NKVD and USSR PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE ORDER No. 221
June 22, 1941

L.P. BERIA - V.M. BOCHKOV

We order:
1. To halt the release of counter-revolutionaries, bandits, recidivists and other dangerous criminals from the camps, prisons and colonies.
2. To concentrate the selected prisoners, and also Polish contingents, Germans and foreigners in zones with reinforced guard and to stop using them for work unsupervised. Prisoners, remaining in the camp, are to be kept under strictest guard.
3. To arrest prisoners, against whom materials of anti-Soviet activities are in possession.
4. To shift the guarding of camps, prisons, and colonies into martial law mode.
5. To halt the leaves of all workers of the camps, prisons and colonies, and workers of the ITL prosecutor's office, and to recall immediately those on leave.
6. To halt all correspondence of the prisoners, and also of those, remaining free in spec-colonies.
7. Report the execution within 24 hours.

(translation by Electronic Museum Canada from the original Russian language version)

SOVIET ATROCITIES COMMITTED IN OCCUPIED EASTERN POLAND, JUNE-JULY 1941