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{{POV|date=September 2008}}
The ] was a ] where the ] ruled the country.<ref name="SovietConst"> </ref> All key positions in the institutions of the state were occupied by members of the Communist Party. The state proclaimed its adherence to ] ] that restricts rights of citizens to ]. The entire population was mobilized in support of the state ideology and policies. Independent political activities were not tolerated, including the involvement of people with free ]s, private ]s, non-sanctioned ] or opposition ]. The regime maintained itself in ] in part by means of the ], ] disseminated through the state-controlled ], ], restriction of ], the use of ], and widespread use of ] tactics, such as political purges and persecution of specific groups of people. The ] was a ] where the ] ruled the country.<ref name="SovietConst"> </ref> All key positions in the institutions of the state were occupied by members of the Communist Party. The state proclaimed its adherence to the ] ] and the entire population was mobilized in support of the state ideology and policies. Independent political activities were not tolerated, including the involvement of people with free ]s, private ]s, non-sanctioned ] or opposition ]. The regime maintained itself in ] by means of the ], ] disseminated through the state-controlled ], ], restriction of ], the use of ], and widespread use of ] tactics, such as political purges and persecution of specific groups of people.{{Or|date=September 2008}}


==Human rights== ==Soviet concept of human rights==
{{See|Human rights}}
] are the "basic ]s and ] to which all humans are entitled."<ref>Houghton Miffin Company (2006)</ref> Examples of rights and freedoms which are often thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to ] and ], ], and ]; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in ], the ], the ], and the right to ].
{{See|Universal Declaration of Human Rights }}
Western legal theory states that "it is the individual who is the beneficiary of ] which are to be asserted against the government", while Soviet theory states that society as a whole is the beneficiary. According to the ], each individual is guaranteed civil rights, but has to subordinate them and his/her desires to fulfill the needs of the ]<ref name="Lambelet">Lambelet, Doriane. "The Contradiction Between Soviet and American Human Rights Doctrine: Reconciliation Through Perestroika and Pragmatism." 7 ''Boston University International Law Journal''. 1989. p. 61-62.</ref>. So, for example, open criticism of the Communist Party could not be allowed because it could hurt the interests of the state, society, and the progress of socialism. The Soviet concept of ] focused on economic and social rights such as being able to have access to health care, get adequate nutrition, receive education at all levels, and be guaranteed employment.<ref name="SovietConst"/> The Soviets considered these to be the most important rights, without which political and ] were meaningless.
<ref name=shiman>{{cite book | last = Shiman | first = David | title = Economic and Social Justice: A Human Rights Perspective | publisher = Amnesty International | year= 1999 | url = http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/hreduseries/tb1b/Section1/tb1-2.htm | isbn = 0967533406}}</ref>


===Criticism of Soviet rights and laws===
{{quotation|All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 1 of the ] ] (UDHR)<ref>{{cite web|title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948|url=http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu6/2/fs2.htm}}</ref>}}
It is often argued that the Soviet constitutions did not contain provisions guaranteeing many human rights and lacked laws to protect them. Thus, the population enjoyed political rights only to the extent that these rights did not conflict with the goal of building ]. The ] alone reserved the authority to determine what lay in the interests of Communism.{{Or|date=November 2008}}

==Soviet concept of human rights==
The Soviet conception of human rights was very different from conceptions prevalent in the West. According to Western legal theory, "it is the individual who is the beneficiary of human rights which are to be asserted ''against'' the government", whereas Soviet law claimed exactly the opposite <ref>Lambelet, Doriane. "The Contradiction Between Soviet and American Human Rights Doctrine: Reconciliation Through Perestroika and Pragmatism." 7 ''Boston University International Law Journal''. 1989. p. 61-62.</ref>. The ] was considered as the source of ]. Therefore, Soviet law rejected the Western concept of the "]" as the belief that ] should be more than just instrument of ]. Political and ] were considered meaningless without basic "economic rights", which are the provision of basic health care, adequate nutrition, and the right to an education, rather than liberal ]. Finally, each individual had to sacrifice his rights and desires to fulfill the needs of the ] <ref name=shiman>{{cite book | last = Shiman | first = David | title = Economic and Social Justice: A Human Rights Perspective | publisher = Amnesty International | year= 1999 | url = http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/hreduseries/tb1b/Section1/tb1-2.htm | isbn = 0967533406}}</ref>


⚫ Critics claim that the Soviet legal system regarded law as an arm of politics and courts as agencies of the government.<ref name="Pipes"> ] ''Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime'', Vintage books, Random House Inc., New York, 1995, ISBN 0-394-50242-6, pages 401&ndash;403 </ref> Extensive ] were given to the ]. According to ], the purpose of early ] was "not to eliminate ] ... but to substantiate it and legitimize in principle". <ref name="Pipes"/> Historian ] writes that the regime abolished Western legal concepts including the ], the ], the ] and ], and thus became totalitarian.<ref name="Pipes"/><ref>] (2001) ''Communism'' Weidenfled and Nicoloson. ISBN 0-297-64688-5 </ref>
==Soviet legal system==
⚫ The Soviet legal system regarded law as an arm of politics and courts as agencies of the government <ref name="Pipes"/>. Extensive ] were given to the ]. The regime abolished Western ], ], ] and ].<ref> ] (2001) ''Communism'' Weidenfled and Nicoloson. ISBN 0-297-64688-5 </ref><ref> ] (1994) ''Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime''. Vintage. ISBN 0-679-76184-5., pages 401&ndash;403. </ref>. According to ], the purpose of ] was
{{Quotation| "not to eliminate ] ... but to substantiate it and legitimize in principle" <ref name="Pipes"/>.}}


Crime was determined not as the infraction of law, but as any action which could threaten the Soviet state and society. For example, ] could be interpreted as a ] punishable by death.<ref name="Pipes"/> ] was carried out within the terms of Soviet Civil Code.<ref name="Pipes"> ] ''Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime'', Vintage books, Random House Inc., New York, 1995, ISBN 0-394-50242-6, pages 402&ndash;403 </ref> Some Soviet legal scholars even asserted that "criminal repression" may be applied in the absence of guilt."<ref name="Pipes"/>. ], chief of the Ukrainian ] explained: Crime was determined not as the infraction of law, but as any action which could threaten the Soviet state and society. For example, ] could be interpreted as a criminal act done for self interest at the expensive of society, or, in the early period of the USSR, even as ] punishable by death.<ref name="Pipes"/> ] was carried out within the terms of Soviet Civil Code.<ref name="Pipes"/> Some early Soviet legal scholars even asserted that "criminal repression" may be applied in the absence of guilt."<ref name="Pipes"/>. As ], chief of the Ukrainian ], explained during the civil war:
{{Quotation|"Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which ] he belongs, what is his background, his ], his ]. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the ]."<ref name="State"> ] and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. ''The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia &ndash; Past, Present, and Future'', 1994. ISBN 0-374-52738-5.</ref>}} {{Quotation|"Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which ] he belongs, what is his background, his ], his ]. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the ]."<ref name="State"> ] and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. ''The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia &ndash; Past, Present, and Future'', 1994. ISBN 0-374-52738-5.</ref> }}


The purpose of ] was "not to demonstrate the existence or absence of a crime &ndash; that was predetermined by the appropriate ] &ndash; but to provide yet another forum for ] for the instruction of the citizenry (see ] for example). Defense lawyers, who had to be ], were required to take their client's guilt for granted..."<ref name="Pipes"/> According to Richard Pipes, the purpose of ] was "not to demonstrate the existence or absence of a crime &ndash; that was predetermined by the appropriate ] &ndash; but to provide yet another forum for ] for the instruction of the citizenry. Defense lawyers, who had to be ], were required to take their client's guilt for granted..."<ref name="Pipes"/>


==Political repression== ==Political repression==
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The political repressions were practiced by the Soviet ] services ], ] and ].<ref>] '']'' (Russian) Moscow, AST, 1999. </ref> An extensive network of civilian ] &ndash; either volunteers, or those forcibly recruited &ndash; was used to collect intelligence for the government and report cases of suspected dissent.<ref name="Informants"> Koehler, John O. Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police. Westview Press. 2000. ISBN 0-8133-3744-5</ref> The political repressions were practiced by the Soviet ] services ], ] and ].<ref>] '']'' (Russian) Moscow, AST, 1999. </ref> An extensive network of civilian ] &ndash; either volunteers, or those forcibly recruited &ndash; was used to collect intelligence for the government and report cases of suspected dissent.<ref name="Informants"> Koehler, John O. Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police. Westview Press. 2000. ISBN 0-8133-3744-5</ref>


Soviet political repression was a ''de facto'' and ''de jure'' system of prosecution of people who were or perceived to be enemies of the ]. Its theoretical basis were the theory of ] about the ]. The term "repression", "terror", and other strong words were official working terms, since the ] was supposed to suppress the resistance of other ]es which Marxism considered antagonistic to the class of ]. The legal basis of the repression was formalized into the ] in the code of ] and similar articles for other ]s. ] was proclaimed during the Stalinist terror. Soviet political repression was a ''de facto'' and ''de jure'' system of prosecution of people who were or perceived to be enemies of the ]. Its theoretical basis were the theory of ] about the ]. The term "repression", "terror", and other strong words were official working terms, since the ] was supposed to suppress the resistance of other ]es which Marxism considered antagonistic to the class of ]. The legal basis of the repression was formalized into the ] in the code of ] and similar articles for other ]. ] was proclaimed during the Stalinist terror.


] Birth in a prison car for ]]] ] Birth in a prison car for ]]]
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The repressions were conducted in several consecutive waves known as ], ], ], ], and others. The repressions were conducted in several consecutive waves known as ], ], ], ], and others.


During ] and ] the entire "]es" have been exterminated, including "rich people", and a significant part of ] and peasantry labeled as ]. The numerous victims of ] were called the ]. The punishment by the state included ]s, ], sending innocent people to ], ], and ]. According to NKVD Orders ] and ], wives and family members were also punished if they were seen as being involved with their relative in the supposed crime. In 1941 the ] forces conducted ] as the Soviets retreated from the German invasion.<ref name="Rhodes">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author=] | year = 2002 | title = Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | location = New York | id = ISBN 0-375-40900-9}} Despite the deportations, Barbarossa surprised the NKVD, whose jails and prisons in the invaded western territories were crowded with political prisoners. Rather than releasing their prisoners as they hurried to retreat during the first week of the war, the Soviet secret police simply killed them. NKVD prisoner executions in the first week after Barbarossa totaled some ten thousand in western Ukraine and more than nine thousand in ], eastward toward ]. Comparable numbers of prisoners were executed in eastern Poland, ], ], ], and ]. The Soviet areas had already sustained losses numbering in the hundreds of thousands from the ]. “It was not only the numbers of the executed,” historian Yury Boshyk writes of the evacuation murders, “but also the manner in which they died that shocked the populace. When the families of the arrested rushed to the prisons after the Soviet evacuation, they were aghast to find bodies so badly mutilated that many could not be identified. It was evident that many of the prisoners had been tortured before death; others were killed en masse.”</ref>. During ] and ] the entire "]es" have been exterminated, including "rich people", and a significant part of ] and peasantry labeled as ]. The numerous victims of ] were called the ]. The punishment by the state included ]s, ], sending innocent people to ], ], and ]. According to NKVD Orders ] and ], wives and family members were also punished if they were seen as being involved with their relative in the supposed crime. In 1941 the ] forces conducted ] as the Soviets retreated from the German invasion.<ref name="Rhodes">{{en icon}} {{cite book | author=] | year = 2002 | title = Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf | location = New York | isbn = 0-375-40900-9}} Despite the deportations, Barbarossa surprised the NKVD, whose jails and prisons in the invaded western territories were crowded with political prisoners. Rather than releasing their prisoners as they hurried to retreat during the first week of the war, the Soviet secret police simply killed them. NKVD prisoner executions in the first week after Barbarossa totaled some ten thousand in western Ukraine and more than nine thousand in ], eastward toward ]. Comparable numbers of prisoners were executed in eastern Poland, ], ], ], and ]. The Soviet areas had already sustained losses numbering in the hundreds of thousands from the ]. “It was not only the numbers of the executed,” historian Yury Boshyk writes of the evacuation murders, “but also the manner in which they died that shocked the populace. When the families of the arrested rushed to the prisons after the Soviet evacuation, they were aghast to find bodies so badly mutilated that many could not be identified. It was evident that many of the prisoners had been tortured before death; others were killed en masse.”</ref>.


After Stalin's death, the suppression of dissent was dramatically reduced and took new forms. The internal critics of the system were convicted for ] or as ]. Others were labeled as mentally ill, having ] and incarcerated in "]s", i.e. ] used by the Soviet authorities as prisons.<ref name="Psyche"> </ref> A few notable dissidents, such as ], ], and ], were sent to internal or external exile. After Stalin's death, the suppression of dissent was dramatically reduced and took new forms. The internal critics of the system were convicted for ] or as ]. Others were labeled as mentally ill, having ] and incarcerated in "]s", i.e. ] used by the Soviet authorities as prisons.<ref name="Psyche"> </ref> A few notable dissidents, such as ], ], and ], were sent to internal or external exile.


===Suppression of uprisings=== ===Suppression of uprisings===
State repression led to uprisings, which were brutally suppressed by military force, like the ], ], or ]. During the Tambov rebellion, ] military forces widely used ] against villages with civilian population and rebels.<ref name="Tambov"> , Publisher: Posev, ], ISBN 5-85824-152-2 </ref> A Committee organized by ] and ] "took ] on enormous scale, carried out executions, and set up ] where prisoners were gassed" according to ]<ref>Courtois, Stephane; Werth, Nicolas; Panne, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Bartosek, Karel; Margolin, Jean-Louis & Kramer, Mark (1999). ''The ]: Crimes, Terror, Repression''. ]. ISBN 0-674-07608-7 </ref> During the ], anti-Bolshevik uprisings, like the ] and ] rebellions, were brutally suppressed by military force. During the Tambov rebellion, ] military forces used ] against rebelling peasants hiding in forests.<ref name="Tambov"> , Publisher: Posev, 2004, ISBN 5-85824-152-2 </ref> A Committee organized by ] and ] "took ] on enormous scale, carried out executions, and set up ] where prisoners were gassed" according to ]<ref>Courtois, Stephane; Werth, Nicolas; Panne, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Bartosek, Karel; Margolin, Jean-Louis & Kramer, Mark (1999). ''The ]: Crimes, Terror, Repression''. ]. ISBN 0-674-07608-7 </ref>


===Ethnic cleansing=== ===Ethnic cleansing accusations===
{{main|Population transfer in the Soviet Union}} {{main|Population transfer in the Soviet Union}}
] Victim, 1933]] ] Victim, 1933]]


Entire nations have been collectively punished by the Soviet Government Entire nations have been collectively deported by the Soviet Government
for alleged collaboration with the enemy during ]. for alleged collaboration with the Nazis during ].

In legal terms the word "]" may be appropriate<ref name="State"/> ]. At least nine of distinct ethnic-linguistic groups, including ], ethnic ], ], ], ], ]s, and ], were deported to remote unpopulated areas of ] and ]. The ] in the Soviet Union led to millions of deaths due to the inflicted hardships.<ref name="Conquest">] (1986) ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine.'' ]. ISBN 0-19-505180-7. </ref> ] and ] were also deported. ] were needed to ] hundreds of thousands of people. According to some historians, in legal terms the word "]" or even "]" may be appropriate<ref name="State"/> ]. At least nine of distinct ethnic-linguistic groups, including ], ethnic ], ], ], ], ], and ], were deported to remote unpopulated areas of ] and ]. The ] in the Soviet Union possibly led to millions of deaths due to the inflicted hardships.<ref name="Conquest">] (1986) ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine.'' ]. ISBN 0-19-505180-7. </ref> ] and ] were also deported. ] were needed to ] hundreds of thousands of people.


===Deaths from famines=== ===Deaths from famines===
{{main|Holodomor}} {{main|Holodomor}}


According to some historians, "the systematic use of famine as a weapon" was a "particular feature of many Communist regimes."<ref name="Black"/> The deaths of 5 to 7 million people during the ], including the ] at the Ukraine that was caused by ] and blocking the migration of starving population by the ]<ref name="Conquest"/>, although some historians still believe that the hunger was unintentional <ref> Davies, R. W.; Wheatcroft, S. G. (2004). The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931&ndash;1933 (The Industrialization of Soviet Russia). Macmillan, 400&ndash;1. ISBN 0333311078. </ref> The overall number of ]s who died in 1930&ndash;1937 from ] and ]s during ] (including in ] and ]) was at least 14.5 million, according to historian Robert Conquest.<ref name="Conquest"/> The ] claims five million people died earlier during ].<ref name="Black"/> According to some historians, "the systematic use of famine as a weapon" was a "particular feature of many Communist regimes"<ref name="Black"/> and the deaths of 5 to 7 million people during the ], including the ] in the Ukraine, were caused by confiscating food from peasants and blocking the migration of starving population by the ].<ref name="Conquest"/> The overall number of ]s who died in 1930&ndash;1937 from ] and ] during ] (including in ] and ]) was at least 14.5 million, according to historian Robert Conquest.<ref name="Conquest"/>

More recent estimates, based on actual archival data, indicate that 2 to 3.5 million died in Ukraine during the Holodomor. Historians R. Davies and S. Wheatcroft estimate that, overall, 5.5 to 6.5 million Soviet people died due to famine in the 1930s.<ref name = years_of_hunger> {{cite book | last = Davies | first = R. W. | coauthors = Wheatcroft, S. G. | title = The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931&ndash;1933 (The Industrialization of Soviet Russia) | publisher = Macmillan | date = 2004 | pages = 400–1 | isbn = 0333311078}}</ref> According to them, the famine was an unintentional result of erroneous state policies in implementing collectivization combined with natural causes.<ref>Davies, R. & Wheatcroft, S., 440&ndash;1</ref>


===Loss of life=== ===Loss of life===
According to the ], 66.7 million people were killed in the Soviet Union by state persecution from October 1917 through 1959 &ndash; under Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushev (the number apparently includes victims of famines and ])<ref name="Albats"> ] and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. ''The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia &ndash; Past, Present, and Future''], 1994. ISBN 0-374-18104-7, page 107. </ref> However the exact number of victims may never be known and remains a matter of debates among historians. The result depends on the period of time, the criteria of the ], and methods used for the estimates. For example, the number of victims under ] vary from 8 to 61 million.<ref name="Black"> Bibliography: Courtois et al. The Black Book of Communism </ref><ref name="Ponton"> Ponton, G. (1994) ''The Soviet Era.''</ref><ref name="Tsaplin"> Tsaplin, V.V. (1989) ''Statistika zherty naseleniya v 30e gody.''</ref><ref name="NoveStalin"> Nove, Alec. ''Victims of Stalinism: How Many?'', in ''Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives'' (edited by ] and Roberta T. Manning), ], 1993. ISBN 0-521-44670-8.</ref><ref name="Davies"> Davies, Norman. ''Europe: A History'', Harper Perennial, 1998. ISBN 0-06-097468-0.</ref><ref name="RummelStalin"> Bibliography: Rummel.</ref> The number of people who died under Joseph Stalin's regime, including the famines, in the Soviet Union has been estimated as between 3.5 and 8 million by G. Ponton,<ref name="Ponton"> Ponton, G. (1994) ''The Soviet Era.''</ref> 6.6 million by V. V. Tsaplin,<ref name="Tsaplin"> Tsaplin, V.V. (1989) ''Statistika zherty naseleniya v 30e gody.''</ref> 9.5 million by ],<ref name="NoveStalin"> Nove, Alec. ''Victims of Stalinism: How Many?'', in ''Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives'' (edited by ] and Roberta T. Manning), ], 1993. ISBN 0-521-44670-8.</ref> 20 million by ],<ref name="Black"> Bibliography: Courtois et al. The Black Book of Communism</ref> 50 million by ],<ref name="Davies"> Davies, Norman. ''Europe: A History'', Harper Perennial, 1998. ISBN 0-06-097468-0.</ref> and 61 million by ].<ref name="RummelStalin"> Bibliography: Rummel.</ref> The ] claims that, overall, 66.7 million people were killed in the Soviet Union by state persecution from October 1917 through 1959 &ndash; under Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev.{{Fact|date=August 2008}} Figures published before the Soviet dissolution may be inflated.<ref>Professor Richard Overy wrote, “For years the figures circulating in the West for Soviet repression were greatly inflated. … The archive shows a very different picture.” (The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia, Allen Lane, 2004, page 194.) Professor R. W. Davies wrote, “The archival data are entirely incompatible with such very high figures, which continue to be cited as firm fact in both the Russian and the Western media.” (Soviet history in the Yeltsin era, Macmillan, 1997, page 172.) For example, the archives show that the total executed between 1930 and 1953 was 776,074, not millions.

Richard Evans wrote that Charles Maier's statement that Stalin killed more people than Hitler relied upon “Conquest’s implausible and inflated estimates without question, while omitting deaths caused by Nazi aggression in the East (which also, apart from military and exterminatory action, led to famines and deportations). The number of deaths caused by Nazism’s eastward drive may itself have been as many as 20 million.” (Richard Evans, In Hitler’s shadow, Tauris, 1989, page 170.)</ref>

The numbers of victims are inconsistent because they are determined using different criteria and methods and counted during different periods of time. Most recent publications are probably more reliable than estimates made during the ], since after the ], researchers gained access to Soviet archives.


==Freedom of expression, literature, and science== ==Freedom of expression, literature, and science==
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{{main|Socialist Realism}} {{main|Socialist Realism}}


According to Soviet Criminal Code, Article 70, agitation or propaganda carried on for the purpose of weakening Soviet authority, circulating materials or literature that defamed the Soviet State and social system were punishable by imprisonment for a term of 2–5 years and for a second offense, punishable for a term of 3–10 years. <ref name="BDDSU"></ref><br /> According to Soviet Criminal Code, Article 70, agitation or propaganda carried on for the purpose of weakening Soviet authority, circulating materials or literature that defamed the Soviet State and social system were punishable by imprisonment for a term of 2-5 years and for a second offense, punishable for a term of 3-10 years. <ref name="BDDSU"></ref><br />
] was pervasive and strictly enforced.<ref name="FreeSpeech"> </ref> This gave rise to ], a clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature. ] was pervasive and strictly enforced.<ref name="FreeSpeech"> </ref> This gave rise to ], a clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature.


], ], ], and ] were placed under a strict ideological scrutiny, since they were supposed to serve the interests of the victorious ]. ] is an example of such teleologically-oriented art that promoted ] and ]. All humanities and social sciences were tested for strict accordance with ]. ], ], ], and ] were placed under a strict ideological scrutiny, since they were supposed to serve the interests of the victorious ]. ] is an example of such teleologically-oriented art that promoted ] and ]. All humanities and social sciences were tested for strict accordance with ].


All natural sciences have to be founded on the philosophical base of ]. Many scientific disciplines, such as ], ], and ], were ], condemned as "]", and replaced by real ], such as ]. Many prominent scientists were declared to be "]" or ] and imprisoned. Some scientists worked as prisoners in "]s", i.e. research and development laboratories within the ] labor camp system. All natural sciences had to be founded on the philosophical base of ]. Many scientific disciplines, such as ], ], and ], were ] during some periods, condemned as "]", and replaced by real ], such as ]. Many prominent scientists during Stalin's rule were declared to be "]" or ] and imprisoned. Under Stalin, some scientists worked as prisoners in "]s", i.e. research and development laboratories within the ] labor camp system.


Every large enterprise or institution of the Soviet Union had ] run by ] people responsible for secrecy and political security of the workplace. Every large enterprise or institution of the Soviet Union had ] run by ] people responsible for secrecy and political security of the workplace.{{fact}}


==Right to vote== ==Right to vote==
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==Freedom of religion== ==Freedom of religion==
] ]
{{main|Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union}} {{main|Religion in the Soviet Union}}
⚫ The Soviet government promoted ]. The stated goal was control suppression, and, ultimately, the elimination of religious beliefs, which were seen as backward and disuniting. Atheism was propagated through schools, communist organizations, and the media. Movements, such as the ], were created. All religious movements were either prosecuted or controlled by the state.{{Fact|date=September 2008}} Nonetheless many still did practice religion, especially in the Asian republics.

⚫ The Soviet Union was an ]. The stated goal was control, suppression, and, ultimately, the elimination of religious beliefs. Atheism was propagated through schools, communist organizations, and the media. The ] was created. All religious movements were either prosecuted or controlled by the state and ]. The result of this was the death of 21 million ] ] by the Soviet government, not including torture or other religious ethnicities killed.<ref>World Christian trends, AD 30-AD 2200, p.230-246 Tables 4-5 & 4-10 By David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, Christopher R. Guidry, Peter F. Crossing</ref>


==Freedom of movement== ==Freedom of movement==
]
{{main|Passport system in the Soviet Union}} {{main|Passport system in the Soviet Union}}
Emigration and any travel abroad were not allowed without an explicit permission from the government. People who were not allowed to leave the country are known as ]. <!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: ] -->Emigration and any travel abroad were not allowed without an explicit permission from the government. People who were not allowed to leave the country are known as ].
According to the Soviet Criminal Code, Article 64. flight abroad or refusal to return from abroad among other offenses was ] that was punishable by imprisonment for a term of 10-15 years with confiscation of property or by death with confiscation of property. <ref name="BDDSU"/> According to the Soviet Criminal Code, Article 64. flight abroad or refusal to return from abroad among other offenses was ] that was punishable by imprisonment for a term of 10-15 years with confiscation of property or by death with confiscation of property. <ref name="BDDSU"/>
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*] *]


===For other articles on the topic see === === For other articles on the topic see ===
*] *]
*] *]
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] ]
] ]
⚫ ]
] ]
⚫ ]


] ]

Revision as of 21:28, 14 September 2009

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The Soviet Union was a single-party state where the Communist Party ruled the country. All key positions in the institutions of the state were occupied by members of the Communist Party. The state proclaimed its adherence to the Marxism-Leninism ideology and the entire population was mobilized in support of the state ideology and policies. Independent political activities were not tolerated, including the involvement of people with free labour unions, private corporations, non-sanctioned churches or opposition political parties. The regime maintained itself in political power by means of the secret police, propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, personality cult, restriction of free discussion and criticism, the use of mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror tactics, such as political purges and persecution of specific groups of people.

Soviet concept of human rights

Further information: Human rights Further information: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Western legal theory states that "it is the individual who is the beneficiary of human rights which are to be asserted against the government", while Soviet theory states that society as a whole is the beneficiary. According to the Soviet constitution, each individual is guaranteed civil rights, but has to subordinate them and his/her desires to fulfill the needs of the collective. So, for example, open criticism of the Communist Party could not be allowed because it could hurt the interests of the state, society, and the progress of socialism. The Soviet concept of human rights focused on economic and social rights such as being able to have access to health care, get adequate nutrition, receive education at all levels, and be guaranteed employment. The Soviets considered these to be the most important rights, without which political and civil rights were meaningless.

Criticism of Soviet rights and laws

It is often argued that the Soviet constitutions did not contain provisions guaranteeing many human rights and lacked laws to protect them. Thus, the population enjoyed political rights only to the extent that these rights did not conflict with the goal of building communism. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union alone reserved the authority to determine what lay in the interests of Communism.

Critics claim that the Soviet legal system regarded law as an arm of politics and courts as agencies of the government. Extensive extra-judiciary powers were given to the Soviet secret police agencies. According to Vladimir Lenin, the purpose of early socialist courts was "not to eliminate terror ... but to substantiate it and legitimize in principle". Historian Richard Pipes writes that the regime abolished Western legal concepts including the rule of law, the civil liberties, the protection of law and guarantees of property, and thus became totalitarian.

Crime was determined not as the infraction of law, but as any action which could threaten the Soviet state and society. For example, a desire to make a profit could be interpreted as a criminal act done for self interest at the expensive of society, or, in the early period of the USSR, even as counter-revolutionary activity punishable by death. The liquidation and deportation of millions peasants in 1928–31 was carried out within the terms of Soviet Civil Code. Some early Soviet legal scholars even asserted that "criminal repression" may be applied in the absence of guilt.". As Martin Latsis, chief of the Ukrainian Cheka, explained during the civil war:

"Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what is his background, his education, his profession. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror."

According to Richard Pipes, the purpose of public trials was "not to demonstrate the existence or absence of a crime – that was predetermined by the appropriate party authorities – but to provide yet another forum for political agitation and propaganda for the instruction of the citizenry. Defense lawyers, who had to be party members, were required to take their client's guilt for granted..."

Political repression

Main article: Soviet political repressions

The political repressions were practiced by the Soviet secret police services Cheka, OGPU and NKVD. An extensive network of civilian informants – either volunteers, or those forcibly recruited – was used to collect intelligence for the government and report cases of suspected dissent.

Soviet political repression was a de facto and de jure system of prosecution of people who were or perceived to be enemies of the Soviet system. Its theoretical basis were the theory of Marxism about the class struggle. The term "repression", "terror", and other strong words were official working terms, since the dictatorship of the proletariat was supposed to suppress the resistance of other social classes which Marxism considered antagonistic to the class of proletariat. The legal basis of the repression was formalized into the Article 58 in the code of RSFSR and similar articles for other Soviet republics. Aggravation of class struggle under socialism was proclaimed during the Stalinist terror.

File:Kersnovskaya Lucky Car.jpg
Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya Birth in a prison car for Bessarabian deportees

Chronology

The repressions were conducted in several consecutive waves known as Red Terror, Dekulakization, Great Purge, Doctor's Plot, and others.

During Red Terror and collectivization the entire "ruling classes" have been exterminated, including "rich people", and a significant part of intelligentsia and peasantry labeled as kulaks. The numerous victims of extrajudicial punishment were called the enemies of the people. The punishment by the state included summary executions, torture, sending innocent people to Gulag, involuntary settlement, and stripping of citizen's rights. According to NKVD Orders No. 00486 and No. 00689, wives and family members were also punished if they were seen as being involved with their relative in the supposed crime. In 1941 the secret police forces conducted massacres of prisoners as the Soviets retreated from the German invasion..

After Stalin's death, the suppression of dissent was dramatically reduced and took new forms. The internal critics of the system were convicted for anti-Soviet agitation or as "social parasites". Others were labeled as mentally ill, having sluggishly progressing schizophrenia and incarcerated in "Psikhushkas", i.e. mental hospitals used by the Soviet authorities as prisons. A few notable dissidents, such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Bukovsky, and Andrei Sakharov, were sent to internal or external exile.

Suppression of uprisings

During the Russian Civil War, anti-Bolshevik uprisings, like the Tambov and Kronstadt rebellions, were brutally suppressed by military force. During the Tambov rebellion, Bolshevik military forces used chemical weapons against rebelling peasants hiding in forests. A Committee organized by Mikhail Tukhachevsky and Antonov-Ovseenko "took hostages on enormous scale, carried out executions, and set up death camps where prisoners were gassed" according to Black book of communism

Ethnic cleansing accusations

Main article: Population transfer in the Soviet Union
Ukrainian Famine Victim, 1933

Entire nations have been collectively deported by the Soviet Government for alleged collaboration with the Nazis during World War II.

According to some historians, in legal terms the word "ethnic cleansing" or even "genocide" may be appropriate because specific ethnic groups were targeted. At least nine of distinct ethnic-linguistic groups, including ethnic Germans, ethnic Greeks, ethnic Poles, Crimean Tatars, Balkars, Chechens, and Kalmyks, were deported to remote unpopulated areas of Siberia and Kazakhstan. The ethnicity-targeted population transfers in the Soviet Union possibly led to millions of deaths due to the inflicted hardships. Koreans and Romanians were also deported. Mass operations of the NKVD were needed to deport hundreds of thousands of people.

Deaths from famines

Main article: Holodomor

According to some historians, "the systematic use of famine as a weapon" was a "particular feature of many Communist regimes" and the deaths of 5 to 7 million people during the Soviet famine of 1932–1933, including the Holodomor in the Ukraine, were caused by confiscating food from peasants and blocking the migration of starving population by the Soviet government. The overall number of peasants who died in 1930–1937 from hunger and repressions during collectivisation (including in Kavkaz and Kazakhstan) was at least 14.5 million, according to historian Robert Conquest.

More recent estimates, based on actual archival data, indicate that 2 to 3.5 million died in Ukraine during the Holodomor. Historians R. Davies and S. Wheatcroft estimate that, overall, 5.5 to 6.5 million Soviet people died due to famine in the 1930s. According to them, the famine was an unintentional result of erroneous state policies in implementing collectivization combined with natural causes.

Loss of life

The number of people who died under Joseph Stalin's regime, including the famines, in the Soviet Union has been estimated as between 3.5 and 8 million by G. Ponton, 6.6 million by V. V. Tsaplin, 9.5 million by Alec Nove, 20 million by The Black Book of Communism, 50 million by Norman Davies, and 61 million by R. J. Rummel. The Guinness Book of Records claims that, overall, 66.7 million people were killed in the Soviet Union by state persecution from October 1917 through 1959 – under Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev. Figures published before the Soviet dissolution may be inflated.

The numbers of victims are inconsistent because they are determined using different criteria and methods and counted during different periods of time. Most recent publications are probably more reliable than estimates made during the Cold War, since after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, researchers gained access to Soviet archives.

Freedom of expression, literature, and science

Main article: Suppressed research in the Soviet Union Main article: Socialist Realism

According to Soviet Criminal Code, Article 70, agitation or propaganda carried on for the purpose of weakening Soviet authority, circulating materials or literature that defamed the Soviet State and social system were punishable by imprisonment for a term of 2-5 years and for a second offense, punishable for a term of 3-10 years.
Censorship in the Soviet Union was pervasive and strictly enforced. This gave rise to Samizdat, a clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature.

Art, literature, education, and science were placed under a strict ideological scrutiny, since they were supposed to serve the interests of the victorious proletariat. Socialist realism is an example of such teleologically-oriented art that promoted socialism and communism. All humanities and social sciences were tested for strict accordance with historical materialism.

All natural sciences had to be founded on the philosophical base of dialectical materialism. Many scientific disciplines, such as genetics, cybernetics, and comparative linguistics, were suppressed in the Soviet Union during some periods, condemned as "bourgeois pseudoscience", and replaced by real pseudoscience, such as Lysenkoism. Many prominent scientists during Stalin's rule were declared to be "wrecklers" or enemy of the people and imprisoned. Under Stalin, some scientists worked as prisoners in "Sharashkas", i.e. research and development laboratories within the Gulag labor camp system.

Every large enterprise or institution of the Soviet Union had First Department run by KGB people responsible for secrecy and political security of the workplace.

Right to vote

Main article: Soviet democracy

According to communist ideologists, the Soviet political system was a true democracy, where workers' councils called "soviets" represented the will of the working class. In particular, the Soviet Constitution of 1936 guaranteed direct universal suffrage with the secret ballot. However all candidates had been selected by Communist party organizations, at least before the June 1987 elections. Historian Robert Conquest described this system as

"a set of phantom institutions and arrangements which put a human face on the hideous realities: a model constitution adopted in a worst period of terror and guaranteeing human rights, elections in which there was only one candidate, and in which 99 percent voted; a parliament at which no hand was ever raised in opposition or abstention."

Property rights

Personal property was allowed, with certain limitations. All real property belonged to the state and society. Unauthorized possession of foreign currency was forbidden and prosecuted as criminal offense.

Freedoms of assembly and association

Freedoms of assembly and association did not exist. Workers were not allowed to organize free trade unions. All existing trade unions were organized and controlled by the state. All political youth organizations, such as Pioneer movement and Komsomol served to enforce the policies of the Communist Party.

According to Soviet criminal code participation in an anti-Soviet organization was punished in accordance with Article 64 -treason punishable up to Death penalty

Freedom of religion

Temple of St Vladimir. It was turned into bus station in Soviet time.
Main article: Religion in the Soviet Union

The Soviet government promoted atheism. The stated goal was control suppression, and, ultimately, the elimination of religious beliefs, which were seen as backward and disuniting. Atheism was propagated through schools, communist organizations, and the media. Movements, such as the Society of the Godless, were created. All religious movements were either prosecuted or controlled by the state. Nonetheless many still did practice religion, especially in the Asian republics.

Freedom of movement

Main article: Passport system in the Soviet Union

Emigration and any travel abroad were not allowed without an explicit permission from the government. People who were not allowed to leave the country are known as "refuseniks". According to the Soviet Criminal Code, Article 64. flight abroad or refusal to return from abroad among other offenses was Treason that was punishable by imprisonment for a term of 10-15 years with confiscation of property or by death with confiscation of property.

Passport system in the Soviet Union restricted migration of citizens within the country through "propiska" (residential permit/registration system) and use of internal passports. For a long period of the Soviet history peasants did not have internal passports and could not move into towns without permission. Many former inmates received "wolf ticket" and were allowed to live only at 101 km away from city borders. Travel to closed cities and to the regions near USSR state borders was strongly restricted. Illegal exit abroad was punishable by imprisonment for a term of 1-3 years.

Human rights organizations and activists in USSR

  • USSR's section of Amnesty International was founded on October 6 1973 by 11 Moscow intellectuals and was registered in September 1974 by the Amnesty international Secretariat in London.
  • The Moscow Helsinki Group was founded in 1976 to monitor the Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 that included clauses calling for the recognition of universal human rights.

References

  1. ^ Constitution of the Soviet Union. Preamble
  2. Lambelet, Doriane. "The Contradiction Between Soviet and American Human Rights Doctrine: Reconciliation Through Perestroika and Pragmatism." 7 Boston University International Law Journal. 1989. p. 61-62.
  3. Shiman, David (1999). Economic and Social Justice: A Human Rights Perspective. Amnesty International. ISBN 0967533406.
  4. ^ Richard Pipes Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, Vintage books, Random House Inc., New York, 1995, ISBN 0-394-50242-6, pages 401–403
  5. Richard Pipes (2001) Communism Weidenfled and Nicoloson. ISBN 0-297-64688-5
  6. ^ Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia – Past, Present, and Future, 1994. ISBN 0-374-52738-5.
  7. Anton Antonov-Ovseenko Beria (Russian) Moscow, AST, 1999. Russian text online
  8. Koehler, John O. Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police. Westview Press. 2000. ISBN 0-8133-3744-5
  9. Template:En icon Richard Rhodes (2002). Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40900-9. Despite the deportations, Barbarossa surprised the NKVD, whose jails and prisons in the invaded western territories were crowded with political prisoners. Rather than releasing their prisoners as they hurried to retreat during the first week of the war, the Soviet secret police simply killed them. NKVD prisoner executions in the first week after Barbarossa totaled some ten thousand in western Ukraine and more than nine thousand in Vinnytsia, eastward toward Kiev. Comparable numbers of prisoners were executed in eastern Poland, Byelorussia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The Soviet areas had already sustained losses numbering in the hundreds of thousands from the Stalinist purges of 1937–38. “It was not only the numbers of the executed,” historian Yury Boshyk writes of the evacuation murders, “but also the manner in which they died that shocked the populace. When the families of the arrested rushed to the prisons after the Soviet evacuation, they were aghast to find bodies so badly mutilated that many could not be identified. It was evident that many of the prisoners had been tortured before death; others were killed en masse.”
  10. The Soviet Case: Prelude to a Global Consensus on Psychiatry and Human Rights. Human Rights Watch. 2005
  11. B.V.Sennikov. Tambov rebellion and liquidation of peasants in Russia, Publisher: Posev, 2004, ISBN 5-85824-152-2 Full text in Russian
  12. Courtois, Stephane; Werth, Nicolas; Panne, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Bartosek, Karel; Margolin, Jean-Louis & Kramer, Mark (1999). The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-07608-7
  13. ^ Robert Conquest (1986) The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505180-7.
  14. ^ Bibliography: Courtois et al. The Black Book of Communism
  15. Davies, R. W. (2004). The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931–1933 (The Industrialization of Soviet Russia). Macmillan. pp. 400–1. ISBN 0333311078. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  16. Davies, R. & Wheatcroft, S., 440–1
  17. Ponton, G. (1994) The Soviet Era.
  18. Tsaplin, V.V. (1989) Statistika zherty naseleniya v 30e gody.
  19. Nove, Alec. Victims of Stalinism: How Many?, in Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (edited by J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning), Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-521-44670-8.
  20. Davies, Norman. Europe: A History, Harper Perennial, 1998. ISBN 0-06-097468-0.
  21. Bibliography: Rummel.
  22. Professor Richard Overy wrote, “For years the figures circulating in the West for Soviet repression were greatly inflated. … The archive shows a very different picture.” (The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia, Allen Lane, 2004, page 194.) Professor R. W. Davies wrote, “The archival data are entirely incompatible with such very high figures, which continue to be cited as firm fact in both the Russian and the Western media.” (Soviet history in the Yeltsin era, Macmillan, 1997, page 172.) For example, the archives show that the total executed between 1930 and 1953 was 776,074, not millions. Richard Evans wrote that Charles Maier's statement that Stalin killed more people than Hitler relied upon “Conquest’s implausible and inflated estimates without question, while omitting deaths caused by Nazi aggression in the East (which also, apart from military and exterminatory action, led to famines and deportations). The number of deaths caused by Nazism’s eastward drive may itself have been as many as 20 million.” (Richard Evans, In Hitler’s shadow, Tauris, 1989, page 170.)
  23. ^ Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents in the Soviet Union, 1956-1975 By S. P. de Boer, E. J. Driessen, H. L. Verhaar; ISBN 9024725380; p. 652
  24. A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former). Chapter 9 - Mass Media and the Arts. The Library of Congress. Country Studies
  25. Robert Conquest Reflections on a Ravaged Century (2000) ISBN 0-393-04818-7, page 97
  26. A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former). Chapter 5. Trade Unions. The Library of Congress. Country Studies. 2005.
  27. Museum of dissident movement in Ukraine

Bibliography

  • Applebaum, Anne (2003) Gulag: A History. Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-0056-1
  • Conquest, Robert (1991) The Great Terror: A Reassessment. Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-507132-8.
  • Conquest, Robert (1986) The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505180-7.
  • Courtois, Stephane; Werth, Nicolas; Panne, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Bartosek, Karel; Margolin, Jean-Louis & Kramer, Mark (1999). The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-07608-7.
  • Khlevniuk, Oleg & Kozlov, Vladimir (2004) The History of the Gulag : From Collectivization to the Great Terror (Annals of Communism Series) Yale University Pres. ISBN 0-300-09284-9.
  • Pipes, Richard (2001) Communism Weidenfled and Nicoloson. ISBN 0-297-64688-5
  • Pipes, Richard (1994) Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime. Vintage. ISBN 0-679-76184-5.
  • Rummel, R.J. (1996) Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-56000-887-3.
  • Yakovlev, Alexander (2004). A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10322-0.

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See also

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