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People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs

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 the leading Soviet secret police organization from 1934 to 1946. It is known for its role in political repression and for carrying out the Great Purge under Joseph Stalin.

The agency was led by Genrikh Yagoda (executed in 1938), Nikolai Yezhov (executed in 1940) and Lavrentiy Beria (executed in 1953). The NKVD was formed from Felix Dzerzhinsky's Cheka, and it became known as the NKVD in 1934.

The NKVD conducted mass extrajudicial executions; conceived, populated and administered the Gulag system of forced labor camps; was responsible for the repression of the Kulaks, and the mass deportations of entire nationalities to uninhabited regions of the country. Its agents were responsible for the protection of Soviet borders and espionage (which included political assassinations), as well as for enforcing Stalinist policy in communist movements and puppet governments in other countries, most notably the repression and massacres in Poland.


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