Domestic repressions and executions NKVD

nkvd chief genrikh yagoda (middle) inspecting construction of moscow-volga canal, 1935

in implementing soviet internal policy towards perceived enemies of soviet state ( enemies of people ), untold multitudes of people sent gulag camps , hundreds of thousands executed nkvd. formally, of these people convicted nkvd troikas ( triplets )– special courts martial. evidential standards low: tip-off anonymous informer considered sufficient grounds arrest. use of physical means of persuasion (torture) sanctioned special decree of state, opened door numerous abuses, documented in recollections of victims , members of nkvd itself. hundreds of mass graves resulting such operations later discovered throughout country. documented evidence exists nkvd committed mass extrajudicial executions, guided secret plans . plans established number , proportion of victims (officially public enemies ) in given region (e.g. quotas clergy, former nobles etc., regardless of identity). families of repressed, including children, automatically repressed according nkvd order no. 00486.

the purges organized in number of waves according decisions of politburo of communist party. examples campaigns among engineers (shakhty trial), party , military elite plots (great purge order 00447), , medical staff ( doctors plot ).

a number of mass operations of nkvd related prosecution of whole ethnic categories. example, polish operation of nkvd in 1937–1938 resulted in execution of 111,091 poles. whole populations of ethnicities forcibly resettled. foreigners living in soviet union given particular attention. when disillusioned american citizens living in soviet union thronged gates of u.s. embassy in moscow plead new u.s. passports leave ussr (their original u.s. passports had been taken registration purposes years before), none issued. instead, nkvd promptly arrested of americans, taken lubyanka prison , later shot. american factory workers @ soviet ford gaz plant, suspected stalin of being poisoned western influences, dragged off others lubyanka nkvd in same ford model cars had helped build, tortured; executed or died in labor camps. many of slain americans dumped in mass grave @ yuzhnoye butovo district near moscow. so, people of soviet republics still formed majority of nkvd victims[*17][*18].

the nkvd served arm of russian soviet communist government lethal mass persecution , destruction of ethnic minorities , religious beliefs, such russian orthodox church, ukrainian orthodox church, roman catholic church, greek catholics, islam, judaism , other religious organizations, operation headed yevgeny tuchkov.