Documentary sources on the activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the territory of the Kaliningrad region, 1945-1949

Scientific article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-1-83-98

For citation

Chentsov, Alexey S. (2025). Documentary sources on the activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the territory of the Kaliningrad region, 1945-1949, Herald of an Archivist, № 1, pp. 83-98, doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2025-1-83-98

Chentsov, Alexey S., Military University named after Prince Alexander Nevsky, Moscow, Russia

Documentary sources on the activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the territory of the Kaliningrad region, 1945-1949

Abstract

The article considers a set of documentary sources on the history of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the territory of the Kaliningrad region in 1945-1949, stored in the department of special funds and rehabilitation of victims of political repressions of the information center of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Kaliningrad region. The period considered in the article is an example of active work of state administration bodies on the integration of the former German province of East Prussia into the Soviet Union after the Second World War. At the same time, the available historical studies, which almost completely consider the early history of the Kaliningrad region, leave out the multifaceted activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs bodies, which played a significant role both in stabilizing the situation in the new region and in the very process of its integration into the USSR. The fonds containing documents devoted to the peculiarities of the operational situation in the territory of the Kaliningrad region, the creation and changes in the organizational and staff structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs bodies, and the improvement of the main areas of activity are described. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of documents concerning one of the elements of integration of the region into the Soviet Union - the eviction of the German population to the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany in 1947-1948. The peculiarities of the statistical reporting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for 1946-1949 are considered, which allows to reveal the peculiarities of the criminogenic situation in the region, the effectiveness of the investigative work carried out, as well as the characteristics of the persons who committed crimes. Characterization of the funds concerning the activity of a number of structural subdivisions of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Kaliningrad region and their peripheral bodies is given. The peculiarities of the archival collection are defined, connected with the absence of materials related to the activities of police bodies in the period under study and the work of peripheral structures of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Kaliningrad region, as well as limited access to individual cases and documents. The conclusion is that the documents of the archival collection of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Kaliningrad region are a valuable source on the early history of the region, the introduction of which into scientific circulation will clarify many issues related to the problems of integration of the territories that became part of the USSR after the Second World War.

Keywords

Kaliningrad / K?nigsberg region, East Prussia, integration of the new territories of the USSR, eviction of the German population in the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany in 1947-1948, bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, police, protection of public order, German population, historical source, archival collection.

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About authors

Chentsov Alexey S., PhD Historical Sciences, Prince Alexander Nevsky Military University, Ministry of Defense of the Russia, Research Center (fundamental military-historical problems), Senior Researcher, Moscow, Russia, +7-903-561-29-71, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The article was received in the editorial office on 01.04.2024, recommended for publication on 20.12.2024