Secret Police
Definition
The secret police are law enforcement agencies operating in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual leader or a political regime.
Analogy
Think about secret police as sneaky hall monitors who not only enforce rules but also spy on students without their knowledge and report back to the principal (who might be someone like Stalin).
Related terms
NKVD: This was the main law enforcement agency of Soviet Russia and later the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule. They acted much like our sneaky hall monitors above.
Gulag: These were labor camps established by Joseph Stalin in Siberia for political prisoners - think about it as being sent off to a remote boarding school with harsh conditions just because you disagreed with your principal's policies.
Surveillance State: A surveillance state is a country where the government engages in pervasive surveillance of its population. Imagine if every move you made at school was watched by cameras controlled by those sneaky hall monitors!
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