NKVD (NARODNIY KOMMISSARIAT VNUTRENNIKH DEL).The
People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the NKVD, was formed
on 10 July 1936 from the OGPU. It included all the organs of re-
pression and intelligence of the Soviet government in one depart-
ment, as well as directorates for railroad and installation security and
the forced labor camps of the gulagsystem. In 1941 the NKVD had
379,000 personnel. During the purges of the 1930s, the NKVD accu-
mulated tremendous power to arrest, interrogate, try, and execute sus-
pected enemies of the people. To the Soviet people of the 1930s, the
NKVD was synonymous with terror.
With the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the
NKVD was divided into the NKGB(People’s Commissariat of State
Security) and the NKVD. During the Great Patriotic War, Joseph
Stalinordered the NKVD’s military role expanded, and NKVD units
served along with the Red Army in major defensive battles. By 1943
more than 500,000 people were serving in the NKVD Internal Troops
in infantry divisions and regiments. According to a recent study of
Soviet order of battle in the war, the NKVD had command of a small
army of 53 infantry divisions and nine independent rifle brigades.
NKVD units also were used as “blocking formations,” which were
situated in the rear of Red Army formations to prevent retreat, panic,
and desertions.
Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, the NKVD played the lead-
ing role in the suppression of nationalist forces in the Ukraine and the
Baltic States. In 1946 the NKVD was transformed by Stalin into the
MVD(Ministry of Internal Affairs).NORILSK.One of the most important islands of the gulagarchipel-
ago, Norilsk was planned by Joseph Stalinto be the country’s pri-
mary source of aluminum, copper, and platinum-family metals, as
well as coal and iron. Despite Norilsk’s Arctic location, the Soviet
regime planned a complex of 18 forced labor camps to tap the riches
of the north. The first prisoners arrived in 1935, and by Stalin’s death
more than 100,000 prisoners labored in its mines and smelters. The
Soviet security service also created secret cities with forced labor
near Norilsk to build nuclear weapons and their delivery systems.
Stalin also ordered the building of a secret railroad across the Soviet
north to link camp complexes, resulting in a tremendous loss of life.NORILSK• 17506-313 G-P.qxd 7/27/06 7:56 AM Page 175