27

This article gives one of the first detailed studies of civil servants of the NKVD in a specific region (Perm, in the Urals) before and after the Great Terror of 1937-1938. It analyzes the place of the NKVD in the regional nomenclature, the relations between the NKVD and the party at the local level, and the ordinary activity of the NKVD civil servants that became somewhat routine. Then, in spring 1937, was the ‘Great shock’ during which most of the party’s regional leaders were arrested with the pretext of ‘plotting’ against Stalin. From then on, the NKVD was completely overhauled: new directors, new methods, new hierarchy. It is not possible to understand the NKVD’s involvement in the ‘secret mass operations’ without taking into account the deep changes and purges that affected the NKVD itself at the same time.