The internal security troops (reorganized and renamed the Internal Troops (Vnutrennaya Voiska - VV) in 1968) were arguably the most significant of these forces - forming the main armed security force of post-war USSR. However, other sizable uniformed elements included fire protection troops, key facility and lines of communications' guards, emergency response, prison guards and a host of supporting administrative, logistical and criminal investigative personnel. In the first decades following WWII, the major uniformed elements of the NKVD/MVD consisted of internal security and convoy protection (prisoner movement) troops. Republics at one time controlled MVD forces on their soil before they returned to "all-union" control in 1966 (although under the title Ministry of Public Order (MOOP) until 1968 when they again were called MVD). NKVD/MVD and state security organizations were constantly reorganized, resubordinated and renamed in the years following WWII. They also lined the sides of Red Square during state funerals and military parades and, when formed into more conventional military units, backed up Red Army troops to ensure they did not retreat, operated as "blocking detachments" and conducted anti-guerrilla operations in re-conquered Soviet territories in WWII. Under such notorious commanders as Lagoda, Yezhov and Beria, they rounded up accused dissidents and escorted prisoners to the GULAG. The NKVD (or Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs) was the infamous Soviet Secret Police of the 1920's, 30's and 40's. Included here are caps worn by officers and men of the Soviet NKVD and its 1946 successor, the MVD.
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