PWT 37 2015

TRANSMISSION 37 CONTENTS :

OGPU School album 1-8

OGPU 1923-1934 9-10

Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies 11-12

RHINOCEROS WEEKLY TRANSMISSION RWT-37 SPECIAL OGPU

THURSDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2015 : A SCHOOL FOR INTELLIGENCE ?

The e-bulletin presents books, albums, photographs and ancient docu-ments as they have been transmitted to us by their creators

and by amateurs from past generations.

The physical descriptions, attributions, origins, place and date of printing of books and photographs have been carefully ascertained by collations and comparisons with other prints

or comparable samples (from our picture library).

The books and photographs from all around the world are presentedin chronological order. It is the privilege of ancient and authentic

things to be presented in this fashion, mirroring the flow of ideas andcreations.

All the items presented are available at the time of transmission. The prices are denominated in euro. Paypal is accepted. Priority is

given to the first outright purchase, confirmed by email to

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Rhinoceros & CieStudios Robespierre71 rue Robespierre 93100 Montreuil

RWTransmission 37 1 37th week 2015

OGPU TRAINING SCHOOL AND COMMISSARS PORTRAITS, late 1920’sEight (8) vintage silver prints, mostly 170x225 mm, on original mounts, one photographerstamp, few pencil inscription.

An usual subject, a photographic report of a soviel secret police school, from the archive ofone student. For a silent visit.








OGPU 9 OGPU

ОбъединённОе гОсударственнОе пОлитическОе управлениепри снк ссср (Огпу)

OBYEDINYONNOYE GOSUDARSTVENNOYE POLITICHESKOYE UPRAVLENIYE

UNDER THE SNK OF THE USSR (OGPU).

The Joint State Political Directorate (also translated as the All-Union State Political Admin-istration) was the secret police of the Soviet Union from 1923 to 1934. Its official namewas "Joint State Political Directorate under the Council of People's Commissars of theUSSR" (Russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управлениепри СНК СССР), Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye underthe SNK of the USSR, or ОГПУ (OGPU).With the creation of the USSR in December 1922, a unified organization was required toexercise control over state security throughout the new union. Thus, on November 15,1923, the Russian State Political Directorate left the NKVD and became the all-union JointState Political Directorate. Felix Dzerzhinsky, chairman of the GPU, became the OGPU'sfirst chief.

Like the GPU before it, the OGPU was theoretically supposed to operate with more re-straint than the original Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka. The OGPU's powers weregreatly increased in 1926, when the Soviet criminal code was amended to include a sec-tion on anti-state terrorism. The provisions were very broadly interpreted. Even beforethen, it set up tribunals to try the most exceptional cases of terrorism, usually without call-ing any witnesses.

In time, the OGPU's de facto powers grew even greater than those of the Cheka.

Perhaps the most spectacular success of the GPU/OGPU was the Trust Operation of1924–1925. OGPU agents contacted émigrés in western Europe and pretended to be rep-resentatives of a large group working to overthrow of the communist regime, known asthe "Trust".

Exiled Russians gave the Trust large sums of money and supplies, as did foreign intelligenceagencies. The Trust finally succeeded in luring one of the leading anti-Communist opera-tors, Sidney Reilly, into Russia to meet with the Trust. Once he was in Russia, he was cap-tured and killed. The Trust was dissolved, and it became a large propaganda success.

From 1927 to 1929, the OGPU engaged in intensive investigations of an opposition coup.

Stalin soon made a public decree that any and all opposition views should be considereddangerous and gave the GPU the authority to seek out hostile elements. This led to theShakhty Trial in March 1928, that prosecuted a group of industrial saboteurs involved ina hostile bourgeois conspiracy.

This would be the first of many trials during Stalin's Five Year Plan.

The OGPU was responsible for the creation of the Gulag system. It also became the Sovietgovernment's arm for the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church, the GreekCatholics, the Latin Catholics, Islam and other religious organizations, an operation headedby Yevgeny Tuchkov. The OGPU was also the principal secret police agency responsiblefor the detection, arrest, and liquidation of anarchists and other dissident left-wing factionsin the early Soviet Union.

The OGPU was reincorporated into the newly created all-union People's Commissariatfor Internal Affairs (NKVD) in July 1934, becoming its Main Directorate of State Security(GUGB). Its final transformation was into the more widely known Committee for StateSecurity (KGB).”

One undercover Soviet agent,Alexander Yakushev, later recalleda meeting with Sidney Reilly :

“The first impression is unplea-sant. His dark eyes expressed so-mething biting and cruel; hislower lip drooped deeply andwas too slick — the neat blackhair, the demonstratively elegantsuit. [...] Everything in his mannerexpressed something haughtilyindifferent to his surroundings”.

OGPU 10 OGPU

Chronology of 11 Soviet Secret Police

CHRONOLOGY OF SOVIET SECRET POLICE AGENCIES

Organization Chairman Dates

Cheka Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky 1917–22Cheka (abbreviation of Vecheka, itself an acronym for "All-Russian Extraordinary Committeeto Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage" of the Russian SFSR). February 6, 1922: Chekatransforms into GPU, a department of the NKVD of the Russian SFSR.

GPU (NKVD) Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky 1922–23GPU - State Political Directorate. NKVD - "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs". November 15, 1923: GPU leaves the NKVD and becomes all-union OGPU under direct con-trol of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.

OGPU Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky 1923–26Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky 1926–34

"Joint State Political Directorate" or "All-Union State Political Board". July 10, 1934: NKVD ofthe Russian SFSR ceases to exist and transforms into the all-union NKVD of the USSR; OGPUbecomes GUGB ("Main Directorate for State Security") in the all-union NKVD.

NKVD Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda 1934–36Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov 1936–38Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria 1938–41

NKVD - "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs". GUGB - "Main Directorate for State Se-curity". The official liquidation of GUGB within NKVD was announced on 12 February 1941by a joint order № 00151/003 of NKVD and NKGB USSR. The rest of GUGB was abolishedand staff was moved to newly created People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB).

NKGB Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov 1941 After German attack on USSR in June 1941, decision is made to have all the special servicesunder NKVD (with the exception of Military Intelligence), NKGB is transformed.

NKVD Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria 1941–43When situation on the fronts is more stabilize, on April 14, 1943, decision is made to recreateNKGB.

NKGB–MGB Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov 1943–46March 18, 1946: All People's Commissariats were renamed to Ministries. MGB - "Ministry forState Security".

MGB Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov 1946–51May 30, 1947: Official decision with the expressed purpose of "upgrading coordination ofdifferent intelligence services and concentrating their efforts on major directions". In the sum-mer of 1948 the military personnel in KI were returned to the Soviet military to reconstituteforeign military intelligence service (GRU). KI sections dealing with the new East Bloc andSoviet émigrés were returned to the MGB in late 1948. In 1951 the KI returned to the MGB.

Semyon Denisovich Ignatyev 1951–53March 5, 1953: MVD and MGB are merged into the MVD by Lavrentiy Beria.

MVD Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria 1953 Sergei Nikiforovich Kruglov 1953–54

March 13, 1954: Newly independent force became the KGB, as Beria was purged and theMVD divested itself again of the functions of secret policing. After renamings and tumults,the KGB remained stable until 1991.

KGB Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov 1954–58Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin 1958–61Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny 1961–67Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov 1967–82 Vitali Vasilyevich Fedorchuk 1982 Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov 1982–88Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov 1988–91Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin 1991

In 1991, after the State Emergency Committee failed to overthrow Gorbachev and Yeltsin tookover, General Vadim Bakatin was given instructions to dissolve the KGB.

In Russia today, KGB functions are performed by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), theFederal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), and the Federal Protective Service(FSO). The GRU, continues to operate as well.

Chronology of 12 Soviet Secret Police

Number Thirty-seven of the weekly Transmission has been adapted to a new format for iphones and mobile devices

uploaded on Thursday, 17th September at 15:15 (Paris time).

Upcoming uploads and transmissions now on Thursdays : Thursday 24th September, Thursday 1st Oct, Thursday 8th Oct.

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PWT 37 2015

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