What is the NKVD? Explanation of the abbreviation. History of creation, tasks, activities

Among other security agencies that left a trace in thethe history of our Motherland, a special place is occupied by the one that has forever been imprinted in the people's memory with the letters of the NKVD. Deciphering the USSR, the RSFSR and many other frequently encountered, but obsolete abbreviations does not cause any difficulties, but the abbreviated names of individual government services have to be explained. This is especially necessary for representatives of the younger generation. And it is even more important to tell them about what the NKVD is.

Creation of a new public body

According to the decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of July 10, 1934year, a central body was formed that managed all the structures that dealt with the fight against crime and maintaining public order. He was designated by four letters - the NKVD. The deciphering of the abbreviation was as follows: the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.

Along with newly formed divisions inHe also joined the cadre of the self-defeating, but not abolished, General Political Administration. Thus, an organization was born that became a symbol of the genocide carried out by the Stalinist regime against its own people.

What is the NKVD?

The newly created structure was unusuallywide scope of responsibility, but at the same time and incomparable powers. So, in the sphere of its competence was control over the activities of government agencies associated with utilities, construction and virtually all industries.

In addition, the NKVDpolitical investigation, external intelligence, protection of the state border, service in the system of execution of punishments and army counterintelligence. For the successful performance of the duties assigned to them, the NKVD was given the right to make any verdicts, including the death penalty, out of court. According to the resolution of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, they were not subject to appeal and were carried out immediately.

Arbitrariness of special NKVD troikas

Such unprecedented powers that allowedthis structure act outside the legal field, have caused one of the most terrible tragedies experienced by our Motherland. To fully imagine what the NKVD is, one should recall the mass repressions of the thirties, the main culprit being the body. Millions of Soviet citizens who became prisoners of the Gulag and executed on trumped-up charges were convicted of so-called special troikas.

This extrajudicial structure included: secretary of the regional party committee, prosecutor and chief of the regional or city department of the NKVD. Determination defendants guilty, as a rule, not made, and the sentences imposed on the pending cases are not based on existing law, but only according to their personal desire that became ubiquitous consequence of arbitrariness.

The deportation of peoples and cooperation with the Gestapo

In addition, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairstarnished himself and such a form of political repression as the deportation of persons on a national basis. During the years of Stalinism, entire nations forcibly moved from their historical places of residence to the regions of the Far North and Siberia. According to available information, the NKVD organs carried out the deportation of ten nationalities. These include: Chechens, Crimean Tatars, Germans, Koreans, Ingrian Finns, Ingush, Karachais, Meskhetian Turks, Kalmyks and Balkarians.

In the fifties, on the wave of exposing the cultthe personality of Stalin and the rehabilitation of many victims of his regime, the public became numerous facts that attest to the pre-war cooperation of the NKVD with the Gestapo. In the press of those years there appeared the names of dozens of German and Austrian anti-fascists seeking political asylum in the Soviet Union, but recognized as "undesirable elements" and handed over to the German authorities.

The first leaders of the punitive structure

From the first days of the creation of the NKVD (decodingabbreviation is given above), the head of this body was GG Yagoda, newly appointed People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. After serving for two years, he himself became a victim of his system. In September 1936, he was removed from his post and arrested on trumped-up charges. After spending two years under investigation, the first leader of the all-powerful commissariat was shot.

Immediately after the dismissal and arrest of G. G. Berry in his place was appointed a new People's Commissar. He became candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU (b) NI Ezhov. It is with his name associated with the implementation of the infamous "great terror", deployed by Stalin in 1937-1938.

However, he did not succeed in the durationcareer bypass its predecessor. At the end of December 1938, he was also arrested on the basis of a standard charge of high treason then, and after spending two years under investigation, he lost his life as a result of his death sentence.

LP Beria and SN Kruglov

The longest-serving leader of the NKVD was LP Beria. Entering this post on December 25, 1938, he only in 1946 succumbed to his successor - SN Kruglov. Moving to work in the Politburo of the USSR, Beria until the death of Stalin remained one of the key figures in the government. However, the sad fate of his predecessors and he could not escape. Arrested in 1953, he soon received, on the verdict of the Supreme Court, his well-deserved bullet.

Of all four leaders of the NKVD, the abolishedin March 1946, relatively lucky only to SN Kruglov. Fate granted him to live to advanced years. However, he did not die by his death. As a participant in mass repression, in 1959, by a court decision, the former general was deprived of his pension, as well as an elite apartment in the center of the capital. Living on the Moscow subway station "Pravda", July 6, 1977, he ended his life under the wheels of the train.

The role of the NKVD in the fight against fascism

However, in order to fully respond to thethe question of what the NKVD is, one can not limit ourselves to the gloomy role that this structure played in the history of our country. It would be an unpardonable mistake to discount her services in the fight against criminal criminality, as well as with the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War.

According to archival data, in June 1941 the troopsThe NKVD included fourteen divisions, eighteen brigades, and more than twenty regiments for various purposes. From the first days of the war, these forces were thrown into battle and played a significant role in defeating the enemy.

It should also be noted that the Victory overfascism was served not only by the employees themselves, but also by almost one million of our fellow citizens from former GULAG prisoners, protected by them and amnestied at the petition of the leadership of the NKVD for the purpose of sending them to the front. This measure was especially effective in the first - the most difficult years of the war.

Frontier and internal troops

Do not underestimate the role of the NKVD in defensestate border of our country. At the end of the thirties the composition of the border troops subordinated to him numbered 167 thousand people. Their task was to prevent the penetration of various kinds of spies, saboteurs and smugglers into the territory of the USSR, as well as to fight off violators of the border regime. The names of many border guards have always entered the history of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union.

Very impressive looks statistics,reflecting the work carried out during the war by the NKVD internal troops. According to available data, only in terms of combating banditry they carried out more than 9.5 thousand operations, which allowed to neutralize about 150 thousand criminals. Along with them, the frontier troops were able to liquidate 829 different armed groups, which included 49,000 criminals.

The role of the NKVD in the economy of the war years

Modern researchers and a number of publicorganizations are trying to assess the impact that the work of prisoners of the Gulag has had on the development of the country's economy. As the well-known human rights organization Memorial points out, in the late 1930s the NKVD launched such violent activities that as a result of it, about 1,680,000 able-bodied men were behind bars at the beginning of the war, which was 8% of all the country's labor resources for that period.

Within the framework of the mobilization plan adoptedthe government, enterprises created in places of detention, produced a significant amount of ammunition and other products necessary for the front. This, of course, affected the provision of the army, but at the same time it should be recognized that the productivity of such forced labor was very low.

Postwar years

As for the post-war years, even during this periodthe role of the NKVD in the rise of the country's economy can hardly be considered noticeable. On the one hand, the placement of the camps of the Gulag in the low-income areas of the north of the country, Siberia and the Far East promoted their development, but on the other hand, inefficient work of prisoners became an obstacle in the implementation of many economic projects.

In full measure, this applies to attemptsuse of forced labor of scientists and designers, many of them victims of mass repressions of the Stalin period. It is known that the NKVD bodies created special prisons, which were popularly called "sharashek". In them, representatives of the scientific and technical elite, convicted on the basis of trumped-up charges, by the very "special troikas" mentioned above, were obliged to engage in scientific development.

Among the former prisoners of such "sharashek" weresuch well-known Soviet scientist-designers as SP Korolev and AN Tupolev. The result of attempts to introduce compulsory technical creativity was very small and showed the complete inexpediency of this venture.

Conclusion

In the fifties, after the death of Stalin, begana broad process of rehabilitation of the victims of the regime created by him in the country. The crimes that were issued earlier for fighting against the enemies of the people have received due assessment from both government bodies and public opinion. The activities of the structure, called the NKVD, were exposed, and the transcript, the history and activity of which became the topic of this article. In 1946 this notorious department was transformed into the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.