Crime in the Soviet Union

Last updated

Robberies, homicide and other violent crimes in the Soviet Union were less prevalent than in the United States. Soviet Union had low occurrence of drug abuse. Corruption was common; in particular, in the form of bribery, primarily due to the paucity of goods and services on the open market. [1]

Contents

Ideology

Soviet criminology was significantly influenced by the works of Stalinist prosecutor Andrey Vyshinsky who introduced a number of measures into the penal code and investigatory practice that were unusual in other legal systems. Law was to be perceived not as a means of determining individual guilt but dialectically and as part of broader class struggle. Based on that premise, people could be convicted even with the absence of actual crime if they simply belonged to a vaguely defined bourgeois class or if their conviction would be broadly beneficial for the revolutionary movement.[ citation needed ]

Apart from this judicial practice, the penal code of USSR contained a number of very specific crimes generally classified as "counter-revolutionary", such as contacts with foreigners or any other kind of opposition or criticism of the communist party. Article 70 listed "anti-Soviet propaganda". [2] Article 83 - "illegally leaving USSR". [3] Article 190-1 punished dissemination, "in verbal form", of "knowingly false" statements, defaming USSR or its social structure. [4]

Speculation, defined as any form of private trade with intent to make profit, was also a crime per article 154 of the Penal Code of USSR. [5] Article 162 made a crime engaging in "banned" crafts or forms of employment. A basic premise of Marxism is that crime is a socio-economic phenomenon:

"The elimination of private property in the means of production, the eradication of the exploitation of one person by another, and the resolution of social antagonisms led to the disappearance of basic social roots of crime".

— B. A. Viktorov, Deputy Minister for Internal Affairs

Some Marxist theorists contended that the most immediate reasons for crime in the Soviet Union were mental retardation, poor upbringing, and capitalist influence. [6] This led to novel inventions in the field of psychiatry ("delusion of reformism", sluggish schizophrenia) used as an instrument of repression against critics.

Punishment

In 1989 the Soviet Union had few prisons. About 99% of convicted criminals served their sentences in labor camps, supervised by the Main Directorate for Corrective Labor Camps which was under the MVD. The camps had four regimes of ascending severity. In the strict-regime camps, inmates worked at the most difficult jobs, usually outdoors, and received meager rations. Jobs were less demanding and rations better in the camps with milder regimes. The system of corrective labor was regarded by Soviet authorities successful in that the rate of recidivism was quite low. Prisons and labor camps, in the views of former inmates and Western observers, however, were notorious for their harsh conditions, arbitrary and sadistic treatment of prisoners, and flagrant human rights abuses. In 1989 new legislation, which emphasized rehabilitation rather than punishment, was being drafted to "humanize" the special system. Nevertheless, in 1989 conditions for many prisoners had changed little. [1]

Relocation of petty criminals outside of large cities was also quite common practice of crime management.

Death penalty

The death penalty, carried out by shooting, was applied in the Soviet Union only in cases of treason, espionage, terrorism, sabotage, certain types of murder, and large-scale theft of state property by officials. Otherwise, the maximum punishment for a first offender was fifteen years. Parole was permitted in some cases after completion of half of the sentence, and periodic amnesties sometimes also resulted in early release. [1]

Collapse of the Soviet Union

Near and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, crime statistics moved sharply and uniformly upward. From 1991 to 1992, the number of officially reported crimes and the overall crime rate each showed a 27 percent increase; the crime rate nearly doubled between 1985 and 1992. By the early 1990s, theft, burglary, and other acts against property accounted for about two-thirds of all crime in Russia. Of particular concern to citizens, however, was the rapid growth of violent crime, including gruesome homicides. [7]

Large parts of the Penal Code concerning crimes such as private trade (art. 154), criticism of the communist party and other political crimes (art. 58) were revoked in 1993.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gulag</span> Government agency in charge of the Soviet forced penal labour camp system

The Gulag was a system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word Gulag originally referred only to the division of the Soviet secret police that was in charge of running the forced labor camps from the 1930s to the early 1950s during Joseph Stalin's rule, but in English literature the term is popularly used for the system of forced labor throughout the Soviet era. The abbreviation GULAG (ГУЛАГ) stands for "Гла́вное Управле́ние исправи́тельно-трудовы́х ЛАГере́й", but the full official name of the agency changed several times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in the Soviet Union</span> Overview of the observance of human rights in the Soviet Union

Human rights in the Soviet Union were severely limited. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian state from 1927 until 1953 and a one-party state until 1990. Freedom of speech was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether they involved participation in free labor unions, private corporations, independent churches or opposition political parties. The citizens' freedom of movement was limited both inside and outside the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corrections</span> Terms related to conviction of crime

In criminal justice, particularly in North America, correction, corrections, and correctional, are umbrella terms describing a variety of functions typically carried out by government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and supervision of persons who have been convicted of crimes. These functions commonly include imprisonment, parole, and probation. A typical correctional institution is a prison. A correctional system, also known as a penal system, thus refers to a network of agencies that administer a jurisdiction's prisons, and community-based programs like parole, and probation boards. This system is part of the larger criminal justice system, which additionally includes police, prosecution and courts. Jurisdictions throughout Canada and the US have ministries or departments, respectively, of corrections, correctional services, or similarly-named agencies.

Article 58 of the Russian SFSR Penal Code was put in force on 25 February 1927 to prosecute those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. It was revised several times. In particular, its Article 58-1 was updated by the listed sub-articles and put in force on 8 June 1934.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katorga</span> System of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union

Katorga was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labor camp</span> Type of detention facility

A labor camp or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons. Conditions at labor camps vary widely depending on the operators. Convention no. 105 of the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO), adopted internationally on 27 June 1957, abolished camps of forced labor.

The Law of Spikelets or Law of Three Spikelets was a decree in the Soviet Union to protect state property of kolkhozes —especially the grain they produced—from theft, largely by desperate peasants during the Soviet famine of 1932–33. The decree was also known as the "Seven Eighths Law", because the date in Russian is filled into forms as 7/8/1932. The law provided a severe punishment for stolen collective and cooperative property: "execution with confiscation of all property and replacement in mitigating circumstances with imprisonment for at least 10 years with confiscation of all property." Amnesty was prohibited in these cases.

"Traitor to the Motherland family members" was a term in Article 58 of the Criminal Code of Russian SFSR. The amended Article dealt with the criminal prosecution of wives and children of all people who were arrested and convicted as "traitors of the Motherland" in the Soviet Union during Stalinist purges of the 1930s and later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prisoners' rights</span> Rights of detainees

The rights of civilian and military prisoners are governed by both national and international law. International conventions include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the United Nations' Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penal labour</span> Type of forced labour performed by prisoners

Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included involuntary servitude, penal servitude, and imprisonment with hard labour. The term may refer to several related scenarios: labour as a form of punishment, the prison system used as a means to secure labour, and labour as providing occupation for convicts. These scenarios can be applied to those imprisoned for political, religious, war, or other reasons as well as to criminal convicts.

Forced labour was used extensively in the Soviet Union and the following categories may be distinguished.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Romania</span> Early punishments in Romania

Capital punishment in Romania was abolished in 1990, and has been prohibited by the Constitution of Romania since 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corrective labor colony</span> Type of prison in post-Soviet states

A corrective colony is the most common type of prison in Russia and some other post-Soviet states. Such colonies combine penal detention with compulsory work. The system of labor colonies and camps originated in 1929, and after 1953, the corrective penal colonies in the Soviet Union developed as a post-Stalin replacement of the Gulag labor camp system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NKVD special camps in Germany 1945–1950</span> Post–World War II internment camps in the Soviet-occupied parts of Germany

NKVD special camps were NKVD-run late and post-World War II internment camps in the Soviet-occupied parts of Germany from May 1945 to January 6, 1950. They were set up by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) and run by the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs MVD. On 8 August 1948, the camps were made subordinate to the Gulag. Because the camp inmates were permitted no contact with the outside world, the special camps were also known as silence camps.

The drug policy of the Soviet Union changed little throughout the existence of the state, other than slowly becoming more repressive, although some differences in penalties existed in the different Union Republics. However, the prevalence of drug addiction remained reportedly low as first claimed by Soviet authorities which later acknowledged a much larger problem; at least to drugs other than alcohol or tobacco; however, the rates of addiction increased in post-Soviet states.

Kodeks Karny is Poland's criminal-law code. The name is often abbreviated KK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punishment in Australia</span>

Punishment in Australia arises when an individual has been accused or convicted of breaking the law through the Australian criminal justice system. Australia uses prisons, as well as community corrections. When awaiting trial, prisoners may be kept in specialised remand centres or within other prisons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Penitentiary Service</span> Russian federal prison authority

The Federal Penitentiary Service is a federal agency of the Ministry of Justice of Russia responsible for correctional services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of United States prison systems</span>

Imprisonment began to replace other forms of criminal punishment in the United States just before the American Revolution, though penal incarceration efforts had been ongoing in England since as early as the 1500s, and prisons in the form of dungeons and various detention facilities had existed as early as the first sovereign states. In colonial times, courts and magistrates would impose punishments including fines, forced labor, public restraint, flogging, maiming, and death, with sheriffs detaining some defendants awaiting trial. The use of confinement as a punishment in itself was originally seen as a more humane alternative to capital and corporal punishment, especially among Quakers in Pennsylvania. Prison building efforts in the United States came in three major waves. The first began during the Jacksonian Era and led to the widespread use of imprisonment and rehabilitative labor as the primary penalty for most crimes in nearly all states by the time of the American Civil War. The second began after the Civil War and gained momentum during the Progressive Era, bringing a number of new mechanisms—such as parole, probation, and indeterminate sentencing—into the mainstream of American penal practice. Finally, since the early 1970s, the United States has engaged in a historically unprecedented expansion of its imprisonment systems at both the federal and state level. Since 1973, the number of incarcerated persons in the United States has increased five-fold. Now, about 2,200,000 people, or 3.2 percent of the adult population, are imprisoned in the United States, and about 7,000,000 are under supervision of some form in the correctional system, including parole and probation. Periods of prison construction and reform produced major changes in the structure of prison systems and their missions, the responsibilities of federal and state agencies for administering and supervising them, as well as the legal and political status of prisoners themselves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Finland</span> Overview of crime in Finland

Crime in Finland is combated by the Finnish police and other agencies.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Soviet Union: Nonpolitical Crime and Punishment". country-data.com. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
  2. ↑ "Articles 70 & 72". A Chronicle of Current Events. 2014-07-29. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  3. ↑ "The Right to Leave, August 1980 (57.18)". A Chronicle of Current Events. 2020-02-28. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  4. ↑ "Article 190-1". A Chronicle of Current Events. 2014-07-29. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  5. ↑ "The Trial of Gleb Yakunin, 25-28 August 1980 (58.3)". A Chronicle of Current Events. 2016-01-12. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  6. ↑ "RUSS - CRIME IN THE SOVIET UNION". Archived from the original on 28 May 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
  7. ↑ "Russia: Crime in the Soviet Era". country-data.com. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.