Lubianka. Stalin I glavnoe
upravlenie gosbezopasnosti NKVD. 1937-1938.
[NOTE: VKP(b) is the
Russian abbreviation for the All-Russian Communist Party (bolshevik). It could be
translated as “ACP(b)”.]
No. 362. Decree of the Politburo of the CC VKP(b)
“On Arrests, Supervision by the Procuracy
and the Conduct of Investigations”
November 17 1938
116 – On arrests, supervision by the Procuracy, and the conduct
of investigations. (Decree of the CPC
To adopt the following decision (cf. attachment).
ATTACHMENT
To the people’s commissars for internal affairs of the
To procurators of the
To the secretaries of the CCs of the national Communist parties, the territorial committees, the regional committees, the military district, city, and district committees of the VKP(b).
On arrests, supervision by the Procuracy, and the conduct of investigations.
A decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of the
The Council of People’s Commissars (SNK) of the USSR and the CC of the VKP(b) take note of the fact that the NKVD, under the leadership of the party, has accomplished much during 1937-38 in inflicting a crushing defeat [razgrom]on enemies of the people and in purging the USSR of numerous espionage, terrorist, subversive, and saboteur cadres consisting of Trotskyists, Bukharinists, SR’s, Mensheviks, bourgeois nationalists, White Guards, fugitive kulaks, and criminal elements-all providing crucial support to foreign intelligence agencies in the USSR and, in particular, to the intelligence agencies of Japan, Germany, Poland, England, and France.
At the same time, the NKVD has also accomplished much in inflicting a
crushing defeat on espionage-subversive agents of foreign intelligence services
transferred to, the
This purging of the country of subversive, insurrectionary, and espionage cadres has played a positive role in securing the further success of socialist construction.
Nonetheless, one ought not to think that the purging of the
In continuing to wage a merciless campaign against all enemies of the
This is all the more necessary insofar as the mass operations engaged in crushing and eradicating hostile elements, carried out by organs of the NKVD during 193 7-38 and involving a simplified procedure of conducting investigations and trials, could not help but lead to a host of major deficiencies and distortions in the work of the NKVD and the Procuracy. Moreover, enemies of the people and spies employed by foreign intelligence agencies, having wormed their way into both the central and local organs of the NKVD and continuing their subversive activities, sought in every way possible to hamper the work of investigators and agents. They sought to consciously pervert Soviet laws by carrying out mass, unjustified arrests while at the same time rescuing their confederates (especially those who had joined the NKVD) from destruction.
The chief deficiencies, brought to light recently, in the work of the NKVD and the Procuracy are as follows:
First of all, officials of the NKVD had totally abandoned the work with agents and informers in favor of the much simpler method of making mass arrests without concerning themselves with the completeness or with the high quality of the investigation.
Officials of the NKVD had become unaccustomed to a meticulous, systematic work with agents and informers and had come to adopt a simplified method for conducting the investigation of cases, to such an extent that right up until the last moment they were raising questions concerning the so-called “quotas” [limity] imposed on the carrying out of mass arrests.
This has led to a situation where work with agents, weak enough as it was, has regressed even further. Worst of all, many officials of the NKVD have lost all inclination for agent procedures that play an exceptionally important role in the work of a Chekist.
This has finally led to a situation where, in the absence of properly organized work, the investigative organs have, as a rule, been unsuccessful in fully unmasking the spies and saboteurs under arrest who were in the employ of foreign intelligence agencies and in fully exposing all of their criminal ties.
Such a failure to sufficiently appreciate the significance of work with agents and the unacceptable, thoughtless attitude to the making of arrests are all the more intolerable in view of the fact that the Council of People’s Commissars
(Sovnarkom) of the
Second, a major deficiency in the work of the NKVD has been the deeply entrenched simplified procedures for investigation, during which, as a rule, the investigator is satisfied with obtaining from the accused a confession of guilt and totally fails to concern himself with corroborating this confession with the necessary documents (testimonies of witnesses, the testimony of experts, material evidence, etc.).
The arrestee is often not interrogated until a full month after his arrest, sometimes even longer. Records are not always kept during these interrogations. Not infrequently, the testimony of the arrestee is recorded by the investigator in the form of notes and then, after much time has elapsed (after ten days, a month, or even longer), a general record of the interrogation is compiled, in which Article 138 of the Criminal Trial Code (UPK) [ugolovno-protsessualnye kodeksy], calling for, insofar as possible, a verbatim record of the arrestee's testimony, is not implemented at all. Very often, the minutes of the interrogation are not compiled until the arrestee has confessed to his crimes. Not infrequently, testimony by the accused which refutes this or that fact of the indictment is not recorded at all in the minutes of the interrogation. The documents pertaining to the investigative cases are drawn up carelessly. Drafts of testimonies, written in pencil, corrected and crossed out by unknown hands, are entered into the record. Records of testimonies, unsigned by the person under interrogation and uncertified by the investigator, are entered into the record, along with unsigned and unconfirmed conclusions by the prosecution, etc.
The Procuracy, for its part, has not taken the measures necessary for the removal of these deficiencies, as a rule, reducing its participation in the investigation to a simple registration and stamping of investigative materials. The organs of the Procuracy not only have not removed these violations of revolutionary legality but have in fact legitimized them.
Such an irresponsible attitude to investigative work and such a crude violation of procedural rules established by law have not infrequently been cleverly utilized by enemies of the people who have wormed their way into the NKVD and into the Procuracy, both in the center and in outlying localities. They have consciously perverted Soviet laws, committed forgeries, falsified investigatory documents, instituted criminal proceedings and subjected people to arrest on trivial grounds and even without any grounds whatsoever, instituted criminal cases against innocent people, while at the same time taking every possible measure to conceal and save their confederates-involved with them in criminal anti-Soviet activities-from destruction. Such things took place both in the central and in the local apparats of the NKVD.
All of these intolerable deficiencies observed in the work of the
NKVD and the Procuracy were possible only because enemies of the people who had wormed
their way into the NKVD and into the Procuracy attempted with every means at their
disposal to cut off the NKVD and the Procuracy from party organs, to evade the party’s
control and leadership and thereby to make it easier for themselves and their confederates
to continue their anti-Soviet, subversive activities. With the aim of resolutely removing
the deficiencies set out above and with the aim of organizing properly the investigative
work of the NKVD and the Procuracy, the Council of People’s Commissars of the
1. That the NKVD and the Procuracy be prohibited from carrying out any mass arrests or mass deportations [vyselenie].
In accordance with Article 127 of the Constitution of the
Deportation from border areas is permissible in individual cases only
with the permission of the Council of People’s Commissars of the
2. The judicial troikas, created by the special decrees of the NKVD
of the
a) Coordination of arrests in strict compliance with the decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and the CC of the VKP(b) of 17 July 1935; b) When demanding sanction for arrest from procurators, the NKVD is duty bound to present a writ with full grounds for such an arrest as well as all materials justifying the necessity of such an arrest;
c) The Procuracy is duty-bound to verify, thoroughly and substantively, the justification for the NKVD’s writs of arrest, demanding, if necessary, supplementary investigative actions or the presentation of supplementary investigative materials;
d) The Procuracy is duty-bound not to permit the making of arrests without sufficient grounds for such action.
It shall be established as a rule that, in the case of wrongful arrest, the procurator sanctioning such arrest shall, along with the officials of the NKVD, also bear responsibility for the arrest.
4. In carrying out their investigation, the organs of the NKVD are duty bound to observe precisely all the requirements of the Criminal Trial Code. In particular:
a) All investigations are to be completed within the time period established by law;
. b) Interrogations of arrestees are to be conducted no later than 24 hours following their arrest. A record of each interrogation is to be compiled immediately thereafter in accordance with Article 138 of the Criminal Trial Code (UPK) with precise details as to the beginning and end of the interrogation. In familiarizing himself with the record of the interrogation, the procurator is duty-bound to indicate this fact in writing, making note of the hour, day, month, and year;
c) Documents, letters, and other objects removed during the house search are to be sealed immediately at the place where the search is conducted, in accordance with Article 184 of the Criminal Trial Code (UPK), and a detailed written inventory is to be made of all materials thus sealed.
5. The Procuracy is duty-bound to observe precisely the demands of the Criminal Trial Code in implementing the supervision by the Procuracy over the investigations conducted by the NKVD.
Procurators are accordingly duty-bound to systematically verify the implementation by investigative organs of all rules and regulations established by law for the carrying out of investigations and to immediately eliminate violations of these rules. Measures are to be undertaken to secure for the accused the procedural rights accorded him by the law, and so on.
6. In connection with the growing role of the supervision by the procurators and the responsibility placed on the Procuracy for the making of arrests and the carrying out of investigations by the NKVD, the following points are to be recognized:
a) To establish the fact that all procurators implementing the
supervision of the investigations carried out by the NKVD, and whose candidacies have been
submitted by the appropriate regional committees, territorial committees, CCs of the
national Communist parties, and the procurator of the
b) The district committees, territorial committees, and CCs of the national Communist parties are to verify and present for confirmation to the CC of the VKP(b), within a 2-month period, the candidacies of all procurators engaged in supervising investigations by the NKVD;
c) Comrade Vyshinsky, the procurator of the
7. The measures proposed by the NKVD of the
Ascribing special significance to a proper organization of
investigative work by the NKVD, the NKVD of the
It is established as a rule that all investigators for the NKVD, in
the center and in the localities, are to be appointed only by order of the people’s
commissar for internal affairs of the
8. The NKVD of the
The Council of People’s Commissars of the
The Council of People’s Commissars of the
Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars
of the USSR V. Molotov
Secretary of the Central Committee of the VKP(b)
17 November 1938
No. P 4387