As many people know, it was the NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR) that was the main perpetrator of the mass political repressions of the 1930s.
For this reason, the NKVD is still associated today with ruthless and bloodthirsty executioners.
The executioners, whose cruelty perhaps even surpassed that of the medieval Inquisitors and Tsar Ivan the Terrible’s Oprichniki. But today, few people remember that the very existence of the NKVD in the 1930s was directly linked, in particular, to our beloved city.
Everyone knows that personnel are everything. Ten military training institutions were officially established within the USSR to train executioners. Several of them were located in Kharkiv. The NKVD knows quite a lot about some of the schools in Kharkiv, but practically nothing about others.
Specifically, on September 24, 2015, Kharkiv historian Eduard Zub published an article devoted to the NKVD’s Gulag school—the only one of its kind in the entire USSR. In his historical investigation, the author notes, incidentally, that there are only four references to this mysterious and legendary school.
However, that is a separate topic that has yet to be explored.
At modern Russian auctions, if you dig deep enough, you can find some quite interesting documents related to our city—such as, for example, this certificate of graduation from the Kharkiv School of the NKVD of the USSR.
A cadet’s academic performance metrics speak volumes to us.
1. Russian—fair.
2. Mathematics—good.
3. Geography—fair.
4. History of the USSR—fair.
5. History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)—good.
6. Constitution of the USSR—fair.
7. Criminal Law – Fair.
8. Criminal Procedure and Investigation Techniques – Fair.
9. Judicial System – Good.
10. Prison and Camp Regimen and Security – Excellent.
11. Prisoner Registration and Distribution—Good.
12. Cultural and Educational Work—Good.
13. General Military Knowledge (Regulations)—Fair.
And really, why would the executioners and enforcers of that time have needed geography and history?
After all, the main thing is that the security regime in prisons and camps was EXCELLENT!
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