The Internal Affairs Agencies of the Soviet State in the Period of Stalinism in the Context of Russian Historiography

The article examines Russian historiography related to the history of the internal affairs agencies in the period of Stalinism. Based on the analysis of publications by Soviet and modern Russian historians, it describes the main stages, problems and results of studying the history of the special agencies of NKVD (the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs or – Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del – abbreviated NKVD) and MVD (the Ministry of Internal Affairs or – Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del – abbreviated MVD), or simply the NKVD-MVD agencies, of the Stalin era and their role in the implementation of the repressive policy conducted by the Soviet state. The author concludes that during the Soviet period, the attempts to objectively study the history of law enforcement agencies and their role in the life of Soviet society were problematic due to the lack of any documentary base because of confidentiality of the departmental archives, as well as ideological control over the historical science. The post-Soviet period became a ‘breakthrough’ in the research of the history related to the internal affairs agencies of the Stalin era. The change in the nature of Russian historiography and its turn towards the coverage of difficult and ambiguous aspects in the development of the Soviet society had a favourable effect on increasing the scientific objectivity whilst studying the history of the internal affairs agencies of the Soviet state.