The paper analyses the practice of awarding law enforcement bodies after the establishment of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs as a result of the merger between the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Republics in 1933 until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. It is stated here that the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) border and internal troops, which were part of the Soviet Armed Forces, took an active part in the armed conflicts with Japan and Finland. The study is based on historical method, objectivity and systematic approach. To process quantitative data on those awarded during the pre-war armed conflicts, the author used statistical analysis for calculating the results obtained by means of continuous sampling. Based on the archive materials, published data and personal sources, it is argued that at the time of the merger, the award systems of the OGPU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were quite similar; for instance, they had similar departmental decorations. Further, it is pointed out that practically during the entire period under study, up to the establishment of a single departmental award “Honoured Worker of the NKVD” in1940, similar earlier awards of the Cheka-OGPU and Workers’ and Peasants’ Militia were used. There were no awards to distinguish law enforcement activities; therefore, state labour decorations were often used instead. The award practice during the pre-war conflicts shows that employees of NKVD internal and border troops were distinguished similarly to Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army officers, the number of the former being approximately 3 % of the total number of the awarded. During military operations, NKVD units and formations were put under the army command, making the rewarding of Chekists difficult since law enforcement bodies were linked to different people’s commissariats. The author concludes that state awards were rarely used to distinguish law enforcement activities. Primarily, NKVD employees and groups of employees were presented with departmental awards of material (valuable gifts, such as award weapon and money) and moral (certificates of merit and acknowledgement) nature.