History GCSE
NKVD
What NKVD means in History GCSE, as defined for Pearson Edexcel.
Definition of NKVD
Check what you remember
Read the wording for your board, then hide it and explain NKVD in your own words. Rough notes are fine. This is a self-check, with no mark or grade.
Reference: Pearson Edexcel
Stalin's secret police, the primary instrument of state terror, responsible for surveillance, arrests, interrogations and executions.
Topics that use NKVD
- Option 30: Key topic 3: Stalin’s rise to power and dictatorship, 1924–41 - 2 The use of terror in the 1930s (Pearson Edexcel GCSE)
Related terms
- Dictatorship and control
- Elimination of opposition
- Gulag
- Military vulnerability
- Political manipulation and propaganda
- Political terror
- State terror
- The destruction of the Old Bolsheviks
Using NKVD in the exam
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