SGON

Abbreviation of the Russian name of the Special Group for Special Purposes within the People’s Commissariat (Narcomat) of Internal Affairs (NKVD)—Spetsgruppa osobogo naznachenija. This group was created in 1934 to organize a special network for use in wartime. Headed by Yakov Serebryansky, the SGON had twelve stations (“residencies”) in Europe, Asia and the Americas during the 1930s, as well as a special school to train “illegal” intelligence officers and saboteurs. During World War II, many graduates of that school took part in sabotage operations behind the Soviet-Nazi front line.