On Crucial Tasks of the NKVD of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War
Kobets P.N. On crucial tasks of the NKVD of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. Penitentiary Science, 2026, vol. 20, no. 2 (74), pp. 125–132. doi 10.46741/2713- 2811.2026.74.2.002.
the NKVD of the USSR made a significant contribution to the victory in the Great
Patriotic War. Purpose: to analyze key tasks of the NKVD of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War.
Scientific cognition, comparative analysis, historical, and logical methods are used in the study. The
results of the conducted research indicate that despite a lack of resources and qualified personnel of
the NKVD of the USSR, a large number of tasks assigned to it by the country’s leaders were solved.
Sustainable performance of the NKVD of the USSR in wartime testifies to mobilization readiness and possibilities for effective execution of tasks. The author concludes that from the first months
of hostilities, the NKVD of the USSR was ready to fight the enemy. This was evidenced not only by
effective law enforcement practice, but also by a clear response to the solution of new functional
tasks assigned to the NKVD of the USSR, which arose in the conditions of military life. This law
enforcement experience needs to be further studied in order to be used in modern conditions, if
necessary.
Keywords: Great Patriotic War; law enforcement agencies; legislative bases; extermination battalions; evacuation; fighting crime; penitentiary practice; prisoner protection.
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