July 30th, 1937- NKVD Order No. 00447 was Issued
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July 30

Copy of NKVD Secret Police Leaders

On this day, the Soviet Union’s secret police, the NKVD, issued Order No. 00447. This order showcased what would now be considered genocide in our current age- it proposed that “traitors” and “exclusively bandit originators” be eliminated. The order allowed for the arrests of 269,100 people; by December 1938, 76,000 were executed.

The targets ranged from former Tsarist officials to teachers and priests- anyone who opposed Stalin was at risk of execution or arrest. Many were arrested because they weren’t registered members of the Communist Party. This order and subsequent actions were a precursor to the Great Purge a few years later.

Many consider this the first act of Stalin’s “Great Purge,” which lasted from 1936 to 1938. During this time, nearly 1,000,000 people were arrested and about 700,000 executed.

Facts about NKVD Order No. 00447:

  • In July 1937, a particular order was published by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), directed at the repression of what was called “anti-Soviet elements.”
  • At that time, most people arrested were charged with belonging to anti-Soviet parties and organizations, espionage, sabotage, and diversionary activities.
  • Order no. 00447 was divided into eleven articles. It aimed to ensure that all “enemies of the people” were arrested and brought to justice as quickly as possible.
  • The order required that cases against “enemies of the people” be heard by the troikas (three-person tribunals) and military Collegium of the Supreme Court.
  • The initial arrests from NKVD order no. 00447 netted over 700,000 prisoners. This number was reduced to approximately 485,000 by December 1938, when the Great Purge officially ended.
  • Over 91,000 of the prisoners arrested in connection with this order were shot.
  • On July 30, 1938 (exactly one year after NKVD Order No. 00447 was issued), Stalin and Yezhov signed a joint memorandum to the Central Committee entitled “On the Results of Checkups on Party Members.” This memorandum proposed:
  • To release those who were proven innocent of the charges against them.
  • To release those whose guilt of the charge was dubious and therefore unfair.
  • To liquidate large-scale camps and free all inmates there within a short period.
  • This proposal was accepted at a joint plenary session of the Central Committee and the Control Commission on August 23 and 25, 1938, with Stalin as its primary author.