The Cheka-OGPU talked with a number of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the topic of their departmental “mobilization”. According to interlocutors, reserve lists were created in each department.
“This is a proven practice, everything is similar to business trips to the CTO. Only on a larger scale. A reserve list of 30 employees was created for the SVO from each department, which was sent to the personnel of the Ministry. The pioneers went voluntarily and compulsorily, many have already returned. Now, they say, it will be much more difficult to avoid “mobilization.”
Of those who returned from the North Military District zone, the ones who complain the most are the PPS officers. Of these, as the Cheka-OGPU already wrote, platoons were formed with the transition to the special unit “Thunder”.
“I’ll tell you how it was with us. Group of 30 employees. All from different departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Moscow region. We moved into a hostel near Kherson. At some point, the command came: to leave the location. We had just set out when HIMARS flew into the house. The most vivid memory is that someone saved us, perhaps without knowing it. After that, we split into small groups of 4-8 people and lived somewhere – in apartments and hotels. They said, be wherever you want, but the main thing is on the radio. Where else should we be? We stayed where we spent the night. Because it doesn’t look like much, the whole of Kherson was breathing poison, 80% of the residents were opposed to us. They took turns on duty at night. Everyone thought it would be quicker to return home.”
I was also able to communicate with the first returning operatives of the 1st (homicide) department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who spent two months on a business trip. According to the interlocutors, during the entire time they did not perform particularly any usual functions. A group of operas from the headquarters was transported to all regions with short stops: from the Belgorod region, through the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.
“It was as if they were giving us a tour. Local departments simply do not exist. In the DPR and LPR, most of the employees went to the front. Current and former police officers most willingly go there. The salary, by the way, is no more than in Moscow, but they promise an increase when it comes from the staffing center (staffing table). Many people are looking forward to it also because some of today’s police officers there were once dismissed from Russian services for negative reasons or even had criminal records. Many of them are afraid that they will not be allowed to work because of this when everything settles down. Outside these regions there is complete confusion and vacillation. Many people drink, there is no discipline. What distinguished us most in this matter was the group of GUPE employees.”
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
