thumb|NKVD troika of the Georgian SSR sentencing [[Samson Dadiani to execution due to "remaining a member of the enemy camp opposed to Soviet rule". The document is marked "Top Secret"]]

NKVD troika or Special troika (), in Soviet history, were special quasi-judicial proceedings composed of three officials from the security police (for much of the troikas' existence, the NKVD, hence the name) who issued sentences to people after simplified, speedy investigations and without a public trial.

Troika means "a group of three" or "triad" in Russian.

Background

The first troika was instituted in 1918, the members being Felix Dzerzhinsky, Yakov Peters, and Left SR V. Aleksandrovich.

In January 1930, as part of the collectivization program, the Soviet Politburo authorized the state police to screen the peasant population of the entire Soviet Union. Normal legal procedures were suspended and the corresponding OGPU order of the 2nd of February, specified the measures needed for "the liquidation of the kulaks as a class". This instituted a regional based system for these troikas to work, so that the operations could be handed locally and with a quicker result. In each region, the troikas would decide the fate of the landlords branded as "kulaks". The troika, composed of a member of the state police, a local communist party secretary, and a state procurator, had the authority to issue rapid and severe verdicts (death or exile) without the right to appeal. In effect they served as judges, juries, and executioners.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the NKVD was tasked with deporting thousands of Germans from the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. This decree issued from Moscow in 1941 was the responsibility of the Troika and all measures of decrees execution were left in the hands of the so-called three who made up this particular Troika. After the war responsibilities within the government began to shift and in 1952 two special Troikas were created. The first Troika consisted of Georgy Malenkov, Nikita Khrushchev (who was also heavily involved with the Great Purge and Show trial), and Nikolai Bulganin. The second consisted of Lavrentiy Beria, Mikhail Pervukhin, and Maksim Saburov. These troikas were created to make sure there were clear duties between party and state; although it was common to be involved on both party and state committees, this blurred the lines between party and state functions.

Secret Order № 00447 — the "Kulak Operations"

thumb|right|[[NKVD document sentencing the blind "Ukrainian pensioner bandurist" Ivan Kucherenko to execution by shooting. The title of the signatory (in — "Secretary of the Troika") can be seen.]]

On June 28, 1937, the Politburo issued a decree to set up a troika in West Siberia. While the original intent was to discover if there was a plot stemming from the ROVS, a group of white officers based in Paris, this can be seen as the first step in the creation of order NKVD Order no. 00447.

The NKVD Order no. 00447 by July 30, 1937 О репрессировании бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов ("Concerning the repression of former kulaks, criminals, and other anti-Soviet elements") undersigned by Nikolai Yezhov. By this order, troikas were created on the levels of republic, krai and oblast. Agro-Joint had aided in the resettlement of German-Jewish doctors to help grow the living standards of the communities. Germans were among the top nationalities being repressed and eliminated in Soviet Russia during the thirties while Stalin prepared for war with Hitler. During the Great Purge, 1937–38, there was a directive to rid the Soviet lands of all those with outside (non-Soviet) ties or connections. Members of the Agro-Joint, as well as foreign colonies and national diasporas such as the settlements they established, fell squarely within those parameters. Although the Agro-Joint was never intended as a permanent program, the swiftness and fierceness with which it was dismantled by the Soviet regime shocked those involved, in particular, its leader Joseph Rosen whose network of internal Soviet connections fell to the purges. though not officially recognized as an Autonomous Region by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of USSR until May 1934. Though conditions were tough and approximately 2/3rds of the original settlers left upon seeing that things were not as promised, those that remained founded Birofeld, the first Jewish collective farm in 1928. The whereabouts of these prisoners remained unknown until 1943 when approximately 4,000 bodies were found by German soldiers at the Katyn location. Physical evidence suggested that the soldiers were shot in the back of the head and then buried in large piles. Many of the documents surrounding the massacre were destroyed and others were not made public until 2010.

According to the released documents, the executions were authorized by a troika consisting of Vsevolod Merkulov, Bogdan Kobulov, and Leonid Bashtakov.

See also

  • Special Council of the NKVD
  • Kangaroo court

References

  • Comrade Stalin loses Katyn trial 56 years after Assassination!
  • The Memorial civil movement