Data about NKVD employees has been published. Descendants of NKVD employees began to send information about their ancestors to the “memorial” Who collaborated with the NKVD

The website of the international “Memorial” “History Lessons” - about the appearance of a new disc - in response to the often repeated rhetorical exclamation: “if there are victims, then there must also be executioners?” About 40,000 certificates on the personnel of the NKVD are precisely those people who were the perpetrators, full-fledged authors of the mass political repressions of the late 30s. “Personnel composition of state security agencies of the USSR 1935-1939” today is the most complete list of NKVD employees during the Great Terror. One of the project leaders, co-chairman of the Moscow Memorial, Jan Rachinsky, talks about the database, which took 15 years to compile.

- Tell me, what exactly is on this disc?
- This is a reference book on the personnel composition of the state security agencies, not the NKVD as a whole, because the NKVD included firefighters, border guards, and a whole range of other services, namely state security agencies, those people who had special ranks introduced at the end of 1935. These are precisely those who carried out the Great Terror, because the disc covers the period 1935-1939.
- Does this cover the entire pyramid of the NKVD hierarchy or are some individual ranks, say, represented there in more or less detail?
- In principle, everyone who had special ranks of state security officers is included, from sergeant to general commissioner, all ranks without exception. Of course, there may be some omissions for various reasons: either due to the fatigue of the compiler, there may be random omissions, or because some of the orders were not published, had a stamp and were not accessible. But there are very few of them. At least 90% of the staff is represented here.

- How and where were these names and data on them obtained?
- The compiler of this reference book, Andrei Nikolaevich Zhukov, has been studying this topic for many years. At first he was interested in the repressions against the security officers, which are talked about a lot and which, as it turns out from this code, are very much exaggerated. But then he, as a person with a collecting streak, began to collect not only the repressed, but everyone, just to understand how this correlated with the total number, and in general he worked on a lot of sources. At first it was open sources- well, they are conditionally open, you can’t call them easily accessible. Also, at one time, Nikita Petrov worked on newspaper publications and partly on various propaganda books, but then the archives were slightly opened.
The first, of course, is personnel orders, orders for personnel of the NKVD - many volumes have been published. They exist in the original source and there are printed collections reproduced that were sent to departments, just so that they could also be compared locally.
- That is, in other words, there is no consolidated list of NKVD employees?
- No.
- It sounds like a paradox, isn’t careful accounting of one’s personnel a natural part of the life of any law enforcement agency, and even more so the NKVD?
- The NKVD personnel department may have some kind of file cabinets, most likely, as well as personal files of employees that are absolutely inaccessible today, so we have to turn to such sources. I had to look through the orders in a row. Basically, orders of two types are used: orders on assigning ranks and orders on dismissal. Bringing all this together was in itself a non-trivial task - after all, in orders for conferring ranks there is a surname, name and patronymic, and in orders for dismissal there is a position from which the security officer is dismissed, but, as a rule, there is no name and patronymic, only initials. And with such a huge volume - over 40,000 characters - naturally, there are a lot of namesakes, and up to a dozen full namesakes
The second source is also seriously well researched - this is the fund of the awards department of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, which was reviewed and where security officers were also identified. I already had to look through this all the time. Naturally, not everything has been revealed, but, nevertheless, there are a lot of these awards, and they were one of the important sources of biographical information. It is especially significant here that when awarding the Order of Lenin, the candidate filled out a questionnaire with basic biographical information, so the date and place of birth and other minimal information could be taken from there. Of course, this is only a starting point, this is the first step, very important and perhaps the most difficult.
- Tell us more about Andrei Nikolaevich, who, in fact, collected all this data. After all, as far as I know, this work took him about 15 years.
- It all started in the pre-computer era. The first version of his work was large notebooks, these extracts were then transferred to cards and from the cards he entered it into the computer in the form of a text file with many conventional abbreviations, which then needed to be deciphered, had to be checked carefully, because with such a volume of manual writing typos are inevitable. In general, this is a colossal amount of work, it’s even unclear how one person could handle it. He is not limited only to security officers, he has collected quite a lot of information on repressions in the army, he has very extensive information on this topic, but it still applies to those who were repressed and to the top of the command staff, if we talk about those who were not repressed.
- You said that Zhukov was initially interested in the topic of repression among NKVD employees - is this somehow reflected in the database?
- The database contains information about repressions, but there is currently no special section of this kind - repressed employees - it will probably appear in the online version. This is partly due to the fact that this information is incomplete. In the service regulations there was a special article on dismissal 38 “b”, which meant dismissal due to arrest, that is, we already know that the person was arrested, but large number dismissed in this way, we have no information about what exactly followed next, because the majority, a noticeable part, let’s say, of the arrested NKVD officers were subsequently released. Even of those who were convicted at the beginning of the war, in the first year and a half, many were released and sent to the front, and some were left in the rear to continue labor activity. We also know such examples. Therefore, information about repression is not yet complete enough to be presented as a separate category. Our technical role - mine and not only mine - was to bring this into a form convenient for use. This is the first version, it will be improved on the Internet.
- That is, your “function” was to turn this into a database.
- Yes, process it in such a way that it acquires a certain unified structure, functionally similar to Wikipedia.
- Is there any preliminary release date for the Internet version?
- We want to do this by the end of the year, since there will still be additions - it is now obvious that there will be quite a lot of them.
- How is the entry in this database arranged? Does each name have a certain set of additional information?
- Yes, each name has a set of information, in the preface it is written what the maximum it can be, but for very many - for a good half - it comes down to a single record of assignment of the rank - sergeant or junior lieutenant, and we have nothing more about the person today We don’t know the day. But, nevertheless, this is at least a name and patronymic, and often also a connection to the region. This makes it possible to identify these employees, investigators, who often appear only with their last name, and nothing else is known; this is some next step towards identification. Today we have a systematization there alphabetically, by rank, by awards and by region - these are four such sections. And, in fact, when this appears on the Internet, it will become possible to add information there from a wide variety of sources, to link there both fragments of memories and some pieces of subsequent investigations into the activities of this or that character.
- That is, a kind of “Open List”?
- This is somewhat different, because here we have a closed list, that is, we more or less already know the heroes, who may be added a little, but the list of personalities itself is close to exhaustion. But you can add a lot for each person.

“Personnel composition of state security agencies of the USSR 1935-1939” today is the most complete list of NKVD employees during the Great Terror. One of the project leaders, co-chairman of the Moscow Memorial, Jan Rachinsky, talks about the database, which took 15 years to compile.

- Tell me, what exactly is on this disc?

This is a reference book on the personnel composition of the state security agencies, not the NKVD as a whole, because the NKVD included firefighters, border guards, and a whole range of other services, namely state security agencies, those people who had special ranks introduced at the end of 1935. These are precisely those who carried out the Great Terror, because the disc covers the period 1935-1939.

Does this cover the entire pyramid of the NKVD hierarchy or are some individual ranks, say, represented there in more or less detail?

In principle, everyone who had special ranks of state security officers is included, from sergeant to general commissioner, all ranks without exception. Of course, there may be some omissions for various reasons: either due to the fatigue of the compiler, there may be random omissions, or because some of the orders were not published, had a stamp and were not accessible. But there are very few of them. At least 90% of the staff is represented here.

- How and where were these names and data on them obtained?

The compiler of this reference book, Andrei Nikolaevich Zhukov, has been studying this topic for many years. At first he was interested in the repressions against the security officers, which are talked about a lot and which, as it turns out from this code, are very much exaggerated. But then he, as a person with a collecting streak, began to collect not only the repressed, but everyone, just to understand how this correlated with the total number, and in general he worked on a lot of sources. At first these were open sources - well, conditionally open, you couldn’t call them easily accessible. Also, at one time, Nikita Petrov worked on newspaper publications and partly on various propaganda books, but then the archives were slightly opened.

The first, of course, is personnel orders, orders for personnel of the NKVD - many volumes have been published. They exist in the original source and there are printed collections reproduced that were sent to departments, just so that they could also be compared locally.

- That is, in other words, there is no consolidated list of NKVD employees?

- Sounds like a paradox Isn’t it really true that careful accounting of one’s personnel is a natural part of the life of any law enforcement agency, and even more so the NKVD?

The NKVD personnel department may have some kind of file cabinets, most likely, as well as personal files of employees, which are absolutely inaccessible today, so you have to turn to such sources. I had to look through the orders in a row. Basically, orders of two types are used: orders on assigning ranks and orders on dismissal.

Bringing all this together was in itself a non-trivial task - after all, in orders for conferring ranks there is a surname, name and patronymic, and in orders for dismissal there is a position from which the security officer is dismissed, but, as a rule, there is no name and patronymic, only initials. And with such a huge volume - over 40,000 characters - naturally, there are a lot of namesakes, and up to a dozen full namesakes

The second source is also seriously well researched - this is the fund of the awards department of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, which was reviewed and where security officers were also identified. I already had to look through this all the time. Naturally, not everything has been revealed, but, nevertheless, there are a lot of these awards, and they were one of the important sources of biographical information.

It is especially significant here that when awarding the Order of Lenin, the candidate filled out a questionnaire with basic biographical information, so the date and place of birth and other minimal information could be taken from there.

Of course, this is only a starting point, this is the first step, very important and perhaps the most difficult.

Tell us more about Andrei Nikolaevich, who, in fact, collected all this data. After all, as far as I know, this work took him about 15 years.

It all started in the pre-computer era. The first version of his work was large notebooks, these extracts were then transferred to cards and from the cards he entered it into the computer in the form of a text file with many conventional abbreviations, which then needed to be deciphered, had to be checked carefully, because with such a volume of manual writing typos are inevitable. In general, this is a colossal amount of work, it’s even unclear how one person could handle it.

He is not limited only to security officers, he has collected quite a lot of information on repressions in the army, he has very extensive information on this topic, but it still applies to those who were repressed and to the top of the command staff, if we talk about those who were not repressed.

You said that Zhukov was initially interested in the topic of repression among NKVD employees - is this somehow reflected in the database?

The database contains information about repressions, but there is currently no special section of this type - repressed employees - it will probably appear in the online version. This is partly due to the fact that this information is incomplete. In the service regulations there was a special article on dismissal 38 “b”, which meant dismissal due to arrest, that is, we already know that the person was arrested, but for a large number of those dismissed in this way we have no information, what exactly next followed because most, a noticeable part, let’s say, of the arrested NKVD employees were subsequently released. Even of those who were convicted at the beginning of the war, in the first year and a half, many were released and sent to the front, and some were left in the rear to continue working. We also know such examples. Therefore, information about repression is not yet complete enough to be presented as a separate category.

Our technical role - mine and not only mine - was to bring this into a form convenient for use. This is the first version, it will be improved on the Internet.

- That is, your “function” was to turn this into a database.

Yes, process it in such a way that it acquires a certain unified structure, functionally similar to Wikipedia.

- Is there any preliminary release date for the Internet version?

We want to do this by the end of the year, since there will still be additions - it is now obvious that there will be quite a lot of them.

- How is the entry in this database arranged? Does each name have a certain set of additional information?

Yes, each name has a set of information, in the preface it is written what the maximum it can be, but for many - for a good half - it comes down to a single record of assignment of the rank - sergeant or junior lieutenant, and we have nothing more about the person today we don't know. But, nevertheless, this is at least a name and patronymic, and often also a connection to the region. This makes it possible to identify these employees, investigators, who often appear only with their last name, and nothing else is known; this is some next step towards identification. Today we have a systematization there alphabetically, by rank, by awards and by region - these are four such sections.

And, in fact, when this appears on the Internet, it will become possible to add information there from a wide variety of sources, to link there both fragments of memories and some pieces of subsequent investigations into the activities of this or that character.

This is somewhat different, because here our list is just closed, that is, we more or less already know the heroes who may be added a little, but the list of personalities itself is close to exhaustion. But you can add a lot for each person.

A section has appeared on the website of the Memorial movement, which is a database “Personnel composition of the state security bodies of the USSR. 1935-1939”, which presents data on 39 thousand 950 NKVD employees. The information that formed the basis of the database was collected by researcher Andrei Zhukov.

The project description states that the directory will be useful to those interested Soviet history. “So, in particular, with the help of the directory it will be possible to attribute many state security employees of the era of the Great Terror, hitherto known only by last name (as a rule, without even indicating the first and patronymic) - from signatures in investigative files or from mentions in memoir texts. The appearance of the reference book is a significant step towards a more in-depth and accurate understanding of the tragic history of our country in the 30s of the twentieth century,” Znak.com quotes a message from Memorial.

The structure of the database allows you to search both alphabetically and by place of service, titles or awards of individuals. Repressed NKVD employees are placed in a separate category. The completeness of information about specific personalities in the directory depends on the source from which the information was obtained. In some cases, only last names and initials are known about a particular NKVD employee; in some cases, the start and end dates of service are established.

In May of this year, Memorial released a directory on CD. As Radio Liberty reported then, the main source of information was the orders of the USSR NKVD regarding personnel. It contains the numbers and dates of orders for the assignment of special ranks and dismissals from the NKVD, which often meant subsequent arrest. They also contain information about the position held at the time of dismissal, state awards received and awards with the badge “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU.” In addition, the compiler of the directory, Andrei Zhukov, used data from other sources - primarily about those killed and missing during the war, as well as those subjected to repression.

At the presentation of the disc, the chairman of the board of the international Memorial, Arseny Roginsky, said that many years ago he noticed a man who came to Memorial over and over again and worked through one “Book of Memory” after another, writing something out in the barn book.

“In general, “Memorial” is a place where there are a lot of eccentrics of all kinds. But a person who would review all the “Books of Memory” over and over again in a row is still unique, so it was impossible not to be interested in what it was all about he does. It turns out that from all the “Books of Memory” he then wrote out employees of state security agencies,” Roginsky said.

Later it turned out that Andrei Zhukov works from a variety of sources, not only from the “Books of Memory”. First of all, these were personnel orders of the NKVD bodies, which are stored in State Archives RF and are available for study.

“At some point we realized that we needed to make something out of this. It was impossible to leave all this as the property of home cards or notebooks, barn books, of which Andrei Nikolaevich had accumulated an immeasurable amount. Then it was more or less figured out how to do this, and the topic more or less emerged. We were not interested in everyone - from Adam and Eve to the present day. We limited ourselves to a certain period, and on the disk it is indicated: 1935-1939. We chose for this disk from everywhere, from Andrei Nikolaevich’s gold reserves. people who received special ranks during these years. As we remember, they were introduced in 1935. Those people who received them during the first four years are our characters,” says a representative of Memorial.

According to Roginsky, still draft versions of the database allowed important discoveries. So, for example, it turned out that in Yuri Dombrovsky’s novel “The Faculty of Unnecessary Things” all the names of the security officers are genuine.

“Even books have been written about many characters, some were themselves involved in criminal cases for various reasons. Some - because they refused to carry out the 447th order (secret order of the NKVD of July 30, 1937 “On the operation to repress former kulaks” , criminals and other anti-Soviet elements", according to which from August 1937 to November 1938, 390 thousand people were executed and 380 thousand people were sent to camps. - Note website) or did not carry it out actively enough, such cases are also known,” historian Jan Raczynski says about the people mentioned in the database.

As Rachinsky noted in an interview with the History Lesson project, it took 15 years to compile the database.

A list of NKVD employees for the years 1935-1941 has appeared on the Internet, on the website of the Memorial movement. Information that had been kept classified for decades was now in the public domain. The database contains 40 thousand security officers who worked during the years of the “Great Terror”, when citizens, as they say, were sent to be shot without trial or investigation.

Descendants of security officers and current FSB officers are also unhappy with the appearance of documents on the Internet. Some are afraid of revenge from the descendants of the repressed. Others understand: years later, their personal data with a “track record” can similarly end up on the Internet, and who wants everyone to know about his “exploits”!

HAVE AN OPINION

How to live with a list of executioners in your bosom

Dmitry Olshansky

Is the man right who found in the archives the names of those who repressed and killed his great-grandfather in 1937 and is now thirsty for satisfaction?

MEANWHILE

The website of the Memorial movement went offline after the publication of a directory of NKVD officers

The section where the specified information is posted works intermittently and often displays an error message

November 23, 2016 on the website of the human rights society "Memorial" access to the directory was opened A. N. Zhukova “Personnel composition of state security bodies of the USSR. 1935-1939". Included in the reference book brief information O 39,950 NKVD employees who received special ranks of the state security system from the moment of their introduction in 1935 until early 1941 Particular attention is paid to the period from autumn 1935 to mid-1939 An important source of information when creating the directory was NKVD orders USSR by personnel. The directory contains the numbers and dates of orders for the conferment of special ranks and dismissal from the NKVD, information about the position held at the time of dismissal, as well as materials about received state awards and the awarding of badges "Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU". The information is supplemented with biographical information from other sources - documents about dead And missing during the Second World War, as well as repressed.

The directory will be useful to people interested in the history of the Soviet period, as well as descendants of those repressed. With its help it will be possible to find out more complete biographical information about state security employees of the time " Great Terror", known so far only by last name, personal signature and mentions of other people. The appearance of such a directory - important step to a deeper and truer understanding tragic story our state in the 1930s of the twentieth century.

The basis of the reference book was information about NKVD workers collected in libraries and archives Andrey Nikolaevich Zhukov. Because until the 1990s archives were closed, and documents from the period were obtained " Great Terror" was almost impossible; periodicals became the main source of information for the directory XX century, which published information about awards for NKVD workers and brief curriculum vitae when electing the leaders of the NKVD-UNKVD to deputies of the Supreme Soviets. In the 1990s became available archival documents on rewarding employees of state security agencies and depriving them of orders and NKVD personnel orders - on the transfer of workers and the assignment of personal ranks. A. N. Zhukov dedicated to the study of these documents for many years.

Structure of the NKVD of the USSR in the second half 1930s was quite complicated. The Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) and its local bodies - the Directorate of State Security (UGB) occupied a special place. It was the GUGB and the UGB that were entrusted with the responsibility to combat “ enemies of the people" It is also known that during “ mass operations» 1937-1938 different units of the NKVD took part in arrests and sometimes investigations: border and internal troops, police, economic units. But the main role in carrying out the repression was played by employees of the GUGB-UGB. It lies on them main responsibility for the implementation of repression by the Soviet leadership.

The compiler of the reference book studied printed collections of NKVD orders on personnel for the period 1935-1940(GARF. F. 9401. Op. 9a. D. 1-65). For the period from December 1935 to mid-1939 The directory contains an almost complete list of state security employees who had special ranks. The directory also contains information about employees of other structures of the NKVD, in particular, the administrative and economic management. IN archival materials The Central Executive Committee and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (GARF. F. 7523. Op. 7, 44) studied the cases of NKVD employees awarded the Order of Lenin. Personal information from these files (full name, year and place of birth, information about party affiliation and place of work, awards) is also included in the directory. Included in the directory and information about repressions to which NKVD workers were subjected. This data is mainly taken from Books of memory of victims of political repression, published in many regions former USSR, as well as from the consolidated database of the Memorial Society.

Note that after the publication of data about NKVD employees, the Memorial website was overloaded, which is a consequence great interest people to the reference book by A. N. Zhukov “Personnel composition of state security bodies of the USSR. 1935-1939".

The Kremlin does not comment in any way on the posting on the Memorial website of information about NKVD officers from the period Stalin's repressions 1935-1939 “I’ll probably leave this question without comment”, said the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov. “The topic is very sensitive, it is obvious that many people have different opinions here, there are diametrically opposed points of view, and both of them are sometimes very well-reasoned.”, said the Kremlin representative.

IN recent years Interest in the Soviet era has increased. Many people try find information about their repressed ancestors. The story of a resident of Tomsk caused great resonance, Denis Karagodin, who conducted an investigation into the massacre committed in Tomsk in 1938. In 1938 was shot his great-grandfather, Stepan Ivanovich Karagodin, and a few more people. Denis Karagodin set everyone's names, who participated in falsifying charges against his great-grandfather and seven other people arrested under " Harbin case", and traced the criminal chain - from the Kremlin initiators " Great Terror" to ordinary performers in Tomsk, right down to drivers " black funnels"and typists.

As you know, the FSB archives are reluctant to share information, but Denis Karagodin managed to find large number documents showing how it worked machine of Stalin's repressions, which destroyed innocent people. “Now we have the entire chain of killers: from the Politburo to the specific executioner”, says Denis Karagodin.

“The second part of the investigation project is to bring to justice all persons guilty of the murder of Stepan Ivanovich Karagodin. Absolutely the entire chain, from the organizers of this particular murder - members of the Politburo in Moscow (led by citizen Dzhugashvili Joseph Vissarionovich, born in 1878, better known under the pseudonyms “Koba”, “Stalin”), to specific executioners in the city of Tomsk (citizens: Zyryanova Nikolai Ivanovich, born in 1912; Sergei Timofeevich Denisov, born in 1892 and Ekaterina Mikhailovna Noskova, born in 1903). The chain of murderers is quite long - more than 20 people: organizers, leaders, executors, accomplices - everyone. The accusation is factual: a group of people, by prior conspiracy, committed a mass murder. Scenarios for this legal procedure (on bringing to justice) have already been developed.”, writes Denis.

The granddaughter of one of the executioners of the Tomsk NKVD found out about D. Karagodin’s investigation - N. I. Zyryanova- Julia. Julia wrote a letter to D. Karagodin. Below are quotes.

The father of my grandmother (mother’s mother), my great-grandfather, was taken from home, following a denunciation, in the same years as your great-grandfather and he never returned home, and 4 daughters remained at home, my grandmother was the youngest... That’s how it turned out now , that in one family there are victims and executioners... It’s very bitter to realize this, it’s very painful... But I will never renounce the history of my family, no matter what it is. All this will help me survive the knowledge that neither I nor all my relatives whom I know, remember and love were in any way involved in these atrocities that occurred in those years...” “The grief that such people brought cannot be redeemed... The task of the next generations is simply not to hush it up, all things and events must be called by their proper names. And the purpose of my letter to you is simply to tell you that I now know about such a shameful page in the history of my family and am completely on your side.” “But nothing in our society will ever change unless the whole truth is revealed. It’s not for nothing that Stalinists and monuments to Stalin have appeared again now; it just doesn’t fit in my head, it defies any comprehension.

Quotes from the letter are taken from the website: stepanivanovichkaragodin.org