ABSTRACT
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) was responsible for the maintenance of order in the Soviet Union. Its mandate, grounded in the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, was to control crime, isolate political opposition (including localist and nationalist movements), and combat economic activity outside the state sector. Like other ministries, the MVD was highly centralized. Its massive apparatus, which extended into every corner of the USSR, contained several functional branches: the police, the internal security troops (vnutrennye voiska, or W), ground units, the fire service, and the prison and labor camp systems.
