 | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the Soviet Union and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(June 2021) |
Social parasitism was considered a political crime in the Soviet Union, where individuals accused of living off the efforts of others or society were prosecuted. The Soviet Union, proclaiming itself a workers' state, mandated that every capable adult engage in work until retirement, theoretically eliminating unemployment.
In the Soviet Union, which declared itself a workers' state, every adult able-bodied person was expected to work until official retirement. Thus unemployment was officially and theoretically eliminated. Those who refused to work, study or serve in another way risked being criminally charged with social parasitism (Russian : тунеядствоtuneyadstvo, тунеядцы [tuneyadets/tuneyadtsy"), [1] in accordance with the socialist principle "from each according to his ability, to each according to his contribution." [2]
On 4 May 1961 the law "On Intensification of the Struggle against Persons who avoid Socially Useful Work and lead an Anti-social Parasitic Way of Life" which criminalised parasitism entered into force. [3] Those who refused to work were critiqued as "able-bodied citizens who refuse to fulfil their important constitutional duty - to perform honest work to the best of their ability". [4]
In 1961, 130,000 people were identified as leading the "anti-social, parasitic way of life" in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. [5] Charges of parasitism were frequently applied to the homeless, vagrants, beggars, dissidents and refuseniks, many of whom were intellectuals. Since their writings were considered anti-establishment, the state prevented them from obtaining employment. To avoid trials for parasitism, many of them took unskilled (but not especially time-consuming) jobs (street sweepers, boiler room attendants, etc.), which allowed them to continue their other pursuits. [6]
For example, the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky was charged with social parasitism [7] by the Soviet authorities. A 1964 trial found that his series of odd jobs and role as a poet were not a sufficient contribution to society.
A number of Soviet intellectuals and dissidents were accused of the crime of parasitism, including Iosif Begun, Vladimir Voinovich, Lev Kopelev and Andrei Amalrik. [8]
On 2 April 2015 President Alexander Lukashenko issued a decree 'On Prevention of Social Dependency', which included a tax for those categorised "social parasites". Lukashenko said the policy was brought in to respond to the half a million citizens who refused to work. The decree said the policy's purpose was "to prevent freeloading, encourage employment among able-bodied citizens, and to ensure the compliance with the constitutional obligation of the citizens to participate in the financing of state expenditures". Individuals exempt from the policy were students, minors, disabled people, retirees, prisoners, and parents with children below the age of seven or those with three or more children who were minors. [9]
Defined as people working under 183 days in a year, and excluding home-makers and subsistence farmers, the deployment of the so-called parasite tax was suspended after protests in several major urban centers. [10]
Nicolae Ceaușescu, President of the Socialist Republic of Romania criminalized social parasitism by decree in 1970. The regime viewed young people as potentially destabilizing and targeted those who did not fit into socialist norms. Citizens could be stopped if they were found on the street during hours when they should have been at work or school. Penalties were imprisonment for one to six months, or a fine of 1,000 to 5,000 lei. Indecent or obscene gestures or words carried penalties of 20 days to three months in prison, or a fine of up to 2,000 lei. [11]
A 1976 law broadened the campaign against parasitism. It stated that if someone able to work refused a job, he could be forced by court order to work for one year on construction sites, farms, in forests, or factories. The Miliția was tasked with enforcing the measures, and its actions were often arbitrary. [11]
The politics of Belarus takes place in a framework of a presidential republic with a bicameral parliament. The President of Belarus is the head of state. Executive power is nominally exercised by the government, at its top sits a ceremonial prime minister, appointed directly by the President. Legislative power is de jure vested in the bicameral parliament, the National Assembly, however the president may enact decrees that are executed the same way as laws, for undisputed time.
The "State Anthem of the Republic of Belarus", better known as "My Belarusy", is the national anthem of Belarus. It was originally written in the 1940s and adopted in 1955 for use in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The music of the Byelorussian SSR's regional anthem was composed by Niescier Sakałoŭski and the lyrics were written by Michas Klimkovič. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the music composed by Sakalowski was kept and the lyrics were discarded. New lyrics, which were written by Klimkovič and Uladzimir Karyzna, were adopted by a presidential decree issued on 2 July 2002.
The 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union, officially the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was the constitution of the Soviet Union adopted on 7 October 1977.
The Constitutional Democratic Party, also called Constitutional Democrats and formally the Party of People's Freedom, was a political party in the Russian Empire that promoted Western constitutional monarchy—among other policies—and attracted a base ranging from moderate conservatives to mild socialists. Party members were called Kadets from the abbreviation K-D of the party name. Konstantin Kavelin's and Boris Chicherin's writings formed the theoretical basis of the party's platform. Historian Pavel Miliukov was the party's leader throughout its existence.
The political system of the Soviet Union took place in a federal single-party soviet socialist republic framework which was characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only party permitted by the Constitution.
Special settlements in the Soviet Union were the result of population transfers and were performed in a series of operations organized according to social class or nationality of the deported. Resettling of "enemy classes" such as prosperous peasants and entire populations by ethnicity was a method of political repression in the Soviet Union, although separate from the Gulag system of penal labor. Involuntary settlement played a role in the colonization of virgin lands of the Soviet Union. This role was specifically mentioned in the first Soviet decrees about involuntary labor camps. Compared to the Gulag labor camps, the involuntary settlements had the appearance of "normal" settlements: people lived in families, and there was slightly more freedom of movement; however, that was permitted only within a small specified area. All settlers were overseen by the NKVD; once a month a person had to register at a local law enforcement office at a selsoviet in rural areas or at a militsiya department in urban settlements. As second-class citizens, deported peoples designated as "special settlers" were prohibited from holding a variety of jobs, returning to their region of origin, attending prestigious schools, and even joining the cosmonaut program. Due to this special settlements have been called by J. Otto Pohl a type of apartheid.
Hero of Belarus is the highest title that can be bestowed on a citizen of Belarus. The title is awarded to those "who perform great deeds in the name of freedom, independence and prosperity of the Republic of Belarus". The deed can be for military performance, economic performance or great service to the State and society. The design of the medal is similar to that of its predecessor, Hero of the Soviet Union. Similar titles to the Hero of Belarus include the Hero of the Russian Federation, Hero of Ukraine, and Hero of Uzbekistan. Since its creation, the title has been awarded to eleven people.
The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus is the ultimate law of Belarus. The Constitution is composed of a preamble and nine sections divided into 146 articles.
The president of the Republic of Belarus is the head of state and head of government of Belarus. The office was created in 1994 with the passing of the Constitution of Belarus by the Supreme Council. This replaced the office of Chairman of the Supreme Council as the head of state. The tasks of the president include executing foreign and domestic policy, defending the rights and general welfare of citizens and residents, and upholding the Constitution. The president is mandated by the Constitution to serve as a leader in the social affairs of the country and to act as its main representative abroad. The duties, responsibilities and other transitional clauses dealing with the presidency are listed in Chapter Three, Articles 79 through 89, of the Constitution.
A seven-question referendum was held in Belarus on 24 November 1996. Four questions were put forward by President Alexander Lukashenko on changing the date of the country's independence day, amending the constitution, changing laws on the sale of land and the abolition of the death penalty. The Supreme Council put forward three questions on constitutional amendments by the Communist and Agrarian factions, local elections and the national finances.
The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is a high court within the judiciary of Russia which is empowered to rule on whether certain laws or presidential decrees are in fact contrary to the Constitution of Russia. Its objective is only to protect the Constitution and deal with a few kinds of disputes where it has original jurisdiction, whereas the highest court of appeal is the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.
Belarus and Russia share a land border and constitute the supranational Union State. Several treaties have been concluded between the two nations bilaterally. Russia is Belarus' largest and most important economic and political partner. Both are members of various international organizations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and the United Nations.
The War of Laws was the series of conflicts between the central government of the Soviet Union and the governments of the Soviet republics during the so-called "parade of sovereignties" in the last years of the Soviet Union (1989–1991), which eventually contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. When Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to formally release their control of the republics, the individual governments began to reassert their own sovereignty and dominance in their respective areas. That included making their own laws separate from those of the Soviet central government and refusing to pay taxes. These events worsened the Soviet Union's economic disintegration and was a major factor in its 1991 collapse.
The Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was the government of Soviet Russia between 1917 and 1946. It was established by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies on November 9, 1917 "as an interim workers' and peasants' government" under the name of the Council of People's Commissars, which was used before the adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of 1918.
The Belarusian opposition consists of groups and individuals in Belarus seeking to challenge, from 1988 to 1991, the authorities of Soviet Belarus, and since 1995, the leader of the country Alexander Lukashenko, whom supporters of the movement often consider to be a dictator. Supporters of the movement tend to call for a parliamentary democracy based on a Western model, with freedom of speech and political and religious pluralism.
The All Russian Constituent Assembly was a constituent assembly convened in Russia after the February Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m., 18–19 January [O.S. 5–6 January] 1918, whereupon it was illegally dissolved by the Bolshevik-led All-Russian Central Executive Committee, proclaiming the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets the new governing body of Russia.
Valery Vilyamovich Tsepkalo or Valery Vilyamavich Tsapkala is a Belarusian politician and entrepreneur. After graduating from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations with a doctoral degree in international law and serving in the embassy of the Soviet Union in Finland, Tsepkalo joined the staff of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He later became an advisor on foreign political and economic relations to the Chairman of the Belarusian Parliament, Stanislav Shushkevich, and then a senior advisor to the Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Prostitution in the Soviet Union was not officially recognised domestically as a social phenomenon until 1986.
The "Jewish parasite" is a notion that dates back to the Age of Enlightenment. It is based on the notion that the Jews of the diaspora are incapable of forming their own states and would therefore parasitically attack and exploit states and peoples, which are biologically imagined as organisms or "peoples bodies". The stereotype is often associated with the accusation of usury and the separation of "creative", i.e. productive, and "raffling", non-productive financial capital.
The 1991 Belarusian strikes, also referred to in Belarus as the April Strikes, were a series of nationwide strikes and rallies in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Originally in opposition to price increases and a tax on goods from republics sold in another republic, the protests later turned into a broadly anti-Soviet movement, calling for the resignation of Soviet leadership, a reduction of the economic role of the Soviet government, and fresh elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Under socialism, each individual would be expected to contribute according to capability, and rewards would be distributed in proportion to that contribution.
| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
