The SS is getting a lot of bad press the last few days and justifiably so. In the interests of fairness, this thread is designed to throw a little light on some of histories other bad boys.
The NKVD
Narodnõi Komissariat Vnutrennikh tate>Del tate> was it's official title meaning People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. The NKVD was the Soviet Secret Police Force which began life as the Cheka and eventually evolved into the more familiar KGB. Between times it went under different names like OGPU. Under the early Soviet regime the Cheka was entitled to undertake non-judicial trials and executions. At least 300,000 people were murdered by the Cheka. The NKVD also controlled the Soviet prisons including labour camps where it specialised in dealing with enemies of the state. These enemies included former nobles, clergymen and anybody else deemed a threat to the Communists. Hundreds of thousands were executed having been condemned by NKVD tribunals and millions were deported. The tribunals might declare a proportion of the population of any area, or within any group to be state enemies. Thus a percentage of former nobles might be executed in the Moscow area without regard to their individual identities. The executed mens’ families would also be arrested and deported. At different times the NKVD purged engineers, doctors and army officers. It even purged itself. One class of peasant farmer became Stalin’s prime target because they owned substantial farms. They were called Kulaks. Stalin had the NKVD arrest thousands, deport millions and even organized forced famines to kill an estimated 14 million of his own people.
During the Spanish Civil War the NKVD operated inSpain . When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939 so did the Russians and in March 1940 the NKVD and the Gestapo had a meeting to co-ordinate their operations in Poland . While they were at it the Russians returned thousands of German communist defectors to the Gestapo. During 1940 the NKVD massacred over 25,000 Polish POWs at Katyn Forest and at two other sites in the Soviet Union . In 1941 as they were pulling back out of Poland and Western Soviet Union the NKVD massacred between 30,000 and 40,000 of their prisoners. Over 30,000 died at Kurapaty in Belarussia. The NKVD also ran the Gulags where political prisoners as well as German POWs were sent. Of 3.5 million Germans who fell in to Russian hands during and in the immediate aftermath of the war, an estimated 2.5 million were never heard from again.
The NKVD morphed into the KGB with the death of Stalin in 1953. The Head of NKVD, Laventi Beria- the Soviet equivalent of Himmler attempted to take power as dictator. Accused of anti-Soviet activity he was tried and executed in December 1953.
The NKVD
Narodnõi Komissariat Vnutrennikh
During the Spanish Civil War the NKVD operated in
The NKVD morphed into the KGB with the death of Stalin in 1953. The Head of NKVD, Laventi Beria- the Soviet equivalent of Himmler attempted to take power as dictator. Accused of anti-Soviet activity he was tried and executed in December 1953.
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