Today is November 3, which means exactly 3 months to the release of my short story, Fire in a Storm. The story is set in 1930’s Soviet Union, so time for a history lesson!

Don’t worry, we’ll keep this painless 😉

Mentally, at least. Physical pain was sometimes a necessary tool utilized by Stalin’s secret police, or NKVD — People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (yay for making the “people” feel a part of this!) The secret police feature very prominently in this story.

NKVD (Secret Police) emblem

So who were they and what did they do?

Wikipedia puts it well: “The main function of the NKVD was to protect the state security of the Soviet Union. This function was successfully accomplished through massive political repression, including authorized political murders, kidnappings and assassinations, inclusively in its international “secret” operations.”

In short they were–under Stalin’s authorization–responsible for hundreds of thousands of assassinations, executions and murders at home and abroad. And that’s not even touching on how many others were tortured or left to waste away in prisons and gulags (forced labor camps).

This is the uniform worn by the NKVD before WWII:

But of course you’re never fully dressed without a…

Aren’t you glad I chose from among their numbers, the main character for Fire in a Storm?

Join me on Dec 3 for a look at the NKVD’s vendetta against religion in the 1930s.

And leave a comment here, or join me on Facebook for a chance to win a free copy of Fire in a Storm and eleven other inspirational short stories in the anthology:

Coming Feb 3, 2015