Torgsin and the Political Police

Abstract

This chapter reviews the relationship between Torgsin and the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU), the political police. At first, the OGPU considered Torgsin to be harmful and argued against opening it to Soviet customers. After the politburo made a positive decision on the matter, however, the OGPU had to obey. Its representatives were on the governmental commission that, at the end of 1931, defined the regions and methods of Torgsin's activities. The local OGPU offices provided information to Torgsin's emissaries about the “gold potential” of the region and the expediency of opening a hard-currency store there. Torgsin used the OGPU for many other purposes — to put pressure on negligent suppliers, to transport secret correspondence and valuables, to purge its apparatus of “socially alien elements,” and to fight embezzlement and other economic crimes, to name a few. Alongside this cooperation, there was a rivalry between Torgsin and the OGPU caused by the fact that both relied on the same source — people's valuable savings — to fulfill hard-currency and gold quotas prescribed by the state.