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Militsiya


Militsiya (Russian: мили́ция; IPA: [mʲɪˈlʲitsɨjə], Belarusian: міліцыя, Estonian: miilits, Armenian: միլիցիա [militsʰja], Kyrgyz: милиция, Lithuanian: milicija, Polish: milicja, Romanian: miliția, Serbian Cyrillic: милиција, Croatian: milicija, Slovene: milica , Tajik: милитсия, Ukrainian: міліція, Uzbek: militsiya or милиция), often confused with militia, is used as an official name of the civilian police in several former communist states. The term was used in the Soviet Union and several Warsaw Pact countries, as well as in the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia, and it is still commonly used in some of the individual former Soviet republics and eastern Europe.

The name originates from a Provisional Government decree dated April 17, 1917, and from early Soviet history, when both the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks intended to associate their new law enforcement authority with the self-organization of the people and to distinguish it from the czarist police. The militsiya was reaffirmed on October 28 (November 10, according to the new style dating), 1917 under the official name of the Workers' and Peasants' Militsiya, in further contrast to what the Bolsheviks called the "bourgeois class protecting" police. Eventually, it was replaced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russian: МВД, MVD; Ukrainian: МВС, MVS; Belorussian: МУС, MUS), which is now the official full name for the militsiya forces in the respective countries. Its regional branches are officially called Departments of Internal Affairs—city department of internal affairs, raion department of internal affairs, oblast department of internal affairs, etc. The Russian term for a raion department is OVD (ОВД; Отдел/Отделение внутренних дел), for region department is UVD (УВД; Управление внутренних дел) or, sometimes, GUVD (ГУВД; Главное управление внутренних дел), same for national republics is MVD, (МВД; Министерство внутренних дел).


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