What was the purpose of the repression? “Victims of Stalinist repressions” are required to be “innocent. Mass operations were centralized

Guilty and Innocent

In the 1920s and 1950s, several complex and partially interconnected social processes took place simultaneously. Without understanding this, it is impossible to understand our history of the 20th century.

Khrushchev, and after him the "architects of Perestroika" under the name of "victims of repression" cunningly united several completely different groups:

State criminals (Vlasovites, policemen, other traitors, foreign intelligence agents, saboteurs, etc.)

Criminals who were condemned as counter-revolutionary criminals, according to the traditions of the time.

Innocent victims of the errors of justice (it is impossible to avoid them in any society, this was condemned in previous articles).

People who suffered from illegal (criminal) actions of clan (mafia) groups and individuals of state bodies (up to 300 thousand people, mostly rehabilitated in the 30s)

People who suffered during the struggle of the clans of the emerging party oligarchy 34-39 years (mostly members of the warring factions)

Persons who resist state policy in industrialization and collectivization (up to 200 thousand people).

Persons affected by centralized state repressions at the end of 39-40. carried out with the aim of preventing the seizure of power and property by oligarchic clans (“perestroika”).

Not only different groups of convicts are united into one, but also different periods of our history. For example, the period of the Red Terror, which was a response (almost a year later!) to the White Terror. The period of the fight against banditry and the post-revolutionary lawlessness of the former red "field commanders" and their subsequent punishment in the 20s and early 30s. A fierce struggle with foreign intelligence services and saboteurs in the 30s and the formed communist oligarchy in the same period, as well as an inter-clan oligarchic struggle.

After the victory in the Civil War in the former Russian Empire a power vacuum is formed - there are no state bodies capable of effectively combating crime, collecting taxes, training, propaganda, public administration, scientific activity. There are no qualified specialists in accounting, management, industrial sectors, no teachers, investigators, roads, no industry. Purposeful strikes destroy the former basis of the state ideology - the church, the population loses its ideological orientation. In the country, several million barrels of firearms and millions of impoverished people who have learned what blood and death are left in their hands. 4 million children who have lost their parents, a considerable number of which will grow up to be real "thugs", cruel and ruthless. It is they who will make the main contribution to the youth crime of the early 30s, which then grew several times. Power in this period is not in the hands of a centralized government, but little dependent on the center of the former red "field commanders" and a mass of crooks who went into power.

Chained to the place of the "Pale of Settlement" Jews receive freedom of movement. There is a strong migration of the Jewish population of Russia to large cities, especially to the capital. So in 1912, 6.4 thousand Jews lived in Moscow, in 1933 - 241.7 thousand. The population of Moscow has grown over the years from 1 million 618 thousand to 3 million 663 thousand. The clan structure of the Jewish diaspora and mutual support allow them to seize key positions in state bodies in an atmosphere of power vacuum. Muscovites hostilely met the uninvited newcomers, who behaved impudently and defiantly despised Russian culture and the Russian people, but there was no talk of any pogroms. But the uninvited "guests" had power at that moment. To pronounce the word "Jew" was more than enough to find yourself in the cellars of the "organs". Poorly educated, limited and self-satisfied people from the "shtetlets" of Ukraine and the villages of southern Russia mocked and swaggered at Russian culture, occupying leading positions in the People's Commissariat of Education and the press, they spat on and defiled Russian history, Russian state, burned out Russian self-consciousness. They were intoxicated by the huge power that suddenly fell into their hands, which they could not even imagine before. It was a period of explosions of churches, "the union of militant atheists" Em. Yaroslavsky, contempt for everything Russian. In schools and universities there was not even a concept of the subject of Russian history. The people were told that they had no nationality. Not all Jews behaved in this way, and a considerable number of them subsequently played a significant role in science, politics and culture. They played an important role in the suppression of banditry and crime in the 20-30s. and restoration of state functions. In the war against the Nazis, Soviet Jews showed exceptional heroism and steadfastness. It should be noted that other peoples also struck at the church. Other religions were also subjected to blows, all confessions were “reactionary and hostile elements”. It should be said that church leaders were by no means always "innocent victims" and often they took the side of the enemies of the Soviet Power, which is now ignored for opportunistic reasons.

All this is not a fabrication of anti-Semites, but real facts. Historian M. Agursky, a Jew by nationality, directly declares "an exorbitant abundance" of Jews in government in those years. Many Jews occupied key positions in state administration, primarily in the NKVD (OGPU). Of the 20 people in the top leadership of the NKVD, 11, including the people's commissar himself, are Jews, 4 are Russians, 2 are Latvians, 1 Pole, 1 German, 1 Georgian. Only one Goglidze survived the 1930s, who was shot in the "Beria case" in 54. Until the mid-1920s, there were no Jews at these posts, leading role the Poles and the Baltics played in the special services. Only in 1924 did Yagoda become the 2nd deputy chairman of the OPTU, which allows him to influence personnel policy. As a result, by the mid-1930s, the head of the NKVD, his 1st deputy Agranov (Sorenzon) and 7 out of 10 department heads were Jews. Yezhov, by the way, was the first Russian to head the NKVD.

To believe that Stalin was the sovereign master in Soviet Russia, and nothing could happen without his will for almost 20 years, is a very serious mistake that has nothing to do with reality. Stalin was the head of the party and had no formal power. Neither the special services, nor the army, nor the courts were directly subordinate to him. That is why he was not taken seriously for a very long time.

Repression: Clans, Power and Property

The real "owner" was the rapidly emerging clans of the communist oligarchy, for the most part consisting of "parochial" Jews. The most significant figure was Trotsky and the clan that formed around him. Another strong clan was the Sverdlov clan, to which the notorious head of the NKVD of 34-36, Heinrich (Khanoch-Enoch) Yagoda, belonged. His relative Averbakh was the head of the "proletarian writers". High posts were held by Sverdlov's brother Veniamin.

The new oligarchy quickly closed into a caste, where access to strangers was already closed in the 1920s. Due to the lack of "their clan women", the "transition of wives" from one statesman of a certain level to another becomes the norm.

There were many clans and "families", but there was only one power, so a squabble began, more reminiscent of the behavior of spiders in a jar. It would be a mistake to believe that "the Jews exterminated the Russian people", first of all, the ruling groups destroyed each other. One of the most famous trials is the "Trotsky-Zinoviev bloc". There are 11 Jews among the defendants, including Zinoviev (Radomyslsky) and Kamenev (Rosenfeld), 1 Armenian, 1 Pole, 3 Russians. The composition of the "team" of the NKVD, which prepared the process - 9 Jews and one Russian. All of them were also soon shot and their places were taken by Leplevsky, Belsky, Dagin, Litvin, Shapiro, etc. There is no reason to assert that a "national revolution" was taking place and the Russian people "were liberated from Jewish oppression by the hands of Stalin." It was just that the ruling clans slaughtered each other, and in general there were many Jews in them, whose deputies were often Russians. Opponents want to insure themselves against subsequent revenge and widely use the wording “a family member of a traitor to the Motherland”, which, by the way, had other functions. The fight is extremely intense and furious. The result was that in 1922 there were three Jews (out of five members) in the Politburo, and by the end of the 1930s there was only one Jew in the Politburo - Kaganovich out of ten of its members. Stalin did not have much to do with what was happening until the year 36 and subsequently showed himself not very active, often stopping or punishing presumptuous oligarchs and security officers. This is how Khrushchev's letters have been preserved, in which he indignantly writes why Moscow is canceling sentences in droves and releasing those arrested in Ukraine.

Unfortunately, "fell under the distribution" and people completely far from all this bacchanalia.

"Victims of Stalin's repressions" from among the party and state workers were sentenced to death not by the NKVD, but by their comrades. The NKVD bodies did not sentence anyone to death at all, they conducted an investigation and guarded the border, only later they were given “special” control functions that they carried out with extremely high efficiency, but this has nothing to do with sentences. Sentences were issued by courts or military colleges (tribunals or "troikas"), there were no lawless extrajudicial reprisals in those years, this is confirmed by the opinion of lawyers, which even the Prosecutor General of Yeltsin's Russia had to admit. I emphasize again - without the sanction of the friends and comrades of the accused, the "authorities" were powerless and all the talk that a general or marshal could be thrown into the dungeons by order of Stalin or Beria is a blatant and shameless lie that was created and disseminated purposefully. The vast majority of "victims of repression" suffered 2-3 years before the appointment of Beria to the post of people's commissar. Before a person “disappeared”, a decision of the party bodies was required, and always an expulsion from the party, which was carried out not in the “NKVD cellars”, but in the party organization. All convicts were previously expelled from the ranks of the CPSU (b). Exclusion from the party was the removal of immunity. So the assertion that the "bodies" conducted terror against party workers has nothing to do with reality, this is another fake created by Khrushchev. In 39, Beria ensured that the secret services could spy on party hierarchs and undercover intelligence. But as before, the party stood above the organs of the NKVD, and without the sanction of the secretariat of the Central Committee or the Politburo (and, as a rule, without expulsion from the party), arrest was impossible in principle. This is what caused such hatred and anger of the party hierarchs - they really wanted complete lack of control.

Plenum of the Central Committee of 37. Bauman, Gamarnik, Egorov, Kaminsky, Kosior, Postyshev, Rudzutak, Rukhimovich, Chubar, Eikhe, Yakir and others are raging, demanding the destruction of enemies. Bukharin, who just yesterday heaped curses on all his comrades who had already been “exposed” by that time .

A little later, at a meeting of a special commission to decide the fate of the “Bukharin criminal group”, two proposals were put to the vote: “to judge with capital punishment” (Yezhov) and “to judge without the use of execution” (Postyshev). Against the execution were Litvinov, Petrovsky, Shkiryatov (by the way, who died a natural death). It is interesting that all those who voted for the execution were themselves shot after. Iona Yakir categorically demands the immediate death of those under investigation. Passes introduced a little later at the meeting, Stalin makes a proposal - to investigate the case of Bukharin, and then decide on the court, the majority voted for this (both the trial and execution were a year later). Yakir again categorically insists on immediate execution. These were the “victims” they were, rehabilitated and extolled later.

Contrary to popular belief, which was purposefully planted during the “Khrushchev thaw” and “Perestroika”, Stalin did not take a noticeable part in power clashes before the assassination of Kirov. It will manifest itself noticeably later and deal a crushing blow to the party and state oligarchy. In the meantime, the clans are squabbling for power, Stalin is engaged in industrialization and strengthening the country's defense, this is convenient for everyone and he is often treated as an arbiter. Marshals have no time to deal with the army and defense - they expose enemies and spend all their time on intrigues.

It is not uncommon to hear the opinion that Stalin allegedly destroyed the "Leninist Guard" - Bolsheviks with pre-revolutionary experience, who allegedly did not agree with the General Secretary's retreat from the principles of party democracy and Marxism-Leninism. This gossip, put into circulation by N. Khrushchev at the Twentieth Congress, has as little to do with reality as the statement of the same character about the leadership of troops on the globe. The entire party of Bolsheviks of the "old school" before the revolution was 17,000 people, of which by the mid-30s (20 years later) less than half remained alive. The rest were carried away by the Civil War, epidemics and inhuman stresses. Already from the beginning of the 1920s, Bolsheviks with pre-revolutionary experience did not play a noticeable role in the party and the state apparatus, over the years their role has been even more reduced. The examples of Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin cannot change the situation because of their small numbers. It can be added that no one touched such "Lenin cadres" as Kalinin and Voroshilov.

To what extent the NKVD "obeyed" Stalin and "everyone was afraid of him to the point of convulsions," says the story of Kirov's bodyguard Borisov (it was in 1934). When Stalin did not believe the version of the investigation about the murder and demanded that the defendant come to him for personal interrogation, the car with him and the NKVD officers who escorted him “falls into a disaster” and the defendant dies. It is unlikely that even a very naive person would believe in such a story with an accidental catastrophe. Khrushchev launched gossip that Borisov was killed on Stalin's orders. This is already completely ridiculous - why is Stalin afraid of the testimony of a person who is being made to him, why even demand that he be delivered to himself and killed in such a strange and blatant way?

The well-known "denunciator of Stalinism", "victim of repressions" and a regular character on television during Perestroika, Lev Razgon "denounced" the "fascist NKVD", "the horrors of the camps" and demanded repentance. But he never mentioned that in 1937 he himself was a full-time employee of the NKVD, and his high-ranking brother Israel (a major army political worker) betrayed his best friend.

The question is often asked why there are so many cultural figures among the “victims of repression”. It's very simple - the ideological and power directions usually go together and are controlled by the same people. These are just different facets of the same ruling clan(s). In those years, there was an acute shortage of “their own” people in all posts, the communist oligarchy was still very young, so they had to “ reliable people» close all holes. The transition from the ideological environment to the NKVD bodies and back was commonplace in those years, in addition to the aforementioned Dispersal, among the literary figures (ideologists) of that time there were many people who had experience working in the "bodies" - Babel, Brik, Vesely (Kochkurov), Volin (Fradkin) , Zhiga, Lelevich (Kalmanson), etc. As for the national composition of the leading, most influential writers of Moscow, everything is clear here. The national composition of the Moscow delegates to the congress of writers is as follows: Russians - 92, Jews - 72, others -12. The real "ideologists" of that time and part-time representatives of large oligarchic clans were Altman, Koltsov (Fridland), Lezhnev (Altshuler), Radek (Sobelson). These were the “then” Pozners, Svanidzes, Kiselyovs, Korotichi.

Any clan, first of all, tries to monopolize its position, and to do this, make its power uncontrolled and prevent competition, putting all possible opponents in a losing position. It was impossible in principle to achieve this completely in the USSR with public ownership - one must be responsible for the management of this property. A bad manager can easily be replaced while there is a position, that's nothing, but what if the position is lost? And how to pass on to children "acquired by overwork"? The main instrument of uncontrolled power is large private property, no one can tell the "masters of life" what to do. This means that for the oligarchy the most important task is to eliminate social relations in the USSR and make public property their own, sacred and inviolable. But this is not easy to do if the state is not destroyed, if the army and special services are not weakened, then there is a serious risk that the operation will fail. If, however, the state machine is destroyed or paralyzed, that is, the state is destroyed, then the greedy neighbors will tear the country apart and they themselves may not get anything but the gallows. This means that external guarantees are needed from very serious people that traitors will not be “thrown”. So, you need to contact them. In addition, any process of this magnitude must have "driving forces", that is, sufficiently large and active groups of people who are extremely interested in change and are willing to take risks for this. Such is the logic of events. This is how events unfolded in Perestroika, and the processes of the 1930s went on in the same way. The ideologist and organizer was the party oligarchy, the main driving force- an apparatus bureaucracy with the full support of its main reserve - the capital's intelligentsia. Yes, few people pay attention to this very important component of the capital's intelligentsia - it is the main supplier of staff personnel for the Russian (Soviet) state machine, its main reserve.

Then Stalin managed to outwit the party oligarchy. He did not prevent them from destroying each other and skillfully played off, speaking on one side or the other. He destroyed most of the enemies with their own hands, until his hour and his year came - 1939, when repressions were practically not required, the state machine worked like a clock not in its own interests, but in the interests of the state and people. Prior to this, the "driving forces" had to go through hard times. The layer that was hit was very narrow, but he survived the crushing blow and the complete collapse of plans. The state oligarchy still cannot forgive Stalin for this, even dead he causes horror and fierce irrational hatred among enemies.

Repression: at the very top

In general, by the 30s of the twentieth century, a party-state oligarchy was formed in the USSR, and Perestroika is the logical conclusion of the oligarchic structure of society with state property. The formed clique will strive for the conservation of uncontrolled and inherited power in society. Only private property, which is "sacred and inviolable," can ensure this "for all eternity." Otherwise, there is always a risk that a new Stalin will come to power and the years 37-39 will be repeated, but without the mistakes of the past, and the criminal oligarchy will be cut to the root. But in such a state there is no private property, therefore, it is necessary to create it, that is, to take away the property from the people and divide it among “our people”, that is, to carry out privatization. In order for state structures not to interfere, they must be paralyzed or destroyed, and the people must be disoriented and busy with their own problems. Best of all, something that seriously distracts - hunger, war, survival, and so on. To accomplish this without external assistance in a country like the USSR is completely unrealistic. In addition, there is a serious "bottleneck" of the whole operation - greedy neighbors, who also have their own views on the property and territories of the self-destructed neighbor. You can, of course, go to the Gauleiter to the occupier, but where is the guarantee that another Gauleiter will not be chosen?

In the 80s, betrayal was committed at the very top, state power was already in the hands of the oligarchy and representatives abroad were not required. In the thirties, it was still necessary to take power and a representative was needed to negotiate in advance. There is no doubt that this same representative was Leiba Bronstein (Trotsky), who was expelled from the USSR. Since the beginning of the 1930s, British intelligence agents have not been transferred to his immediate circle. What is Orwell alone worth. But Trotsky himself does not even consider it necessary to hide his "closeness" and "joint activities" with Western intelligence services, he starts tricks even with the Gestapo. Whoever thinks that the German and British secret services were mortal enemies in the mid-30s is cruelly mistaken, it is their behind-the-scenes collusion that decides the fate of Spain, "surrenders" Czechoslovakia and Austria, and feeds the Nazis to attack the USSR.

Trotsky does not need money, he generously finances his agents in the USSR and even begins to bring in "his own people." Where does he get such sums from? From the Rothschilds. Interesting, right? Previous articles talked about the Finnish intervention of the 20s, which was hardly repulsed Soviet Russia. Then some transnational corporations were mentioned that provided the Finns with financial and political support - the neighboring countries simply “did not notice” the intervention. So, the first who financed the "Finnish expedition" and bought weapons and equipment for the war in the northern conditions were the Rothschilds. Obviously, Russia is included in the zone of strategic interests of the Rothschild clan and a number of other gangs. Transnational clans dividing the Earth already existed then, and the USSR stood in their way, preventing them from taking the World by the throat. It was they who purposefully raised and threw Hitler on Soviet Union. They are the ones behind Perestroika. The Jews here are nothing more than a tool, it will be necessary - the "masters of the World" will "merge" both Israel and America itself.

The most illustrative example of the attempts of the "perestroika of the 30s" is the Zinoviev-Kamenev trial. All the accused fully admitted their guilt. All gossip from the time of perestroika about some kind of "torture" and falsification of documents has been refuted repeatedly and is based only on loud cries in the style of Goebbels' propaganda. His deep conviction that the defendants confessed voluntarily, the evidence was genuine and there really was a conspiracy, was expressed by the US ambassador present in the courtroom, by the way, a former judge and an ardent opponent of communism.

In the previous article, attention was drawn to the fact that it was not Stalin who cracked down on the "Trotsky-Bukharin bloc" at all, but the competing clans. They were furious: “How so? Restoration without us?!” In the event of the success of especially cunning former comrades-in-arms, their own future was seen in the form of a “hemp tie”, this is understandable. I really wanted to repay the same.

It is interesting that at the trial it was said that contacts between the Trotskyist center (that is, Western intelligence services) were carried out through the consul of "one of the countries." Foreign consulates in the USSR demanded an explanation or an apology. At the meeting of the representative of the government of the USSR with the consuls, one word was uttered: "Latvia". The Consul of Latvia hastily and without comment left Moscow. Naturally, one should not think that the wretched, stillborn Baltic state is capable of pursuing some kind of independent policy, just in those historical moments when it is drawn on the map, then only in the form of a "six" under some great power. In those years it was England, now America, however, what's the difference - the same people stand behind them. And then "Latvia", "Poland", "Norway" and many other countries meant "England" and the clans that rule it. It means the same thing now.

Network Structures

It would be a mistake to believe that in the 1930s there was a single centralized anti-state organization, such as the Industrial Party, which extended its tentacles everywhere. Personally, I believe that the investigation came up with this name for "PR", although the organization itself was more than real. The main internal enemy of the USSR were network organizations consisting of bureaucratic managers and their main reserve - part of the capital's intelligentsia. Network organizations are driven by more common interest and purpose than internal organizational discipline.

An example of a network organization is the mafia. It is impossible to understand where is the “active member”, where is just a sympathizer, and where is just a friend of a sympathizer. Even orders to exterminate people are sometimes given in an indirect form, like: “This is a bad person, I don’t understand how the earth wears him.” No official membership, signed papers and party cards. All this is redundant. That is why the investigators found out “with whom else they were talking” and these records were accepted by the courts and tribunals (special meetings). Participants in network systems belong to the same social stratum, have common interests and experience, understanding each other literally from a half hint. And how else to effectively deal with organizations that even communicate in their own language? Just imagine that, for example, Blucher is talking to the previously mentioned Bogdanov? Or two Moscow bureaucrats from the apparatus of the Central Committee are talking:

“The old man is tired, it is hard for him to work, and the economy is arranged incorrectly. It would be good that competent people from the outside took over the management and reorganization of the economy, we would also find a place.

In an ordinary, classical trial, the accusation will be ridiculed. The defendants, looking into their eyes, will say that they meant an elderly cousin who finds it difficult to manage a sawmill on a collective farm. Only now, having survived the terrible Perestroika, it becomes clear what happened then, in the 30s, and it becomes very bitter that we have forgotten the real heroes. Those who were able to get in the way of such scum who were not even led in written history. I had to cut literally "on the living" and therefore innocent people suffered. But, alas, it was inevitable. Is there currently another way to avoid these victims? Yes - lie down and die, or arrange a restructuring and suffer immeasurably greater sacrifices.

Then, in 1939, Stalin dealt a crushing blow to the party mafia, from which she could not recover for several decades.

It should never be forgotten that the real power in the country was wielded by the Central Committee and its apparatus, which had degenerated into a closed caste by the 1930s. Soviet State was considered the state of the "dictatorship of the proletariat", according to Marxist canons. Only now there were no representatives of the "hegemon" or at least the working peasantry at all. There were remnants of "professional revolutionaries", people from "towns", intellectuals, anyone, but there was no smell of the power of representatives of the people. The whole world laughed at this "dictatorship of the proletariat". It was from this that Orwell wrote his novel-caricature.

After the war, when Beria took up the advanced areas of science and the creation of a nuclear shield, and Stalin's health was already shaken (years and inhumanly hard work affected), the rigidity of control weakened. This allowed the communist oligarchy to re-form, organize and grow stronger. The result of this is known - the more than strange death of Stalin, and then of Beria himself. There are extremely serious grounds for believing that it was precisely a murder with the aim of seizing state power.

But all this happened later, and then, in 1939, out of 138 members and candidate members of the Central Committee, about two-thirds were real workers and peasants. And the NKVD was the real pillar of the state. This provided the Soviet people with several decades of sustainable development and victories unprecedented in the history of Mankind.

The history of Russia, as well as other former post-Soviet republics in the period from 1928 to 1953, is called the “Stalin era”. He is positioned as a wise ruler, a brilliant statesman, acting on the basis of "expediency." In fact, they were driven by completely different motives.

Talking about the beginning of the political career of the leader who became a tyrant, such authors shyly hush up one indisputable fact: Stalin was a recidivist convict with seven “walkers”. Robbery and violence were the main form of his social activity in his youth. Repression became an integral part of the state course pursued by him.

Lenin received in him a worthy successor. “Creatively developing his teachings,” Iosif Vissarionovich came to the conclusion that he should rule the country by methods of terror, constantly instilling fear in his fellow citizens.

The generation of people whose mouths can speak the truth about Stalin's repressions is leaving... Are the newfangled articles that whiten the dictator a spit on their suffering, on their broken life...

Leader who sanctioned torture

As you know, Iosif Vissarionovich personally signed the death lists for 400,000 people. In addition, Stalin toughened repression as much as possible, authorizing the use of torture during interrogations. It was they who were given the green light to complete lawlessness in the dungeons. It was directly related to the notorious telegram of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated January 10, 1939, which literally unleashed the hands of the punitive authorities.

Creativity in introducing torture

Let us recall excerpts from the letter of commander Lisovsky, who is being abused by the satraps of the leader ...

"... A ten-day conveyor interrogation with a cruel, vicious beating and no way to sleep. Then - a twenty-day punishment cell. Then - forcing to sit with arms raised up, and also to stand bent over, with his head hidden under the table, for 7-8 hours ..."

The desire of the detainees to prove their innocence and their failure to sign fabricated charges caused an increase in torture and beatings. social status detainees did not play a role. Recall that Robert Eikhe, a candidate member of the Central Committee, had his spine broken during interrogation, and Marshal Blucher died from beatings during interrogations in Lefortovo prison.

Leader's motivation

The number of victims of Stalin's repressions was not tens, not hundreds of thousands, but seven million starved to death and four million arrested (general statistics will be presented below). Only the number of those shot was about 800 thousand people ...

How did Stalin motivate his actions, boundlessly striving for the Olympus of power?

What does Anatoly Rybakov write about this in Children of the Arbat? Analyzing the personality of Stalin, he shares with us his judgments. “A ruler who is loved by the people is weak because his power is based on the emotions of other people. Another thing is when people are afraid of him! Then the power of the ruler depends on him. This is a strong ruler!” Hence the leader's credo - to inspire love through fear!

Steps adequate to this idea were taken by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. Repression became his main competitive tool in his political career.

Beginning of revolutionary activity

Iosif Vissarionovich became interested in revolutionary ideas at the age of 26 after meeting V. I. Lenin. He was engaged in robbery of funds for the party treasury. Fate took him 7 links to Siberia. Stalin was distinguished by pragmatism, prudence, promiscuity in means, rigidity towards people, egocentrism from a young age. Repressions against financial institutions - robberies and violence - were his. Then the future leader of the party participated in the Civil War.

Stalin in the Central Committee

In 1922, Joseph Vissarionovich received a long-awaited career opportunity. Sick and weakening, Vladimir Ilyich introduces him, along with Kamenev and Zinoviev, to the Central Committee of the party. Thus, Lenin creates a political counterbalance to Leon Trotsky, who really claims to be the leader.

Stalin simultaneously heads two party structures: the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee and the Secretariat. In this post, he brilliantly studied the art of party undercover intrigues, which was useful to him later in the fight against competitors.

Stalin's position in the system of red terror

The red terror machine was launched even before Stalin came to the Central Committee.

09/05/1918 The Council of People's Commissars issues a Decree "On the Red Terror". The body for its implementation, called the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK), operated under the Council of People's Commissars from December 7, 1917.

The reason for this radicalization domestic policy was the murder of M. Uritsky, chairman of the St. Petersburg Cheka, and the attempt on the life of V. Lenin, Fanny Kaplan, acting from the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Both events took place on August 30, 1918. Already this year, the Cheka unleashed a wave of repression.

According to statistics, 21,988 people were arrested and imprisoned; 3061 hostages taken; 5544 shot, imprisoned in concentration camps 1791.

By the time Stalin came to the Central Committee, gendarmes, policemen, tsarist officials, entrepreneurs, and landlords had already been repressed. First of all, a blow was dealt to the classes that are the backbone of the monarchical structure of society. However, "creatively developing the teachings of Lenin", Iosif Vissarionovich outlined new main directions of terror. In particular, a course was taken to destroy the social base of the village - agricultural entrepreneurs.

Stalin since 1928 - the ideologist of violence

It was Stalin who turned repression into the main instrument of domestic policy, which he substantiated theoretically.

His concept of the intensification of the class struggle formally becomes the theoretical basis for the constant escalation of violence by state authorities. The country shuddered when it was first voiced by Iosif Vissarionovich at the July Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1928. Since that time, he actually becomes the leader of the Party, the inspirer and ideologist of violence. The tyrant declared war on his own people.

Hidden by slogans, the real meaning of Stalinism is manifested in the unrestrained pursuit of power. Its essence is shown by the classic - George Orwell. The Englishman showed very clearly that power for this ruler was not a means, but an end. Dictatorship was no longer perceived by him as a defense of the revolution. The revolution became a means to establish a personal unlimited dictatorship.

Iosif Vissarionovich in 1928-1930 began by initiating the fabrication by the OGPU of a number of public trials that plunged the country into an atmosphere of shock and fear. Thus, Stalin's cult of personality began to form with trials and instilling horror in the whole society ... Mass repressions were accompanied by public recognition of those who committed non-existent crimes as "enemies of the people." People were brutally tortured into signing accusations fabricated by the investigation. The cruel dictatorship imitated the class struggle, cynically violating the Constitution and all norms of universal morality...

Three global lawsuits were rigged: the “Union Bureau Affair” (putting managers at risk); "The Case of the Industrial Party" (the sabotage of the Western powers against the economy of the USSR was imitated); "The Case of the Labor Peasant Party" (obvious falsification of damage to the seed fund and delays with mechanization). Moreover, they all united in a single cause in order to create the appearance of a single conspiracy against Soviet power and provide scope for further falsification of the OGPU - NKVD.

As a result, the entire economic management of the national economy was replaced from the old "specialists" to "new cadres" ready to work on the instructions of the "leader".

Through the mouths of Stalin, who provided the state apparatus loyal to repressions with the courts, the adamant determination of the Party was further expressed: to oust and ruin thousands of entrepreneurs - industrialists, merchants, small and medium; destroy the basis of agricultural production - the prosperous peasantry (indiscriminately calling it "kulaks"). At the same time, the new voluntarist party position was masked by "the will of the poorest strata of workers and peasants."

Behind the scenes, in parallel with this "general line", the "father of the peoples" consistently, with the help of provocations and false evidence, began to implement the line of liquidating their party competitors for the highest state power (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev).

Forced collectivization

The truth about Stalin's repressions of the period 1928-1932. testifies that the main social base of the village - an efficient agricultural producer - became the main object of repression. The goal is clear: the entire peasant country (which in fact at that time were Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic and Transcaucasian republics) was to turn under the pressure of repression from a self-sufficient economic complex into an obedient donor for the implementation of Stalin's industrialization plans and the maintenance of hypertrophied power structures.

In order to clearly indicate the object of his repressions, Stalin went on an obvious ideological forgery. Economically and socially unjustified, he managed to ensure that party ideologists obedient to him singled out a normal self-supporting (profitable) producer into a separate "class of kulaks" - the target of a new blow. Under the ideological leadership of Joseph Vissarionovich, a plan was developed for the destruction of the social foundations of the village that had developed over the centuries, the destruction of the rural community - the Decree "On the liquidation of ... kulak farms" of 01/30/1930

The Red Terror came to the village. Peasants who fundamentally disagreed with collectivization were subjected to Stalinist trials - "troikas", in most cases ending in executions. Less active “kulaks”, as well as “kulak families” (any persons subjectively defined as “rural activists” could fall into the category) were subjected to forcible confiscation of property and eviction. A body of permanent operational management of the eviction was created - a secret operational management under the leadership of Efim Evdokimov.

Settlers in the extreme regions of the North, victims of Stalin's repressions, were previously identified on a list basis in the Volga region, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Siberia, and the Urals.

In 1930-1931. 1.8 million were evicted, and in 1932-1940. - 0.49 million people.

Organization of hunger

However, executions, ruin and eviction in the 30s of the last century are not all Stalin's repressions. Their brief enumeration should be supplemented by the organization of famine. The real reason for it was the inadequate approach of Joseph Vissarionovich personally to insufficient grain procurements in 1932. Why was the plan fulfilled by only 15-20%? The main reason was crop failure.

His subjective plan for industrialization was under threat. It would be reasonable to reduce plans by 30%, postpone them, and first stimulate the agricultural producer and wait for the harvest year ... Stalin did not want to wait, he demanded immediate provision of food for the bloated power structures and new gigantic construction projects - Donbass, Kuzbass. The leader made a decision - to withdraw from the peasants the grain intended for sowing and for consumption.

On October 22, 1932, two emergency commissions led by the odious personalities Lazar Kaganovich and Vyacheslav Molotov launched a misanthropic campaign of "fighting the kulaks" to seize bread, which was accompanied by violence, quick to punish by troika courts and the deportation of wealthy agricultural producers to the regions of the Far North. It was genocide...

It is noteworthy that the cruelty of the satraps was actually initiated and not stopped by Joseph Vissarionovich himself.

Known fact: correspondence between Sholokhov and Stalin

Mass repressions of Stalin in 1932-1933. are documented. M. A. Sholokhov, the author of The Quiet Flows the Don, addressed the leader, defending his countrymen, with letters, exposing lawlessness during the confiscation of grain. In detail, with an indication of the villages, the names of the victims and their tormentors, the famous resident of the village of Veshenskaya stated the facts. Bullying and violence against the peasants are horrifying: brutal beatings, breaking out of joints, partial strangulation, staging execution, eviction from houses ... In a response letter, Joseph Vissarionovich only partially agreed with Sholokhov. The real position of the leader can be seen in the lines where he calls the peasants saboteurs, "quietly" trying to disrupt the provision of food...

Such a voluntaristic approach caused famine in the Volga region, Ukraine, the North Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Siberia, and the Urals. A special Statement of the State Duma of Russia, published in April 2008, disclosed to the public previously classified statistics (previously, propaganda concealed these repressions of Stalin in every possible way.)

How many people died of starvation in the above regions? The figure set by the State Duma commission is appalling: more than 7 million.

Other areas of pre-war Stalinist terror

We will also consider three more directions of Stalinist terror, and in the following table we will present each of them in more detail.

With the sanctions of Joseph Vissarionovich, a policy was also pursued to oppress freedom of conscience. A citizen of the Land of Soviets had to read the Pravda newspaper, and not go to church ...

Hundreds of thousands of families of formerly productive peasants, fearful of dispossession and exile to the North, became an army supporting the country's gigantic construction projects. In order to limit their rights, to make them manipulated, it was at that time that passportization of the population in cities was carried out. Only 27 million people received passports. Peasants (still the majority of the population) remained without passports, did not enjoy the full range of civil rights (freedom to choose their place of residence, freedom to choose work) and were “tied” to the collective farm at their place of residence with the obligatory condition that they fulfill workday norms.

Antisocial policy was accompanied by the destruction of families, an increase in the number of homeless children. This phenomenon has acquired such a scale that the state was forced to respond to it. With the sanction of Stalin, the Politburo of the Land of Soviets issued one of the most inhuman decrees - punitive in relation to children.

The anti-religious offensive as of 04/01/1936 led to a reduction in Orthodox churches to 28%, mosques - to 32% of their pre-revolutionary number. The number of clergy decreased from 112.6 thousand to 17.8 thousand.

Passportization of the urban population was carried out for repressive purposes. More than 385 thousand people did not receive passports and were forced to leave the cities. 22.7 thousand people were arrested.

One of the most cynical crimes of Stalin is his sanctioning of the secret resolution of the Politburo of 04/07/1935, which allows bringing teenagers from 12 years old to trial and determining their punishment up to the death penalty. In 1936 alone, 125,000 children were placed in NKVD colonies. As of April 1, 1939, 10,000 children were exiled to the Gulag system.

Great terror

The state flywheel of terror was gaining momentum ... The power of Joseph Vissarionovich, starting in 1937, as a result of repressions over the whole society, became comprehensive. However, their biggest leap was just ahead. In addition to the final and already physical reprisal against former party colleagues - Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev - mass "purges of the state apparatus" were carried out.

Terror has gained unprecedented proportions. The OGPU (since 1938 - the NKVD) responded to all complaints and anonymous letters. A person's life was broken for one carelessly dropped word ... Even the Stalinist elite was repressed - statesmen: Kosior, Eikhe, Postyshev, Goloshchekin, Vareikis; military leaders Blucher, Tukhachevsky; Chekists Yagoda, Yezhov.

On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, leading military personnel were shot on fabricated cases “under an anti-Soviet conspiracy”: 19 qualified commanders at the corps level - divisions with combat experience. The cadres who replaced them did not possess the proper operational and tactical art.

Stalin's cult of personality was characterized not only by the showcase facades of Soviet cities. The repressions of the “leader of the peoples” gave rise to a monstrous system of Gulag camps, providing the Land of Soviets with free labor, a mercilessly exploited labor resource for extracting wealth from the underdeveloped regions of the Far North and Central Asia.

The dynamics of the increase in those held in camps and labor colonies is impressive: in 1932 it was about 140 thousand prisoners, and in 1941 - about 1.9 million.

In particular, ironically, the convicts of Kolyma mined 35% of the allied gold, being in terrible conditions of detention. We list the main camps that are part of the GULAG system: Solovetsky (45 thousand prisoners), logging camps - Svirlag and Temnikovo (respectively 43 and 35 thousand); oil and coal production - Ukhtapechlag (51 thousand); chemical industry - Bereznyakov and Solikamsk (63 thousand); development of the steppes - Karaganda camp (30 thousand); construction of the Volga-Moscow canal (196 thousand); construction of BAM (260 thousand); gold mining in Kolyma (138 thousand); Nickel mining in Norilsk (70 thousand).

For the most part, people stayed in the Gulag system in a typical way: after a night of arrest and an ill-judged prejudiced trial. And although this system was created under Lenin, it was under Stalin that political prisoners began to enter it en masse after mass trials: “enemies of the people” - kulaks (in fact, an effective agricultural producer), or even entire deported nationalities. Most served a sentence of 10 to 25 years under Article 58. The process of investigation on it involved torture and a break in the will of the convict.

In the case of the resettlement of kulaks and small peoples, the train with prisoners stopped right in the taiga or in the steppe, and the convicts themselves built a camp and a special purpose prison (TON). From the 1930s, the labor of prisoners was mercilessly exploited to fulfill five-year plans - 12-14 hours a day. Tens of thousands of people died from overwork, poor nutrition, poor medical care.

Instead of a conclusion

The years of Stalin's repressions - from 1928 to 1953. - changed the atmosphere in a society that has ceased to believe in justice, which is under the pressure of constant fear. Since 1918, people were accused and shot by the revolutionary military tribunals. An inhuman system developed... The Tribunal became the Cheka, then the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, then the OGPU, then the NKVD. The executions as part of the 58th article were valid until 1947, and then Stalin replaced them with 25 years of serving in camps.

In total, about 800 thousand people were shot.

Moral and physical torture of the entire population of the country, in fact, lawlessness and arbitrariness, was carried out on behalf of the workers' and peasants' power, the revolution.

The disenfranchised people were terrorized by the Stalinist system constantly and methodically. The beginning of the process of restoring justice was laid by the 20th Congress of the CPSU.

Mass repressions in the USSR were carried out in the period 1927-1953. These repressions are directly associated with the name of Joseph Stalin, who during these years led the country. Social and political persecution in the USSR began after the completion of the last stage civil war. These phenomena began to gain momentum in the second half of the 1930s and did not slow down during the Second World War, as well as after its end. Today we will talk about what the social and political repressions of the Soviet Union were, consider what phenomena underlie those events, and also what consequences this led to.

They say: a whole people cannot be suppressed without end. Lie! Can! We see how our people have become devastated, run wild, and indifference descended on them not only to the fate of the country, not only to the fate of their neighbor, but even to their own fate and the fate of children. Indifference, the last saving reaction of the body, has become our defining feature . That is why the popularity of vodka is unprecedented even in Russia. This is a terrible indifference, when a person sees his life not punctured, not with a broken corner, but so hopelessly fragmented, so up and down filthy, that only for the sake of alcoholic oblivion is it still worth living. Now, if vodka were banned, a revolution would immediately break out in our country.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Reasons for repression:

• Forcing the population to work on a non-economic basis. A lot of work had to be done in the country, but there was not enough money for everything. The ideology formed new thinking and perception, and also had to motivate people to work practically for free.
• Strengthening personal power. For the new ideology, an idol was needed, a person who was unquestioningly trusted. After the assassination of Lenin, this post was vacant. Stalin had to take this place.
• Strengthening the exhaustion of a totalitarian society.

If you try to find the beginning of repression in the union, then the starting point, of course, should be 1927. This year was marked by the fact that mass executions began in the country, with the so-called pests, as well as saboteurs. The motive of these events should be sought in the relations between the USSR and Great Britain. So, at the beginning of 1927, the Soviet Union was involved in a major international scandal, when the country was openly accused of trying to transfer the seat of the Soviet revolution to London. In response to these events, Great Britain severed all relations with the USSR, both political and economic. Inside the country, this step was presented as London's preparation for a new wave of intervention. At one of the party meetings, Stalin declared that the country "needs to destroy all remnants of imperialism and all supporters of the White Guard movement." Stalin had an excellent reason for this on June 7, 1927. On this day, the political representative of the USSR, Voikov, was killed in Poland.

As a result, terror began. For example, on the night of June 10, 20 people who contacted the empire were shot. They were representatives of ancient noble families. In total, in June 27, more than 9 thousand people were arrested, who were accused of treason, aiding imperialism and other things that sound menacing, but are very difficult to prove. Most of those arrested were sent to prison.

Pest control

After that, a number of major cases began in the USSR, which were aimed at combating sabotage and sabotage. The wave of these repressions was based on the fact that in most large companies that operated within the Soviet Union, senior positions were occupied by people from imperial Russia. Of course, most of these people did not feel sympathy for the new government. Therefore, the Soviet regime was looking for pretexts by which this intelligentsia could be removed from leadership positions and, if possible, destroyed. The problem was that it needed a weighty and legal basis. Such grounds were found in a number of lawsuits that swept through the Soviet Union in the 1920s.

Among the most striking examples of such cases are the following:

• Shakhty business. In 1928, repressions in the USSR affected miners from Donbass. A show trial was staged from this case. The entire leadership of Donbass, as well as 53 engineers, were accused of espionage with an attempt to sabotage the new state. As a result of the trial, 3 people were shot, 4 were acquitted, the rest received prison terms from 1 to 10 years. It was a precedent - society enthusiastically accepted the repressions against the enemies of the people ... In 2000, the Russian prosecutor's office rehabilitated all the participants in the Shakhty case, in view of the lack of corpus delicti.
• Pulkovo case. In June 1936, a large solar eclipse. The Pulkovo Observatory appealed to the world community to attract personnel to study this phenomenon, as well as to obtain the necessary foreign equipment. As a result, the organization was accused of espionage. The number of victims is classified.
• The case of the industrial party. The defendants in this case were those whom the Soviet authorities called bourgeois. This process took place in 1930. The defendants were accused of trying to disrupt industrialization in the country.
• The case of the peasant party. The Socialist-Revolutionary organization is widely known, under the name of the Chayanov and Kondratiev groups. In 1930, representatives of this organization were accused of trying to disrupt industrialization and interfering in agricultural affairs.
• Union Bureau. The Union Bureau case was opened in 1931. The defendants were representatives of the Mensheviks. They were accused of undermining the creation and implementation of economic activity within the country, as well as having links with foreign intelligence.

At that moment, a massive ideological struggle was taking place in the USSR. The new regime tried with all its might to explain its position to the population, as well as to justify its actions. But Stalin understood that ideology alone could not bring order to the country and could not allow him to retain power. Therefore, along with ideology, repressions began in the USSR. Above, we have already given some examples of cases from which repressions began. These cases have always raised big questions, and today, when the documents on many of them have been declassified, it becomes absolutely clear that most of the accusations were unfounded. It is no coincidence that the Russian prosecutor's office, having examined the documents of the Shakhtinsk case, rehabilitated all participants in the process. And this despite the fact that in 1928 none of the party leadership of the country had any idea about the innocence of these people. Why did this happen? This was due to the fact that, under the guise of repression, as a rule, everyone who did not agree with the new regime was destroyed.

The events of the 1920s were only the beginning, the main events were ahead.

Socio-political meaning of mass repressions

A new massive wave of repression within the country unfolded at the beginning of 1930. At that moment, the struggle began not only with political competitors, but also with the so-called kulaks. In fact, a new blow of the Soviet power against the rich began, and this blow caught not only wealthy people, but also the middle peasants and even the poor. One of the stages of delivering this blow was dispossession. Within the framework of this material, we will not dwell on the issues of dispossession, since this issue has already been studied in detail in the corresponding article on the site.

Party composition and governing bodies in repression

A new wave of political repressions in the USSR began at the end of 1934. At that time, there was a significant change in the structure of the administrative apparatus within the country. In particular, on July 10, 1934, the special services were reorganized. On this day, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR was created. This department is known by the acronym NKVD. This division included the following services:

• Headquarters state security. It was one of the main bodies that dealt with almost all cases.
• Main Directorate of Workers' and Peasants' Militia. This is an analogue of the modern police, with all the functions and responsibilities.
• Main Directorate of the Border Service. The department dealt with border and customs affairs.
• Headquarters of the camps. This department is now widely known under the acronym GULAG.
• Main Fire Department.

In addition, in November 1934, a special department was created, which was called the "Special Meeting". This department received broad powers to combat the enemies of the people. In fact, this department could, without the presence of the accused, the prosecutor and the lawyer, send people into exile or to the Gulag for up to 5 years. Of course, this applied only to the enemies of the people, but the problem is that no one really knew how to define this enemy. That is why the Special Meeting had unique functions, since virtually any person could be declared an enemy of the people. Any person could be sent into exile for 5 years on one simple suspicion.

Mass repressions in the USSR

The events of December 1, 1934 became the reason for mass repressions. Then Sergei Mironovich Kirov was killed in Leningrad. As a result of these events, a special procedure for judicial proceedings was approved in the country. In fact, we are talking about accelerated litigation. Under the simplified system of proceedings, all cases where people were accused of terrorism and complicity in terrorism were transferred. Again, the problem was that this category included almost all people who fell under repression. Above, we have already talked about a number of high-profile cases that characterize the repressions in the USSR, where it is clearly seen that all people, one way or another, were accused of aiding terrorism. The specificity of the simplified system of proceedings was that the sentence had to be pronounced within 10 days. The defendant received the summons the day before the trial. The trial itself took place without the participation of prosecutors and lawyers. At the conclusion of the proceedings, any request for clemency was prohibited. If in the course of the proceedings a person was sentenced to death, then this measure of punishment was executed immediately.

Political repression, purge of the party

Stalin staged active repression within the Bolshevik Party itself. One of good examples The repressions that affected the Bolsheviks happened on January 14, 1936. On this day, the replacement of party documents was announced. This step has long been discussed and was not unexpected. But when replacing documents, new certificates were not awarded to all party members, but only to those who "deserved trust." Thus began the purge of the party. According to official data, when new party documents were issued, 18% of the Bolsheviks were expelled from the party. These were the people to whom the repressions were applied, first of all. And we are talking about only one of the waves of these purges. In total, the cleaning of the batch was carried out in several stages:

• In 1933. 250 people were expelled from the top leadership of the party.
• In 1934-1935, 20,000 people were expelled from the Bolshevik Party.

Stalin actively destroyed people who could claim power, who had power. To demonstrate this fact, it is only necessary to say that of all the members of the Politburo of 1917, only Stalin survived after the purge (4 members were shot, and Trotsky was expelled from the party and expelled from the country). In total, there were 6 members of the Politburo at that time. In the period between the revolution and the death of Lenin, a new Politburo of 7 people was assembled. By the end of the purge, only Molotov and Kalinin survived. In 1934, the next congress of the VKP(b) party took place. The congress was attended by 1934 people. 1108 of them were arrested. Most were shot.

The assassination of Kirov aggravated the wave of repressions, and Stalin himself addressed the party members with a statement about the need for the final extermination of all enemies of the people. As a result, the Criminal Code of the USSR was amended. These changes stipulated that all cases of political prisoners were considered in an expedited manner without attorneys for prosecutors within 10 days. The executions were carried out immediately. In 1936, a political trial took place over the opposition. In fact, Lenin's closest associates, Zinoviev and Kamenev, ended up in the dock. They were accused of killing Kirov, as well as an attempt on Stalin. A new stage of political repressions against the Leninist guards began. This time, Bukharin was subjected to repressions, as well as the head of the government, Rykov. The socio-political meaning of repression in this sense was associated with the strengthening of the personality cult.

Repression in the army

Beginning in June 1937, repressions in the USSR affected the army. In June, the first trial took place over the high command of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), including the commander-in-chief, Marshal Tukhachevsky. The leadership of the army was accused of attempting a coup. According to the prosecutors, the coup was to take place on May 15, 1937. The accused were found guilty and most of them were shot. Tukhachevsky was also shot.

An interesting fact is that of the 8 members of the trial who sentenced Tukhachevsky to death, later five were themselves repressed and shot. However, from that time on, repressions began in the army, which affected the entire leadership. As a result of such events, 3 marshals of the Soviet Union, 3 army commanders of the 1st rank, 10 army commanders of the 2nd rank, 50 corps commanders, 154 division commanders, 16 army commissars, 25 corps commissars, 58 divisional commissars, 401 regimental commanders were repressed. In total, 40 thousand people were subjected to repressions in the Red Army. It was 40 thousand leaders of the army. As a result, more than 90% commanders was destroyed.

Strengthening repression

Beginning in 1937, the wave of repressions in the USSR began to intensify. The reason was order No. 00447 of the NKVD of the USSR of July 30, 1937. This document declared the immediate repression of all anti-Soviet elements, namely:

• Former kulaks. All those whom the Soviet government called kulaks, but who escaped punishment, or were in labor camps or in exile, were subject to repression.
• All representatives of religion. Anyone who had anything to do with religion was subject to repression.
• Participants in anti-Soviet actions. Under such participants, everyone who had ever acted actively or passively against the Soviet regime was involved. In fact, this category included those who did not support the new government.
• Anti-Soviet politicians. Inside the country, all those who were not members of the Bolshevik Party were called anti-Soviet politicians.
• The White Guards.
• People with a criminal record. People who had a criminal record were automatically considered enemies of the Soviet regime.

• hostile elements. Any person who was called a hostile element was sentenced to be shot.
• Inactive elements. The rest, who were not sentenced to death, were sent to camps or prisons for a term of 8 to 10 years.

All cases were now dealt with in an even more expedited manner, where most cases were dealt with en masse. According to the same order of the NKVD, repressions applied not only to convicts, but also to their families. In particular, the following punishments were applied to the families of the repressed:

• Families of those who were repressed for active anti-Soviet actions. All members of such families were sent to camps and labor settlements.
• The families of the repressed, who lived in the border zone, were subject to resettlement inland. Often special settlements were formed for them.
• The family of the repressed, who lived in large cities of the USSR. Such people were also resettled inland.

In 1940, a secret department of the NKVD was created. This department was engaged in the destruction of political opponents of Soviet power abroad. The first victim of this department was Trotsky, who was killed in Mexico in August 1940. In the future, this secret department was engaged in the destruction of members of the White Guard movement, as well as representatives of the imperialist emigration of Russia.

In the future, repressions continued, although their main events had already passed. In fact, repressions in the USSR continued until 1953.

The results of repression

In total, from 1930 to 1953, 3,800,000 people were repressed on charges of counter-revolution. Of these, 749,421 people were shot ... And this is only according to official information ... And how many more people died without trial or investigation, whose names and surnames are not included in the list?

Unexpectedly, I found the most curious material in the development of the topic “The Law on Three Spikelets” or the decree of the Central Executive Committee of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of August 7, 1932 “On the protection of property of state enterprises, collective farms and cooperation and the strengthening of public (socialist) property” . As we remember, the Soviet leaders, having familiarized themselves with the practice of implementing the law, were forced to develop Instructions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Socialist Republic dated May 8, 1933 No. P-6028 "On the termination of the use of mass evictions and acute forms of repression in the countryside." The problem with the implementation of the laws was as follows (I quote the instructions selectively):

... The Central Committee and the Council of People's Commissars have information from which it is clear that mass disorderly arrests in the countryside still continue to exist in the practice of our workers. Arrest chairmen of collective farms and members of the boards of collective farms. Arrest chairmen of village councils and secretaries of cells. District and regional commissioners are arrested. Everyone is arrested, who is not too lazy and who, in fact, has no right to arrest. It is not surprising that with such a rampant practice of arrests, the bodies that have the right to arrest, including the bodies of the OGPU, and especially the police, lose their sense of proportion and often make arrests without any reason, acting according to the rule: "first arrest, and then sort it out."

2) On streamlining the production of arrests 1. Prohibit the production of arrests by persons who are not authorized to do so by law: chairmen, district and regional commissioners, chairmen of village councils, chairmen of collective farms and collective farm associations, secretaries of cells, etc. Arrests can only be made by prosecutors, OGPU or police chiefs. Investigators may make arrests only with the prior authorization of the prosecutor. Arrests made by the chiefs of the militia must be confirmed or canceled by the district authorized officers of the OGPU or the prosecutor's office, according to their affiliation, no later than 48 hours after the arrest. 2. Prohibit the prosecutor's office, the OGPU and the police from using detention pending trial for minor crimes as a measure of restraint...

As you can see, representatives of the Soviet government, who at that time often did not have sufficient legal literacy (chairmen of village councils, collective farms, cell secretaries, etc.), could initially arrest on suspicion of embezzlement. Let us also not deny possible cases of settling personal scores with kulaks and members of bands of sub-kulakists, with working individual farmers, and so on. The Council of People's Commissars corrected the practice of arrests and took measures to improve the work of the executive bodies, in particular, forced them to better collect the evidence base.

But what was the approximate number of those arrested without sufficient evidence of guilt, today called "innocently convicted"? A fragment of the “Report of the Criminal Judicial Board of the Supreme Court of the USSR on the state and nature of crime in the period 1933-1935” will tell us about this. , on the basis of which we can form some idea for 1933-1935, that is, the period of repression against kulaks and speculators as Collectivization progressed:

So what do we see? Firstly, the initiated criminal cases are considered and reviewed, as a result of which, right in the process of repressive practice, people are released and rehabilitated. Secondly, we learned a specific example - 10.1% (112,179 people) were convicted without sufficient evidence of guilt or innocently convicted and then acquitted. Thirdly, we see far from the Solzhenitsyn scale of repression - 1 million 106 thousand 297 people in 1935. And, at the same time, the system initially worked too clumsily, despite the clear wording in the Law of 08/07/1932 and in the accompanying Instructions for use. This was due to the fact that in the Soviet Union by 1932 the law enforcement system was only quantitatively formed. In particular, the “Report of the Criminal Judicial Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on the state and nature of crime in the period 1933-1935”, to which I refer, is the first reporting work of this type, which speaks of the continuing at the beginning of the 1930s. the formation of the Soviet law enforcement system:

Opening Soviet archives forced the hapless aftermath of Solzhenitsyn to change tactics in exposing the "crimes of Stalinism." Now, agreeing with the truthful figures of the scale of the repressions, these gentlemen declare: “Let not tens of millions, but 800 thousand be shot - this is no less criminal, because they all suffered innocently!” However, is this true?

TEMPLER WITH REVOLVER

Official propaganda diligently imposes on us the stereotype that any accusations made against anyone during Stalin's time are obviously absurd, invented by "executioners from the NKVD" in order to imprison and shoot as many citizens as possible. For example, this is what the writer Andrey Nikitin tells, who in the late 1980s wanted to get acquainted with the investigation file of his parents, who were convicted on January 13, 1931 by the Special Meeting of the OGPU Collegium in the case of the counter-revolutionary organization Order of Light, respectively, to 5 and 3 years in the camps:

“The major of state security, to whose share it fell to “patronize” me and who himself carefully studied these materials before the meeting, at the end of our conversation, as if apologizing for his predecessors, he said: “... well, what is written there, special pay no attention. None of this really happened, of course. You know what was going on back then!..”” (Nikitin A. Templars in Moscow // Science and Religion. 1992. No. 4/5. P. 8).

At first glance, we really have before us the fruit of the unbridled imagination of the OGPU investigators, who did not come up with anything better than to accuse a group of Moscow intellectuals of belonging to the Knights Templar. However, after that, Nikitin, for more than a dozen issues of the journal Science and Religion, talks about the fact that the Moscow Templars really existed! Moreover, in addition to the confessions of the accused, there is a lot of physical evidence in the case in the form of literature seized during searches, notebooks with manuscripts, etc., including a magazine with the very eloquent title "Red Terror". Moreover, during a search in the apartment of one of the members of the "order" A.V.Uyttenhoven, a whole arsenal was confiscated - two revolvers "revolvers" and two pistols of an unknown system, and his wife I.N.Uyttenhoven-Ilovayskaya - a leaflet written by her calling for mass strikes and uprisings.

« RIGHT-TROTSKYISTS TAKE REVENGE

The crowning argument of the Khrushchev-Gorbachev accusers of Stalin is about the destroyed "Leninist guard". Like, how could the former leaders of the Bolshevik Party suddenly take and betray the cause they served? However, the criterion of truth is practice. In the late 1980s life itself set up an experiment that showed that betrayal "from above" is quite feasible. What the leaders of perestroika did to the country coincides almost word for word with the confessions of their spiritual fathers.

Let us take, for example, the indictment issued on March 2, 1938, at the trial of the "bloc of Rights and Trotskyites":

“The investigation carried out by the NKVD bodies established that, on the instructions of the intelligence services of foreign states hostile to the USSR, the defendants in this case organized a conspiratorial group called the “Right-Trotsky bloc”, which set as its goal the overthrow of the socialist social and state system existing in the USSR, the restoration of capitalism and power in the USSR bourgeoisie, the dismemberment of the USSR and rejection from it in favor of the above states of Ukraine, Belarus, the Central Asian republics, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Primorye.

(Judicial report on the case of the anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rights and Trotskyists", considered by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court USSR March 2-13, 1938 Full text verbatim report. M., 1938. P.11)

Imagine that a similar process is taking place today, and Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Yakovlev and Shevardnadze are sitting in the dock instead of Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda. Let's look at the points:

1. The overthrow of the existing socialist social and state system in the USSR certainly took place. Moreover, a number of the "accused" themselves admit that they deliberately acted in this direction. For example, here is what former Politburo member Alexander Yakovlev said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper:

“Nevertheless, you served in this system for a long time and held high positions.

“But how, it was necessary to end it somehow. There are different ways, for example, dissidence. But it is hopeless. We had to act from within. We had only one way - to undermine the totalitarian regime from within with the help of the discipline of the totalitarian party. We have done our job” (Alexander Yakovlev: “Russian fascists were born by the KGB” // Izvestia. June 17, 1998 No. 108 (25208). P.5).

As we can see, speaking of his treacherous activities, the main ideologist of the Central Committee of the CPSU constantly uses plural: "we had the only way", "we did our job." That is, there is a group of conspirators in the leadership of the party. At the same time, it is quite logical to assume that all these actions were carried out on the instructions of intelligence agencies of foreign states hostile to the USSR.

2. Restoration of capitalism and the power of the bourgeoisie in the USSR - carried out in full.

3. The dismemberment of the USSR and the rejection of Ukraine, Belarus, the Central Asian republics, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Primorye from it. The only difference is that in the 1930s the Baltic states and Moldova were not yet part of the Soviet Union. And the current "perestroika" and "reformers" have not yet managed to give Primorye to anyone. However, work is also underway in this direction - let us recall the huge sections of the Pacific shelf presented by Gorbachev and Shevardnadze in 1990 to the United States, the border territories ceded to China, as well as the maniacal desire of the leadership of the Russian Federation to “achieve normalization of Russian-Japanese relations” by surrendering the South Kuriles to the Japanese.

So, in the 1980s, a group of degenerate traitors formed in the highest echelon of the leadership of the CPSU, which, acting in the interests of the West, destroyed its own country and destroyed Soviet power. Why should the existence of a similar group in the 1930s be considered obviously impossible?

On the contrary, there are good reasons to assume that in the event of the victory of Stalin's opponents, the Soviet Union would have been destroyed 50 years earlier, and the "faithful Leninists" would have found cozy places for themselves in various Bukharin funds, earning a living by advertising pizza.

"TEN RUSSIANS WITH BOMBS"

When in the works of Kuprin or Pikul there is a mention of massive Japanese espionage during the years of the Russo-Japanese War, this does not raise any doubts among readers. However, it is worth talking about the Stalin era, as common sense disappears somewhere. Any words that this or that character was a Japanese or, for example, a Polish spy, cause a mocking giggle, are perceived as something absurd and impossible in principle, just like finding a louse in the hair of a hereditary intellectual.

And indeed, where in the Soviet Union can a spy come from? It's in tsarist Russia espionage could take place. But as soon as the power of the Bolsheviks was established, the same Japanese agents died out naturally, like cockroaches in the cold. Despite the fact that the USSR remained a potential adversary for the Land of the Rising Sun.

Back in 1929, at a meeting of Japanese military attaches convened in Berlin, the methods of sabotage that were to be carried out from European countries in the proposed war against the USSR were discussed. Ten years later, SS Reichsfuehrer Himmler reported the following meeting on January 31, 1939, with the Japanese ambassador in Berlin, Lieutenant General Hiroshi Oshima:

“Today I visited General Oshima ... We discussed the conclusion of a treaty, thanks to which the Germany-Italy-Japan triangle took on a certain solid form. He also informed me that, together with the German counter-espionage (Abwehr), he was doing a great deal of work to demoralize Russia through the Caucasus and the Ukraine. However, this organization can become effective only in case of war... To do this, he managed to send ten Russians with bombs across the Russian border. These Russians had orders to kill Stalin. A large number of other Russians, whom he also sent, were shot dead at the border ... ”(Hunting for the Red Leader // Independent Military Review. March 24-30, 2000 No. 10 (183). P. 7).

Indeed, Soviet border guards regularly caught Japanese agents. For example, here is what the head of the UNKVD for the Khabarovsk Territory, the commissioner of state security of the 3rd rank, I.F. Nikishov, reported to the NKVD of the USSR on August 22, 1939:

“In July of this year, Japanese agents were detained in the area of ​​the 63rd border detachment while illegally crossing the border: Vasily Andreevich Trofimov, born in 1912, a native of the Jewish Autonomous Region, fled to Manchuria in 1933; Rogach Ivan Efimovich, born in 1914 in Harbin; Khizhin Leonid Alekseevich, born in 1916, a native of Blagoveshchensk, whose parents emigrated to Harbin in 1919, where Khizhin was brought up. All three confessed that in April of this year they were recruited by representatives of the Japanese military mission in Harbin as part of a sabotage and terrorist group, transferred to our territory with the main tasks: to carry out a terrorist attack against Commander Stern, to organize the collapse of military trains, etc. Weapons were confiscated from one terrorist during the arrest - a revolver with live ammunition, 2 rifles with 120 rounds of ammunition. Trofimov, the head of the group, was given three appearances on our territory. The interrogation continues in the direction of opening all the Japanese agents known to them who were transferred to the USSR ”(The USSR State Security Organs in the Great Patriotic War. T.1. The day before. Book 1. November 1938 - December 1940. M., 1995. S.58-59).

On February 13, 1940, Trofimov, Rogach and Khizhin were sentenced to death by a military tribunal of the 2nd Separate Red Banner Army. On July 12, 1940, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR replaced Rogach and Hut with capital punishment by 10 years in prison. Khizhin soon died in prison, and Rogach lived to see Khrushchev's "rehabilitation". By the decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated June 4, 1959, the case on the charges of Trofimov, Rogach and Khizhin was reviewed, their actions were reclassified to Article 84 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (illegal entry into the USSR) and the sentence for all three was set at 3 years in prison. And as soon as Stalin's guardsmen could come up with the idea of ​​declaring three young people as Japanese agents who illegally crossed the border with weapons in their hands from the side of Manchuria occupied by the Japanese in the midst of the fighting at Khalkhin Gol!

However, if the liberal public is to be believed, having shed communism, Russia still maintains a mysterious immunity to foreign espionage. In the current Russian Federation, too, in principle, there can be no spies. And those who seem to be such are actually human rights activists, environmentalists or, at worst, honest Western businessmen.

Nevertheless, thanks to the successful work of the NKVD, the intelligence networks of foreign powers on the eve of the Great Patriotic War were almost completely destroyed. Here is what the West German historian Paul Carell writes about this: “What was the situation with German espionage against Russia? What did the German leadership know from the secret service? The answer is in a nutshell: very few!.. It knew nothing about Russian military secrets... Before the start of the war, we counted 200 divisions in the Red Army. 6 weeks after the start of the war, we were forced to establish that there were 360 ​​of them ”(State Security Organs of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War. Vol. 1. On the eve. Book 2. January 1 - June 21, 1941, M., 1995. P. 160).

The same fate befell Japanese intelligence. If during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. in Tokyo they knew about every step of the Russian army, then this time they didn’t even notice the mass transfer of troops from Far East to the Soviet-German front. This happened as a result of the work carried out in 1937-1938. "cleansing" the border area from potential unreliable elements, and as a result of the purposeful work of the NKVD to identify Japanese agents.

CONVEYOR REHABILITATION

In Russian folk tales various language clichés are constantly used, such as “beautiful girl” and “good fellow”. In the "fairy tales" told by Stalin's accusers, there are also stable phrases: their repressions are necessarily "illegal", and the victims of repressions are "innocent". However, what determines the "legality" or "illegality" of the sentence, if we discard emotions? Obviously, compliance or non-compliance with formal legal procedure. That is, if a person is convicted in accordance with the legislation then in force for committing an act that was considered criminal at that time, then he was legally convicted. Well, if his guilt is not proven, then it is illegal. When we talk about "guilt" or "innocence", then the question is posed as follows: did this character deserve a wall or prison from the point of view of justice?

Ideally, both approaches should produce the same result. However, in practice this does not always happen. In fact, does it deserve condemnation, for example, the act of Mikhail Malyukov, who slapped Gorbachev in the face during his arrival in Omsk on April 24, 1996? However, he was prosecuted under article 206, part 2 for hooliganism. On the other hand, isn't it obvious that practically all the current "owners of factories, newspapers, steamboats" should justly go to the bunk beds immediately, since the property that they "legally own" was simply stolen by them?

It is easy to see that from a legal point of view, the procedure for “rehabilitating victims of repression” is completely incorrect. Let's take the fundamental document - the Law of the Russian Federation "On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression" of October 18, 1991:

"Article 5.
The following acts are recognized as not containing public danger and are rehabilitated regardless of the factual validity of the accusation of persons convicted of:
a) anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda;
b) dissemination of deliberately false fabrications discrediting the Soviet state or social system;
c) violation of the laws on the separation of the church from the state and the school from the church;
d) encroachment on the personality and rights of citizens under the guise of performing religious rites;
e) escape from places of deprivation of liberty, exile or special settlements, places of forced labor in conditions of restriction of freedom of persons who were in these places in connection with unjustified political repressions.

As we can see, the category of innocent victims subject to rehabilitation includes persons justifiably accused of committing a number of acts that were considered Stalin times illegal. What acts, in the opinion of our rehabilitators, “do not contain a public danger”?

First of all, this is the spread of deliberately false fabrications discrediting the Soviet state or social system. What are the denunciators of Stalinism guided by, not considering such actions criminal? Maybe they believe that the state should not protect its honor and dignity at all? That is, anyone can spread any kind of slander against state bodies, vilify the existing system, call for its overthrow, and in response the authorities are obliged to follow the principle of non-resistance to evil, turning the other cheek?

However, this position is contrary to world practice. Let's take the "citadel of democracy" represented by the United States. On May 16, 1918, the U.S. Congress passed an amendment to the Espionage Act, according to which those who "speak orally or in writing in a disloyal, blasphemous, rude or offensive tone about the form state structure or in relation to the constitution of the United States, or in relation to armed forces"faced up to 20 years in prison or a fine of up to 10 thousand dollars (Kostin P.V. FBI - full-length portrait. M., 1970. S. 29-30).

Another option: the authors of the law on rehabilitation, recognizing in principle the right of the state to self-defense, deny this to the USSR personally. That is, they believe that the “totalitarian regime” had to be fought by all available means, including violating its laws. This point of view also has a right to exist. For example, in Soviet time revolutionaries condemned by tsarism were considered heroes. However, the Bolsheviks did not even think that the Decembrists or Narodnaya Volya should be “rehabilitated” - because they did not recognize the autocracy as a legitimate power.

After all, what is rehabilitation from a legal point of view? According to Article 5 of the current Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, this is “the procedure for restoring the rights and freedoms of a person illegally or unreasonably subjected to criminal prosecution, and compensation for the harm caused to him” (Code of Criminal Procedure Russian Federation. M., 2002. P.6). Who can subject a citizen to criminal prosecution? Only legal authority. And if this power, in principle, is not recognized as legitimate? So, there can be no talk of rehabilitation. For example, those who were executed by Dudayev's militants by the verdicts of Sharia courts, or by the German occupation authorities during the Great Patriotic War, are not subject to rehabilitation, regardless of whether or not they did something against “independent Ichkeria” or the “new order”. Because we do not recognize the right to judge and pass sentences either on the Chechen bandits or on the German occupiers.

So, gentlemen, if you want to consider Soviet power criminal, consider it. Praise your heroes who fought against totalitarianism as much as you like. Just do not call them innocent victims and do not demand rehabilitation for them. And then you sit in a puddle. As happened recently with a group of citizens who tried to achieve the rehabilitation of Admiral Kolchak. As a result, it turned out that by doing so they recognized the legal right of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee to judge the “Supreme Ruler of Russia”. It seems that the deceased would hardly have approved of such an initiative.

The following two points from the "Rehabilitation Law" concern freedom of conscience: "c) violation of the laws on the separation of church from state and school from church; d) encroachment on the personality and rights of citizens under the guise of performing religious rites.” In the opinion of our Stalinophobes, it is possible to encroach on the personality and rights of citizens under the guise of performing religious rites as much as you like - this does not pose any public danger. It’s just not clear why then the current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation contains Article 239 “Organization of an association that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens”, according to which:

"one. Creation of a religious or public association, the activities of which are associated with violence against citizens or other harm to their health, or with inducing citizens to refuse to perform civic duties or to commit other illegal acts, as well as the leadership of such an association -
shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of from two hundred to five hundred times the minimum wage, or in the amount of the wage or salary, or any other income of the convicted person for a period of two to five months, or by deprivation of liberty for a term of up to three years.
2. Participation in the activities of the said association, as well as propaganda of the deeds provided for by the first part of this article, -
shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of from one hundred to three hundred times the minimum wage, or in the amount of the wage or salary, or any other income of the convicted person for a period of one to three months, or by deprivation of liberty for a term of up to two years. I. Radchenko, scientific editor A. S. Mikhlin, Moscow, 2000, p. 544).

According to the logic of the "rehabilitators", it turns out that today it is impossible to encroach on the personality and rights of citizens under the guise of performing religious rites, but under Stalin it was possible.

Finally, point e) is the escape of an unreasonably convicted person from places of deprivation of liberty, exile or special settlements. The current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation contains Article 313 “Escape from a place of deprivation of liberty, from arrest or from custody”, in the comments to which it says: “The subject of the escape cannot be a person who has been unlawfully sentenced to deprivation of liberty, as well as a person in in respect of which a measure of restraint in the form of detention was unlawfully chosen. If the unlawfulness of his detention was found out after being convicted for escaping, the case is subject to review and termination due to newly discovered circumstances” (Ibid., pp. 753-754).

At least here we do not observe a double standard, although such a norm of the law does not at all look reasonable - if all prisoners who consider themselves convicted illegally, instead of filing appeals, start running from custody, this will not lead to anything good .

How does rehabilitation work in practice? Here is what Galina Vesnovskaya, Head of the Rehabilitation Department of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, said about this, speaking to members of the Memorial society:

“For the first time in legal practice, the prosecution authorities were given exclusive powers: to rehabilitate victims of political repression in criminal cases, even if there were court decisions. Of course, this applies only to a certain category of criminal cases - those where we are talking about the rehabilitation of victims of political repression on a list of criminal charges defined by law. This is anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, practically the entire 58th article of the old Code, 190th note, 70th article and accusations related to religious activities. And the last article is an escape in case of illegal stay in places of deprivation of liberty, exile, expulsion and in special settlements. This is a category of cases in which prosecutors are given the right, after evaluating the materials of the case, to independently make decisions on rehabilitation. Denial of rehabilitation in the presence of an application is possible only in court. If the prosecutor's office receives an application for rehabilitation, and when checking the materials of the criminal case, the prosecutor comes to the conclusion that the guilt of a person in the committed crime has been proven or that his actions contain a different corpus delicti - not a political one, but a criminal one, these cases are sent to court. In the first case - with a conclusion on the refusal of rehabilitation, in the second - with a protest about the re-qualification of the actions of the convict from a political composition to a general criminal one. In such cases, only the court gives a final assessment of the cases” (There is still a lot of work ahead // Newsletter of the Board of the Memorial Society. 2002. No. 26).

As we can see, if in ordinary criminal practice prosecutors can only challenge court decisions in higher judicial instances, then in matters related to “victims of political repressions”, they received the right to unilaterally cancel the decisions of the judiciary. And only the refusal of rehabilitation is carried out in a judicial proceeding. It is not difficult to guess that it is much easier for the prosecutor to make a decision on rehabilitation than to prove through the court that a given citizen is not subject to rehabilitation. Especially if you take into account the emergency pace of work of the rehabilitators, who whitewashed the "victims" at the speed of good assemblers on Ford's automobile conveyors. According to the same Galina Vesnovskaya:

“In the early years of the law, there were a few more of us, and the figures were much higher - we considered 180,000 criminal cases a year. By the way, if that personnel potential were applied today, our work could be completed in a year or two. Today in the regions (and we have 89 regions) there are only 120 operational workers and 18 in the central office” (Ibid.).

Thus, taking into account weekends and holidays in those years, 700 criminal cases were considered daily. Today, 138 workers are engaged in rehabilitation, then there were "slightly more". How much more, Vesnovskaya does not specify, but it must be assumed that not ten or twenty times. That is, all the same, each employee had to do several things a day. Is it possible in such a situation to talk about some kind of careful consideration of the materials? Besides, who will ask the prosecutor if he "by mistake" rehabilitates someone superfluous? Nobody!

REHABILITATION WHAT THOUGHT

We should not forget that many of the cases that were held at one time as "counter-revolutionary crimes" were, in fact, a pure form of criminality. Here, for example, is an excerpt from a review of the 6th department of the 3rd department of the NKGB of the USSR on anti-Soviet manifestations and the most important incidents that took place in the USSR in April 1941:

“In the Uzbek SSR, Yusupov, expelled from the collective farm as a decayed element, in 1938 tried for embezzlement of collective farm funds, killed the deputy chairman of the collective farm Daminova (his ex-wife) because the latter exposed Yusupov as an enemy and a swindler.

On April 3 of this year, a worker of plant No. 342 in Gorky, Karabanov, killed the foreman of the same plant, Sharapov, because Sharapov had put Karabanov on trial as a truant ”(State Security Organs of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War. Vol. 1. On the Eve. Book 2. January 1 - June 21, 1941 M., 1995. P. 196).

From a similar review for May 1941:

“On May 14, Moiseev, a member of the Krasny Poloskov collective farm in the Ulyanovsk district of the Orel region, inflicted two mortal wounds on the head with an ax to the chairman of the collective farm, the secretary of the primary party organization, Panov, on the grounds that the latter refused to let him leave the collective farm for side work. Moiseev is arrested.

On May 2, a collective farmer with. Durasovka, Ternovsky district, Penza region, Mitrokhin Ignat Vasilyevich attempted to kill A.Ya. Mitrokhin, a collective farm foreman. for the fact that the latter exposed him as a quitter. Mitrokhin Ignat disappeared.

On May 30, Kravtsov, a former tractor driver of the Gulyai-Borisovskaya MTS in the Rostov region, shot Perelygin, chairman of the Lenin Way collective farm, in the head with a shot through the window on the grounds of revenge for exposing him as a quitter and truant. Kravtsov was arrested” (Ibid., p. 243).

Let's assume that all the listed actions are not "anti-Soviet manifestations". Does it follow from this that husbands can kill their ex-wives with impunity, workers - foremen, and collective farmers - chairmen of collective farms and foremen? Theoretically, such cases should be reclassified from political to criminal and sent to court again. However, in the vast majority of cases, this does not happen.

If the current fighters against totalitarianism treat criminals who suffered from Soviet power in a fatherly way, applying a kind of “presumption of rehabilitation” to them, then the approach to another category of convicts is exactly the opposite. Here is what the already mentioned Alexander Yakovlev says about this in an interview:

“I want to ask you a question as the chairman of the Commission under the President of Russia for the rehabilitation of victims of political repression. Relatively recently - almost a month before his death - Beria's son Sergo filed a petition for the rehabilitation of his father. Have you considered this application?

“There are two situations here. Speaking strictly legally, and Beria, and Yezhov, and Yagoda, and Abakumov should be - and it's scary even to say - rehabilitated. Because they were shot for what they did not do: they were neither spies of several intelligence agencies, nor saboteurs and the like. But these are executioners who have killed millions of people! This means that they must be tried anew and, as it were, shot anew. But as long as I am alive, as long as I remain chairman of the said commission, I will not only not raise this question, but even discuss it. We still have about 400 thousand pending cases for the rehabilitation of innocent people convicted on the orders of Beria and others like him. I understand the filial feelings of the already deceased Sergo Beria, but I must reckon with the feelings of the children and relatives of millions of innocent people killed! (Alexander Yakovlev, political scientist: “I told Gorbachev that there would be a coup. But he didn’t believe me” // Nevskoe Vremya. August 18, 2001 No. 147 (2508). P. 3).

So, Mr. Yakovlev, without a shadow of embarrassment, admits that he did not intend and is not going to approach the issues of rehabilitation "strictly legally." One thing is not clear - what source of secret knowledge is used by the former chief ideologist of the Central Committee of the CPSU, when, without considering cases on the merits, without waiting for a court decision or even a "filkin's letter" in the form of a decision of his own commission, he declares some executioners who killed millions of people, and others - innocently convicted? So it turns out, slightly paraphrasing the old saying: rehabilitation, that drawbar, where you turned, it went there!

Ezhovshchina in AMERICAN

A few words should also be said about one of the favorite arguments of the accusers of "Stalin's arbitrariness" - they say that all the accusations of that time were based solely on the personal confessions of "enemies of the people", while there was allegedly no material evidence.

But how, exactly, is this known? The investigation cases of the “repressed” remain classified, we cannot verify the validity of the accusations, and it is hardly worth taking the word of traitors like Yakovlev. One can only guess: is there really no material evidence there? Or maybe there is? Or were there, but disappeared after Khrushchev's or Gorbachev's rehabilitation commissions rummaged through these cases?

And most importantly, what kind of evidence are waiting for "rehabilitators"? Or do they think that conspirators should keep minutes of their meetings, and spies should make regular reports on their espionage activities? Let us recall, for example, the conspiracy against Emperor Paul I, which obviously took place and was crowned with success. At the same time, all the “documentation” was reduced to a piece of paper with a list of conspirators, which the organizer of the conspiracy, the St. Petersburg military governor Count Palen, carried in his pocket and, there is no doubt, in case of failure, he would have been able to destroy.

It is extremely difficult to collect material evidence in such cases, and in practice they are often dispensed with. Including in the stronghold of world democracy in the United States.

Robert Stephen Lipka. In 1965-1967. while serving in the National Security Agency (NSA), he collaborated with Soviet intelligence, then broke off contacts due to demobilization. Issued by a traitor, former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin. In order to secure the conviction of Lipka, an FBI officer was sent to him, who, introducing himself as "Captain Nikitin", offered to continue cooperation. And although, having received a $5,000 deposit, Lipka never gave any information to “Captain Nikitin,” he was arrested on February 23, 1996. During the trial, he confessed to collaborating with the KGB and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Ronald William Pelton, former NSA officer. In 1980, he began cooperation with Soviet intelligence. He was extradited by the defector Vitaly Yurchenko, but then Yurchenko unexpectedly returned to the USSR. Despite the fact that FBI agents planted listening devices in Pelton's work phone, in his apartment, car, and also in the apartment of his mistress, no evidence could be obtained against him. I had to resort to the help of the "queen of evidence." On November 24, 1985, Pelton was summoned for interrogation, where he was introduced to Yurchenko's testimony and offered to confess to passing secret information to Soviet intelligence, promising to treat his actions "with condescension." However, upon receiving Pelton's confession, the FBI immediately arrested him. Despite the fact that apart from a conversation with the FBI, there was no other evidence against Pelton, in June 1986 a jury found him guilty, and the judge sentenced him to three life terms.

Finally, Aldrich Hazen Ames, a high-ranking CIA officer who collaborated with Soviet intelligence since 1985, passing on a lot of valuable information to them. American counterintelligence had no legal evidence against him. According to the official version, Ames was suspected of espionage, since his expenses exceeded official income. But most likely, he is betrayed by someone in Moscow. The FBI hoped to catch Ames red-handed, but nothing came of it. As a result, on February 21, 1994, he was arrested, and then, in accordance with the current practice in the United States, made a deal with the court, pleading guilty to espionage. On April 28, 1994, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the right to pardon.

So, in the modern United States, those guilty of espionage are, as a rule, exposed as a result of provocation, and convicted on the basis of their own confessions in accordance with the procedure of a court deal. What scope for future revelations by the American Yakovlevs!