Internal troops

in 2009 Internal troops, sometimes alternatively translated as interior troops or interior ministry forces, are a type of military and gendarmerie-like law enforcement services in the post-Soviet states and former Soviet-aligned states. Internal troops are subordinated to the interior ministry (or interior minister) rather than the ministry of defence (or defence minister) and are responsible for internal security. Interior troops originated in the Soviet Union and similar services were adopted by countries within the Soviet sphere of influence. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, internal troops in some post-Soviet states have been abolished and replaced with a national guard service. Current states with internal troops include Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Former states include Armenia (until 2002), Georgia (until 2004), Ukraine (until 2014), Kazakhstan (until 2014), and Russia (until 2016). Mongolia abolished its internal troops service in 2014 but refounded it as a reserve force of the Mongolian Armed Forces in 2017.

in 2009]] Internal troops, sometimes alternatively translated as interior troops or interior ministry forces, are a type of military and gendarmerie-like law enforcement services in the post-Soviet states and former Soviet-aligned states. Internal troops are subordinated to the interior ministry (or interior minister) rather than the ministry of defence (or defence minister) and are responsible for internal security. Interior troops originated in the Soviet Union and similar services were adopted by countries within the Soviet sphere of influence. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, internal troops in some post-Soviet states have been abolished and replaced with a national guard service. Current states with internal troops include Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Former states include Armenia (until 2002), Georgia (until 2004), Ukraine (until 2014), Kazakhstan (until 2014), and Russia (until 2016). Mongolia abolished its internal troops service in 2014 but refounded it as a reserve force of the Mongolian Armed Forces in 2017.

History

The Russian internal troops were formed in 1919¹ under the Cheka (later NKVD, and were known as "NKVD Troops", formerly the "Internal Security Forces" (Russian: Voyska vnutrenney okhrany Respubliki or VOKhR)), remained there with all the mergers and splittings of Soviet state security services and ended up under the control of the police-like MVD. The best-known of the internal troops divisions is OMSDON based near Moscow which traces its roots to the "OSNAZ" detachment of the VChK (formerly 1st Automobile Fighting Detachment of the VTsIK). It was later reorganized into the DON (Special-Purpose Division) of the OGPU and the NKVD. These forces were introduced during the Soviet era, initially to provide armed, tactical support for the militsiya, the equivalent of the major police organizations found in other countries. Over time, internal troops also gained responsibility for safeguarding of highly-important facilities (like nuclear power plants), large-scale crowd control and prison security. As such, these forces have been involved in major wars as well as combating insurgencies and other civil unrest, including the Russian Civil War, World War II, mass repressions of Stalinist era, and the Chechen Wars. During wartime, internal troops fall under armed forces military command and fulfill the missions of local defence and rear area security.

General organization

]] in Bishkek in 2015.]] Despite being subordinated to a civilian police authority, internal troops are a military force with centralized system of ranks, command and service. The chief commander and staff of the Troops report only to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, maintaining their separate chain of command. Soviet VV units were predominantly formed up of conscripts drafted by the same system as for the Soviet Army. Modern troops in Russia and Ukraine are experiencing a slow transition to the contract personnel system. VV officers are trained in both own special academies and the army's military academies. The main kinds of internal troops are field units, prison security units, various facility-guarding units and special forces like Rus. Since the 1980s, the several special forces units that developed within the VV, were created to deal with terrorism and hostage crises. Fields units are essentially light motorized infantry, similar to respective regular army units by their organization and weapons. Soviet prison security units ( ; criminal slang: vertuhai) originally consisted of the units that guard the perimeters of the prisons, and the prisoner transport teams (actually konvoi, literally "convoy"). In post-Soviet countries, some or all of the prison-related tasks were transferred to other agencies.

Internal troops in popular culture

The Guard is a Soviet 1990 drama film, based on the real story of VV soldier who killed his entire prisoner transport unit as a result of dedovschina (brutal hazing system).

Equipment

Helicopters

Mil Mi-6 Hook Mil Mi-8 Hip Mil Mi-24 Hind

See also

Internal Troops of the Soviet Union Internal Security Corps (Poland) Internal Defense Forces (Poland) National Guard Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft (East Germany) People's Armed Police (China) Special Corps of Gendarmes (Russian Empire) Social Security Forces (North Korea) Intervention Police (Hungary) Sarandoy (Democratic Republic of Afghanistan)

References

Works cited

Further reading

"Internal Troops of the MVD SSSR", by William C. Fuller, College Station Papers, Defence Studies, 1983. "Soviet Union, a County Study", Library of Congress Country Studies. László Békési, György Török: KGB and Soviet Security Uniforms and Militaria 1917–1991 in Colour Photographs, Ramsbury (UK), 2002, .

External links

Agentura.ru: Internal Troops Structure of the Internal Troops Nikita Astashin. The establishment, airlift, and deployment of a task force for a post-riot area: the Soviet experience in Temirtau, 1959 – the story of one of the most significant operations carried out by the Internal Troops after 1945.

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1353562431 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.