NKVD Order № 00439, signed by Nikolai Yezhov on July 25, 1937, was the basis for the German operation of the NKVD in 1937–1938. The operation was the first in the series of

national operations of the NKVD Mass operations of the People's Comissariate of Internal Affairs (NKVD) were carried out during the Great Purge and targeted specific categories of people. As a rule, they were carried out according to the corresponding order of the People's Commi ...

."Foreigners in GULAG: Soviet Repressions of Foreign Citizens"
by

Pavel Polian Pavel Markovich Polian, pseudonym: Pavel Nerler (russian: Павел Маркович Полян; born 31 August 1952) is a Russian geographer and historian, and Doctor of Geographical Sciences with the Institute of Geography (1998) of the Russian ...

*English language version (shortened): P.Polian. Soviet Repression of Foreigners: The Great Terror, the GULAG, Deportations, Annali. Anno Trentasttesimo, 2001. Feltrinelli Editore Milano, 2003. - P.61-104 The order commanded to arrest citizens of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, as well as former German citizens who assumed the

Soviet 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 nation ...

citizenship. German citizens who worked at railways and defense enterprises were qualified as "penetrated agents of the German General Staff and

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

", ready for diversion activity "during the war period" (N.B.: the war was considered imminent). During the first month of the operation, 472 persons were arrested; the total number was around 800 persons, or about 20% of the whole number of registered German citizens at the time. The order also instructed to be prepared for the second wave of repressions against Soviet citizens of German ethnicity. Indeed, the national operation against Soviet citizens of German descent resulted in the sentencing of at least 55,005 persons, including 41,898 sentenced to death.Н.Охотин, А.Рогинский, Москва. Из истории "немецкой операции" НКВД 1937-1938 г�
Chapter 2
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References

NKVD Government documents of the Soviet Union Political repression in the Soviet Union Russian and Soviet-German people Germany–Soviet Union relations 1937 in international relations 1937 documents Great Purge Ethnic cleansing in Europe Ethnic cleansing of Germans Mass murder in 1937 {{USSR-stub

See also

References