"Black myth" about the Chekists: the NKVD troops in the Great Patriotic War
One of the most famous “black myths” of the Great Patriotic War ”is a fairy tale about“ bloody ”KGB agents (special persons, enkavadeshniki, Smerzens). They are in particular honor with the filmmakers. Few people were subjected to such large-scale criticism, humiliation, as security officers. The main part of the population receives information about them only through the “popculture”, artistic works, and primarily through the cinema. Not a single film “about war” goes without an image of knocking out teeth of honest officers (Red Army men), a cowardly and cruel special security officer.
This is practically a mandatory program number - to show some villain from the NKVD who sits in the rear (guarding the prisoners — completely innocently convicted) and in a barrage squad shooting from machine guns and machine guns unarmed (or with “one rifle for three” Red Army men). Here are just a few of these "masterpieces:" Penalty "," Diversant "," Moscow Saga "," Children of the Arbat "," Cadets "," Bless a Woman ", etc., their number multiplies every year. Moreover, these films are shown at the best time, they gather a significant audience of viewers. This is generally a feature of Russian TV - in the best time to show turbidity and even outright abomination, and analytical programs, documentaries that carry information for the mind, put up at night, when the majority of working people are asleep. Practical only normal film about the role of “Smersh” in the war is the film of Mikhail Ptashuk “In August of 44 ...”, based on the novel by Vladimir Bogomolov “The Moment of Truth (In August of 44)”.
What are the Chekists usually doing in the cinema? Yes, in fact, they prevent normal officers and soldiers from fighting! As a result of watching such films, the younger generation, which does not read books (especially of a scientific nature), has the feeling that the people (the army) have won despite the country's top leadership and "punitive" bodies. You look, if the representatives of the NKVD and SMERSH had not gotten under their feet, they could have won earlier. In addition, the "bloody chekists" in 1937-1939. destroyed the "color of the army" led by Tukhachevsky. Do not feed the Chekist with bread - let someone be shot under a far-fetched pretext. At the same time, as a rule, a standard special officer is a sadist, a complete scoundrel, a drunkard, a coward, etc. Another favorite move of filmmakers is to show the Chekist in contrast. To do this, the film introduces the image of a valiantly fighting commander (soldier), who is hindered in every possible way by a representative of the NKVD. Often this hero is from among the previously convicted officers, or even "political". It is difficult to imagine such an attitude towards tankmen or pilots. Although the fighters and commanders of the NKVD, military counterintelligence is a military craft, without which no army in the world can do. It is obvious that the ratio of "scoundrels" and ordinary, normal people in these structures is at least not less than in tank, infantry, artillery and other units. And it is possible that even the best, since a more rigorous selection is being conducted.
Collective snapshot of active fighters-saboteurs of the 88 Fighter Battalion of the NKVD of the city of Moscow and the Moscow Region - special schools of demolitions of the NKVD of the city of Moscow and the Moscow Region. In the autumn of 1943, all of them were transferred to the Special Forces of the NKVD Troops Directorate for Western Front Logistics, and on March 6, 1944, most of them joined the ranks of the secret officers of the Intelligence Division of the Western Headquarters (24 on April 1944 of the 3 of the Belorussian Front). Many have not returned from a front-line business trip to East Prussia.
Defenders of the armed forces
In a war, information is of particular importance. The more you know about the enemy and the less he knows about your Armed Forces, the economy, the population, science and technology, it depends on whether you win or lose. Information security is engaged in counterintelligence. It happens that a single enemy reconnaissance or saboteur can cause damage much more than an entire division or army. Only one enemy agent missed by counterintelligence can make the work of a significant number of people senseless, leading to huge human and material losses.
If the army protects the people and the country, then counterintelligence itself amyu and rear. Moreover, it not only protects the army from enemy agents, but also maintains its combat capability. Unfortunately, one cannot get away from the fact that there are weak people, morally unstable, this leads to desertion, betrayal, panic. Especially these phenomena appear in critical conditions. Someone must conduct a systematic work to curb such phenomena and act very hard, this is war, not a resort. Such work is a vital necessity. One time not identified traitor, or a coward, can destroy the whole unit, disrupt the execution of a combat operation. So, by October 10 of 1941, operational defenses of special departments and defensive detachments of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (there were also army detachments created after order 227 from 28 on July 1942) were detained by the Red Army who had fallen behind their units or fleeing from the front. Of this number, the overwhelming mass was sent back to the front line (in the opinion of liberal propagandists, death awaited them all). 657364 people were arrested: of them spies - 25878, saboteurs - 1505, deserters - 308, self-gunners - 8772, etc., 1671 people were shot.
Counterintelligence carried out a lot of other important functions: they revealed enemy saboteurs and agents in the front line, prepared and threw task forces into the rear, conducted radio games with the enemy, passing them disinformation. The NKVD played a key role in the organization of the partisan movement. Hundreds of partisan detachments were created on the basis of task forces abandoned to the enemy rear. Smershevists conducted special operations during the offensive of the Soviet troops. Thus, on October 13 of 1944 of the year, the operational group of the Ukr “Smersh” of the 2 of the Baltic Front as part of the 5 of the Chekists under the command of Captain Pospelov penetrated Riga, which was still held by the Nazis. The task force had the task of capturing the archive and the files of German intelligence and counterintelligence in Riga, which the Nazi command was about to evacuate during the retreat. Smershovtsy liquidated the Abwehr officers and were able to hold out until the advance units of the Red Army entered the city.
NKVD sergeant Maria Semenovna Rukhlina (1921 — 1981) with a PPSH-41 submachine gun. Served from 1941 to 1945.
Repression
Archival data and facts refute the widely launched “black myth” that the NKVD and SMERSH indiscriminately recorded all former prisoners as “enemies of the people”, and then shot or sent to the Gulag. So, in A.V. Mezhenko he cited interesting data in the article “Prisoners of war were returning to duty ...” (Militaryhistorical magazine. 1997, No. 5). Between October 1941 and March 1944, 317594 people were sent to special camps for former prisoners of war. Of these: 223281 (70,3%) were inspected and sent to the Red Army; 4337 (1,4%) - to the escort troops of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs; 5716 (1,8%) - in the defense industry; 1529 (0,5%) died in hospitals, 1799 (0,6%) died. 8255 (2,6%) were sent to assault (penal) units. It should be noted that contrary to the speculation of counterfeiters, the level of losses in the fine units was quite comparable with ordinary units. 11283 (3,5%) were arrested. For the remaining 61394 (19,3%), verification continued.
After the war, the situation has not fundamentally changed. According to the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), which I. Pykhalov cites in the study “True and False about Soviet Prisoners of War” (Igor Pykhalov. The Great Slandered War. M., 2006), 1 Soviet citizens were repatriated by March 1946, 4199488 (2660013 civilians and 1539475 prisoners of war). As a result of the audit, from civilians: 2146126 (80,68%) were sent to the place of residence; 263647 (9,91%) were enlisted in labor battalions; 141962 (5,34%) were drafted into the Red Army and 61538 (2,31%) were located at collection points and were used in work at Soviet military units and institutions abroad. Only 46740 (1,76%) were handed over to the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. Of the number of former prisoners of war: 659190 (42,82%) were re-called up to the Red Army; 344448 people (22,37%) are enrolled in labor battalions; 281780 (18,31%) were sent to the place of residence; 27930 (1,81%) were used in jobs at military units and institutions abroad. An order was issued to the NKVD - 226127 (14,69%). As a rule, the NKVD was transferred by the Vlasovites and other collaborators. So, according to the instructions that the heads of the inspection bodies had, from the number of repatriates they were subject to arrest and trial: the leading, commanding staff of the police, ROA, national legions and other similar organizations, formations; rank-and-file members of listed organizations that took part in punitive operations; former Red Army soldiers who voluntarily sided with the enemy; burgomaster, large officials of the occupation administration, Gestapo employees and other punitive and intelligence institutions, etc.
It is clear that most of these people deserved the most severe punishment, up to the highest measure. However, the "bloody" Stalinist regime in connection with the Victory over the Third Reich showed condescension towards them. Collaborators, punishers and traitors were exempt from criminal liability for treason, and the case was limited to sending them to special settlement for a period of 6 years. In 1952, a significant part of them was released, and no criminal record was recorded in their questionnaires, and the work time during the link was recorded in the seniority. Only those accomplices of the invaders were sent to the Gulag, who have identified serious specific crimes.
A platoon of intelligence 338 of the NKVD regiment. Photos from the family archive of Nikolai Ivanovich Lobakhin. Nikolai Ivanovich at the front from the first days of the war, 2 times was in the penal battalion, had several wounds. After the war, as part of the troops of the NKVD eliminated bandits in the Baltic States and Ukraine.
At the front line
The role of the NKVD units in the war was not limited to the performance of very special, narrow professional tasks. Thousands of security officers honestly fulfilled their duty to the end and died in a fight with the enemy (in all, about 100 thousand NKVD soldiers died during the war). The Wehrmacht was the first to receive a blow in the early morning of June 22 of the NKVD. In total, the 1941 land and 47 naval border patrols, the 6 separate border commandant's offices of the NKVD entered the battle. The German command has allocated half an hour to overcome their resistance. And the Soviet border guards fought for hours, days, weeks, often in complete surroundings. So, Lopatin's outpost (Vladimir-Volyn frontier detachment) of the day’s 9 repulsed attacks of many times overwhelming enemy forces. In addition to the border guards on the western border of the USSR, they served as a compound of 11 divisions, 4 brigades and a number of separate operational regiments of the NKVD. Most of these units entered the battle from the very first hours of World War II. In particular, the personal compositions of the garrisons that protected the bridges, objects of special state importance, etc. The frontier guards who defended the famous Brest Fortress, including the 2-th separate battalion of the NKVD troops, fought heroically.
In the Baltics, on the 5-th day of the war, the 22 th motorized rifle division of the NKVD was formed, which fought together with the 10 rifle corps of the Red Army near Riga and Tallinn. Seven divisions, three brigades and three armored trains of the NKVD troops took part in the battle for Moscow. In the famous 7 parade in November 1941, the division of them. Dzerzhinsky, the regiments of the 2 division of the NKVD, a separate special-purpose motorized rifle brigade and the 42 brigade of the NKVD. An important role in the defense of the Soviet capital was played by the Special Motorized Rifle Brigade (OMSBON) of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which created mine-explosive barriers on the outskirts of the city, conducted sabotage behind enemy lines, etc. The separate brigade became a training center for training reconnaissance and sabotage teams (they were formed from NKVD officials, foreign anti-fascists, and volunteer athletes). For four years of war, the training center has prepared for special programs of 212 groups and units of a total of 7316 fighters. These units conducted 1084 combat operations, eliminated approximately 137 thousand Nazis, destroyed 87 leaders of the German occupation administration and 2045 German agents.
Distinguished enkavedeshniki and in the defense of Leningrad. The 1, 20, 21, 22 and 23 divisions of the internal troops fought here. It was the NKVD troops who played the most important role in establishing communication between the surrounded Leningrad and the Great Land - in the construction of the Road of Life. For the months of the first blockade winter, the 13 Motorized Rifle Regiment of the NKVD transported 674 tons of various cargoes to the city and more than 30 thousand people, mostly children, were taken out of it. In December 1941, the 23-division of the NKVD troops received the task of guarding the delivery of goods along the Road of Life.
Fighters of the NKVD were also noted during the defense of Stalingrad. Initially, the main fighting force in the city was the 10-division of the NKVD, a total of 7,9 thousand people. The division commander was Colonel A.Sarayev, he was chief of the Stalingrad garrison and fortified area. 23 August 1942, the regiment of the division held defenses on the front in 35 kilometers. The division fought off the attempts of the advanced units of the 6 of the German army to take Stalingrad on the move. The most fierce battles were noted on the outskirts of Mamaev Kurgan, near the tractor plant and in the city center. Prior to the withdrawal of the bloodless units of the division to the left bank of the Volga (after 56 days of fighting), the NKVD fighters caused significant damage to the enemy: 113 tanks were destroyed or burned, more than 15 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers and officers were eliminated. 10-division received the honorary title "Stalingrad" and was awarded the Order of Lenin. In addition, other parts of the NKVD participated in the defense of Stalingrad: the 2, 79, 9 and 98 frontier regiments of the rear guard troops.
In the winter of 1942 — 1943. The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs formed a separate army within the 6 divisions. At the beginning of February, the 1943 of the city. A separate army of the NKVD was transferred to the front, receiving the name of the 70 army. The army joined the Central Front, and then the 2-th and 1-th Belarusian fronts. The 70 Army fighters showed courage in the Battle of Kursk, among other forces of the Central Fleet by stopping the strike force of the Nazis, who were trying to break through to Kursk. The NKVD Army distinguished itself in Oryol, Polesye, Lublin-Brest, East Prussian, East Pomeranian and Berlin offensive operations. In total, during the Great War, the NKVD troops prepared and transferred the 29 divisions to the Red Army. During the war 100 thousand soldiers and officers of the NKVD troops were awarded medals and orders. More than two hundred people were awarded the title Hero of the USSR. In addition, the internal troops of the People's Commissariat for the period of the Great Patriotic War conducted 9 292 operations to combat gangs, as a result of which 47 451 was eliminated and 99 732 thugs were captured, and 147 criminals were neutralized in total. Border guards in 183 — 1944 destroyed 1945 gangs, totaling about 828 thousand criminals.
Many have heard of the exploits of the Soviet snipers during the Great Patriotic War, but few know that most of them were from the NKVD ranks. Even before the start of the war, units of the NKVD (divisions for the protection of important objects and convoy troops) received sniper detachments. According to some reports, the NKVD snipers destroyed up to 200 thousands of enemy soldiers and officers during the war.
The banner of the 132 th battalion of the NKVD convoy troops captured by the Germans. Photo from the personal album of one of the Wehrmacht soldiers. For two months in the Brest Fortress, the border guards and the 132-th separate battalion of the convoy troops of the NKVD of the USSR held the defense. In Soviet times, everyone remembered the inscription of one of the defenders of the Brest Fortress: “I am dying, but I do not give up! Goodbye Motherland! 20.VII.41. ", But very few people knew that it was made on the wall of the barracks of the 132-th separate battalion of the convoy troops of the NKVD of the USSR."
This is practically a mandatory program number - to show some villain from the NKVD who sits in the rear (guarding the prisoners — completely innocently convicted) and in a barrage squad shooting from machine guns and machine guns unarmed (or with “one rifle for three” Red Army men). Here are just a few of these "masterpieces:" Penalty "," Diversant "," Moscow Saga "," Children of the Arbat "," Cadets "," Bless a Woman ", etc., their number multiplies every year. Moreover, these films are shown at the best time, they gather a significant audience of viewers. This is generally a feature of Russian TV - in the best time to show turbidity and even outright abomination, and analytical programs, documentaries that carry information for the mind, put up at night, when the majority of working people are asleep. Practical only normal film about the role of “Smersh” in the war is the film of Mikhail Ptashuk “In August of 44 ...”, based on the novel by Vladimir Bogomolov “The Moment of Truth (In August of 44)”.
What are the Chekists usually doing in the cinema? Yes, in fact, they prevent normal officers and soldiers from fighting! As a result of watching such films, the younger generation, which does not read books (especially of a scientific nature), has the feeling that the people (the army) have won despite the country's top leadership and "punitive" bodies. You look, if the representatives of the NKVD and SMERSH had not gotten under their feet, they could have won earlier. In addition, the "bloody chekists" in 1937-1939. destroyed the "color of the army" led by Tukhachevsky. Do not feed the Chekist with bread - let someone be shot under a far-fetched pretext. At the same time, as a rule, a standard special officer is a sadist, a complete scoundrel, a drunkard, a coward, etc. Another favorite move of filmmakers is to show the Chekist in contrast. To do this, the film introduces the image of a valiantly fighting commander (soldier), who is hindered in every possible way by a representative of the NKVD. Often this hero is from among the previously convicted officers, or even "political". It is difficult to imagine such an attitude towards tankmen or pilots. Although the fighters and commanders of the NKVD, military counterintelligence is a military craft, without which no army in the world can do. It is obvious that the ratio of "scoundrels" and ordinary, normal people in these structures is at least not less than in tank, infantry, artillery and other units. And it is possible that even the best, since a more rigorous selection is being conducted.
Collective snapshot of active fighters-saboteurs of the 88 Fighter Battalion of the NKVD of the city of Moscow and the Moscow Region - special schools of demolitions of the NKVD of the city of Moscow and the Moscow Region. In the autumn of 1943, all of them were transferred to the Special Forces of the NKVD Troops Directorate for Western Front Logistics, and on March 6, 1944, most of them joined the ranks of the secret officers of the Intelligence Division of the Western Headquarters (24 on April 1944 of the 3 of the Belorussian Front). Many have not returned from a front-line business trip to East Prussia.
Defenders of the armed forces
In a war, information is of particular importance. The more you know about the enemy and the less he knows about your Armed Forces, the economy, the population, science and technology, it depends on whether you win or lose. Information security is engaged in counterintelligence. It happens that a single enemy reconnaissance or saboteur can cause damage much more than an entire division or army. Only one enemy agent missed by counterintelligence can make the work of a significant number of people senseless, leading to huge human and material losses.
If the army protects the people and the country, then counterintelligence itself amyu and rear. Moreover, it not only protects the army from enemy agents, but also maintains its combat capability. Unfortunately, one cannot get away from the fact that there are weak people, morally unstable, this leads to desertion, betrayal, panic. Especially these phenomena appear in critical conditions. Someone must conduct a systematic work to curb such phenomena and act very hard, this is war, not a resort. Such work is a vital necessity. One time not identified traitor, or a coward, can destroy the whole unit, disrupt the execution of a combat operation. So, by October 10 of 1941, operational defenses of special departments and defensive detachments of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (there were also army detachments created after order 227 from 28 on July 1942) were detained by the Red Army who had fallen behind their units or fleeing from the front. Of this number, the overwhelming mass was sent back to the front line (in the opinion of liberal propagandists, death awaited them all). 657364 people were arrested: of them spies - 25878, saboteurs - 1505, deserters - 308, self-gunners - 8772, etc., 1671 people were shot.
Counterintelligence carried out a lot of other important functions: they revealed enemy saboteurs and agents in the front line, prepared and threw task forces into the rear, conducted radio games with the enemy, passing them disinformation. The NKVD played a key role in the organization of the partisan movement. Hundreds of partisan detachments were created on the basis of task forces abandoned to the enemy rear. Smershevists conducted special operations during the offensive of the Soviet troops. Thus, on October 13 of 1944 of the year, the operational group of the Ukr “Smersh” of the 2 of the Baltic Front as part of the 5 of the Chekists under the command of Captain Pospelov penetrated Riga, which was still held by the Nazis. The task force had the task of capturing the archive and the files of German intelligence and counterintelligence in Riga, which the Nazi command was about to evacuate during the retreat. Smershovtsy liquidated the Abwehr officers and were able to hold out until the advance units of the Red Army entered the city.
NKVD sergeant Maria Semenovna Rukhlina (1921 — 1981) with a PPSH-41 submachine gun. Served from 1941 to 1945.
Repression
Archival data and facts refute the widely launched “black myth” that the NKVD and SMERSH indiscriminately recorded all former prisoners as “enemies of the people”, and then shot or sent to the Gulag. So, in A.V. Mezhenko he cited interesting data in the article “Prisoners of war were returning to duty ...” (Militaryhistorical magazine. 1997, No. 5). Between October 1941 and March 1944, 317594 people were sent to special camps for former prisoners of war. Of these: 223281 (70,3%) were inspected and sent to the Red Army; 4337 (1,4%) - to the escort troops of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs; 5716 (1,8%) - in the defense industry; 1529 (0,5%) died in hospitals, 1799 (0,6%) died. 8255 (2,6%) were sent to assault (penal) units. It should be noted that contrary to the speculation of counterfeiters, the level of losses in the fine units was quite comparable with ordinary units. 11283 (3,5%) were arrested. For the remaining 61394 (19,3%), verification continued.
After the war, the situation has not fundamentally changed. According to the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), which I. Pykhalov cites in the study “True and False about Soviet Prisoners of War” (Igor Pykhalov. The Great Slandered War. M., 2006), 1 Soviet citizens were repatriated by March 1946, 4199488 (2660013 civilians and 1539475 prisoners of war). As a result of the audit, from civilians: 2146126 (80,68%) were sent to the place of residence; 263647 (9,91%) were enlisted in labor battalions; 141962 (5,34%) were drafted into the Red Army and 61538 (2,31%) were located at collection points and were used in work at Soviet military units and institutions abroad. Only 46740 (1,76%) were handed over to the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. Of the number of former prisoners of war: 659190 (42,82%) were re-called up to the Red Army; 344448 people (22,37%) are enrolled in labor battalions; 281780 (18,31%) were sent to the place of residence; 27930 (1,81%) were used in jobs at military units and institutions abroad. An order was issued to the NKVD - 226127 (14,69%). As a rule, the NKVD was transferred by the Vlasovites and other collaborators. So, according to the instructions that the heads of the inspection bodies had, from the number of repatriates they were subject to arrest and trial: the leading, commanding staff of the police, ROA, national legions and other similar organizations, formations; rank-and-file members of listed organizations that took part in punitive operations; former Red Army soldiers who voluntarily sided with the enemy; burgomaster, large officials of the occupation administration, Gestapo employees and other punitive and intelligence institutions, etc.
It is clear that most of these people deserved the most severe punishment, up to the highest measure. However, the "bloody" Stalinist regime in connection with the Victory over the Third Reich showed condescension towards them. Collaborators, punishers and traitors were exempt from criminal liability for treason, and the case was limited to sending them to special settlement for a period of 6 years. In 1952, a significant part of them was released, and no criminal record was recorded in their questionnaires, and the work time during the link was recorded in the seniority. Only those accomplices of the invaders were sent to the Gulag, who have identified serious specific crimes.
A platoon of intelligence 338 of the NKVD regiment. Photos from the family archive of Nikolai Ivanovich Lobakhin. Nikolai Ivanovich at the front from the first days of the war, 2 times was in the penal battalion, had several wounds. After the war, as part of the troops of the NKVD eliminated bandits in the Baltic States and Ukraine.
At the front line
The role of the NKVD units in the war was not limited to the performance of very special, narrow professional tasks. Thousands of security officers honestly fulfilled their duty to the end and died in a fight with the enemy (in all, about 100 thousand NKVD soldiers died during the war). The Wehrmacht was the first to receive a blow in the early morning of June 22 of the NKVD. In total, the 1941 land and 47 naval border patrols, the 6 separate border commandant's offices of the NKVD entered the battle. The German command has allocated half an hour to overcome their resistance. And the Soviet border guards fought for hours, days, weeks, often in complete surroundings. So, Lopatin's outpost (Vladimir-Volyn frontier detachment) of the day’s 9 repulsed attacks of many times overwhelming enemy forces. In addition to the border guards on the western border of the USSR, they served as a compound of 11 divisions, 4 brigades and a number of separate operational regiments of the NKVD. Most of these units entered the battle from the very first hours of World War II. In particular, the personal compositions of the garrisons that protected the bridges, objects of special state importance, etc. The frontier guards who defended the famous Brest Fortress, including the 2-th separate battalion of the NKVD troops, fought heroically.
In the Baltics, on the 5-th day of the war, the 22 th motorized rifle division of the NKVD was formed, which fought together with the 10 rifle corps of the Red Army near Riga and Tallinn. Seven divisions, three brigades and three armored trains of the NKVD troops took part in the battle for Moscow. In the famous 7 parade in November 1941, the division of them. Dzerzhinsky, the regiments of the 2 division of the NKVD, a separate special-purpose motorized rifle brigade and the 42 brigade of the NKVD. An important role in the defense of the Soviet capital was played by the Special Motorized Rifle Brigade (OMSBON) of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, which created mine-explosive barriers on the outskirts of the city, conducted sabotage behind enemy lines, etc. The separate brigade became a training center for training reconnaissance and sabotage teams (they were formed from NKVD officials, foreign anti-fascists, and volunteer athletes). For four years of war, the training center has prepared for special programs of 212 groups and units of a total of 7316 fighters. These units conducted 1084 combat operations, eliminated approximately 137 thousand Nazis, destroyed 87 leaders of the German occupation administration and 2045 German agents.
Distinguished enkavedeshniki and in the defense of Leningrad. The 1, 20, 21, 22 and 23 divisions of the internal troops fought here. It was the NKVD troops who played the most important role in establishing communication between the surrounded Leningrad and the Great Land - in the construction of the Road of Life. For the months of the first blockade winter, the 13 Motorized Rifle Regiment of the NKVD transported 674 tons of various cargoes to the city and more than 30 thousand people, mostly children, were taken out of it. In December 1941, the 23-division of the NKVD troops received the task of guarding the delivery of goods along the Road of Life.
Fighters of the NKVD were also noted during the defense of Stalingrad. Initially, the main fighting force in the city was the 10-division of the NKVD, a total of 7,9 thousand people. The division commander was Colonel A.Sarayev, he was chief of the Stalingrad garrison and fortified area. 23 August 1942, the regiment of the division held defenses on the front in 35 kilometers. The division fought off the attempts of the advanced units of the 6 of the German army to take Stalingrad on the move. The most fierce battles were noted on the outskirts of Mamaev Kurgan, near the tractor plant and in the city center. Prior to the withdrawal of the bloodless units of the division to the left bank of the Volga (after 56 days of fighting), the NKVD fighters caused significant damage to the enemy: 113 tanks were destroyed or burned, more than 15 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers and officers were eliminated. 10-division received the honorary title "Stalingrad" and was awarded the Order of Lenin. In addition, other parts of the NKVD participated in the defense of Stalingrad: the 2, 79, 9 and 98 frontier regiments of the rear guard troops.
In the winter of 1942 — 1943. The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs formed a separate army within the 6 divisions. At the beginning of February, the 1943 of the city. A separate army of the NKVD was transferred to the front, receiving the name of the 70 army. The army joined the Central Front, and then the 2-th and 1-th Belarusian fronts. The 70 Army fighters showed courage in the Battle of Kursk, among other forces of the Central Fleet by stopping the strike force of the Nazis, who were trying to break through to Kursk. The NKVD Army distinguished itself in Oryol, Polesye, Lublin-Brest, East Prussian, East Pomeranian and Berlin offensive operations. In total, during the Great War, the NKVD troops prepared and transferred the 29 divisions to the Red Army. During the war 100 thousand soldiers and officers of the NKVD troops were awarded medals and orders. More than two hundred people were awarded the title Hero of the USSR. In addition, the internal troops of the People's Commissariat for the period of the Great Patriotic War conducted 9 292 operations to combat gangs, as a result of which 47 451 was eliminated and 99 732 thugs were captured, and 147 criminals were neutralized in total. Border guards in 183 — 1944 destroyed 1945 gangs, totaling about 828 thousand criminals.
Many have heard of the exploits of the Soviet snipers during the Great Patriotic War, but few know that most of them were from the NKVD ranks. Even before the start of the war, units of the NKVD (divisions for the protection of important objects and convoy troops) received sniper detachments. According to some reports, the NKVD snipers destroyed up to 200 thousands of enemy soldiers and officers during the war.
The banner of the 132 th battalion of the NKVD convoy troops captured by the Germans. Photo from the personal album of one of the Wehrmacht soldiers. For two months in the Brest Fortress, the border guards and the 132-th separate battalion of the convoy troops of the NKVD of the USSR held the defense. In Soviet times, everyone remembered the inscription of one of the defenders of the Brest Fortress: “I am dying, but I do not give up! Goodbye Motherland! 20.VII.41. ", But very few people knew that it was made on the wall of the barracks of the 132-th separate battalion of the convoy troops of the NKVD of the USSR."
Information