Ministry of Internal Affairs

The NKVD, identified in the book’s historical note as the Soviet state security service, is associated with the 1944 forced deportation of the Crimean Tatars. Its brief appearance places the novel’s contemporary story of disappearance and uncertain authority against a longer history of state violence and displacement.

Historical role

In May 1944, on Stalin’s orders, the NKVD forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars to Uzbekistan. The deportees were mostly women, children, and elderly people. The book’s note estimates that around 8,000 died during the journey, with thousands more dying in exile.

This historical reference gives context to the Mustafayev family’s experience under later rule in Crimea. The novel does not present the NKVD as an active participant in the contemporary plot; instead, its mention recalls an earlier state campaign that uprooted the Crimean Tatar population.

Echoes in the contemporary plot

Akhtem Mustafayev has been missing for twenty months when Sergey Sergeyich reaches his family’s home. Akhtem’s wife, Aisylu, tells him that Akhtem was taken. She later explains that three people were seized after travelling together to a mosque in Bakhchysarai; their car was found empty, and a child had seen them being forced into a minibus. The family has received no reliable account of where they were taken.

When Sergeyich asks an official about Akhtem, the official tells him that the case is outside their hands and refers to the possibility that Crimean Self-Defence or the Cossacks were involved. He briefly calls Aisylu a widow, then retracts the word, saying the case is not closed. The exchange exposes how an uncertain disappearance can leave a family suspended between hope and the presumption of death.

Discovery and significance

Akhtem is eventually found buried in the woods, having been killed long before his body is discovered. Aisylu thanks Sergeyich for going to Simferopol, saying that without his efforts Akhtem would not have been returned. The novel thus links the family’s delayed knowledge and burial to a wider history in which Crimean Tatars have experienced forced removal and insecurity under state power.

The NKVD’s role in the book is historical rather than dramatic: it appears in a note, not as a character or organization acting in the present-day scenes. That concise reference nevertheless widens the frame around Akhtem’s disappearance, setting an earlier mass deportation beside a later family’s prolonged search for information, a body, and the possibility of mourning.