The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, abbreviated NKVD, was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
Early NKVD leaders, Genrikh Yagoda, then (1924) 1st deputy head of SOU OGPU Vyacheslav Menzhinsky then head of SOU OGPU and deputy head OGPU, and Felix Dzerzhinsky chief of OGPU, 1924
NKVD chief Genrikh Yagoda (middle) inspecting construction of what was then called the Moskva-Volga Canal, 1935. Behind him is Nikita Khrushchev
Lavrentiy Beria with Stalin (in background) and Stalin's daughter Svetlana
Joint State Political Directorate
The Joint State Political Directorate (JSPD) (OGPU; Russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление, romanized: Ob"yedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1923 to 1934.
Joint State Political Directorate