While the original document is undated, sources provide various dates from October 11, 1939 to January 21, 1941. However, the NKGB was created only on February 3, 1941 and so could not have issued documents earlier. A copy of the instructions, found in
Šiauliai, had a stamp that the document was received on June 7. Therefore, the instructions must have been written sometime between February and June 1941. The Serov Instructions are often confused with
NKVD Order No. 001223, a completely different document that was signed by
Lavrenty Beria on October 11, 1939, which was prepared by the
People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and listed various groups of people (anticommunists, former military or police personnel, large landowners, industrialists etc.) to be targeted by Soviet security structures according to the
Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code). The original Serov Instructions had no date or number. The confusion possibly originates from the Third Interim Report by the
United States House Select Committee to Investigate the Incorporation of the Baltic States into the U.S.S.R., which published the full text of the Instructions under a misleading heading as Order № 001223. == See also ==