NKVD

1. in the U.S.S.R., the government's secret-police organization (1917–30; 1934–46).

NKVD

abbreviation for

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of NKVD¹

From Russian N(aródnyĭ) K(omissariát) V(nútrennikh) D(el) “People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs”

Word History and Origins

Origin of NKVD¹

from Russian Narodny komissariat vnutrennikh del People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs

Example Sentences

The OGPU's functions were later transferred to the NKVD, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, which carried out the worst of Stalin's repression.

From Reuters

Stalin called on the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs or NKVD, a military police force of spies and assassins, to root out treachery...whether it was real or possible or even fantastically impossible.

From Literature

If Marina really was working for the NKVD, it’s possible she was assigned to keep an eye on Valentina.

From Literature

One fellow pilot believed she worked as a consultant for the NKVD, the organization that got rid of most of the Red Army’s officer corps, put the nation's leading aircraft designers in jail, and arrested fifteen-year-old Anna Popova and her friends.

From Literature

To understand Russia today, it is necessary to reach back to Stalin’s Great Terror, when the secret police were called NKVD.

From Washington Post