During the Great Purge, which security organization forcibly extracted confessions and oversaw arrests and executions?

• A. NKVD
• B. KGB
• C. MVD
• D. OGPU

Answer: (A)

During the Great Purge, the main instrument of political repression was the NKVD. This agency, the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, served as the Soviet secret police and internal security service. It ran the show trials, directed mass arrests, and oversaw executions, often using torture or coercive interrogations to obtain confessions that could be used to justify punishments. The OGPU had been the earlier secret police body before being merged into the NKVD in 1934, so by the height of the Purge the NKVD was the central force behind these repressive actions. The KGB didn’t exist in this period (it would come later as a successor organization), and while the MVD dealt with internal affairs too, the specific role of forcing confessions and executing or imprisoning perceived enemies was carried out by the NKVD.