NKVD
Pre-KGB secret police
NKVD is the acronym for the Soviet secret police agency that operated from 1934 to 1946, responsible for state security, intelligence, and administering the Gulag labor camps.
Under Stalin, the NKVD carried out mass arrests, executions, and deportations during the Great Purge.
The name derives from Russian words meaning "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs."
First Soviet secret police
- GPUVisual processing hardware
- KGBUSSR intelligence service
- commissariatMilitary supply department
- directorateGoverning administrative body
troika · state security · internal affairs · security apparatus
Forcible removals from power
- show trialsPropaganda-driven mock prosecutions
- deportationsForced removal from country
- interrogationFormal, probing examination
- tortureDeliberate infliction of suffering
forced confessions · enemy of the people · labor camps · quota system · rehabilitation
Nazi secret police
- StasiEast German secret police
- secret policeClandestine state security apparatus
- political policeState security targeting dissidents
- security servicesAgencies ensuring safety
totalitarian · police state · surveillance state · state terror
Systematic observation of subjects
- informantsPeople providing secret intelligence
- denunciationsFormal accusations or criticisms
- arrestsLawful detentions by police
- night raidsArmed operations after sundown
forced labor · prison transport · internal passport · border troops
Mental ability, cognitive capacity
- counterintelligenceDefense against enemy espionage
- agentsThose who act for others
- operativesThose who execute missions
- defectorsThose abandoning allegiance
moles · clandestine operations · Spanish Civil War · disinformation
Cheka
First Soviet secret police
- GPUVisual processing hardware
- KGBUSSR intelligence service
- commissariatMilitary supply department
directorate · troika · state security · internal affairs · security apparatus
purges
Forcible removals from power
- show trialsPropaganda-driven mock prosecutions
- deportationsForced removal from country
- interrogationFormal, probing examination
torture · forced confessions · enemy of the people · labor camps · quota system · rehabilitation
Gestapo
Nazi secret police
- StasiEast German secret police
- secret policeClandestine state security apparatus
- political policeState security targeting dissidents
security services · totalitarian · police state · surveillance state · state terror
surveillance
Systematic observation of subjects
- informantsPeople providing secret intelligence
- denunciationsFormal accusations or criticisms
- arrestsLawful detentions by police
night raids · forced labor · prison transport · internal passport · border troops
intelligence
Mental ability, cognitive capacity
- counterintelligenceDefense against enemy espionage
- agentsThose who act for others
- operativesThose who execute missions
defectors · moles · clandestine operations · Spanish Civil War · disinformation
- espionagespy, spies, double agent, double agents, spying
- communismMarx, Marxism, Leninism, Lenin, proletariat
- Russian HistorySoviet Union, tsars, Tsarist Russia, Romanov, czars
- Soviet EraUSSR, Soviet Union, Soviet rule, CCCP, Eastern Bloc
- Soviet HistorySoviet Union, USSR, CCCP, Stalin, Kremlin
- Soviet UnionKremlin, Lenin, Stalin, KGB, Sputnik
Rights watchdog organization
ACLU · ombudsman · public defender · free press · habeas corpus
Organized opposition to occupation
Oskar Schindler · Underground Railroad · White Rose · International Red Cross