OGPU: decoding old and new

Where do you work? "To the OGPU!" The interpretation of this abbreviation these days is completely harmless. This is the abbreviated name of the Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Here, young people are taught to sow the reasonable, good, eternal, to build the right relationship with the younger generation and many more things that are needed in everyday life ... applied psychology, for example. And give the opportunity to get a specific profession. And there were times when these four letters in some caused delight, and in others - fear.

OGPU until 1930 - the Orenburg Institute of Public Education

The history of Orenburg Pedagogical University began in the formidable 1919, during the Civil War, which was blazing throughout the territory of the former Russian Empire. The initiator of the establishment of the educational institution was V. Ya. Struminsky, who later became a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and a doctor of science. And then everything was simple: one hundred and fifty students entered the training, which, for the most part, could not even read and write well. But dashing trouble began!

State status of OGPI and OGPU

After 1930, the AEO (public education) received state status. Expanded its area, it included the former male gymnasium. It was here that M.Malenkov, a prominent party figure in the Stalinist era, who after the death of the "father of nations" postponed the presidium (if expressed in modern terms, the prime minister) received higher education.

Education was in the early thirties for correspondence, evening and day time. Agronomical, physico-technical, chemical-biological and public-literary faculties functioned. The OGPU then did not call this institution. He was just an Orenburg pedlin, or OGPI.

Today he is given the status of a university. The faculties became thirteen, academic buildings - six, dormitories - three, in general, the institution is big and respected.

An incomprehensible but terrible name

But not only the name of the educational institution is hidden behind four simple letters - OGPU. The deciphering of this abbreviation (United State Political Administration under the Council of People's Commissars) was well known to Soviet citizens since 1923. In the first three years, this powerful organization was led by the chief Chekist of the country F. E. Dzerzhinsky, after the death of which the post was taken by V. R. Menzhinsky. The next head of the OGPU was GG Yagoda, who, unlike his predecessors, died not of disease, but of a bullet. He was shot on the verdict of the court.

Functions of the OGPU in the Stalin years

The goals of this power structure were clear, they were even recorded in the Constitution of 1924. According to the ninth chapter of Article 61, the maintenance of public order and the fight against banditry was entrusted to the republican administrations of the NKVD (then there were only four of them). Counter-revolutionary activity and espionage, or rather, overcoming them, were the concern of the OGPU of the USSR. The deciphering of the abbreviation did not indicate this at all - it was simply political management, but in its essence this body was a state security service, in which it was later renamed, first calling the ministry (MGB), and then, in the years of the Khrushchev thaw, a committee (KGB) With CM).

Than the OGPU differed from the NKVD

In the USSR, there was always a difference between the police and state security agencies, even in those years when the siloviki formally submitted to a single leadership. Struggled with anti-Soviet elements, spies (or those who looked like them), saboteurs and simply the narrators of some anecdotes, the formidable OGPU. The NKVD was engaged in more prosaic cases: the investigation of criminal offenses (thefts, robberies, murders), bringing to justice hooligans, parasites, drunkards and other "remnants of the old world". But Stalin's "political secret police" not only fought on this invisible front, its functions included also monitoring the work of the police.

Intelligence OGPU

But not only hunting for hapless "enemies of the people" and careless fans of anecdotes engaged in the OGPU. Decoding of radiograms of quite real German spies, analytical work, intelligence gathering and many delicate government tasks were carried out by specialized departments of the Moscow center. JV Stalin did not trust the collection of confidential information about the activities of any one organization hostile to the USSR. Soviet intelligence services abroad acted independently, there were several of them. The largest supplier of important strategic information was the Comintern, but other information sources that are called competent (the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army, the 5th Department of the GUGB, then the First NKGB Directorate, the 4th Department of the NKVD, and others) operated abroad. . Brave Soviet scouts from the OGPU contributed to the overall victory over Nazism.

Folk decryption options

Today, the abbreviation of the Omsk State Pedagogical University can be laughed at, no one will punish it. Surely, many student skits and KVNs do not do without jokes about the various amusing options for interpreting this four capital letters (Very Loud Teacher Fell, Glasses - The Main Sign of Mind, etc.) In the Stalin years there were words and abbreviations for which to show humor Was extremely risky. But people still joked, despite the danger of "tapping their kettles in the camps," even over the OGPU. The decoding of this terrible name could be different: "Unscrew the Head - Try Escape", "Autumn, the Bare Birds Fly away", "Again the Citizens Party Upekla", - here are some examples of folk art that testify to the fairness of the saying "The more terrible, the funnier."