The Russian word troika, "threesome", was used during the Great Purge period in the Soviet Union to denote commissions of three persons as an additional instrument of extrajudicial punishment (внесудебная расправа, внесудебное преследование) introduced to supplement the legal system with a means for quick punishment of anti-Soviet elements.
First "operational troikas" (оперативная тройка) were introduced in the "center", in Moscow military okrug in 1929. The qualifier "operational" means that they were based on operational departments of OGPU. Gradually troika were introduced in other places of the Soviet Union, for various purposes, of different kinds: in addition to operational troikas there were "court troikas" (судебная тройка) and "extraordinary troikas" (чрезвычайная тройка), "special troikas" (специальная тройка).
A notable step was the NKVD Order no. 00447 by July 30, 1937 О репрессировании бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов ("About repression of former kulaks, criminals, and other anti-Soviet elements") undersigned by Nikolai Yezhov. By this order, troikas were created on the levels of republic, krai, and oblast. Investigation was to be performed by operative groups "in a speedy and simplified way", the results were to be delivered to troikas for trials.
The chairman of a troika was the chief of the corresponding territorial subdivision of NKVD (People's Commissar of a republican NKVD, etc.). Usually a troika included the prosecutor of the republic/krai/oblast in question; if not, he was allowed to be present at the session of a troika. The third person was usually the Communist Party secretary of the corresponding regional level. The staff of these troikas were personally specified in the Order # 00447.
Protocols of a troika session were passed to the corresponding operative group for executions of sentences. Times and places of executions of death sentences were ordered to be held in secret.
Troikas of this purpose functioned for about a year.
On September 15, 1938 the Politburo issued the resolution (# П64/22) about the creation of Special troikas (Особая тройка) for the period of Polish operation of the NKVD, functioned for about two months. The name was a derivative from the Special Council of the NKVD (Особое Совещание, ОСО). Later the experience was re-used during other National operations of the NKVD: Romanian, Latvian, Finnish.
The institution of troikas was abolished in 1938 by the Decree about Arrests, Prosecutor Supervision and Course of Investigation, issued jointly by the Sovnarkom and VKP(b) Central Committee.
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