VSEVOLOD N. MERKULOV, the MVD’s top-ranking spy catcher. Capitalists in Disguise. Together with Beria, these six men had controlled the secret police of the Soviet Union. With some 15 divisions ...

The Soviet Union’s all-embracing police system had ... though the official name has changed many times —OGPU, GPU, NKVD, MGB, MVD. The control is ruthless: when a group of high army officers ...