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NKWD

NKVD (НКВД)
People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs
Народный комиссариат внутренних дел
Naródnyi komissariát vnútrennikh dél
Emblema NKVD.svg
NKVD emblem
Agency overview
Formed 1934
Preceding agencies
Dissolved 1946
Superseding agencies
Type Secret police
Intelligence agency
Law enforcement
Gendarmerie
Border guard
Prison
other emergency services
Jurisdiction Soviet Union
Headquarters Lubyanka Square, Moscow
Agency executives
Parent agency Council of the People's Commissars
Child agencies

The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (Народный комиссариат внутренних дел, Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del), abbreviated NKVD (НКВД About this sound listen ), was a joint law enforcement agency of the whole Soviet Union that directly executed the will of the All-Union Communist Party. It was closely associated with the Soviet secret police, which at times was part of the agency, and is known for its political repression during the era of Joseph Stalin. The NKVD was headed by Soviet secret police officials.

The NKVD contained the regular, public police force of the USSR, including traffic police, firefighting, border guards and archives. It is best known for the activities of the Gulag and the Main Directorate for State Security (GUGB), the predecessor of the KGB. The NKVD conducted mass extrajudicial executions, ran the Gulag system of forced labor camps and suppressed underground resistance, and was responsible for mass deportations of entire nationalities and Kulaks to unpopulated regions of the country. It was also tasked with protection of Soviet borders and espionage (which included political assassinations abroad), influencing foreign governments and enforcing Stalinist policy within communist movements in other countries.


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