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Mail Call. After the German attack, Beria had the gigantic task of keeping order behind the Russian lines. He directed the mass exiles of the Crimean population (which was not "reliable") to Asia. The policeman of the soul also watched, in peace and war, over the Red Army's morale. One NKVD report, recently smuggled out of Russia, showed how that was done. Two security officers attached to the 348th Rifle Corps, sist Division, reported to the regional NKVD on such carefully tabulated items as political mood, giving away of military secrets, rumors, food, family affairs. The men's "reactions" (from their letters) were listed as "positive" or "negative." Sample positives: "As you know, our own Soviet Union is surrounded, but we are not scared." "We have borsch, hamburgers with spaghetti, stewed fruits." Sample negatives: "I have nothing to live for any more. . . ." "I see that we are being prepared for cannon fodder. . . ." "If we grumble, well, then one answer: a bullet."
Beria greatly expanded the forced-labor camps and inaugurated several efficiency-boosting devices. At dawn in many of his camps, as the prisoners drag themselves to work, MVD bands play lively march music. He also organized highly successful special corps of police dogs; the huge dogs (trained in a five-year course) catch escaping prisoners without human assistance, but are specially taught to be friendly toward officers and better-dressed civilians.
New Duties. More & more power gravitates toward Beria, not merely because he is an ambitious intriguer, but because power brings more power. Naturally, Beria was put in charge of atomic-energy research. His spies abroad and his scientists at home are an integrated team. His men run the Jachymov uranium mines in Czechoslovakia. Naturally, his stooge, Usevolod Nikolaevich Merkulov, controls the U.S.S.R.'s "investments" in occupied countries. Foreign Office men and diplomats know that Beria's agents dog them. Factory managers feel Beria looking over their shoulders.
Direct boss of the MVD is Sergei N. Kruglov, a big (6 ft. 2 in., 245-lb.), baby-faced hulk who watched over Vyacheslav Molotov at San Francisco. Kruglov now bosses half a million men who wear Red Army uniforms and the distinctive MVD blue caps. How many million spies and informers he has, no one outside the Kremlin can say.
The MVD has its own shoe and uniform factories; they get top priorities on raw materials. There are special MVD schools, and sanatoriums for policemen who become nervous. The MVD has also organized the nationwide "Dynamo" sports clubs. Reported an American recently returned from Russia: "There were few things I enjoyed more in Moscow than going to the Dynamo football stadium where 80,000 fans cheered like mad for Tsedeka (the Red Army team) to knock hell out of the police eleven. Maybe it didn't mean a thing. But on the other hand maybe it did."