Album procedure
The album procedure () was a simplified procedure of extrajudicial conviction by NKVD, introduced in the Soviet Union during the Great Purge. The level of punishment (execution or imprisonment) of the arrested persons was decided by local organs during the investigation, the lists of the convicted were sent to NKVD headquarters, where they were approved "en masse" and returned for immediate application of the punishment. The name of the procedure comes from the fact that the lists collected at midrange NKVD organs were bound into albums. The procedure was introduced in the August 11, 1937 NKVD Order No. 00485  On liquidation of Polish sabotage and espionage groups and units of P.O.W. (P.O.W. stands for the Polish Military Organization, Polska Organizacja Wojskowa.) The order specifies the process as follows: The procedure was supplementary to convictions performed by NKVD Troikas introduced by July 30, 1937 NKVD Order No. 00447. Still, the number of convictions was so overwhelming that on September 15, 1938 the lower, regional level Special Troikas were introduced, with the rights to impose death penalties and immediately execute them. Both NKVD Troikas of all levels and "album procedure" were officially discontinued by November 17, 1938, Decree about Arrests, Prosecutor  Supervision and Course of Investigation No. 81. As an example, during the German Operation of the NKVD (July 1937-November 1938) of 55,005 convicted Germans in Russia 41,898 were executed, with the shares of "album" and "Troika" shooting being 24,910 and 16,988 respectively. Other convictions: "albums": 5,624, "Troikas": 7,483.