Ministry of Internal Affairs (USSR)

Cap badge of MVD, worn by all uniformed officers

The **Ministry of Internal Affairs** (Russian: Министерство внутренних дел, МВД *Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del*, *MVD*) is a ministry subordinate to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. It oversees civilian law enforcement agencies in the country, from district and municipal police departments (*politsiya*) to corrections. State security, domestic and foreign intelligence, and customs and border security is under the jurisdiction of the Committee for State Security (KGB), which has a degree of authority over MVD activities.

As a ministry of union-republican jurisdiction under the Council of Ministers, the MVD has a central ministry with its headquarters in Moscow, and subordinate republican ministries in each national republic with regional, district and municipal departments. The policing apparatus is subject to dual subordination; republican ministries report both to their respective Council of Ministers, and to superior offices in the MVD hierarchy which report directly to the All-Union Council of Ministers.

The office of Minister of Internal Affairs is appointed by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers and confirmed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. The incumbent Minister of Internal Affairs is Vladimir Kolokoltsev, in office since 2012.

## Duties and responsibilities

The MVD has a wide array of duties. It is responsible for uncovering and investigating certain categories of crime, apprehending criminals, maintaining public order, combating public disorder, supervising parolees, managing prisons and labor camps, and controlling traffic. Firefighting was formerly the responsibility of the MVD; in 1994, the State Committee for Firefighting and First Response was established and all fire departments placed under its jurisdiction. Until early 1988, the MVD was also in charge of special psychiatric hospitals, but a law passed in January 1988 transferred all psychiatric hospitals to the authority of the Ministry of Health.

The MVD headquarters in Moscow is divided into several directorates and offices. The Directorate for Combating the Embezzlement of Socialist Property and Speculation was established in the late 1960s to control such white-collar crime as embezzlement and falsification of economic plan records. The Criminal Investigation Directorate assisted the Procuracy, and on occasion the KGB, in the investigation of criminal cases. There was a separate department for investigating and prosecuting minor cases, such as traffic violations, and the Maintenance of Public Order Directorate, which was responsible for ensuring order in public places and for preventing outbreaks of public unrest.

The duties of the People's *Politsiya* (uniformed police under MVD departments) include patrolling public places to ensure order and arresting persons who violate the law, traffic patrol, criminal investigations, and more. The republican and subordinate facilities of the national corrections system are also subordinate to the MVD. Resisting arrest or preventing a police officer from executing his duties is a serious crime in the Soviet Union, punishable by one to five years' imprisonment. Killing a policeman or senior member of the Soviet government is punishable by death. MVD departments are also responsible for providing security details for local and district courthouses.

The Office of Visas and Registration is charged with registering Soviet citizens and foreigners residing in each precinct of a city and with issuing internal passports to Soviet citizens. Soviet citizens wishing to emigrate from the Soviet Union and foreigners wishing to travel within the Soviet Union had to obtain visas from this office. The Office of Recruitment and Training supervised the recruitment of new members of the militsiya, who were recommended by work collectives and public organizations. The local party and Komsomol bodies screened candidates thoroughly to ensure their political reliability. Individuals serving in the militsiya were exempt from the regular military draft.

## Structure

The MVD is organised into multiple subordinate directorates, each handling a specific area of responsibility:

### Organisation

#### First Directorate (Criminal Division)

* Criminal Investigation Directorate
	+ Major Crimes Inspectorate
	+ Sex Crimes Inspectorate
	+ Criminal Forensic Inspectorate
	+ Forensic Psychology Unit
	+ Organised Crime and Gang Task Force
* Operational Information Directorate
* People's Revenue Inspectorate
* Main Directorate for Road Patrol Service (DPS)
	+ *regional depts.*
* Main Directorate for Transit Security
	+ *network detachments*
* Main Office of Interior for Restricted Facilities
* Main Office of Public Security
	+ Criminal Police Service Coordinator's Office
	+ Ministerial Security Office
	+ Interdepartmental Security Coordinator's Office
* Main Directorate of People's *Politsiya*
	+ *regional, district, municipal depts.*
		- *subordinate precincts*
* Main Directorate for Corrections
	+ *regional facilities, district remand centres*
		- *municipal probation offices*
* Legal Department
* Human Resources Department

#### Second Directorate (Logistics)

* Office for Material and Technical Support (IT, equipment servicing, vehicle repair/replacement)
* Finance and Economy Department
* Medical Office
	+ *departmental detachments*
* Communications Office
* Funding and Subsidy Offie
* Logistical Coordination Office
* General Services Department

#### Third Directorate (independent divisions)

* MVD Secretariat
* Internal Investigations Office
* Control and Auditing Office
* MVD Inquiry Committee
* Forensic Inquiry Committee
* Office of Inspector General
* Main Directorate for Special Investigation
* National Central Bureau for Interpol
* Mobilisation Training Office
* Information Office
* Main Legal Office

### Republican ministries

*The above structure is mirrored across 21 republican ministries:*

* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenian SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarusian SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Danish SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Estonian SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Finnish SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgian SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Karelian SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakh SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kyrgyz SSR SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Latvian
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuanian SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldavian SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Norwegian SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Polish SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russian SFSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Swedish SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajik SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Turkmen SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukrainian SSR
* Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbek SSR

## Uniform and insignia

The standard squad car/patrol vehicle of Ministry of Internal Affairs policing and traffic units is the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, introduced in 2014 to replace sedans like the Lada Priora which have yet to be phased out by many local departments; the Mercedes Sprinter is the standard van. The MVD also has armoured vehicles for counter-terrorism and other special operations. Reflecting the Ministry of Internal Affairs' constitutional status as a ministry of "union-republican jurisdiction", vehicles and shoulder flashes of all MVD ministries are emblazoned with the State Emblem of the Soviet Union, while other republican ministries such as the Ministry of Economic Development typically use their respective national republic's state emblem. However, all marked patrol vehicles and uniform insignia use the official language(s) of their national republic.

MVD police officers' standard uniform consists of navy blue trousers, light blue buttoned cotton shirt, and navy blue policeman's hat with white-and-crimson tartan patterned frame and MVD cap badge affixed to the front; the winter uniform adds a navy blue windbreaker and a cap badge-affixed *ushanka* in place of hat. MVD officers can be distinguished from officers of the KGB's Fifth (Customs) Directorate, who sport a green uniform; most KGB operations outside of customs and border security involve plainclothes personnel. There is no standard bike for MVD motorcycle patrol units, who can be recognised by their blue helmet with red stripe; police motorcycles are always white with a blue and a red stripe down the side.

## History

### Tsarist police

Created by Alexander I on 28 March 1802 in the process of government reforms to replace the aging collegia of Peter the Great, the MVD was one of the most powerful governmental bodies of the Russian Empire, responsible for the police forces and Internal Guards and the supervision of gubernial administrations. Its initial responsibilities also included penitentiaries, firefighting, state enterprises, the state postal system, state property, construction, roads, medicine, clergy, natural resources, and nobility; most of them were transferred to other ministries and government bodies by the mid-19th century.

As the central government began to further partition the countryside, the *ispravniks* (chiefs of police) were distributed among the sections. Serving under them in their principal localities were commissaries (*stanovoi pristav*). Ispravniki and pristav alike were armed with broad and obscurely-defined powers, which, combined with the fact that they were for the most part illiterate and wholly ignorant of the law, formed crushing forces of oppression. Towards the end of the reign of Alexander II, the government, in order to preserve order in the country districts, also created a special class of mounted rural policemen (*uryadniks*, from *uriad*, order), who, in a time without habeas corpus, were armed with power to arrest all suspects on the spot. These uryadniks rapidly became the terror of the countryside. Finally, in the towns of the rural countryside, every house was provided with a "guard dog" of sorts, in the form of a porter (*dvornik*), who was charged with the duty of reporting the presence of any suspicious characters or anything of interest to the police.

In addition to the above there was also the secret police, in direct subordination to the ministry of the interior, of which the principal function is the discovery, prevention, and extirpation of political sedition. Its most famous development was the so-called Third Section (of the imperial chancery) instituted by the emperor Nicholas I in 1826. This was entirely independent of the ordinary police, but was associated with the previously existing Special Corps of Gendarmes, whose chief was placed at its head. Its object had originally been to keep the emperor in close touch with all the branches of the administration and to bring to his notice any abuses and irregularities, and for this purpose its chief was in constant personal intercourse with the sovereign.

Following the growth of the revolutionary movement and assassination of Tsar Alexander II, the Department of State Police inherited the secret police functions of the dismissed Third Section and transferred the most capable Gendarmes to the Okhrana. In 1896 the powers of the minister were extended at the expense of those of the under-secretary, who remained only at the head of the corps of gendarmes; but by a law of 24 September 1904 this was again reversed, and the under-secretary was again placed at the head of all the police with the title of under-secretary for the administration of the police.

By World War I, the Department had spawned a counter-intelligence section. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Gendarmes and the Okhrana were disbanded as anti-revolutionary.

### Soviet police

Having won the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks disbanded the tsarist police forces and formed an all-proletarian *Workers' and Peasants' Militsiya* under the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the Russian SFSR. After the establishment of the USSR in 1922 there was no Soviet (all-union) NKVD until 1934.

In March 1946, all of the People's Commissariats (NK) were redesignated as Ministries (M). The NKVD was renamed the MVD of the USSR, along with its former subordinate, the People's Commissariat of State Security (NKGB) which became the MGB of the USSR. The NKVDs of union republics also became Ministries of Internal Affairs subordinate to MVD of the USSR. Secret police became a part of MVD after Lavrenty Beria merged the MGB into the MVD in March 1953. Within a year Beria's downfall caused the MVD to be split up again; after that, the MVD retained its "internal security" (police) functions, while the new KGB took on "state security" (secret police) functions. The police from then on was known as the People's *Militsiya*.

In his efforts to change the fundamental line of the Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev, as the Premier of the Soviet Union, called for the dismissal of the all-union MVD. The ministry ceased to exist in January 1960 and its functions were transferred to the respective republican ministries. The MVD of the RSFSR was renamed the Ministry for Securing the Public Order in 1962. Leonid Brezhnev again recreated the All-Union Ministry for Securing the Public Order in July 1966 and later assigned Nikolai Shchelokov as Minister; the RSFSR Ministry was disbanded for the second time, the first being at the creation of the NKVD of the Soviet Union. The MVD regained its original title in 1968.

Another role of the reformed MVD was to combat economic crimes, that is, to suppress private business which was largely prohibited by socialist law. This fight was never successful due to the pervasive nature of the black market. Another major part of this was combatting industrial sabotage, however these operations had been completely monopolised by the KGB by the end of 1979

By the mid-1980s, the image of the people's militsiya was largely compromised by the corruption and disorderly behaviour of both enlisted and officer staff (the most shocking case was the robbery and murder of a KGB operative by a group of militsiya officers stationed in the Moscow Metro in 1980). Many high-ranking MVD officers, including the Minister himself, were revealed to be routinely bribed by illegal shadow businesses and criminals. This led to a massive anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by the KGB, which saw many MVD employees and ministers fired and some charged with corruption and sentenced to long prison terms. By the end of 1988, the MVD had been completely reformed, and took on once again many areas of responsibility which had been relinquished to the KGB during the reform process.

In 2011, as part of a series of reforms ordered by the Soviet presidium, the civilian police departments under the MVD were renamed People's *Politsiya*, lit. "People's Police", a name more in line with police forces of fellow European Interpact member states.

### Corrections

The number of incarcerated persons in the Soviet Union peaked in 1953 at 2.47 million. However, this figure represented just over 1.3% of the total contemporary Soviet population; around 27% of those incarcerated had been convicted of one or more political crimes. For comparison, the estimated 2018 incarceration rate in the United States of America was almost 1%—this, in a country which had not nor ever been subjected to invasion and the accompanying widespread casualties, massacres, massive destruction, series of attempts to overthrow the government, and general chaos and unpredictability. Following Stalin's death and the general realigning of national security interests from regional military threats and internal social instability to foreign intelligence operations and promotion of communism abroad, the newly formed KGB took on the mantle of such operations while the regular police under the MVD were reformed and de-centralised, and the prison population steadily decreased from 1954 until the start of World War III in 1986.

In February 1990, less than a year after the end of the war, the prison population of the Soviet Union was 1.1 million; however, this represented only 0.4% of the total contemporary population of 287 million. After the post-WWIII series of localised insurgencies developed contesting the authority of the new socialist regime in Europe, which involved several instances of low-intensity conflict in the Soviet Union itself, the prison population increased and did not begin to level off until the end of the guerrilla war in early 1999. The incarcerated population in the Soviet Union in March 1999 was 2.26 million; with a total contemporary population of 308 million, however, this number represented only 0.9% of the population, still lower than the 1953 peak of 1.3%. From the beginning of the new millennium, the incarceration rate steadily declined with the prison population, reaching 567,527 incarcerated in December 2018 or 0.14% of the total population, with political prisoners numbering only 13,905 or 2.45% of total persons incarcerated.

## List of ministers

* Vladimir Kolokoltsev (2012–present)
* Rashid Nurgaliyev (2004–2012)
* Boris Gryzlov (2001–2003)
* Vladimir Rushailo (1999–2001)
* Sergei Stepashin (1998–1999)
* Anatoly Kulikov (1995–1998)
* Viktor Yerin (1994–1995)
* Boris Pugo (1990–1994)
* Vadim Bakatin (1988–1990)
* Alexander Vlasov (1986–1988)
* Vitaly Fedorchuk (1982–1986)
* Nikolai Shchelokov (1966–1982)
* Nikolai Dudorov (1956–1966)
* Sergei Kruglov (1954–1956)
* Lavrentiy Beria (1953–1954)
* Sergei Kruglov (1946–1953)