Amnesty of 1953

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Amnesty of 1953

The Amnesty of 1953 was the largest amnesty in the history of the Soviet Union (and the whole history of Russia) in terms of the number of the released persons. It was declared by the March 27, 1953 Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union "About the Amnesty". [1] [2] Since it was signed by Kliment Voroshilov, it was initially known as the Voroshilov's amnesty. [1] Later it has become known as Beria's amnesty, because it was initiated by March 26, 1953 Lavrenty Beria's draft. [3] Between 1.2 million [4] and 1.35 million [5] persons were freed.

The amnesty was applied to:

The amnesty was not applied to people with term over 5 years convicted for counter-revolutionary crimes, major theft of socialist property, banditism, and murder. Other acts of the amnesty included the reduction of imprisonment terms, dismissing unfinished criminal proceedings which fit the above criteria, etc. [6]

The amnesty was followed with the considerable rise of criminal activities, [5] therefore it was partially rolled back and many criminal amnestees were imprisoned again. [7]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Daniel Johnson, Amnesty of 1953: the biggest in Russian history, Global News , February 18, 2020
  2. Elena Zubkova, Amnesty of 1953 and the first experiments in the revision of social control practices in the USSR, doi : 10.31857/S086956870015595-5 (with downloadable pdf file)
  3. Записка Л.П.Берии в Президиум ЦК КПСС о проведении амнистии. 26 марта 1953 г.
  4. Земсков В. Н. Заключенные, спецпоселенцы, ссыльнопоселенцы, ссыльные и высланные (Статистико-географический аспект) // История СССР. — 1991. — № 5. — С. 151—165.
  5. 1 2 Эли, Марк, Слух о бан­дит­ском раз­гу­ле в 1953–1954 гг. / М. Эли // Слу­хи в Рос­сии XIX-XX ве­ков. Неофи­ци­аль­ная ком­му­ни­ка­ция и "кру­тые по­во­ро­ты" рос­сий­ской ис­то­рии : сб. ст. / Юж. – Урал. гос. ун-т, Фак. пра­ва и финан­сов, Центр культ. – ист. ис­след., Гер­ман. ист. ин-т в Москве, Че­ляб. отд-ние Рос. о-ва ин­тел­лек­ту­ал. ис­то­рии ; [ред. кол. : И. В. Нар­ский и др.]. – Че­ля­бинск, 2011. – С. 146–167. – ISBN   978-5-88771-087-7
  6. Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР от 27.03.1953 «Об амнистии»
  7. Спицын, Е.Ю. Хрущёвская слякоть. — Монография. — Москва: Концептуал, 2020. — С. 32—36. — 592 с. — ISBN   978-5-907172-63-0.