The Minsk City Police Department ( Belarusian: Галоўнае ўпраўленне ўнутраных спраў Мінскага Гарвыканкама;

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Главное управление внутренних дел Минского Горисполкома) officially known as the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs of the Minsk City Executive Committee is the main municipal police force in the

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

ian capital of

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

with responsibilities that include

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...

and investigation in the city. Minsk has the largest number of police officers among the

post-Soviet republics The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

. It is also one of the most active police forces in Belarus due to Minsk being the center of many protests and arrests.

History

The department was founded as the Main Directorate of the Workers 'and Peasants' Militia of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus on November 30, 1920. On July 10, 1934, the directorate was transformed into a branch of the newly formed People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), which was formed that same day in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. One of the main tasks of the NKVD directorate in Minsk was to enforce the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

ideology imposed by the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

. In March 1946, the NKVD was replaced with the

Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR (MVD; russian: Министерство внутренних дел СССР (МВД)) was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1991. The MVD was established as the successor to the ...

. By order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the

Belarusian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

of June 2, 1947, No. 00130, two new branches were set up in the police department of the militia department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to guide the peripheral police bodies along the lines of combating the theft of state and public property. On June 5, 1991, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Belarusian SSR issued an order which placed the directorate under the Ministry of Internal Affairs' jurisdiction. On October 2, 2020, the

U.S. Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

added

Ivan Kubrakov Ivan Vladimirovich Kubrakov ( be, Іван Уладзіміравіч Кубракоў, Ivan Uladzimiravič Kubrakoŭ, russian: Иван Владимирович Кубраков; born 5 May 1975) is a Belarusian politician who has been the ...

, then head of the department, to its

Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, also known as the SDN List, is a United States government sanctions/embargo measure targeting U.S.-designated terrorists, officials and beneficiaries of certain authoritarian regimes, a ...

. On the same day, he was banned from entering the European Union. Kubrakov was also sanctioned by the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Canada. On December 23, 2020, the MIAMCEC was designated under sanctions by the US Treasury Department for human rights violations related to the suppression of the 2020 Belarusian protests and placed in the

. In summer 2021, Mikhail Hryb, the head of the department, was sanctioned by the EU, the US and Switzerland.

Organization

Patrol Unit

The operations unit has taken part in the suppression of peaceful protests, including protests of

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Man ...

State Traffic Inspectorate

The State Traffic Inspectorate ensures road safety on the streets of

. The unit currently uses three types of motorcycles, including a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

-made BMW which was purchased in 2017. The inspectorate has been known to have been involved in many scandals, including a situation in August 2017 in which a police officer broke the window of a vehicle and dragged the driver out onto the street.

Criminal Investigations Unit

The Criminal Investigations Unit is responsible for the investigation of violent crimes. The unit commonly works with the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

and the FSB in order to combat technologically advanced crimes.

Security and Protection Unit

The Security and Protection Unit provides security during public events in the capital. Since 2013, police officers of the department have been required to learn

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Minsk GUVD Band

The

Minsk GUVD Brass Band The Minsk GUVD Brass Band () is a police band in Belarus that is attached to the Minsk City Police Department. Officially known as the Brass Band of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs of the Minsk City Executive Committee, it is part of the ...

has been operating in the directorate since October 10, 1964. It is similar in nature and purpose to the

NYPD Police Band The Band of the City of New York Police Department, commonly known as the NYPD Police Band, is an American Police band which serves under the NYPD in New York City. The band currently has 70 members and is part of the NYPD Ceremonial Unit. The ban ...

. In Soviet times, the band traveled all over the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and often performed in places that have experienced hardship, including

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...

in July 1986 and

Leninakan Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

in 1989. It gave its first performance as a Belarusian band in Germany in 1993.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official websiteOfficial website of the BandГУВД Мингорисполкома
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Organizations established in 1920 Law enforcement in Belarus Organizations based in Minsk Belarusian entities subject to the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List