Drawing on unique documents that have not yet been introduced into scientific use, the article reviews the activities of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs in training its agencies for probable border war with China. A series of events was conducted by Shchelokov, Minister of the Internal Affairs of the USSR, in order to strengthen the regional internal affairs agencies. It included introduction of a list of ‘advanced alert,’ ‘special period,’ and ‘covert mobilization’ signals, accompanied by a list of mandatory positions. The article focuses on the work of internal affairs agencies in the Far East border areas and the Khabarovsk special secondary school of militia of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR in particular, all of which hurried to fine-tune public order and state security maintenance, evacuation of the population and the internal affairs bodies in case of onset of the Special Period. Significantly, the Khabarovsk special secondary school of militia of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR was to become not just a base for accelerated training of officers, but also a military reserve in case of enemy assault. It also was to enforce public order in case of mass riots. The manpower strength of the school allowed to form a battalion of 3 rifle companies. The author underscores that all measures implemented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR were carried out in close cooperation with the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and its regional agencies. Training for Special Period was multifaceted, it included propaganda support via mass media, control over radio-broadcasting in the territories bordering China, camouflage of installations at the expense of the forest fund, mobilization by rail and road transport, etc.
