""The largest national operation was against the Polish, when 139,815 Soviet Poles were arrested and 111,071 were executed.Footnote9 In addition, 56,787 ethnic Germans were arrested in the course of the German operations, of which 41,898 individuals were shot by the decision of двойка, a two-person body made up of the NKVD chief and procurator. About a thousand of the victims were foreigners, citizens of Nazi Germany and Austria.Footnote10 A further 17,851 Soviet Latvians were arrested and 13,444 of them were executed. The next operation was against the Finnish with over 12,000 victims, of whom 9,078 were murdered. Several other ‘national operations’ were organized by the NKVD against Greek, Bulgarian, Afghan, Romanian, and Iranian descendants."
