Mass operations of the NKVD
Mass operations of the People's Comissariate of Internal Affairs were carried out during the Great Purge and targeted specific categories of people. As a rule, they were carried out according to the corresponding order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Nikolai Yezhov.
- Ex-kulaks, criminals, and other anti-Soviet elements ~386,798 killed
- *NKVD Order no. 00447
- Traitor of Motherland Family Members
- *NKVD Order no. 00486
- Kharbin operation of the NKVD ~30,992 killed
- *NKVD Order no. 00593
National operations of the NKVD
The operations of this type in this period targeted "foreign" ethnicities, unlike nationally targeted repressions during World War II.
On November 17, 1938 a joint decree No. 81 of Sovnarkom USSR and Central Committee of Communist Party of the Soviet Union Decree about Arrests, Prosecutor Supervision and Course of Investigation and the subsequent order of the NKVD undersigned by Lavrentiy Beria cancelled most of NKVD orders of mass type and suspended implementation of death sentences, signifying the end of the Great Purge.
