All articles More Opinion Putin’s Russian Guard is true ‘heir to the NKVD,’ its deputy commander says

Putin’s Russian Guard is true ‘heir to the NKVD,’ its deputy commander says

05/06/2017

2 minute read

Soldiers of the National Guard of Russia (aka Russian Guard), a 500,000-strong internal security structure subordinated to Putin personally.

Putin’s Russian Guard is true ‘heir to the NKVD,’ its deputy commander says

In explaining why the new Russian Guard plans to restore the red banner and the name Feliks Dzerzhinsky in its operations, Col. General Sergey Melikov told Izvestiya that such moves were entirely appropriate because veterans have asked for this and because his organization is “the heir of the NKVD.”

Background Information: The National Guard of Russia (also known as the Russian Guard) is an internal security corps with estimated strength of 500,000, organized along military lines. It was established in April 2016 and is subordinated to Putin personally.

Those words were included in the original article but then taken down when someone recognized the dangers of drawing a direct link between an organization that repressed millions of Russians and Putin’s new Guard. However, those who took them down from the webpage forgot that in the age of Screenshot, nothing is really ever lost forever.

'Third degree interrogation' from "Drawings from the GULAG" by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard — ‘Third degree interrogation’ from “Drawings from the GULAG” by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard

The original Izvestiya article is at iz.ru; the Screenshot of the passages that were removed is available here.

Guards disposing of corpses of executed GULAG prisoners in a frozen Siberian river ("Drawings from the GULAG" by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard) — Guards disposing of corpses of executed GULAG prisoners in a frozen river ("Drawings from the GULAG" by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard)

In reporting this incident, Snob portal commentator Ivan Davydov says that words like these matter, however much some may devalue them in their efforts to hide what they are really about. And he then offers what is certainly the most succinct and accurate definition of national unity under Putin now available.

I’m… an English, French, American, Japanese, Italian, German and maybe some other spy as well… ("Drawings from the GULAG" by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard) — I’m… an English, French, American, Japanese, Italian, German and maybe some other spy as well… (“Drawings from the GULAG” by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard)

In Putin’s Russia, he writes, “the unity of the nation is when one and the same people scurry to churches built in memory of those innocents who were killed and then write on their banners the name of the executioner who killed those innocents.” This sends a horrific signal about the direction in which Russia is now moving.

SELECTION OF SEX SLAVES FROM NEW ARRIVALS OUT OF THE "ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE" (OR THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS) BY GULAG BOSSES: Women-"enemies of the people" were inspected by the job assignment commission in the nude. Liked women were assigned to the camp household duties where they became sex slaves. If they refused, they were assigned to fell trees and other such hard physical labor or were incarcerated in solitary confinement cells for "delinquency" and starved there. ("Drawings from the GULAG" by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard) — SELECTION OF SEX SLAVES FROM NEW ARRIVALS OUT OF THE “ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE” (OR THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS) BY GULAG BOSSES: Women-“enemies of the people” were inspected by the job assignment commission in the nude. Liked women were assigned to the camp household duties where they became sex slaves. If they refused, they were assigned to fell trees and other such hard physical labor or were incarcerated in solitary confinement cells for “delinquency” and starved there. (“Drawings from the GULAG” by Danzig Baldaev, a former NKVD guard)

Individual Russians can privately believe what they like, but when the state sends such signals, society should respond with horror, Davydov says, because “people must understand that out of this ‘continuity’ and ‘unity of the nation grows the chance” that the horrors of the past can return.
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