X-Nico

4 unusual facts about State Political Directorate


Active measures

In "Trust Operation" (1921–1926), the State Political Directorate (OGPU) set up a fake anti-Bolshevik underground organization, "Monarchist Union of Central Russia".

Frantsishak Alyakhnovich

Alyakhnovich's Gulag experience became a basis for his 1934 book of memoirs У капцюрох ГПУ (U kaptsyurokh HPU, In the claws of the GPU), that was later translated into several languages.

Mytrofan Yavdas

On 8 September 1929, he was arrested by the OGPU as part of a Soviet anti-religious campaign and confined in the Poltava prison.

Pavlik Morozov

In 1932, at the age of 13, Morozov reported his father to the political police (GPU).



see also