Thus, simply by the meaning of the word “fist”, these were completely criminal elements. Not to mention the fact that any moneylender needs the services of “collectors”, who in the villages were called “podkulakniks”, and in general, one can imagine what they did.
And just think about it, drug trafficking is prohibited in our country, for example. And the traders are imprisoned. Is this political repression? What is the correct name for this? You will say that I am “distorting”, that this is something outrageous. But in some countries, this activity is allowed with certain reservations. In my opinion, the analogy is quite appropriate: some were banned from one type of economic activity that harms society - drug trafficking, others were banned from another type of economic activity that harmed society, and which society called “world-eating.” By the way, the dispossession of the 2nd (largest) category of kulaks took place by decision of the same “society”: “Lists of kulak households (second category) evicted to remote areas are established by district executive committees based on decisions of collective farmers’ meetings, farm laborers’ and poor peasants’ meetings and approved by the regional executive committees" .
By the way, I think that the activities of modern “kulaks” (“microcredit”) should be outlawed...
The conversation about fists will continue.
Stalin's repressions:
what was that?
On the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression
In this material we have collected the memories of eyewitnesses, fragments from official documents, figures and facts provided by researchers in order to provide answers to questions that haunt our society again and again. The Russian state has never been able to give clear answers to these questions, so until now, everyone is forced to look for answers on their own.
Who was affected by the repression?
Representatives of various groups of the population fell under the flywheel of Stalin's repressions. The most famous names are artists, Soviet leaders and military leaders. About peasants and workers, often only names are known from execution lists and camp archives. They did not write memoirs, they tried not to remember the camp past unnecessarily, and their relatives often abandoned them. The presence of a convicted relative often meant the end of a career or education, so the children of arrested workers and dispossessed peasants might not know the truth about what happened to their parents.
When we heard about another arrest, we never asked, “Why was he taken?”, but there were few like us. People distraught with fear asked each other this question for pure self-comfort: people are taken for something, which means they won’t take me, because there’s nothing! They became sophisticated, coming up with reasons and justifications for each arrest - “She really is a smuggler,” “He allowed himself to do this,” “I myself heard him say...” And again: “You should have expected this - he has such terrible character”, “It always seemed to me that something was wrong with him”, “This is a complete stranger.” That’s why the question: “Why was he taken?” – became forbidden for us. It's time to understand that people are taken for nothing.
- Nadezhda Mandelstam , writer and wife of Osip Mandelstam
From the very beginning of terror to this day, attempts have not ceased to present it as a fight against “sabotage”, enemies of the fatherland, limiting the composition of the victims to certain classes hostile to the state - kulaks, bourgeois, priests. The victims of terror were depersonalized and turned into “contingents” (Poles, spies, saboteurs, counter-revolutionary elements). However, political terror was total in nature, and its victims were representatives of all groups of the population of the USSR: the “cause of engineers”, the “cause of doctors”, persecution of scientists and entire directions in science, personnel purges in the army before and after the war, deportations of entire peoples.
Poet Osip Mandelstam
He died during transit; the place of death is not known for certain.
Directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold
Marshals of the Soviet Union
Tukhachevsky (shot), Voroshilov, Egorov (shot), Budyony, Blucher (died in Lefortovo prison).
How many people were affected?
According to the estimates of the Memorial Society, there were 4.5-4.8 million people convicted for political reasons, and 1.1 million people were shot.
Estimates of the number of victims of repression vary and depend on the calculation method. If we take into account only those convicted on political charges, then according to an analysis of statistics from the regional departments of the KGB of the USSR, carried out in 1988, the bodies of the Cheka-GPU-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB arrested 4,308,487 people, of which 835,194 were shot. According to the same data, about 1.76 million people died in the camps. According to the estimates of the Memorial Society, there were more people convicted for political reasons - 4.5-4.8 million people, of which 1.1 million people were shot.
The victims of Stalin's repressions were representatives of some peoples who were subjected to forced deportation (Germans, Poles, Finns, Karachais, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Crimean Tatars and others). This is about 6 million people. Every fifth person did not live to see the end of the journey - about 1.2 million people died during the difficult conditions of deportation. During the dispossession, about 4 million peasants suffered, of which at least 600 thousand died in exile.
In total, about 39 million people suffered as a result of Stalin's policies. The number of victims of repression includes those who died in the camps from disease and harsh working conditions, deprived people, victims of hunger, victims of unjustifiably cruel decrees “on absenteeism” and “on three ears of corn” and other groups of the population who received excessively harsh punishment for minor offenses due to repressive the nature of the legislation and the consequences of that time.
Why was this necessary?
The worst thing is not that you are suddenly taken away from a warm, well-established life like this overnight, not Kolyma and Magadan, and hard labor. At first, the person desperately hopes for a misunderstanding, for a mistake by the investigators, then painfully waits for them to call him, apologize, and let him go home to his children and husband. And then the victim no longer hopes, no longer painfully searches for an answer to the question of who needs all this, then there is a primitive struggle for life. The worst thing is the senselessness of what is happening... Does anyone know what this was for?
Evgenia Ginzburg,
writer and journalist
In July 1928, speaking at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Joseph Stalin described the need to fight “alien elements” as follows: “As we move forward, the resistance of capitalist elements will increase, the class struggle will intensify, and Soviet power, forces which will increase more and more, will pursue a policy of isolating these elements, a policy of disintegrating the enemies of the working class, and finally, a policy of suppressing the resistance of the exploiters, creating a basis for the further advancement of the working class and the bulk of the peasantry.”
In 1937, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR N. Yezhov published order No. 00447, in accordance with which a large-scale campaign to destroy “anti-Soviet elements” began. They were recognized as the culprits of all the failures of the Soviet leadership: “Anti-Soviet elements are the main instigators of all kinds of anti-Soviet and sabotage crimes, both on collective and state farms, and in transport, and in some areas of industry. The state security agencies are faced with the task of most mercilessly defeating this entire gang of anti-Soviet elements, protecting the working Soviet people from their counter-revolutionary machinations and, finally, once and for all putting an end to their vile subversive work against the foundations of the Soviet state. In accordance with this, I order - from August 5, 1937, in all republics, territories and regions, to begin an operation to repress former kulaks, active anti-Soviet elements and criminals.” This document marks the beginning of an era of large-scale political repression, which later became known as the “Great Terror.”
Stalin and other members of the Politburo (V. Molotov, L. Kaganovich, K. Voroshilov) personally compiled and signed execution lists - pre-trial circulars listing the number or names of victims to be convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court with a predetermined punishment. According to researchers, the death sentences of at least 44.5 thousand people bear Stalin’s personal signatures and resolutions.
The myth of the effective manager Stalin
Until now, in the media and even in textbooks one can find justification for political terror in the USSR by the need to carry out industrialization in a short time. Since the release of the decree obliging those convicted for more than 3 years to serve their sentences in forced labor camps, prisoners have been actively involved in the construction of various infrastructure facilities. In 1930, the Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps of the OGPU (GULAG) was created and huge flows of prisoners were sent to key construction sites. During the existence of this system, from 15 to 18 million people passed through it.
During the 1930-1950s, the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Moscow Canal, was carried out by GULAG prisoners. Prisoners built Uglich, Rybinsk, Kuibyshev and other hydroelectric power stations, erected metallurgical plants, objects of the Soviet nuclear program, the longest railways and highways. Dozens of Soviet cities were built by Gulag prisoners (Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Dudinka, Norilsk, Vorkuta, Novokuibyshevsk and many others).
Beria himself characterized the efficiency of prisoners’ labor as low: “The existing food standard in the Gulag of 2000 calories is designed for a person sitting in prison and not working. In practice, even this reduced standard is supplied by supplying organizations only by 65-70%. Therefore, a significant percentage of the camp workforce falls into the categories of weak and useless people in production. In general, labor utilization is no higher than 60-65 percent.”
To the question “is Stalin necessary?” we can give only one answer - a firm “no”. Even without taking into account the tragic consequences of famine, repression and terror, even considering only economic costs and benefits - and even making all possible assumptions in favor of Stalin - we get results that clearly indicate that Stalin's economic policies did not lead to positive results. Forced redistribution significantly worsened productivity and social welfare.
- Sergey Guriev , economist
The economic efficiency of Stalinist industrialization at the hands of prisoners is also rated extremely low by modern economists. Sergei Guriev gives the following figures: by the end of the 30s, productivity in agriculture had reached only the pre-revolutionary level, and in industry it was one and a half times lower than in 1928. Industrialization led to huge losses in welfare (minus 24%).
Brave New World
Stalinism is not only a system of repression, it is also the moral degradation of society. The Stalinist system made tens of millions of slaves - it broke people morally. One of the most terrible texts I have read in my life is the tortured “confessions” of the great biologist Academician Nikolai Vavilov. Only a few can endure torture. But many – tens of millions! – were broken and became moral monsters for fear of being personally repressed.
- Alexey Yablokov , Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Philosopher and historian of totalitarianism Hannah Arendt explains: in order to turn Lenin's revolutionary dictatorship into a completely totalitarian rule, Stalin had to artificially create an atomized society. To achieve this, an atmosphere of fear was created in the USSR and denunciation was encouraged. Totalitarianism did not destroy real “enemies,” but imaginary ones, and this is its terrible difference from an ordinary dictatorship. None of the destroyed sections of society were hostile to the regime and probably would not become hostile in the foreseeable future.
In order to destroy all social and family ties, repressions were carried out in such a way as to threaten the same fate to the accused and everyone in the most ordinary relationships with him, from casual acquaintances to closest friends and relatives. This policy penetrated deeply into Soviet society, where people, out of selfish interests or fearing for their lives, betrayed neighbors, friends, even members of their own families. In their quest for self-preservation, masses of people abandoned their own interests and became, on the one hand, a victim of power, and on the other, its collective embodiment.
The consequence of the simple and ingenious technique of "guilt for association with the enemy" is that, as soon as a person is accused, his former friends immediately turn into his worst enemies: in order to save their own skin, they rush out with unsolicited information and denunciations, supplying non-existent data against accused. Ultimately, it was by developing this technique to its latest and most fantastic extremes that the Bolshevik rulers succeeded in creating an atomized and disunited society, the likes of which we have never seen before, and whose events and catastrophes would hardly have occurred in such a pure form without it.
- Hannah Arendt, philosopher
The deep disunity of Soviet society and the lack of civil institutions were inherited by the new Russia and became one of the fundamental problems hindering the creation of democracy and civil peace in our country.
How the state and society fought the legacy of Stalinism
To date, Russia has survived “two and a half attempts at de-Stalinization.” The first and largest was launched by N. Khrushchev. It began with a report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU:
“They were arrested without the prosecutor’s sanction... What other sanction could there be when Stalin allowed everything. He was the chief prosecutor in these matters. Stalin gave not only permission, but also instructions for arrests on his own initiative. Stalin was a very suspicious man, with morbid suspicion, as we became convinced of while working with him. He could look at a person and say: “something is wrong with your eyes today,” or: “why do you often turn away today, don’t look straight into the eyes.” Morbid suspicion led him to sweeping mistrust. Everywhere and everywhere he saw “enemies”, “double-dealers”, “spies”. Having unlimited power, he allowed cruel arbitrariness and suppressed people morally and physically. When Stalin said that so-and-so should be arrested, one had to take it on faith that he was an “enemy of the people.” And the Beria gang, which ruled the state security agencies, went out of its way to prove the guilt of the arrested persons and the correctness of the materials they fabricated. What evidence was used? Confessions of those arrested. And the investigators extracted these “confessions.”
As a result of the fight against the cult of personality, sentences were revised, more than 88 thousand prisoners were rehabilitated. However, the “thaw” era that followed these events turned out to be very short-lived. Soon many dissidents who disagreed with the policies of the Soviet leadership would become victims of political persecution.
The second wave of de-Stalinization occurred in the late 80s and early 90s. Only then did society become aware of at least approximate figures characterizing the scale of Stalin’s terror. At this time, the sentences passed in the 30s and 40s were also revised. In most cases, the convicts were rehabilitated. Half a century later, the dispossessed peasants were posthumously rehabilitated.
A timid attempt at carrying out a new de-Stalinization was made during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev. However, it did not bring significant results. Rosarkhiv, at the direction of the president, posted on its website documents about 20 thousand Poles executed by the NKVD near Katyn.
Programs to preserve the memory of victims are being phased out due to lack of funding.
In the 20s and ending in 1953. During this period, mass arrests took place and special camps for political prisoners were created. No historian can name the exact number of victims of Stalin's repressions. More than a million people were convicted under Article 58.
Origin of the term
Stalin's terror affected almost all sectors of society. For more than twenty years, Soviet citizens lived in constant fear - one wrong word or even a gesture could cost their lives. It is impossible to unequivocally answer the question of what Stalin’s terror was based on. But of course, the main component of this phenomenon is fear.
The word terror translated from Latin is “horror”. The method of governing a country based on instilling fear has been used by rulers since ancient times. For the Soviet leader, Ivan the Terrible served as a historical example. Stalin's terror is in some ways a more modern version of the Oprichnina.
Ideology
The midwife of history is what Karl Marx called violence. The German philosopher saw only evil in the safety and inviolability of members of society. Stalin used Marx's idea.
The ideological basis of the repressions that began in the 20s was formulated in July 1928 in the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party.” At first, Stalin's terror was a class struggle, which was supposedly needed to resist the overthrown forces. But the repressions continued even after all the so-called counter-revolutionaries ended up in camps or were shot. The peculiarity of Stalin's policy was its complete non-compliance with the Soviet Constitution.
If at the beginning of Stalin's repressions the state security agencies fought against opponents of the revolution, then by the mid-thirties arrests of old communists began - people selflessly devoted to the party. Ordinary Soviet citizens were already afraid not only of NKVD officers, but also of each other. Denunciation has become the main tool in the fight against “enemies of the people.”
Stalin's repressions were preceded by the "Red Terror", which began during the Civil War. These two political phenomena have many similarities. However, after the end of the Civil War, almost all cases of political crimes were based on falsification of charges. During the “Red Terror,” those who disagreed with the new regime, of whom there were many during the creation of the new state, were imprisoned and shot first of all.
The case of lyceum students
Officially, the period of Stalinist repressions began in 1922. But one of the first high-profile cases dates back to 1925. It was this year that a special department of the NKVD fabricated a case accusing graduates of the Alexander Lyceum of counter-revolutionary activities.
On February 15, over 150 people were arrested. Not all of them were related to the above-mentioned educational institution. Among those convicted were former students of the School of Law and officers of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment. Those arrested were accused of assisting the international bourgeoisie.
Many were shot already in June. 25 people were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. 29 of those arrested were sent into exile. Vladimir Shilder, a former teacher, was 70 years old at that time. He died during the investigation. Nikolai Golitsyn, the last chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire, was sentenced to death.
Shakhty case
The charges under Article 58 were ridiculous. A person who does not speak foreign languages and has never communicated with a citizen of a Western state in his life could easily be accused of colluding with American agents. During the investigation, torture was often used. Only the strongest could withstand them. Often those under investigation signed a confession only in order to complete the execution, which sometimes lasted for weeks.
In July 1928, coal industry specialists became victims of Stalin's terror. This case was called "Shakhty". The heads of Donbass enterprises were accused of sabotage, sabotage, creating an underground counter-revolutionary organization, and assisting foreign spies.
The 1920s saw several high-profile cases. Dispossession continued until the early thirties. It is impossible to calculate the number of victims of Stalin’s repressions, because no one carefully kept statistics in those days. In the nineties, the KGB archives became available, but even after that, researchers did not receive comprehensive information. However, separate execution lists were made public, which became a terrible symbol of Stalin’s repressions.
The Great Terror is a term that applies to a short period of Soviet history. It lasted only two years - from 1937 to 1938. Researchers provide more accurate data about victims during this period. 1,548,366 people were arrested. Shot - 681,692. It was a fight “against the remnants of the capitalist classes.”
Causes of the "Great Terror"
During Stalin's times, a doctrine was developed to strengthen the class struggle. This was only a formal reason for the extermination of hundreds of people. Among the victims of Stalin's terror of the 30s were writers, scientists, military men, and engineers. Why was it necessary to get rid of representatives of the intelligentsia, specialists who could benefit the Soviet state? Historians offer various answers to these questions.
Among modern researchers there are those who are convinced that Stalin had only an indirect connection to the repressions of 1937-1938. However, his signature appears on almost every execution list, and in addition, there is a lot of documentary evidence of his involvement in mass arrests.
Stalin strove for sole power. Any relaxation could lead to a real, not fictitious conspiracy. One of the foreign historians compared the Stalinist terror of the 30s with the Jacobin terror. But if the last phenomenon, which took place in France at the end of the 18th century, involved the destruction of representatives of a certain social class, then in the USSR people who were often unrelated to each other were arrested and executed.
So, the reason for the repression was the desire for sole, unconditional power. But there was a need for formulation, an official justification for the need for mass arrests.
Occasion
On December 1, 1934, Kirov was killed. This event became the formal reason for the arrest of the killer. According to the results of the investigation, which was again fabricated, Leonid Nikolaev did not act independently, but as a member of an opposition organization. Stalin subsequently used the murder of Kirov in the fight against political opponents. Zinoviev, Kamenev and all their supporters were arrested.
Trial of Red Army officers
After the murder of Kirov, trials of the military began. One of the first victims of the Great Terror was G. D. Guy. The military leader was arrested for the phrase “Stalin must be removed,” which he uttered while intoxicated. It is worth saying that in the mid-thirties, denunciation reached its apogee. People who had worked in the same organization for many years stopped trusting each other. Denunciations were written not only against enemies, but also against friends. Not only for selfish reasons, but also out of fear.
In 1937, a trial of a group of Red Army officers took place. They were accused of anti-Soviet activities and assistance to Trotsky, who by that time was already abroad. The hit list included:
- Tukhachevsky M. N.
- Yakir I. E.
- Uborevich I. P.
- Eideman R. P.
- Putna V.K.
- Primakov V. M.
- Gamarnik Ya. B.
- Feldman B. M.
The witch hunt continued. In the hands of NKVD officers there was a recording of Kamenev’s negotiations with Bukharin - there was talk of creating a “right-left” opposition. At the beginning of March 1937, with a report that spoke of the need to eliminate the Trotskyists.
According to the report of the General Commissioner of State Security Yezhov, Bukharin and Rykov were planning terror against the leader. A new term appeared in Stalinist terminology - “Trotskyist-Bukharinsky,” which means “directed against the interests of the party.”
In addition to the above-mentioned political figures, about 70 people were arrested. 52 were shot. Among them were those who took a direct part in the repressions of the 20s. Thus, state security officers and political figures Yakov Agronom, Alexander Gurevich, Levon Mirzoyan, Vladimir Polonsky, Nikolai Popov and others were shot.
Lavrentiy Beria was involved in the “Tukhachevsky case”, but he managed to survive the “purge”. In 1941, he took the post of General Commissioner of State Security. Beria was already executed after the death of Stalin - in December 1953.
Repressed scientists
In 1937, revolutionaries and political figures became victims of Stalin's terror. And very soon arrests of representatives of completely different social strata began. People who had nothing to do with politics were sent to the camps. It’s easy to guess what the consequences of Stalin’s repressions were by reading the lists presented below. The “Great Terror” became a brake on the development of science, culture, and art.
Scientists who became victims of Stalinist repressions:
- Matvey Bronstein.
- Alexander Witt.
- Hans Gelman.
- Semyon Shubin.
- Evgeny Pereplekin.
- Innokenty Balanovsky.
- Dmitry Eropkin.
- Boris Numerov.
- Nikolay Vavilov.
- Sergei Korolev.
Writers and poets
In 1933, Osip Mandelstam wrote an epigram with obvious anti-Stalinist overtones, which he read to several dozen people. Boris Pasternak called the poet's act suicide. He turned out to be right. Mandelstam was arrested and sent into exile in Cherdyn. There he made an unsuccessful suicide attempt, and a little later, with the assistance of Bukharin, he was transferred to Voronezh.
Boris Pilnyak wrote “The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon” in 1926. The characters in this work are fictitious, at least that’s what the author claims in the preface. But everyone who read the story in the 20s, it became clear that it was based on the version of the murder of Mikhail Frunze.
Somehow Pilnyak’s work ended up in print. But it was soon banned. Pilnyak was arrested only in 1937, and before that he remained one of the most published prose writers. The writer's case, like all similar ones, was completely fabricated - he was accused of spying for Japan. Shot in Moscow in 1937.
Other writers and poets who were subjected to Stalinist repression:
- Victor Bagrov.
- Yuliy Berzin.
- Pavel Vasiliev.
- Sergey Klychkov.
- Vladimir Narbut.
- Petr Parfenov.
- Sergei Tretyakov.
It is worth talking about the famous theater figure, accused under Article 58 and sentenced to capital punishment.
Vsevolod Meyerhold
The director was arrested at the end of June 1939. His apartment was later searched. A few days later, Meyerhold's wife was killed. The circumstances of her death have not yet been clarified. There is a version that she was killed by NKVD officers.
Meyerhold was interrogated for three weeks and tortured. He signed everything the investigators required. On February 1, 1940, Vsevolod Meyerhold was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out the next day.
During the war years
In 1941, the illusion of lifting repressions appeared. In Stalin's pre-war times, there were many officers in the camps who were now needed free. Together with them, about six hundred thousand people were released from prison. But this was a temporary relief. At the end of the forties, a new wave of repression began. Now the ranks of “enemies of the people” have been joined by soldiers and officers who have been in captivity.
Amnesty 1953
Stalin died on March 5. Three weeks later, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree according to which a third of the prisoners were to be released. About a million people were released. But the first to leave the camps were not political prisoners, but criminals, which immediately worsened the criminal situation in the country.
Brief description of the myth
Mass political repression is a unique property of the Russian state, especially during the Soviet period. "Stalin's mass repressions" 1921-1953. were accompanied by violations of the law; tens, or even hundreds of millions of citizens of the USSR suffered in them. Slave labor of Gulag prisoners is the main labor resource of Soviet modernization of the 30s.
Meaning
First of all: the word “repression” itself, translated from Late Latin, literally means “suppression.” Encyclopedic dictionaries interpret it as “a punitive measure, punishment applied by state bodies” (“Modern Encyclopedia”, “Legal Dictionary”) or “a punitive measure emanating from state bodies” (“Ozhegov’s Explanatory Dictionary”).
There are also criminal repressions, i.e. the use of coercive measures, including deprivation of liberty and even life. There are also moral repressions, i.e. creation in society of a climate of intolerance towards some forms of behavior that are undesirable from the point of view of the state. For example, “hipsters” in the USSR were not subjected to criminal repression, but they were subjected to moral repression, and very serious ones: from caricatures and feuilletons to expulsion from the Komsomol, which in the conditions of that time entailed a sharp reduction in social opportunities.
As a recent foreign example of repression, we can cite the current widespread custom across North America of not allowing lecturers whose views students are dissatisfied with to speak at universities, or even dismissing them from teaching. This applies specifically to repression, and not only moral - because in this case there is the possibility of depriving a person of a source of existence.
The practice of repression has existed and exists among all peoples and at all times - simply because society is forced to defend itself from destabilizing factors, the more actively, the stronger the possible destabilization.
This is the general theoretical part.
In today's political usage, the word “repression” is used in a very specific meaning - we mean “Stalinist repressions”, “mass repressions in the USSR 1921-1953”. This concept, regardless of its dictionary meaning, is a kind of “ideological marker”. This word itself is a ready-made argument in a political discussion; it does not seem to need definition or content.
However, even in this usage it is useful to know what is actually meant.
Court verdicts
“Stalinist repressions” were elevated to the rank of a “marker word” by N.S. Khrushchev exactly 60 years ago. In his famous report at the plenum of the Central Committee, elected by the 20th Congress of the CPSU, he significantly overestimated the extent of these repressions. Moreover, he inflated it in the following way: he announced quite accurately information about the total number of convictions under the articles “treason” and “banditry” issued from the end of 1921 (when the Civil War ended in the European part of the country) and until March 5, 1953, the day of death, - but he structured this part of his report in such a way that it seemed that he was talking only about convicted communists. And since the communists made up a small part of the country’s population, the illusion of some incredible total amount of repression naturally arose.
This total volume was assessed differently by different people - again, guided not by scientific and historical considerations, but by political ones.
Meanwhile, data on repressions are not secret and are determined by specific official figures, which are generally considered more or less accurate. They are indicated in the certificate drawn up on behalf of N.S. Khrushchev in February 1954 by the USSR Prosecutor General V. Rudenko, the Minister of Internal Affairs S. Kruglov and the Minister of Justice K. Gorshenin.
Total number of sentences convictions - 3,770,380. At the same time, the actual number of those convicted is smaller, since quite a few were convicted of various crimes, then covered by the concept of “Treason to the Motherland,” several times. The total number of people affected by these repressions over 31 years, according to various estimates, is about three million people.
Of the mentioned 3,770,380 sentences 2 369 220 provided for serving sentences in prisons and camps, 765,180 - exile and deportation, 642,980 - capital punishment (death penalty). Taking into account the verdicts under other articles and according to later studies, they also give another figure - about 800,000 death sentences, of which 700 thousand were carried out.
It should be taken into account that the number of traitors to the Motherland naturally included everyone who, in one form or another, collaborated with the German occupiers during the Great Patriotic War. In addition, this number also included thieves in law because they refused to work in the camps: the camp administration classified refusal to work as sabotage, and sabotage was then one of the various forms of treason. Consequently, among those repressed there are several tens of thousands of thieves in law.
I can add another purely everyday option: let’s say you stole a sheet of iron from a factory to cover your shed. This, naturally, qualifies as theft of state property under a purely criminal article. But if the plant where you work is a defense plant, then this may be considered not just theft, but an attempt to undermine the defense capability of the state, and this is already one of the elements of the crime provided for in the article “Treason.”
During the period while L.P. Beria acted as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, the practice of passing off criminal offenses as politics and “political makeweights” in purely criminal cases ceased. But on December 15, 1945, he resigned from this post, and under his successor this practice resumed.
Here's the thing. The criminal code of that time, adopted in 1922 and revised in 1926, was based on the idea of “external conditioning of crimes” - they say that a Soviet person breaks the law only under the pressure of some external circumstances, incorrect upbringing or the “difficult legacy of tsarism.” Hence the incongruously lenient punishments provided for by the Criminal Code for serious criminal articles, to “make them heavier” political articles were added.
Thus, it can be judged that, at a minimum, of the convictions under the article “treason” issued under N.I. Yezhov, approximately half of the convictions were unfounded(we pay special attention to what happened under N.I. Yezhov, since it was during this period that the peak of the repressions of 1937 - 1938 occurred). How far this conclusion can be extrapolated for the entire period 1921 - 1953 is an open question.
The history of mankind goes back thousands of years, but at any period of development people had to be controlled in order to maintain the necessary integrity of society. The formation of power institutions, the rapid process of social stratification, the unpopularity of certain measures in the eyes of the population - all this gave rise to such an impact as repression. This punishment allowed the state to consolidate the social system to suit its interests.
The importance of punitive authorities for the authorities
In general, much attention has been paid to the coercive apparatus since ancient times, otherwise it would have been impossible to maintain order and the effective development of the country. It is undeniable that at different historical stages the importance of punitive authorities either increased or, conversely, decreased, but their presence is a prerequisite for the emergence and existence of the state. Taking a brief excursion into history, it can be noted that the activity of the repressive apparatus increases at turning points, be it revolutions, wars, or mass acts of disobedience by the civilian population. Suffice it to recall the periods of the two revolutions of 1917 in Russia. At this time, punitive measures acquired an unprecedented scale, and it was impossible to do otherwise, because the Civil War had begun, and whoever seized power would determine the subsequent development of the country. Therefore, both opposing sides used such an effective measure of influence as repression. This made it possible to achieve the loyalty of the population, although it was often only superficial.
Trumps of I.V. Stalin
The further course of events in our country showed the need for the existence of an extensive and well-trained punitive apparatus. The victory in the Civil War and the presence of a large layer of oppositionists of various kinds within the country made the need for a qualified security system a vital necessity for the Bolsheviks. In addition, in the struggle for power between party functionaries such a fail-safe method as repression has always been used. This became a hallmark of the reign of I.V. Stalin. Having subjugated the power bloc of the Bolshevik government, he was fully able to turn it to his advantage. With the help of a set of violent measures, Joseph Vissarionovich cleared the way for himself to supreme power after the death of V.I. Lenin. The “Leader of all nations” well understood the need to have executors of his will at hand, he also realized that not everyone would obey him out of good will, so he created a real monster of the punitive apparatus of the USSR, it was the united GPU-MGB, which was alternately headed by Koba’s faithful servants.
Progress on the bones
Repressions in the USSR acquired a truly grandiose character in the 30s of the last century. They have already begun to be applied not even to an individual, but to entire associations, and even nations. Stalin had a clear goal of suppressing even the slightest discontent by eradicating it in the bud. He did not take into account either public opinion or the advice of his associates. This policy of the General Secretary of the CPSU (b) can be compared with the oprichnina policy of Ivan IV, who also used severe repression against dissident people. If we draw a parallel, it can be noted that in both the 16th and 20th centuries the goals of the rulers coincided - to achieve unquestioning obedience. If in the first case the tsar fought against the willfulness of large feudal lords to strengthen the centralization of the country, then in the second case the leader tried to quickly put the country on a par with industrialized European states, and this can be done by suppressing any manifestation of opposition sentiments in society.
The mass repressions carried out by the Soviet government were brutal, and could have been caused by a simple anonymity against any person, that is, bypassing the presumption of innocence in the USSR, they were first punished and then investigated. Thus, completely loyal and trustworthy citizens ended up in the flywheel of the punitive authorities. However, Stalin achieved the final result; industry was restored in the shortest possible time; discontent was shown, in fact, only mentally. “Exposure trials” thundered throughout the country. Extrajudicial troikas worked day and night, looking for enemies of the people. Repression is what became the style of government of Joseph Vissarionovich, and he put this method of punishment at the head of all methods of dealing with public discontent and disobedience, both for personal purposes and for the interests of the country.