the NKVD.

Based on the decisions of the February-March (1937) Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on reorganization of the apparatus of the NKVD, "taking into account the most important national economic and defense importance of railway transport." The transport department of the GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR was exempted from "protection of public order in railway transport, from duty at railway stations, from the fight against theft of socialist property, hooliganism and child homelessness." These duties were assigned to the newly created railway police, and the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) retained the functions of combating the "counter-revolution in transport." The railway police department as part of the GURKM was formed on the basis of a joint order of the NKVD and the NKPS dated June 26, 1937.

The most frequently reorganized GUGB . In December 1936, simultaneously with the change in the structure of the GUGB, its divisions were assigned numbers for the purpose of secrecy. In the course of another reform in the middle of 1938, the 6th department was created as part of the 1st Directorate (State Security) for the "operational security service" of the police, fire protection, and military registration and enlistment offices.

By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 16, 1938, the Central Archival Administration was transferred to the jurisdiction of the NKVD, and on April 17 - the Intourist joint-stock company.

In 1939 in structure of the NKVD of the USSR, headed by that time L.P. Beria, included:

1) The leadership of the people's commissariat with several secretariats;

2) GUGB with departments: a) protection of leading party and Soviet workers (24 departments); b) secret-political (12 departments); c) counterintelligence (19 departments); d) special (12 departments); e) foreign (17 branches); f) encryption (8 departments);

3) Main Economic Department with 6 departments for the main sectors of the national economy (industry, agriculture, defense industries, Goznak, etc.);

4) Main transport department with 3 departments.

In addition, the NKVD of the USSR had 5 special departments in charge of accounting, statistics, communications, technology, etc.

In accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of February 2, 1939, the Main Directorate of the Border and Internal Troops of the NKVD was divided into 6 directorates: 1) the Main Directorate of the Border Troops; 2) Main Directorate of Troops for the Protection of Railway Structures; 3) Main Directorate for the Protection of Particularly Important Industrial Enterprises; 4) Main Directorate of escort troops; 5) Main Directorate of Military Supply; 6) Main military construction department.

The NKVD of the USSR also included: the Main Archive Directorate, the Main Directorate of Fire Protection, the Main Directorate of Highways, the Main Directorate of Camps. General Prison Directorate, Central Department of Civil Status Acts. Office of the Commandant of the Moscow Kremlin, Office for Prisoners of War and Internees, Main Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia.

The staff of the central apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR increased by 1940 by almost four times compared with 1934 and exceeded 32,500 people.

In February 1941, state security agencies were separated from the NKVD system of the USSR. At the same time, the People's Commissariat for State Security of the USSR was formed.

Militia bodies

After the abolition in December 1930 of the NKVD of the RSFSR, the leadership of the militia and the criminal investigation department was entrusted to the police department and the criminal investigation department, created under the Council of People's Commissars of the Union and Autonomous Republics.

On December 31, 1930, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars adopted a resolution "On measures arising from the liquidation of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR and the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Autonomous Republics", which established the Main Directorate of Police and Criminal Investigation, created under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, was entrusted with the leadership and management of police and criminal investigation agencies, the implementation of protection public order and security and the protection of the personal security of citizens, their rights and property, the protection of state and public property and the special protection of property of institutions and enterprises of state importance, as well as the fight against crime and the investigation of crimes within the limits specified by the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR, management of the enforcement of court sentences, organization of exile without forced labor, registration of deportees and exiles, assistance to state bodies in carrying out the duties established by law and training of police and criminal investigation personnel.

According to this resolution, the local administrative departments (departments) were reorganized into the departments of the police and the criminal investigation department, acting on the rights of the departments of the executive committees of the respective Soviets.

Simultaneously with the decision of December 15, 1930 on the liquidation of the NKVD of the Union and Autonomous Republics, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a secret decree "On the management of the OGPU bodies by the activities of the police and the criminal investigation department." On the basis of this resolution, the OGPU of the USSR and its local bodies received the right not only to appoint, transfer and dismiss senior employees of the criminal investigation and police bodies, to inspect and control them, but also to use for their own purposes the open composition and covert network of the police and the criminal investigation, their capabilities in areas of fingerprinting and photography.

At the end of 1931, such relations between the police and the OGPU were "legalized" by creating in the composition OGPU USSR Main Inspectorate for Police and Criminal Investigation. Thus, a strict centralization of the leadership of the police was ensured, and the weakening of its ties with authorities at various levels. Something happened that the OGPU had been striving for back in the 1920s and that was rejected as not in accordance with the Constitution. Such significant changes in the system of militia bodies made it possible to bring a single legal base for the construction of the militia throughout the country. On May 25, 1931, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR approved the first all-Union "Regulation on the Workers' and Peasants' Militia" (valid until 1962), which established that the central bodies were the main police departments of the union republics, created under the councils of people's commissars, and local - district, city, regional and regional police departments, as well as police departments of the autonomous republics.

The regulation summarized the experience of the formation of the Soviet militia from the moment of its creation. The main task of the workers' and peasants' militia, according to the Regulations, was to "protect the revolutionary order and public safety."

“The workers’ and peasants’ militia,” the Regulations said, “oversees the implementation of the laws and orders of the central and local authorities regulating the revolutionary order and public security, fights crime and investigates cases of crimes, guards state and public property, and as well as the personal security of citizens and their property.

On October 4, 1931, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR approved the regulation on the Main Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. These legal acts do not openly mention the organizational connection between the militia and the OGPU. But already on December 27, 1932, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the Formation of the Main Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia under the United State Political Directorate (OGPU) of the USSR." Thus, for the first time, an all-Union central body of sectoral administration was created, which was entrusted with the overall leadership of the militia throughout the country. At the same time, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR approved the "Regulations on the Main Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia under the OGPU of the USSR." It regulated in detail the rights and basic duties of the all-Union police headquarters.

The further organizational development of the Soviet militia, the improvement of its structure, forms and methods of activity was associated with the above-mentioned formation on the basis of a decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of July 10, 1934 of the Union-Republican People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR.

On July 23, 1935, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided that "in order to decisively combat accidents, misuse and predatory attitudes towards vehicles" the State Automobile Inspectorate is formed in the system of the Central Administration of Highways and Unpaved Roads and Motor Transport. In the union and autonomous republics, territories and regions, Moscow and Leningrad, an institution of authorized traffic police was established, in the regions - state traffic inspectors. In March 1936, the State Traffic Inspectorate was transferred to the Main Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia.

In July 1936, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR approved the "Regulations on the State Automobile Inspectorate of the Main Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia of the NKVD of the USSR." According to this Regulation, traffic police officers were endowed with all the rights established for police officers. They could impose monetary fines on violators of the rules for operating vehicles, as well as raise the issue of depriving drivers of the right to drive vehicles for a systematic gross violation of the established rules for driving vehicles before the qualification commission.

Many changes in the police system were associated with the adoption of the USSR Constitution of 1936, which established that socialist property, being the economic basis of the Soviet system, needs all-round protection.

To solve this problem, special police units were created to combat the theft of socialist property and speculation (BHSS). During the first year of its existence, the fight against petty sabotage was entrusted to the apparatuses of the BHSS, which in 1938 was transferred to the GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR.

The rapid development of transport has set new tasks for the police to protect law and order, combat theft and other crimes in transport communications. This required the improvement of organizational forms of activity and certain structural changes in the police. In 1937, railway police departments were formed. Somewhat later, departments (departments) of the police were created in ports and marinas.

The militia bodies continued to pay the most serious attention to the fight against child neglect and juvenile delinquency. On May 31, 1935, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a special resolution on measures to intensify the fight against child homelessness. It revealed shortcomings in this work, outlined measures for its radical improvement. Basically, they were focused on the prevention of child homelessness and neglect, the prevention and suppression of delinquency among adolescents. All responsibility for the organization and implementation of such measures rested with

directly to the heads of the police. In 1940, taking into account the experience gained in this field of activity, special units for the prevention and prevention of delinquency among adolescents, for work with minors, were created at the service departments in the police departments. Militia bodies were entrusted with duties, according to which they had to carefully find out the specific reasons for child homelessness and neglect, carefully examine the living conditions of juvenile delinquents, provide assistance to families in which it was difficult for parents to raise children, and involve the public for this.

The search for new organizational forms of combating crime led to the creation of specialized units. In the 1930s, following Moscow, teams (detachments) of night guards began to form in large industrial centers. In the capital, such a team of 150 people was formed in 1931, it was supported by deductions from households. Employees carried out patrols along established routes on foot or in cars. From April 1 to July 6, 1931, they detained 1993 people for hooliganism, 574 offenders at the crime scene.

New significant changes occurred in the pre-war period in the criminal investigation system. At the end of the 30s, the criminal investigation departments of the regional police departments had an average of about 20 employees and structurally consisted of three departments created according to the territorial principle. However, in June 1940, the work of the criminal investigation apparatus was again reorganized according to a linear principle. The UR department began to include four departments (one of them was for combating juvenile crime), and an investigative group was also created in its composition.

The expansion of work on the investigation of crimes made it necessary to look for ways to provide organizational support for this important area of the fight against crime. On the ground, they took the path of dividing the criminal investigation apparatuses into parts: operational-search and investigative. Summarizing this experience, People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR decided to organize investigative groups in the criminal investigation departments and departments of the BHSS. In accordance with the order of the NKVD of the USSR of August 27, 1939, investigation groups were created from the available staff in the criminal investigation departments of the police departments of the republics, territories, regions and road police departments. Their leadership was entrusted to the deputy heads of criminal investigation departments. The most trained employees were included in the investigation teams.

The department for combating banditry of the GURKM, created in April 1941, was built in a similar way. NKVD USSR. It consisted of five departments: four - for the zones of the USSR, the fifth - investigative.

Over time, the structure of the Main Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Militia itself became more complicated. In 1941, the GURKM included the criminal investigation department, the BKhSS department, the external service department, the political department, the traffic police department, the railway police department, the passport office, the local air defense department, the scientific and technical department, the department for combating banditry (established in April 1941). On September 30, 1941, it became an independent department of the NKVD of the USSR, and on December 3, 1944, the Main Directorate was created on its basis.

NKVD officers, 1930s

from the archives of the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities

On July 10, 1934, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution "On the Formation of the All-Union People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs." It became the central body of state administration of the USSR to combat crime and maintain public order until 1946, ITAR-TASS reports.

Some archival photographs, documents and memoirs about the work of one of the most controversial state structures of the USSR.

Structure and tasks of the NKVD

In December 1917, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky was formed to combat counter-revolution and sabotage in Soviet Russia. In February 1922, the commission was transformed into the State Political Administration under the NKVD of the RSFSR.

And in 1923, instead of the GPU, the United State Political Administration was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.

Later, the OGPU became part of the All-Union People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, created 80 years ago - in July 1934. Instead of the NKVD of the RSFSR, the institution of the Authorized People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR began to operate.

The structure of the NKVD included internal troops, the Main Directorate of State Security, the Main Directorate of Militia, the Main Directorate of Camps (GULAG), as well as the Directorate for the construction of highways, fire protection, cartography and geodesy, border and internal guards, for prisoners of war and internees (in the years Great Patriotic War).

The NKVD of the USSR was entrusted with "ensuring revolutionary order and state security, protecting public (socialist) property, registering acts of civil status (registration of births, deaths, marriages and divorces) and border guards."

Also in the sphere of responsibility of the NKVD were political investigation and the right to pass sentences out of court, the system of execution of punishments, foreign intelligence, border troops, counterintelligence in the army.

"Simplified procedure" for the consideration of cases

The NKVD was the main perpetrator of the massive political repressions of the 1930s. Only under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (counter-revolutionary activity) in the period from 1921 to 1953, about 3.8 million people were convicted.

Many citizens of the USSR were convicted extrajudicially by NKVD troikas - these are criminal prosecution bodies operating at the level of the republic, territory or region. For example, the regional troika consisted of the head of the regional department of the NKVD, the secretary of the regional committee and the regional prosecutor.

Since December 1934, a "simplified procedure" for considering cases of "enemies of the people" was introduced, according to which the investigation had to complete its work within ten days, the indictment was handed over to the accused a day before the trial, cases were heard without the participation of the parties, and requests for pardon were prohibited. .

Gulag prisoners

photo chronicle TASS

People's Commissar Genrikh Yagoda: dispossession and Gulag, arrests and charges of Yagoda, execution

One of the first leaders of the Soviet state security agencies was Genrikh Yagoda, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR (1934-1936). He was an associate of Joseph Stalin and led the defeat of anti-Stalinist demonstrations in October 1927.

He was also one of the organizers of the dispossession of peasants in the Volga region, Ukraine, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus and other regions. When suppressing the uprisings, Yagoda used the most cruel methods (including mass executions and deportations of entire villages to concentration camps). Under the leadership of Yagoda in 1930, the Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Camps (Gulag) was organized.

dispossession of peasants in the Donetsk region, 1931

photo chronicle TASS

In March 1937 Yagoda was arrested. Initially, he was accused of committing "anti-state and criminal crimes", later he was also accused of organizing a Trotskyist-fascist conspiracy in the NKVD, preparing an assassination attempt on Stalin and preparing a coup d'état and intervention.

Yagoda was also accused of murdering the son of the writer Maxim Gorky, Maxim Peshkov.

In February 1938, the trial of Yagoda took place. He pleaded not guilty to espionage.

FROM THE JUDICIAL REPORT ON THE THIRD MOSCOW PROCEDURE

"Vyshinsky*: Tell me, traitor and traitor Yagoda, in all your vile and treacherous activities have you never felt the slightest regret, not the slightest repentance? And now, when you are finally answering before the proletarian court for all your vile crimes, you not the slightest regret about what you did?

Yagoda: Yes, I'm sorry, I'm very sorry...

VYSHINSKY: Attention, Comrade Judges. Traitor and traitor Yagoda regrets. What do you regret, spy and criminal Yagoda?

Yagoda: I'm very sorry ... I'm very sorry that when I could do this, I didn't shoot all of you."

public prosecutor in this case. Diplomat, lawyer, one of the organizers of the Stalinist repressions. In 1935-1939 he was a member of the secret commission of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks for judicial cases. The commission approved all death sentences in the USSR.

Yagoda was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on March 15, 1938 in the Lubyanka prison of the NKVD.

People's Commissar Nikolai Yezhov: appointment and repression, execution

In September 1936, Nikolai Yezhov was appointed People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Later he was awarded the title of General Commissioner of State Security.

Yezhov acted as one of the organizers of the mass repressions of 1937-1938, contributed to the widespread use of measures of physical pressure on prisoners, permitted in the practice of the NKVD since 1937 by a circular of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Mikhail Kalinin, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Nikolai Yezhov and Pavel Postyshev*, 1938

photo chronicle TASS

FROM THE BOOK "NKVD INSIDE. NOTES OF THE CHEKIST" (AUTHOR - MIKHAIL SHREIDER)

"... I, like many other Chekists, was surprised by the sensational news of the appointment of an employee of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov to the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR and the transfer of Yagoda to the post of People's Commissar of Communications. On the front pages of the central newspapers were placed huge portraits of Yezhov and Yagoda and large articles devoted to both.

Most of the old Chekists were convinced that with the arrival of Yezhov in the NKVD, we would finally return to the traditions of Dzerzhinsky, we would get rid of the unhealthy atmosphere and the careerist, corruptive and lipish tendencies that Yagoda had planted in recent years in the organs. After all, Yezhov, as secretary of the Central Committee, was close to Stalin, in whom we then believed, and we believed that the organs would now have a firm and faithful hand of the Central Committee. At the same time, most of us believed that Yagoda, as a good administrator and organizer, would bring order to the People's Commissariat of Communications and bring great benefits there.

These hopes of yours were not destined to come true. Soon such a wave of repressions began, to which not only the Trotskyists and Zinovievites were subjected, but also the workers of the NKVD, who were badly fighting them.

During Yezhov's tenure as head of the NKVD, former members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Yan Rudzutak, Stanislav Kosior, Vlas Chubar, most of the members of the Central Committee, people's commissars, secretaries of regional committees, military command, heads of major enterprises were also repressed. In 1937-1938, several high-profile trials took place against the former leadership of the country, which ended in death sentences (Karl Radek, Leonid Serebryakov, Nikolai Bukharin, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Genrikh Yagoda, and others).

*Soviet state and party leader. In 1938 he was recognized as a member of the Right-Trotskyist organization in Ukraine. In 1939 he was shot, in 1956 he was completely rehabilitated.

People's Commissar Lavrenty Beria: deportation of peoples, Beria is an enemy of the people

In 1939-1940, under the leadership of Beria, a mass deportation was carried out from the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine, the Baltic states. In 1940, a mass execution of Polish prisoners of war was organized in Katyn near Smolensk.

In 1944, Beria led the deportation of Chechens, Ingush, Karachays, Kalmyks, Tatars and other peoples from the Caucasian republics and the Crimea.

“How much has been written about the deportation of peoples - Chechens, and Ingush, and Kalmyks, and Crimean Tatars ... But not a word about the participation of Zhdanov, Khrushchev, the party apparatus in general in this meanness. And who started all this, who gave orders? After all, it is already known that the decision was made by the Politburo.When the question of deportation was just being discussed, father, in the presence of many people, although he always watched his speech and never cursed, could not stand it and, without choosing literary expressions, expressed everything that he thinks about the eviction of peoples Caucasus to one of those who actively pursued this vile policy.This man was Shcherbakov.

You're an idiot, - said the father, - don't you understand that you are being used as the last fool?!"

Gulag prisoners

photo chronicle TASS

From 1938 to 1941, Beria, as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, led the foreign intelligence of the USSR. Thanks to him, it was possible to create a wide agent network in Europe, Japan and the USA.

In February 1941, the NKVD was divided into the People's Commissariats for State Security and Internal Affairs. Foreign intelligence was transferred to the People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB). Lavrenty Beria remained at the head of the NKVD. At the same time, he was appointed deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, supervised the timber and oil industries, non-ferrous metallurgy, and the river fleet.

In July of the same year, state security issues were again transferred to the jurisdiction of a single body - the NKVD of the USSR. In April 1943, the People's Commissariat of State Security of the USSR, headed by Vsevolod Merkulov, was again separated from the NKVD.

After Stalin's death in 1953, Beria became the first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR (this ministry united the former departments of internal affairs and state security). Then, at the initiative of Beria, an amnesty was announced for a significant number of prisoners, the passport regime was relaxed, the Gulag system was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, the rehabilitation of victims of repression began, and a commission was created to consider cases of deportation from Georgia.

Funeral of Joseph Stalin. In the guard of honor Kliment Voroshilov, Lavrenty Beria and Georgy Malenkov, 1953

photo chronicle TASS

In 1953, Beria was accused of anti-party, anti-state activities, spying for Great Britain, organizing illegal repressions. The Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU removed him from the Central Committee. Beria was expelled from the party and stripped of all titles.

In December 1945, Sergei Kruglov replaced Beria as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.

In 1946, the NKVD was renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the NKGB was renamed the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. In March 1953, the departments were merged into a single Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.

A year later, security agencies left the subordination of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the State Security Committee was created.

In December 1991, the KGB of the USSR was abolished.