Album procedure (альбомный порядок)
앨범 절차 (альбомный порядок)
An extrajudicial mass conviction procedure used in NKVD national operations during the Great Terror. A local 'dvoika' (NKVD chief and prosecutor) classified arrestees as first category (execution) or second category (camp imprisonment), and every ten days the lists were bound into albums and sent to Moscow, where Yezhov and Vyshinsky approved them en masse for immediate execution of sentences. Introduced on 11 August 1937 by Order No. 00485 for the Polish operation and extended to all national operations, it processed some 235,000 cases and handed down over 172,000 death sentences before being replaced by Special Troikas on 17 September 1938.
Sources
- Wikipedia (RU) Russian Wikipedia: describes the album procedure (альбомный порядок) as established by Order No. 00485, the dvoika mechanism, the ten-day album submission cycle, Yezhov and Vyshinsky's mass approval, and the September 1938 replacement by Special Troikas with aggregate conviction figures.
- Wikipedia (EN) English Wikipedia: dedicated article detailing the procedure's introduction via NKVD Order No. 00485 on 11 August 1937, classification into first/second categories, album compilation, Moscow approval, and eventual abolition on 17 November 1938.
- Wikipedia (EN) English Wikipedia: confirms the album procedure was established by this Order for the Polish operation and later applied to all national operations, with the dvoika and album mechanism.
- pmem.ru Petrov and Roginski (Memorial), 'The Polish Operation of the NKVD 1937–1938': scholarly article explaining the album procedure's creation by Order No. 00485, the physical format (horizontally bound lists resembling albums), the dvoika classification process, Moscow rubber-stamping by Yezhov, Vyshinsky, and their deputies, and the procedure's extension as the model for all national operations.