Special Conference of the MGB (OSO)
MGB 특별회의
An administrative punitive body under the USSR Ministry of State Security (MGB) empowered to sentence persons deemed 'socially dangerous' to exile, banishment, or labour-camp confinement without trial. It was the continuation under the MGB (from 1946) of the same body created under the NKVD in 1934, and was abolished on 1 September 1953 after Stalin's death. A procurator attended its sessions, but the accused had no right to defence counsel, witness examination, or appeal.
In depth
Background and Legal Basis
The Special Conference (OSO) was created under the NKVD by a decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars on 5 November 1934. In November 1941, a State Defence Committee resolution empowered it to pass death sentences for counter-revolutionary crimes during wartime; after the war the maximum penalty reverted to 25 years' deprivation of freedom. When the NKVD was split into the MGB and MVD in 1946, the Special Conference was transferred to the MGB.
Procedure
The OSO decided cases in absentia, based solely on investigative documents. Its decisions were final and could not be appealed. The procurator could lodge a protest with the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee (later the Supreme Soviet), but in practice this right was almost never exercised. In this respect it resembled the NKVD troikas of 1937–1938, but whereas troikas were local ad hoc bodies, the Special Conference was a permanent central organ that processed far larger numbers.
Scale
Between 1934 and its abolition in 1953, the Special Conference convicted 442,531 people: 10,101 to death, 360,921 to deprivation of freedom, and 67,539 to internal exile or banishment.
Role in the Leningrad Affair
In the Leningrad Affair (1949–1950), the OSO was a central instrument. According to an MVD report to Khrushchev of December 1953, of the 214 people convicted in the case, 160 were sentenced by the MGB Special Conference. Of these, 105 were exiled to remote regions on terms of 5 to 8 years purely on the basis of kinship. They included a 67-year-old mother, a 72-year-old father, and a sister arrested while pregnant. While the Military Collegium handled the principal defendants, the OSO disposed of their families and associates administratively, without any judicial proceeding.
Related historical events
Sources
- Wikipedia (RU) full institutional history of the OSO from NKVD through MGB, its powers, composition, and total conviction figures (442,531)
- Wikipedia (EN) English-language overview confirming the OSO continued under the MGB after 1946 and was abolished 1 September 1953
- diletant.media 3 May 1954 CPSU Presidium resolution stating that the OSO of the former MGB and the Military Collegium together convicted over 200 people in the Leningrad Affair, the majority being close and distant relatives of the convicted
- istmat.org Kruglov/Serov report to Khrushchev (10 December 1953) giving exact figures: 160 of 214 convicted by the OSO MGB, 105 exiled purely on kinship, with specific examples including a 67-year-old mother and a 72-year-old father
- scepsis.net Zhores Medvedev on the OSO as an extrajudicial body issuing rapid in-absentia verdicts based solely on investigative documents