What does NKVD stand for in Between Shades of Gray?

Ruta Sepetys's stunning debut novel begins on June 14, 1941, as the NKVD (the Soviet secret police) pound on the door of the Vilkas family's home.

What does NKVD stand for?

NKVD. abbreviation for. (formerly) People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs: the Soviet police and secret police from 1934 to 1943: the police from 1943 to 1946.

What was OGPU and NKVD?

OGPU was the secret police of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1934. It was after the Cheka and before the NKVD. Its official name was the Joint State Political Directorate.

What was the NKVD in the USSR?

The NKVD People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (Russian : НКВД ; Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел) as a government department in the Soviet Union operated from 1934-1946 . It was the law enforcement agency which did the will of the All Union Communist Party.

Does the NKVD still exist?

July 10, 1934: NKVD of the Russian SFSR ceases to exist and transforms into the all-union NKVD of the USSR; OGPU becomes GUGB ("Main Directorate for State Security") in the all-union NKVD.

Author Ruta Sepetys talks about the true history behind Between Shades of Gray

What is the difference between the KGB and the NKVD?

The most important difference was chronological one, as NKVD and KGB never existed in the same time under such names. Bu the history of the Soviet organizations responsible for internal affairs was quite turbulent and might require additional explanation.

What does Smersh stand for?

SMERSH (a portmanteau of the Russian Smyert Shpionam - Смерть Шпионам - which means "Death to Spies") is a fictional Soviet counterintelligence agency featured primarily in the early James Bond novels by Ian Fleming.

Who started the NKVD?

In December 1936, Nikolai Yezhov established a new section of the NKVD named the Administration of Special Tasks (AST). It contained about 300 of his own trusted men from the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

What does KGB mean in English?

KGB stands for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, which translates to “Committee for State Security” in English.

Where does the word gulag come from?

The Gulag was a system of forced labor camps established during Joseph Stalin's long reign as dictator of the Soviet Union. The word “Gulag” is an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration.

Is Spectre a SMERSH?

The SPECTRE organization serves as the most persistent enemy of 007 and MI6 in the James Bond franchise, replacing SMERSH. SPECTRE debuted in Fleming's 1961 novel, Thunderball, and made their first onscreen appearance a year later in Dr. No, adapting another one of Fleming's Bond novels.

What does Smiert Spionam mean?

"Smiert Spionam" (meaning "Death to Spies"), when contracted, became SMERSH, a precursor to the KGB created by Lavrentiy Beria. Their purpose was to eliminate all forms of treachery, both within the USSR and abroad.

Is Spectre same as SMERSH?

In the films, SPECTRE usually replaced SMERSH as the main villains, although there is a brief reference to SMERSH in the second EON Bond film, From Russia with Love (1963).

When was the NKVD renamed?

The lineage of the KGB begins with the Cheka, the secret police established by the Bolsheviks in 1917. In 1922 the Cheka was reorganized as the GPU (State Political Administration), and in 1934 it was renamed the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs).

What was the USSR secret police called?

Cheka, also called Vecheka, early Soviet secret police agency and a forerunner of the KGB (q.v.).

What is the Russian secret service called?

Federal Security Service (FSB), Russian Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, formerly (1994–95) Federal Counterintelligence Service, Russian internal security and counterintelligence service created in 1994 as one of the successor agencies of the Soviet-era KGB.

Does the KGB still exist in Belarus?

It is governed by the law About State Security Bodies of the Republic of Belarus. The KGB has command over the Alpha Group as the main counter-terrorist unit, although they can be tasked to help the militsiya and other law enforcement organizations in anti-crime operations.

What does KGB mean pronunciation?

KGB (plural KGBs) (electronics) Initialism of known good board.

What does GPU stand for Russia?

The State Political Directorate (also translated as the State Political Administration) (GPU) was the intelligence service and secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) from February 6, 1922, to December 29, 1922, and the Soviet Union from December 29, 1922, until November 15, 1923.

What was the NKVD role in the Great Purge?

The NKVD began targeting certain ethnic minorities such as the Volga Germans, who were subjected to forced deportation and extreme repression. During the purge, the NKVD widely utilized imprisonment, torture, violent interrogation, and arbitrary executions to solidify control over civilians through fear.

Are there still gulags today?

The Gulag institution was closed by the MVD order No 020 of January 25, 1960 but forced labor colonies for political and criminal prisoners continued to exist. Political prisoners continued to be kept in one of the most famous camps Perm-36 until 1987 when it was closed.

Are there still prisoners in Siberia?

It accepted its first prison inmate in 1996, five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now it has capacity for 794 prisoners. Inmates say they regard it as a “Red Zone” prison – one that exercises total control over the minutiae of daily lives.