Senior Personnel of the NKVD/MVD Special Camps in East Germany (1945-1950): Experience in Creating and Analyzing a Relational Database

Leontyeva Nadezda Il'inichna Chief Specialist; Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History 15 Bolshaya Dmitrovka str., office, Moscow, 125009, Russia. - nadleon0796@gmail.com Other publications by this author

The special camps of the NKVD/Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR in East Germany represent a significant page in the activities of the Soviet state security agencies in the post-war period. Special camps combined simultaneously the functions of places of punishment, internment, filtration and accumulation of the contingent for its further distribution. Mostly interned and convicted German citizens were held in them (their number exceeded 122 thousand people in almost five years of the existence of special camps), some of the prisoners (more than 34 thousand people) were Soviet citizens convicted by military tribunals on the territory of the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany (hereinafter – NWO) ^{[13, p. 190]}.

Some aspects of the activities of special camps, including their place and role in the Soviet occupation policy in East Germany in the post-war period, are covered in sufficient detail, mainly in foreign historiography (for a detailed review of the historiography of the topic, see ^[10]). However, at the same time, one of the least studied aspects of the history of special camps is the issue of their staffing. This problem, at first glance a minor one, actually makes it possible to clarify a number of features of the activities of the Soviet special services in East Germany.

This article discusses the features of staffing special camps by the management staff, mainly through the analysis of indicators obtained as a result of the creation and processing of a relational database. The information potential of the database accumulating information from the studied array of archival sources is characterized.

***

The specifics of the functioning of special camps in the occupied territory of East Germany and the ambiguous position of the Special Camps Department in the system of Soviet internal affairs bodies led to the recruitment of personnel to special camps from military and Chekist structures.

All senior positions in the Department of special camps and in the special camps themselves were held by officers sent from the Department (since 1947 – the Directorate) of Personnel of the NKVD /Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR officers. According to the order of the NKVD of the USSR No. 00461 dated May 10, 1945, staffing of special camps and prisons was carried out "at the expense of employees and officers at the disposal of the authorized NKVD of the USSR on the fronts, and officers received from the headquarters of the fronts." The Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, head of the Personnel Department of the NKVD of the USSR B. P. Obrozhnikov was engaged in the selection of these officers ^{[2, l. 22-23]}. Employees of the SMERSH Counterintelligence Directorate of the 1st Belorussian Front, who were released from work on labor mobilization of the German population in the period from February to April 1945, were also sent to special camps ^{[3, l. 50]}.

The internal security of the special camps was provided by soldiers and sergeants of conscription (also mainly from the reserve regiments of the 1st Belorussian Front) and freelancers ^{[3, l. 50]}, the external - initially the convoy troops of the NKVD of the USSR. Since May 1946, these functions have been transferred to the border (rifle) regiments of the internal troops of the NKVD/Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, which since January 1947 have been under the jurisdiction of the MGB of the USSR. At that time, 8 special camps and 2 prisons that existed at that time were taken under protection by the 38th Rifle Regiment from the 322nd regiment of convoy troops (on the basis of a telegraphic order from the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Colonel-General A. N. Apollonov) ^{[12, L. 156]}. Since that time, it was the rifle regiments of the internal troops in Germany that escorted prisoners of special camps within the NWO, as well as to the Brest railway station during the transfer of prisoners to the territory of the USSR.

The temporary staff of the Special Camps Department was approved only in January 1946 by the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR S. N. Kruglov (before that, the camp management staff under the NKVD commissioner for the front, determined by order of the NKVD of the USSR No. 00461 of May 10, 1945). According to the new states, the senior positions of the Department were represented by the chief and his deputy with attached They need the secretariat. The department was divided into departments – accounting, personnel, operational, administrative, sanitary, financial - in each of which a chief and subordinate deputies and employees were appointed. The Department also included a watch team led by the commandant and a transport group. In total, 38 staff units were provided in the Department. Similar staff with the same set of departments (groups) were introduced in the special camps and prisons themselves (113 and 26 staff units, respectively) ^{[2, pp. 57-62]}.

It should be noted that never in the entire period of the existence of special camps have these states been fully staffed – the lack of personnel, especially doctors, political workers, employees of economic, accounting departments and security and regime departments, will become one of the main problems of the functioning of the special camps system for years ^{[3, l. 51]}. In 1950, in a memorandum by the head of the Special Camps Department, V. P. Sokolov, to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, S. N. Kruglov, the general indicator of staff shortage for all five years was given – 24.9% ^{[13, p. 178]} (a quarter of the total staffing).

In August 1948, after the transfer of the special camps to the GULAG, by order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR No. 00959, new staff of the Department and special camps were approved ^{[4, l. 3-8]}. There were 58 staff units in the Department. The security and accounting departments were merged into a single department of security, regime and accounting. In the special camps, the groups were also renamed into departments, and the positions of deputy head of the camp for political work and instructor of the political apparatus were introduced in them. 242 staff units were provided in each camp, of which 44 officers and 198 supervisors and freelancers; in total, 784 employees in the Department and special camps. Thus, in comparison with the states of 1946, a significant increase in the staffing of special camps was envisaged. These were the general changes in the staffing of the special camps and their personnel structure.

***

The conducted research is based on database methods and technologies closely related to the tradition of using quantitative methods in historical research (see, for example: ^{[9, 1]}). By its type, the created database is a datalogical relational model consisting of tables connected to each other. The database was created in the Microsoft Access database management system program.

At the initial stage of our work, we collected and systematized fairly complete biographical information about 80 officers from among the leadership of the special camps system. These include: heads of the Department of special camps, their deputies; heads of departments of the Department of special camps; heads of special camps and their deputies; heads of departments (groups) of special camps. Information about special camps employees with the status not lower than the head of the department was entered into the database.

The main sources of biographical information entered into the database were the documents of the Special Camps Department stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation (fund R-9409, inventory 2). The analyzed array of sources consisted of: orders for personnel (by Department and by camps); lists of special camps employees; award documentation; official correspondence containing biographical information and service characteristics of officers ^[5].

At the same time, a fundamental reference book on employees of the Soviet state security agencies in East Germany, compiled by historian N. V. Petrov, became an important source of biographical information ^[11]. In particular, it contains complete biographies of all three heads of the Special Camps Department (M. E. Sviridov, N. T. Tsiklyaev and V. P. Sokolov) and most of the heads of special camps.

The electronic resource of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation "Memory of the People" was used as an additional source of information when filling the database ^[14]. Since so many officers who served in special camps participated in combat operations during the Great Patriotic War, clarifying biographical information about them was obtained thanks to the award lists available on the specified resource. First of all, this is information about the nature of the service preceding the assignment to work in special camps: in various cases, these were either purely army structures, or NKVD troops, or units of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. In a number of cases, the electronic directory "Personnel of state security bodies of the USSR. 1935-1939" (comp. A. N. Zhukov) allowed to clarify the rank of an officer and his position in the previous service ^[8].

Thus, in its entirety, the array of information obtained from archival sources and published materials made it possible to create a database that fully reflects the characteristics of the senior staff of the special camps system.

The nature of the collected biographical information determined the following database structure (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Database diagram of the senior personnel of special camps

The "Main" table contains the main biographical information – full name, year of birth, rank, party affiliation, work experience in special services and the beginning of service in special camps. The "Number" field was selected as the key one – providing a link to subordinate tables. Since the database is primarily aimed at identifying essential service characteristics, with an emphasis on serving in special camps, information about education and social origin was not included in the table. Unfortunately, this information is available only for a small number of senior officers whose full biographies are published in the handbook of N. V. Petrov, therefore, for solving specific tasks of this study, their lack is not a serious omission.

Two subordinate tables – "Previous service" and "Service in the special camps system" – contain information reflecting the career trajectories of special camps employees. They allow us to trace the departmental origin of a special camp officer – the starting point from which his service began, as well as further advancement in the special camps system.

The proposed database structure ensures its integrity in adequately reflecting the information of the selected subject area and allows you to design various types of queries.

Below, fragments of the created database are presented as illustrations: a fragment of the "Main" table (Figure 2); a fragment of the table obtained as a result of a specified selection query (Figure 3).

Figure 2. Fragment of the relational database of the senior staff of special camps

Figure 3. A fragment of the table obtained as a result of a given selection query

The relational database created within the framework of the study, containing information about 80 senior employees of the special camps system, allows us to judge the principles of replenishment of the senior staff of special camps, their departmental origin, as well as how the career advancement of an officer developed during the period of work in the special camps system.

The departmental origin of a special camp employee is understood to be the structure from which he was transferred to serve in special camps. As calculations showed, the NKVD of the USSR prevailed in percentage among the places of previous service (54% of all employees included in the database), the active army was in second place (33%), and the SMERSH military counterintelligence units (14%) were in third place. In the case of the NKVD, these could be various duty stations – NKVD troops, prisoner of war camps or front-line camps, operational groups under the Authorized NKVD of the USSR in Germany, territorial bodies of the NKVD of the USSR.

As the generalized data show, depending on the date of the start of service in the special camps system, the departmental ratio varies slightly (see table 1).

Table 1. Departmental origin of special camps employees (by year)

With the general predominance of personnel from the NKVD/Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, there are special features for each year of enlistment in special camps. In 1945, more than 20% of the senior personnel came from various SMERSH counterintelligence units, and in all ten cases these were employees of the SMERSH Counterintelligence Department of the 1st Belorussian Front, in the area of which frontline special camps for the labor mobilization of Germans were first organized, and later the special camps of the NKVD of the USSR themselves. If you look at the positions held by SMERSH officers in special camps, you will find that these are mainly average positions among the senior staff – deputy chiefs of special camps and prisons, heads of departments, and only one of them, Captain N. I. Chumachenko, first became the head of special camp No. 10 Vernokhen, and since June 1945 G. headed the special camp No. 3 Hohenschenhausen in Berlin. Being non-partisan, N. I. Chumachenko could not hold on to a leading position for a long time and in December 1945 was removed from office by order of the commissioner of the NKVD of the USSR in East Germany I. A. Serov "for escapes of prisoners and systematic drunkenness with subordinates" ^{[6, l. 104-105]}.

In 1945, almost all the positions of heads of special camps were occupied by people from the NKVD of the USSR, and, mostly, they were former senior staff of prisoner of war camps in the USSR or frontline camps and prisons. Thus, the head of special camp No. 1 (Rembertuv, Shvibus, Mulberg) became the former deputy head of prisoner of war camp No. 356 (Taganrog), Major N. P. Sazikov, and his deputy was the former head of the camp point of prisoner of war camp No. 1 (Kuibyshev), Major A. I. Gostev; the head of special camp No. 3 in Berlin (before N. I. Chumachenko) – former deputy head of prisoner of war camp No. 190 (Vladimir), Major T. I. Smoroda; head of special camp No. 6 (Frankfurt am Oder, Yamlitz) - Major (since 1946 - Lieutenant Colonel) P. N. Seleznev, former deputy head of prisoner of war camp No. 48 (Cherntsy) according to the political department; head of special camp No. 7 (Vernoichen, Sachsenhausen) – former deputy head of prisoner of war camp No. 188 (Tambov) Major of state security A.M. Kostyukhin; head of special camp No. 8 (Schneidemuhl, Torgau) – former deputy head of prisoner of war camp No. 160 (Suzdal) Major G. V. Lavrentiev; head of special camp No. 4 in Landsberg (later special camps No. 10 in Torgau) – the former head of prisoner of war camp No. 193 (Sokol), Major G. G. Nikitin; the head of prison camp No. 7 Frankfurt an der Oder - the former deputy head of camp No. 200 for prisoners of war (Alapaevsk), Lieutenant Colonel N. L. Seredenko. Since the listed special camps were the largest in terms of the number of the contingent, officers of the NKVD of the USSR were appointed to them who had experience working in the system of camps for prisoners of war, which was closest to the special camps in terms of the nature of their activities and their organization.

The exception to this pattern was made by several managers. This is the head of special camp No. 2 (Poznan, Buchenwald), Major F. Ya. Matuskov, who participated in combat operations during the Great Patriotic War as part of the NKVD troops of the USSR and worked from February to May 1945 as the head of the NKVD camp for mobilized Germans at the 1st Belorussian Front (and in May-June of the same year – as the head special camps in Frankfurt an der Oder). His experience was primarily military, not camp, but he led the Buchenwald special camp No. 2 for almost two years. The head of special camp No. 5 (Furstenwalde) was an employee of the central office of the Main Directorate of the Border Troops of the NKVD of the USSR, Major K. P. Andreev, and special camp No. 9 (Neu-Brandenburg) was the former commander of the 22nd division of the NKVD troops of the USSR for the protection of railways, Colonel P. A. Sharov. Also, only one of the appointed chiefs came from GULAG structures – this is the head of special camp No. 4 Bautzen, Lieutenant Colonel S. I. Kazakov, who previously headed the food department of the GULAG Supply Department.

Thus, the officers of the active army, as the database shows, occupied mainly the positions of deputy chiefs and heads of departments of special camps.

After 1945, as can be seen from the table No. 1 above, the sources of replenishment of special camps personnel change somewhat in relation to each other. The appointment of employees from SMERSH structures practically stops (it was liquidated in May 1946). A significant part of the new employees in 1946 came from the active army. They held positions no higher than the head of the departments of special camps – mainly economic and financial, less often operational and sanitary (in the case of military doctors). In conditions of constant personnel shortages and a shortage of staff from among the officers of the NKVD of the USSR (widely involved both in the vast territories that fell into the sphere of influence of the USSR after the war, and in numerous prisoner of war camps and GULAG camps that were growing in number), it was necessary to replenish special camps with officers of army formations stationed on the territory of the Northwestern Federal District. This indicates a certain specificity of special camps in relation to the principles of their staffing, as well as some ill-considered organization in the presence of large flows of prisoners entering there.

It is characteristic that in 1948, when the process of gradual reassignment of special camps to the Gulag was underway, new employees were sent to work in them, mainly from prisoner of war camps. They took the positions of heads of special camps departments, as well as senior positions in the Special Camps Department, which was uncharacteristic for appointees from army structures. And one of them, Major G. I. Drozdov, the former deputy head of the prisoner of war camp No. 511 (Rubtsovsk), even became directly the head of the special camp No. 9 Neubrandenburg, which manifested the same principle of appointment to senior positions of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, who previously worked in prisoner of war camps.

If we analyze the personnel from the point of view of partisanship, we can see that party membership was more typical for employees of special camps who held high official positions. All the heads of special camps and prisons were in the party (except for the previously mentioned N. I. Chumachenko). Moreover, if the average party experience of all special camps employees included in the database, including zero experience for non-party or party candidates, was 4 years (there is such information about 70 people in total), then for the heads of the special camps Department and the heads of special camps it was already 16.5 years. Thus, party membership and party seniority were important factors in the official position and promotion of special camps officers.

***

As can be seen from the presented analysis, the staffing of the leadership of the special camps was heterogeneous. It was formed both from the structures of the NKVD/Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and from the SMERSH counterintelligence units and purely army structures. One of the revealed patterns shows that people from the departments of the NKVD /Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR more often held senior positions as heads of special camps, "Smersh" and army officers – lower positions.

Along with this, with a constant shortage of specialized personnel from the NKVD/Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, people who had no official Chekist or camp experience had to be recruited there. So, in 1945, these were both SMERSH counterintelligence officers, widely represented in the troops of the advancing Red Army, and directly army officers. Since 1946, the filling of non-core personnel took place almost exclusively from the ranks of the active army.

After a fairly large filling of the staff of the senior staff of special camps in 1945 (at the stage of their creation) by profile appointees from the NKVD of the USSR, the further number of such replacements, as the database shows, continued to remain extremely insignificant. The replenishment of the staff in 1947-1948 by specialized workers of the camps for prisoners of war could not solve the problems of low discipline, disinterest of workers in their service, as well as the general shortage of staff, which were often noted in the reports of the leadership of the Department of special camps, as well as the general shortage of staff (see, for example, the report of the head of the Department of special camps N. T. Tsiklyaev S. N. Kruglov dated April 19, 1948 ^{[7, L. 176]}).

Thus, the use of database methods and technologies has made it possible to accumulate and structure information on the problem from an array of different sources. The created relational database made it possible to identify general and specific essential characteristics of the leadership staff of special camps in their dynamics.