Where do you work? - At the OGPU! Deciphering this abbreviation today is completely harmless. This is the abbreviated name of the Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Here they teach young people to sow the rational, good, eternal, to build the right relationship with the younger generation and much more to what is needed in everyday life ... applied psychology, for example. And they give an opportunity to get a specific profession. And there were times when these four letters caused delight in some, and fear in others.
OGPU until 1930 - Orenburg Institute of Public Education
The history of the 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 institution was V. Ya. Struminsky, who later became a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and doctor of sciences. And then everything was simple: one and a half hundred applicants took training, who for the most part were even not very good at reading and writing. But dashing trouble began!
State status of the OGPI and OGPU
After 1930, ONE (public education) received state status. Its area expanded, the former male gymnasium entered it. It was here that G. Malenkov, a prominent party leader of the Stalin era, who, after the death of the “father of the peoples”, held the post of pre-minister (in modern terms, the prime minister), received higher education.
Training took place in the early thirties by correspondence, evening and full-time. There were agronomic, physical-technical, chemical-biological and socio-literary faculties. OGPU then did not call this institute. He was just the Orenburg edifice, or OGPI.
Today he is assigned university status. There were thirteen faculties, six educational buildings, three dormitories, in general, a large and respected institution.
Incomprehensible but formidable name
But not only the name of the institution is hidden in four simple letters - OGPU. The decoding of this abbreviation (the 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 country's chief security officer F.E. Dzerzhinsky, after whose death V.R. Menzhinsky took over the post. The next head of the OGPU was G. G. Yagoda, who, unlike his predecessors, died not of disease, but of a bullet. He was shot by a court verdict.
OGPU functions in the Stalin years
The goals of this power structure were clear, they were even written down in the 1924 Constitution. According to the ninth chapter of Article 61, the maintenance of public order and the fight against banditry was assigned to the republican departments 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. Deciphering the abbreviation did not indicate this at all - it was just a political department, but in essence this body was a state security service, into which it was later renamed, first called the Ministry (MGB), and then, during the Khrushchev thaw, a committee (KGB with SM).
How OGPU differed from the NKVD
In the USSR, there has always been a difference between the police and state security bodies, even in those years when the security forces formally submitted to a single leadership. Fought against anti-Soviet elements, spies (or those who looked like them), saboteurs and just storytellers of some jokes, the formidable OGPU. The NKVD was engaged in more prosaic affairs: investigation of criminal offenses (thefts, robberies, murders), prosecution of hooligans, parasites, drunkards and other "remnants of the old world." But the Stalinist “political secret police” not only fought on this invisible front, its functions also included monitoring the work of the police.
OGPU intelligence
But not only the hunt for the hapless "enemies of the people" and careless lovers of jokes was dealt with by the OGPU. Deciphering radiograms of very real German spies, analytical work, intelligence gathering, and many sensitive government tasks were carried out by specialized departments of the Moscow center. JV Stalin did not trust the collection of confidential information about the activity of any one organization hostile to the USSR. Soviet intelligence services abroad acted independently, there were several. The Comintern was the largest supplier of important strategic information, but other information sources operated abroad, which are usually called competent (the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army, the 5th Division of the GUGB, then the 1st Directorate of the NKGB, the 4th Directorate of the NKVD and others) . The brave Soviet intelligence officers from the OGPU contributed to the overall victory over Nazism.
Popular decryption options
Today, the abbreviation of the Omsk State Pedagogical University can be laughed at boldly; Surely many student skits and KVNs cannot do without jokes about various funny options for interpreting this four capital letters (Very Loud Teacher Fell, Points - The Main Sign of Mind, etc.) In the Stalin years, there were words and abbreviations regarding which to show humor It was extremely risky. But people still joked, despite the danger of “knocking on the camps with bowlers”, even over the OGPU. The decoding of this formidable name could be different: “Unscrew the Head - Try to Run away”, “Autumn, Naked Birds Fly Away”, “Citizens Party Again” - these are some examples of folk art that testify to the validity of the saying “The worse, the funnier”.