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The Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (or NKVD) (Народный комиссариат внутренних дел)—People's Commisariat for Interior Affairs, was the name for the state security in the USSR (that included political and secret police) in one of the stages of its development.

The NKVD was created in early 1918 to handle policing and internal affairs. However, it did not obtain state security functions until it took over the OGPU in July 1934. State security functions were then handled by the NKVD's GUGB ("Glavnoe Upravlenie Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti" or Main Directorate of State Security). On 8 February 1941, the Special Sections of the NKVD (responsible for counter-intelligence in the military) were given to the Army and Navy (NKO and NKVMF) where they became the SMERSH (from Smert' Shpionam or "Death to Spies"). In April 1943, GUGB was removed from NKVD and renamed NKGB .

During World War II, NKVD units were used for rear area security, including halting deserters. On "liberated" territory the NKVD and NKGB carried out mass arrest and deportations, at times forcibly resettling entire populations (650,000+ Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush, and others) or significant parts ( LithuaniaThe Republic of Lithuania ( Lithuanian Lietuva Polish Litwa, German Litauen, French Lituanie, Spanish Lituania, Estonian Lituania, Finnish Liettua) is a republic in Northeastern Europe. One of the three Baltic States along the Baltic Sea, it shares borderns, PoleThe Republic of Poland a country in Central Europe, lies between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) ts) to Central AsiaCentral Asia is a region of Asia. Various definitions of its exact composition exist. Definitions Under one definition, Central Asia covers about 9,029,000 km2, or 21% of the continent. Under this definition Central Asia includes the following countries: and SiberiaSiberia ( Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir Sibir' is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan, constituting all of northern Asia, and extending eastward from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and southward from the Arctic Oc. In 1946Events January January 4 Theodore Schurch becomes the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940 January 7 Allied recognize Austrian republic with 1937 borders the country is divided into four occupation zones Januar, the NKVD was transformed into the MVDMinisterstvo Vnutrennikh Del (or MVD is the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the USSR and nowadays Russia. In the Soviet era, the Minstry of Internal Affairs also functioned as a secret police. In March 1946 the NKVD was renamed to MVD. All People's Commi. The MVD in turn evolved into the KGBFor other meanings, see KGB (disambiguation). The Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (or KGB ( Russian: ; English: Committee for State Security , was the name of the main Soviet Security Agency and intelligence agency, as well as the main secret police.

For a list of the leaders of the Soviet political police from 1917 to 1991, see KGBFor other meanings, see KGB (disambiguation). The Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (or KGB ( Russian: ; English: Committee for State Security , was the name of the main Soviet Security Agency and intelligence agency, as well as the main secret police.