Commissariat Of Internal Affairs Research Articles

The struggle against children homelessness and neglect has become one of the leading directions of policy towards Soviet children because there was a catastrophic increase in the number of homeless and neglected children during the war period. Authors consider the work of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs in the struggle against child neglect and homelessness on the example of

The struggle against children homelessness and neglect has become one of the leading directions of policy towards Soviet children because there was a catastrophic increase in the number of homeless and neglected children during the war period. Authors consider the work of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs in the struggle against child neglect and homelessness on the example of the Shokai labor educational colony during the Great Patriotic War. The creation of labor educational colonies made it possible not to send chil- dren aged 11 to 16 detained for hooliganism, theft, vagrancy to juvenile colonies where older criminals were kept. The authors provide data on the history of the creation and functioning of the Shokai labor educational colony during 1943-1945. On the basis of archival materials, most of which are being put into circulation for the first time, the problems of life organization, material support, replenishment of the contingent and the rea- sons for the closure of the colony are being studied. After analyzing the personal files of pupils, the authors come to the conclusion that most of them came for violation of labor discipline in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 28, 1940 “On the responsibility of students of vocational, railway schools and schools of the Factory Training for violation of discipline and for unauthorized leaving from school”. There were both natives of the Kazakh SSR and pupils from other Soviet republics in the Shokai labor training colony. The article is based on materials from Kazakhstani and Russian archives.

Награждение сотрудников правоохранительных органов в предвоенный период (1933–1941)

The paper analyses the practice of awarding law enforcement bodies after the establishment of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs as a result of the merger between the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Republics in 1933 until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. It is stated here that the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) border and internal troops, which were part of the Soviet Armed Forces, took an active part in the armed conflicts with Japan and Finland. The study is based on historical method, objectivity and systematic approach. To process quantitative data on those awarded during the pre-war armed conflicts, the author used statistical analysis for calculating the results obtained by means of continuous sampling. Based on the archive materials, published data and personal sources, it is argued that at the time of the merger, the award systems of the OGPU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were quite similar; for instance, they had similar departmental decorations. Further, it is pointed out that practically during the entire period under study, up to the establishment of a single departmental award “Honoured Worker of the NKVD” in 1940, similar earlier awards of the Cheka–OGPU and Workers’ and Peasants’ Militia were used. There were no awards to distinguish law enforcement activities; therefore, state labour decorations were often used instead. The award practice during the pre-war conflicts shows that employees of NKVD internal and border troops were distinguished similarly to Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army officers, the number of the former being approximately 3 % of the total number of the awarded. During military operations, NKVD units and formations were put under the army command, making the rewarding of Chekists difficult since law enforcement bodies were linked to different people’s commissariats. The author concludes that state awards were rarely used to distinguish law enforcement activities. Primarily, NKVD employees and groups of employees were presented with departmental awards of material (valuable gifts, such as award weapon and money) and moral (certificates of merit and acknowledgement) nature.

Детские учреждения в Карлаге

The article discusses key aspects of the history of children's institutions and, first of all, children's homes, in the Karaganda СLС (Correctional labor camp) of the PCIA (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) of the USSR. The organizational and legal bases of the formation of the children's contingent in the Gulag camps have been revealed and characterized. Organization, structure and location of children's institutions in Karlag were determined. The number, composition and movement of the children's contingent, the nature and content of food and material provision, housing and living conditions, as well as medical and sanitary care and child mortality were covered. The causes and scale of child mortality were evealed and characterized. The dynamics of the number of children's institutions in Karlage were demonstrated. Quantitative and qualitative parameters of children's nutrition and food allowance were considered. The extremely low level of material and technical supply and the weak arrangement of homes for babies, the lack of caregivers and the lack of medical and sanitary services were emphasized. A wise assessment of the character and content of the daily practice of the functioning of the child's home was given. The opinions about the consequences for the Soviet society of the results of the “education” of children in children's homes were expressed

Награждение званием Героя Советского Союза в предвоенных вооруженных конфликтах: статистический анализ (1936–1940 гг.)

Introduction. The experience of conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in armed conflicts before the start of World War II is analyzed. It is alleged that representatives of all power structures became Heroes: the People’s Commissariat of Defense, the People’s Commissariat of the Navy and the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. Materials and methods. When solving the set research tasks, published data from official statistics, as well as scientific literature, were used. The study was based on the principles of historicism, objectivity and systematics. The need to process quantitative data led to the use of the statistical method. Analysis. In 94% of cases, the title of Hero was used solely to distinguish members of the security forces. It is noted that 71% of all the awards were for distinction in the Soviet-Finnish War. Military personnel received 93% of the awards. In fact, representatives of the ground triad (armored, rifle troops and artillery) received 2 / 3 awards. Conclusions. Award practice shows that the award has been rarely used, exclusively for personal courage in battle; almost a third of the awards were made posthumously.

EXCESSES DURING THE ARRESTS AND INTERROGATIONS OF OUN MEMBERS BY THE NKVD-NKGD CO-WORKERS IN THE RIVNE REGION (1940–1941)

It is indicated that to solve the task in the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR, methods and personnel tested during the «great terror» of the 1930s in the USSR were used. The management and operational staff of the NKVD-NKGB involved in the «clearing» operation, their professional training, and work methods were considered. Emphasis is placed on the use during the Sovietization of Western Ukraine of a significant number of new appointees in the NKVD–NKGB system, graduates of departmental schools who trained personnel for state security agencies. The origin, education, origins of national consciousness, motivation for the actions of individual members of the OUN underground are clarified, and their sacrifice is characterized. Dramatic clashes between members of the OUN and NKVD–NKGB employees during border crossings, arrests, staging, and imprisonment are highlighted. It is noted that in the confrontation between the Soviet repressive bodies and the participants of the Ukrainian national liberation movement, the former had state, military, economic, political institutions and tools at their disposal, while the opposing side could count on the solidarity of the members of their organization, their own knowledge and experience, and moral stability. Keywords Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, People’s Commissariat of Internal Aff airs, People’s Commissariat of State Security, Rivne region, Sovietization, repression, arrests, interrogations, resistance, armed clashes, escapes, Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine.

Секретные архивы в провинции в 1940-е – 1960-е гг. на примере Государственного архива Свердловской области

This article discusses the problem of information culture in the Soviet society on the example of development of classified documents storage in state archives from late 1930s to mid-1960s. After sociopolitical transformations of 1917–20, archival documents became a political (informational) resource due to “mobilization” atmosphere in society and government circles. It was the political police authorities who were most interested in unrestricted access to the documents of the Unified State Archive Fond (GAF). The system of secret archives evolved in 1924 as a form of monopolization of information sphere. The activity of regional secret archives was aimed at preservation, registration, and use of restricted access documents. Materials containing data on personal composition and activities of pre-revolutionary and some Soviet state institutions were classified. Using the activities of the secret fonds department of the State Archive of the Sverdlovsk Region (GASO) as example, the author analyzes the entire spectrum of work of regional secret archives: organization, material and technical support, areas of work, and staffing. An important aspect of the secret archives’ activities were “operational and Chekist activities”: preparation of reference and information documents for the regional bodies of the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and, later, the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD). Operative and security work of massive proportions began in 1938, when all state archives became part of the NKVD, reaching its peak during the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). During the same period, an attempt was made to request more complex information documents from regional archival bodies. In the post-war period, work with secret documents continued until 1956, when the process of declassification of the GAF documents was officially initiated. Secret fonds departments of state archives continued to inform the special services until their abolition in 1965. The secret storage in the Sverdlovsk Region existed until 1988, when the last secret fonds were declassified. The author concludes that longevity of this specific form of work with such a small part of retrospective documentation was dictated by the peculiarities of the Soviet society development. This research is based on materials from the State Archives of Sverdlovsk Region.

The activities of the organs of the Office of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs in the formation and strengthening of the operational and service component in the activities of the fighter battalions on the territory of the Voronezh region in the summer of 1941

The activities of the organs of the Office of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs in the formation and strengthening of the operational and service component in the activities of the fighter battalions on the territory of the Voronezh region in the summer of 1941

Що таке санскрит? / Переклад з російської, вступна стаття та примітки Д. В. Бурби

The essay What is Sanskrit was published in 1911 as a preface to P. Ritter’s Sanskrit textbook. It is an updated version of the trial lecture, given by him in the fall of 1899 at Kharkiv University (Ukraine). There he was teaching Sanskrit from the autumn of 1900 at the Department of Comparative Linguistics and headed this Department later. The author debunks popular myths about Sanskrit, describes its place among Indian languages emphasizing temporal and geographical differences between Sanskrit and Vedic language, distinguishes epic and classical Sanskrit, lists the prominent works of Sanskrit literature, and pays tribute to the Indian grammatical tradition. He mentions such prominent works of ancient Indian Sanskritology as the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini (4th–3rd centuries BC), Nirukta of Yāska (4th century BC), Vārttika of Кātyāyana (3rd–2nd centuries BC), Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali (2nd century BC). Ritter’s account of the history of the discovery and study of Sanskrit in the West is interesting, as is the characterization of Sanskrit scholars (his predecessors and contemporaries), some of whom he knew personally. Ritter’s students testified that he was fluent in Ukrainian which he apparently knew from childhood but the lecture was given by him and then published in Russian as a result of two hundred years of systematic extirpation of the Ukrainian language in the Russian Empire. All notes except two marked are written by the translator. The notes provide philological, historical, and biographical information. The introductory article tells about the origin of P. Ritter, his studies, his work as a scientist, translator, compiler of the Ukrainian-language Anthology of Ancient Indian Literature, lecturer, and organizer of science, as well as about his hobby and his tragic death due to repressions of NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs).

The First Counterspy: Larry Haas, Bell Aircraft, and the FBI’s Attempt to Capture a Soviet Mole by Kay Haas and Walter W. Pickut

<i>The First Counterspy: Larry Haas, Bell Aircraft, and the FBI’s Attempt to Capture a Soviet Mole</i> by Kay Haas and Walter W. Pickut

Special contingent in the USSR coal industry in the 1930s–50s

The article discusses forced labor of the special contingent in the coal industry in the USSR in 1930&ndash;1950. The author defines the special contingent (which is a slang word for prisoners of a special category) as a part of the population of the USSR, which existed under tightened inspection from the side of NKVD (People&rsquo;s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) and was subjected to forced and hard manual labor. Historiography offers two views of the subject. The special contingent started from deportation of peasants in the framework of the dekulakization campaign in 1930. The author gives the size of the special settlers by the nationalities and social status categories. The manpower of the coal industry in the 1930s and 1940s is also specified. It was 471208 people in 1940. The special contingent was off the official statistics, and NKVD kept its own record of human resources. The issue of the deported Germans, their number and labor is addressed. For instance, in 1949 almost 100 thousand Germans worked in the coal sector. The special contingent had a certain internal structure categorized into criminal prisoners, deported Germans, prisoners of war, former rich peasants (kulaks), etc. The author emphasizes that contribution made by the special contingent to the total coal production was immense in some coal mining regions and reached 60&ndash;70 % in the overall coal output in the 1930s. The author illustrates the severe living and working conditions of the special contingent under absolute indifference, hostility and suppression of the outrage upon justice on the part of all agencies of authority. Sometimes the situation got little better. Ex-managers of mines accentuated that the special settlers always worked with full dedication and heroically even in the worst conditions. Seven special settlers became the Heroes of the Social Labor. The article raises a point on the general contribution of the special settlers in production. In 1950 the size of the manpower in the whole industry in the USSR was 18 million people, while the size of the special contingent was under 2 million people. Their contribution to the overall production was 10&ndash;11 %. The system of the GULAG collapsed sweepingly in the late 1940s&ndash;early 1 950s. The author lays emphasis on the lessons learnt from the phenomenon of the special settlements, particularly, on the scale of the inter-ethnic relationship in modern Russia. As one of the conclusions says, without the forced labor, the coal industry, that loco of economy, had no chance to meet the challenges the USSR faced that time.

The Mortality of Released Prisoners and the Scale of Soviet Penal Mortality, 1939–45

The Mortality of Released Prisoners and the Scale of Soviet Penal Mortality, 1939–45 Stephen G. Wheatcroft (bio) I was delighted to be asked to comment on Mikhail Nakonechnyi's provocative and important work on Soviet penal mortality, which I hope marks the beginning of a much needed search for data to empirically test theories about the scale of Soviet penal mortality There is no doubt that the release of ill and near-to-death prisoners would have reduced the appearance of mortality in the labor camps and colonies. But whether these releases were carried out specifically to reduce the camp and colony mortality figures seems to me to be unlikely. The amount by which this process reduced the appearance of mortality in the labor camps and colonies remains unclear, but thanks to the recent work of Mikhail Nakonechnyi, it is now a little clearer. He has demonstrated that there is documentary evidence to show that in certain locations at certain times, when general mortality levels were high, the level of unrecorded mortality for released prisoners was very high. In Bezymianlag, the main camp investigated by Nakonechnyi, in the month of May 1943 it amounted to as much as 64 percent of the level of recorded mortality in the camp. In Kargopol´lag in September 1943, it was as much as 46 percent above the level recorded there. Nakonechnyi has wisely noted that "the temporal and spatial" width of this phenomenon are "as yet unknown" (804). But they seem to be significant. Can we do anything to test their significance further and to improve our understanding of the scale of mortality in the Soviet penal system? The second part of my commentary is an attempt to do that. It emphasizes the need to look carefully at the dynamics of the population studied as well as its mortality count. It recommends calculating per capita indicators of mortality. It begins by looking in more detail at per capita mortality in Bezymianlag. Then it looks at what we know about the overall indicators of per capita mortality for all of the Soviet penal system and draws attention to [End Page 851] our current lack of knowledge about the history and philosophy of the penal statistical systems, and the urgency of improving our understanding in this area. But before doing this, I would like to comment a little more on the importance of Nakonechnyi's research, correct some erroneous references that he makes to my own work, and provide a rough guide as to what levels of per capita mortality should be considered crisis levels for normal populations, for penal populations, and for wartime. Nakonechnyi's work is particularly important for countering the ungrounded assertions of Golfo Alexopoulos, who has claimed the enormous importance of the "release to die" claim that she thinks covered up about five million deaths in the camps.1 When this is compared with Zemskov's figure for direct mortality in the camps of one million,2 it can be seen that she is proposing a 500 percent correction to penal mortality for the entire period 1929–53 and not just the worst years of 1941–45. Nakonechnyi's work is the first serious attempt to test this claim, although he presents it as though his arguments were directed at others (including myself). Testing and looking for documentary evidence to support claims are something that Nakonechnyi and I certainly agree are important.3 The origins of the "release to die" argument can be traced back to the Russian historical demographer V. A. Isupov, who argued in 2000 that "the secret of reducing mortality in the Gulag lay not so much in improving medical services and the living conditions of the prisoners as much as in the so-called aktirovka of the prisoners." He pointed to the decree of the plenum of the Supreme Court on 1 August 1942 and the joint directives of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), the People's Commissariat of Justice (NKIust) and the Procuracy of 23 October 1942 allowing for the liberation of prisoners too ill to work.4 "In other words," he wrote, "prisoners were aktirovany [released] to die." Isupov pointed out...

Katyn – Golgotha of the East

Poland has experienced two cruel systems. One of them was fascism, symbolized by the German Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The second one was Stalinism, Katyn will remain its symbol forever. For over 50 years, no other issue in Polish-Soviet relations was as concealed as the Katyn massacre. In this essay, I will talk about the genocide in 1940 on 22,000 Poles (soldiers and civilians), investigations in this matter, and the fight for the truth. Everyone knew that any public statement about this crime could have significant consequences, such as dismissal from work or school expulsion. The Katyn genocide was a war crime that was first concealed and then distorted for the longest time. It can be said that it was a crime against the Polish nation.For many years, the press, radio, and television did not talk about it. On April 13, 2020, Polish people celebrated the Katyn Massacre Remembrance Day. In the spring of the year 1940, during two months in and around Katyn (currently in Russia), executioners from the NKVD, ordered by the Soviet authorities, murdered 21,857 prisoners of war with a shot in the back of the head. NKVD-People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. This enormously evil deed of the Bolsheviks is called the Golgotha of the East. Golgotha is a place near Jerusalem where convicts were executed. Christians believe that Jesus Christ was crucified in this place. Similarly, innocent Polish officers were killed at this place of execution. The name of the crime comes from the village of Katyń near Smolensk, where victims were murdered and buried.

THE ROLE OF STALIN AS A DIRECT LEADER AND ORGANIZER OF REPRESSIONS OF THE 1930 S

The role of I. Stalin during the period of political repressions of the 1930s is investigated. On specific documents signed by Stalin and stored in archives, his role as a direct organizer and direct leader of repressions is shown, who daily delved into all issues, up to the most detailed, the organization of the work of the leading party bodies and bodies of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs on the implementation of the politics of terror and violence. I. Stalin kept the work of carrying out repressions under his personal unrele nting control, often gave direct instructions to the leadership of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs on individual cases, on specific people. It is shown that Stalin directed not only the operational-investigative, investigative activities of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, but also the preparation and conduct of trials. So, Stalin personally painted the entire organization of the "Process of the anti-Soviet Trotskyist center" in January 1937 in Moscow. Stalin's personal involvement and direct leadership was manifested not only in the organization of political repression, but also in the implementation of economic policy, which was a policy of subjugation of the population through actual economic strangulation. This is shown by the example of the famine (asharshylyk) of 1931-1933 in Kazakhstan.

INFLUENCE OF THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT'S POLICY OF “KULAK” AND REPRESSION ON UZBEK WOMEN

This article discusses the negative effects of the Soviet government’s “kulak” and repressive policies on Uzbek women. The Covet government, by organizing training courses, trained women; involved women in social life in exchange for the sacrifice of hundreds of women. At the same time, the above-mentioned policy of kulak and repression has led to the suffering of Uzbek women as well as men. Below we meet some of these women. КEY WORDS: repression policy, kulak, austerity policy, sentence, imprisonment, criminal code, People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, counter-revolutionary activity, family, Uzbek woman.

Chinese Migrants between Two People&amp;apos;s Commissariats: the History of the Re-registration of the Chinese Population of the Eastern Regions of the USSR in 1936-1937.

The article is devoted to the little known history of the re-registration of the Chinese population of the Soviet Far East and Eastern Siberia. The purpose of this large-scale campaign was to solve problems with the issuance of Chinese national passports and residence permits to Chinese migrants. The need for the campaign arose both from the &amp;quot;traditional&amp;quot; problem of Chinese migrants in the USSR — the lack of necessary documents, and alsofrom a number of new factors that emerged in 1932-1934.The question of the need for this re-registration was raised by the People&amp;apos;s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in the spring of 1934. After agreeing with the NKVD (People&amp;apos;s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) and Chinese diplomats, re-registration was carried out from the beginning of September 1936 to the end of April 1937. It was carried out by the consulates of the Republic of China under control of Soviet authorities. Despite the long preparation, this attempt was not successful. On the one hand, a negative role was played by the NKVD. The activities of this People&amp;apos;s Commissariat in many cases contradicted the tasks of re-registration.Often, representatives of the NKVD directly violated the instructions.On the other hand, largely due to the obstacles that the People&amp;apos;s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs was putting up, the necessary information was not provided to Chinese migrants, many of whom did not understand the meaning of re-registration. But above all, such result of the campaign was due to the general changes in the political situation in the USSR, which occurred from the time the question of re-registration was raised in 1934 to the time of its staring in September 1936 and, moreover, to the end of re-registration at the end of April 1937.

Legal Basis for Licensing and Permitting Activities of Internal Affair Bodies in the Kyrgyz Republic (Soviet and Present Period)

Creative comprehension of experience and its practical application is a source of further growth and improvement. In this regard, the historical study of Kyrgyzstan’s internal affairs members acquires great cognitive and educational values. The licensing and permitting system institution origin and its development inextricably linked with the Soviet power supremacy period. The legal basis for Soviet militia organization was the RSFSR decree of People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs “On the Workers’ Militia” of November 10, 1917. Historical, comparative analysis and descriptive research methods were performed in this article to establish understandings of a legal basis for licensing and permitting activities of Kyrgyz Republic Internal Affair members. The research aim in this work was to analyze legal basis for licensing and permitting activities of internal affair bodies in the Kyrgyz Republic including the Soviet and present period. Research methods such as historical-comparative and descriptive analysis were used.

Eleven Winters of Discontent: The Siberian Internment and the Making of a New Japan by Sherzod Muminov

Reviewed by: Eleven Winters of Discontent: The Siberian Internment and the Making of a New Japan by Sherzod Muminov James D. J. Brown Eleven Winters of Discontent: The Siberian Internment and the Making of a New Japan. By Sherzod Muminov. Harvard University Press, 2022. 384 pages. ISBN: 9780674986435 (hardcover; also available as e-book). The history of Japanese imperialism and the end of World War II in East Asia can seem like a competition between victimhood narratives. Within this contest, the [End Page 355] Siberian internment usually loses out to other tales of woe. Even when not neglected, the story of the 600,000 Japanese former soldiers and civilians interned within the Soviet Union after 1945 is too often told with trite uniformity. Some accounts give the impression that every Japanese internee was an innocent victim, slaving away in a frigid Siberian wilderness, where temperatures fell to minus fifty degrees Celsius, and surviving on a diet of three potatoes a day. Sherzod Muminov's Eleven Winters of Discontent: The Siberian Internment and the Making of a New Japan is a welcome corrective to this literature of wailing melancholy as the author sets out to "challenge the popular perception that the internment was only about suffering, injustices, and deprivation" (p. 80). Muminov highlights nuance at every turn and takes an international rather than a national perspective. He also makes use of internees' memoirs in Japanese, as well as Russian-language files from the Soviet archives. The result is an excellent account that enables the reader not only to understand the details of the Siberian internment but to reflect on its significance to the Cold War and the development of postwar Japan. The book's particular merit is in treating the internees as participants in their predicament rather than mere victims. However, it also covers the basics well. The story begins with Joseph Stalin's secret decree of 23 August 1945. This ordered the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (Narodnyi komissariat vnutrennikh del, or NKVD) to select up to half a million Japanese "physically fit to work in the conditions of the Far East" and to transport them to the Soviet Union (p. 2). This position was a reversal of the one from 16 August, when the Soviets had expressed their intention not to intern Japanese on Soviet territory. Stalin's decree also ignored Article 9 of the Potsdam Declaration, which, in setting the terms of Japan's surrender, promised: "The Japanese military forces, after being completely disarmed, shall be permitted to return to their homes with the opportunity to lead peaceful and productive lives" (p. 26). In assessing the reasons for Stalin's decision, Muminov considers economic motivations, including the need for labor to make use of the enormous quantities of "trophy equipment"—primarily industrial machinery—that Soviet forces expropriated in Manchuria and used to equip their own factories. He also takes account of the internees' value as political bargaining chips, which is indeed how they were used during the talks that led to official Japan-Soviet ties being restored in October 1956. Muminov even draws readers' attention to the conspiracy theory that Japan's Kwantung Army offered Japanese soldiers to the Soviet Union as a workforce during a meeting held at Zharikovo on 19 August 1945. However, ultimately the author concludes that the decision to intern the Japanese soldiers was not a premeditated move. Instead, it was Stalin's instinctive response to US president Harry Truman's rejection of the Soviet request for an occupation zone on Hokkaido. Denied the chance to occupy any of the Japanese main islands, Stalin chose to occupy Japanese personnel instead. In addition to clearly charting the origins of the Siberian internment, the book does a fine job of communicating its scale. Soviet documents reveal that 639,776 [End Page 356] Japanese army service personnel were taken prisoner. These included humble farmhands but also Konoe Fumitaka, the Princeton-educated eldest son of former prime minister Konoe Fumimaro. Uno Sōsuke, who briefly served as prime minister in 1989 before resigning because of an affair with a geisha, was also among those interned. There were also more than 30,000 Koreans, Chinese, and Mongols, as...

Staffing of the Ukrainian SSR militia in 1945

The main aspects of the USSR militia staffing in 1945 are revealed. The main directions of personnel work were as follows: 1) completion of staffing of militia bodies; 2) consolidation of personnel, primarily management; 3) creation of an effective reserve of nomination; 4) organization of training, improving the quality of preventive and educational work among personnel; 5) completion of the collection and search of personal files and bringing them into order, completion of a special inspection of those who joined the militia. During 1945, the PCIA (people's commissariat of internal affairs) of the Ukrainian SSR provided instructions on all these issues in the form of directives, reviews, written comments on the work and provided practical assistance on field trips. Specialists were trained in special courses in militia schools, whose activities were resumed in several cities of the republic. In 1945, 12,153 people came to recruit militia, and 5,906 people left and were released. A significant shortcoming in recruitment was staff turnover. The main reasons for the turnover in the police in 1945 were as follows: a) reduced admission requirements to the militia (recruited people without inspection by the medical commission, sometimes clearly disabled); b) insufficient verification of new recruits; c) weak educational work among the staff. Of the total number of those released in 1945: a) for illness, age and inadequacy – 4652 people; b) according to the materials of the special inspection – 1526 people; c) for moral and domestic decomposition, violation of labor discipline, personal desires and family circumstances – 9626 people. Among the militia, 3 % were those with higher and incomplete higher education, 13 % – secondary, 25 % – below secondary and 57 % – lower education. Ukrainians in the PCIA of the USSR in 1945 accounted for 55 %, Russians – 35 %, Jews – 4 %, Belarusians – 2 %, others – 2,6 %. In general, in 1945 the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and its subdivisions carried out significant and diverse work to improve the staff of the republic's militia.

Activities of the NKVD of the Far East in the fight against crime in the second half of 1945

This article examines the causes and conditions of the aggravation of the criminal situation in the Far East in the second half of 1945 and the historical experience of local NKVD (Peoples Commissariat of Internal Affairs) bodies in maintaining law and order under the conditions of the Soviet-Japanese war and the first post-war period. Based on the analysis of the documentation of the NKVD departments of Primorye and Khabarovsk territories, including internal administrative documents (orders, plans, etc.), as well as materials of primary party organizations (minutes of party meetings, certificates, memos, etc.), the author draws conclusions about the development of the criminal situation in the region, and discusses the NKVDs ways and directions to ensure law and order. Studying the stated problems, it was possible not only to state the presence of negative dynamics in the number and severity of criminal manifestations, but also to establish that the criminal crisis of the second half of 1945 was caused by the imposition of new socio-economic and political factors (including the amnesty for prisoners, the relocation of large masses of troops, the Soviet-Japanese war, the placement of prisoners of war, demobilization) on the already difficult criminal situation that had developed during the Great Patriotic War. The study largely confirmed the fact repeatedly noted in historiography about the impact of personnel starvation and problems of material support on the effectiveness of the NKVD in the war and post-war period. The archival documents show that the main ways to normalize the operational situation in the Far East region were measures concerning organizational work and operational-search activities, as well as control-methodical and administrative measures. The author concludes that the measures taken allowed the NKVD of the Far East to reverse the explosive growth of serious street crime by the end of 1945. However, this success was only partial - the overall level of criminal activity in the region continued to remain at a fairly high level for several post-war years.

Soviets of Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Deputies in memorandum of E. G. Gerasimov (Gerasin) of June 14, 1918

This article discusses the a memorandum of the member of the Control and Audit Committee under the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs &amp;ndash; Efim Grigorievich Gerasimov (Gerasin). Having supported the socialist movement and subsequently the February and October Revolutions of 1917 since his youth years, the author of the document has analyzed the system of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers 'and Peasants' Deputies that established on the local level in late 1917 &amp;ndash; early 1918 and gradually replaced the county self-government. The value of the source lies in the fact that the author of self-censorship revealed the flaws of the new local government, having expressed the concern that they may lead to a civil war in the country. E. G. Gerasimov (Gerasin) dedicated particular attention to the problem of dialogue between the Soviet deputies and central government, and proposed to institute the post of special emergency mediators for controlling the execution of all provisions and &amp;ldquo;encourage&amp;rdquo; the representatives of the Soviets. The conclusion is made that the elimination of the existing flaws required the so-called &amp;ldquo;democratic centralism&amp;rdquo; in Russia, which suggested the combination of electivity of local administration along with the governing and supervisory power of the central administration. In this regard, the content of the document allows taking a look at the Soviets of Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers&amp;rsquo; Deputies through the prism of a person who worked in that system, without idealization or &amp;ldquo;touchup&amp;rdquo;.