put into effect. A similar procedure was applied to all other national operations of 1937–1938: German, Latvian, Finnish, Estonian, Romanian, Greek, and others. The procedure was amended in September 1938. To expedite the process, regional NKVD units were instructed to set up so-called "Special Troikas" (not to be confused with the regional Troikas established under the NKVD Order No. 00447) authorized to try the "national operations" cases locally. According to official Soviet state documents, the anti-Polish operation of the NKVD affected 139,815 people, 111,071 of whom were condemned to death without trial and executed immediately afterwards. See also Soviet Major-General Vasily Blokhin, the chief NKVD executioner References Polish operation of NKVD – By Petrov and Roginski, in Russian (Петров H.B., Рогинский А.Б. Польская операция НКВД 1937–1938 гг. // Репрессии против поляков и польских граждан / Под ред. А.Э. Гурьянова. – М.: «Звенья», 1997. С. 22–43) On the repressions against the Poles before the mass operation of 1937-1938 – By Khaustov, in Russian Government documents of the Soviet Union Political repression in the Soviet Union Poland–Soviet Union relations 1937 in the Soviet Union NKVD 1937 in international relations Stalinism in Poland