NKVD Order № 00486

Traitor of the Motherland family members (Russian: ЧСИР: член семьи изменника Родины) was a term in Article 58 of Criminal Code of RSFSR about criminal prosecution of wives and children (kin punishment) of all people who were arrested and convicted as "traitors of the Motherland" in the Soviet Union during Stalinist purges of 1930s and later. The practice of automatically convicting wives and children was a base element of the Great Purge. It introduced a new category of the inmates designated for the family members of the person who was recognized as the "Traitor of Motherland"; some Soviet labor camps were designated specifically to this category.

The NKVD Order № 00486 instructed about repression of wives and children of enemies of the people convicted to execution or imprisonment. It was dated August 15, 1937 and signed by Nikolai Yezhov acting both as chief of NKVD and General Commissar of State Security (chief of GUGB). The order implemented a resolution by Politburo. The corresponding parts of Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code) were modified accordingly.

As an element of the rollback of the Great Purge, on October 17, 1938, the later NKVD Order № 00689, signed by Lavrenty Beria, said not to arrest wives automatically, together with their husbands, but only after consideration by a single NKVD officer. Only wives that were deemed "politically untrustworthy or socially dangerous" or who knew about the "counter-revolutionary activity" of their husbands were to be arrested.

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