[Cz-L] Re: czernowitz-l digest: October 04, 2009

To add to Berti's comment. The GPU was the renamed original CHEKA, founded
by a Polish aristocrat Felix Dzerjhinski (Tcheresvetchainaya
Komissia....... which meant extraordinary commission for the fight against
counterrevolutionaries), it was first renamed OGPU, then GPU, it became NKVD, (Narodnyi
Komissariat Bnutrienykh Del or Interior Affairs People's Komissariat, and
it later developed into a separate entity, Narodnyi Komissarist
Gossudarstvenoi Bezopasnosti or NKGB). When Stalin , sometimes during the war, decided
to make the Soviet regime more palatable to the Allies, he changed the
names of all NK's which became ministries. The only exception was the NKGB it
stayed on as KGB (Komitet Gosbezoppasnosti). At the same time, he changed
army uniforms adding epaulettes (before there were only collar insignia), he
permitted the wearing of tsarist medals awarded for bravery and last but
not least he gave more liberties to the Orthodox Church.
In all the Soviet literature glorifying their spies or security personnel,
a badge of honor was to be called "a true tchekist".
                                                                            
     Gerhard Schreiber
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Received on 2009-10-05 20:46:54