Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union)

Ministry of Internal Affairs

Министерство внутренних дел СССР Ministerstvo vnutrennih del SSSR
Badge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Ministry of Internal Affairs headquarters in Moscow
Agency overview
Formed	15 March 1946; 78 years ago (1946-03-15)
Preceding agency	NKVD (1934–1946)
Dissolved	26 December 1991; 32 years ago (1991-12-26)
Superseding agencies	Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan
Jurisdiction	Soviet Union
Headquarters	Zhitnaya St. 16, Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union 55°43′51″N 37°36′50″E / 55.73083°N 37.61389°E / 55.73083; 37.61389
Minister responsible	Minister of Interior
Child agencies	Militsiya Traffic Safety Internal Troops

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR (MVD; Russian: Министерство внутренних дел СССР (МВД), romanized: Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del SSSR) was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1991.

The MVD was established as the successor to the NKVD during reform of the People's Commissariats into the Ministries of the Soviet Union in 1946. The MVD did not include agencies concerned with secret policing unlike the NKVD, with the function being assigned to the Ministry of State Security (MGB). The MVD and MGB were briefly merged into a single ministry from March 1953 until the MGB was split off as the Committee for State Security (KGB) in March 1954. The MVD was headed by the Minister of Interior and responsible for many internal services in the Soviet Union such as law enforcement and prisons, the Internal Troops, Traffic Safety, the Gulag system, and the internal migration system. The MVD was dissolved upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and succeeded by its branches in the post-Soviet states.