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Rehabilitation after Stalin's repressions. Rehabilitation of victims of mass political repressions

Rehabilitation after Stalin's repressions. Rehabilitation of victims of mass political repressions

21.09.2019

This article is devoted to the issue of rehabilitation processes of victims of political repressions, which are currently insufficiently studied and presented in Kazakhstani historiography. During these years, the Party Control Commission proceeded very slowly and inconsistently. The work took a lot of time, the documents for each repressed were sent to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and only after its consideration, rehabilitation could take place. It was also affected by the fact that the officials involved in the rehabilitation remained people born of the administrative system, and were endowed with all the features of the era that formed them, many of them had recently scribbled denunciations and fought “enemies of the people” with all “truths and falsities”.

One of the heaviest legacies of the past was mass repressions, arbitrariness and lawlessness during the period of totalitarianism committed by Stalin and his leadership. Hundreds of thousands of people were subjected to unlawful accusations, violence, torture and physical destruction.

The repressions that began in the mid-20s of the twentieth century, during collectivization, continued with brutal succession for several decades while Stalin was in power. They have become a monstrous crime against their own people.

In the period from the 20s to the 50s. 3,777,380 people were convicted, of which 642,980 were sentenced to capital punishment. In Kazakhstan, during this period, the number of repressed people was 103 thousand people, every fourth of whom was shot. More than a million people were expelled or forced to leave the republic.

Stalin's death (March 5, 1953) prevented a new round of repressions and a large-scale "purge", at the center of which was the "conspiracy of doctors".

In Kazakhstan, the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography, the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, the Institute of Language and Literature, the Union of Writers of Kazakhstan, etc. were under close supervision.

It is terrible to imagine how further events would have developed for the Kazakh intelligentsia if Stalin had remained alive ...

This article is devoted to the beginning of the rehabilitation processes of victims of political repressions, which are currently insufficiently studied and represented in Kazakhstani historiography.

From the first days after Stalin's death, the new leadership of the country took steps against the abuses of the past. Stalin's personal secretariat was dissolved, all types of extrajudicial reprisals were abolished: "troikas", "deuces", "special meetings" and "special tribunals" through which mass repressions were carried out. The state security agencies also underwent a major reorganization: the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Internal Affairs merged into a single Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, the gulags were transferred to the system of the Ministry of Justice.

The press officially announced the end of the "policy of the cult of personality". Unfounded and aggressive attacks on cultural figures in the media have lost their relevance and gradually faded away.

Already on April 4, 1953, there was a message about the rehabilitation of "poisoning doctors" and the recognition that "inadmissible methods of investigation" were applied to the accused. The Supreme Court of the USSR reviewed the so-called "Leningrad case" and did not find corpus delicti in it.

The Party Control Committee under the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union Republics, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, began to consider cases for the rehabilitation of communists involved in the 30-40s and early 50s. to party and judicial liability for political reasons.

Between July 1953 and February 1956 The Party Control Committee rehabilitated 5,456 communists expelled from the party on unfounded political charges.

It should be noted that the number of those rehabilitated remained very small until September 1955, when an amnesty was announced for those convicted of collaborating with the Germans during the Great Patriotic War. Thus, of the two regions of Almaty and Dzhambul, which were taken for calculation, in 1953 only one person was rehabilitated. In 1955, 17 people were rehabilitated in the Almaty region, and 5 people in the Dzhambul region.

The work of the Party Control Commission during these years was very slow and inconsistent.. The procedure itself took a lot of time, the documents for each repressed were sent to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and only after its consideration, rehabilitation could take place. It was also affected by the fact that the officials involved in the rehabilitation remained people born of the administrative system, and were endowed with all the features of the era that formed them, many of them had recently scribbled denunciations and fought “enemies of the people” with all “truths and falsities”.

On the one hand, people seemed to be rehabilitated, but on the other, they did it, as if unwillingly and unhurriedly, many cases were reviewed several times, postponed to a later time, especially if it concerned the intelligentsia.

And although, in 1954, many prominent figures of Kazakhstan returned to Kazakhstan again: K.I. Satpaev, M.A. Auezov, H. Bekkhozhin, E. Bekmakhanov and others, the attitude of the authorities towards them continued to be very “cautious”, moreover, before starting work, in addition to rehabilitation and appeal, they “were forced to repent of their mistakes and, as it were, to future, promise to be obedient and accommodating.

The further activities of many representatives of the Kazakh intelligentsia were repeatedly discussed in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. So, for example, at the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan dated May 25, 1954, the issue of the appeal of the writer Kh. , but for the ideological mistake made, to reprimand Kh. Bekkhozhin with entry in the registration card.

The writer S. Mukanov found himself in a similar situation. The Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan did not satisfy the writer’s request to restore his party experience, but made the following decision: “Explain to Comrade S. Mukanov that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan cannot satisfy his request to exclude a break in the party experience, comrade Mukanov was out of the party for 4 years.” .

The request of the writer I. Esenberlin to be reinstated in the ranks of the CPSU was also rejected by the Bureau, confirming the “correctness” of the decision of the Alma-Ata regional party committee of July 28, 1951 regarding his exclusion from the ranks of the CPSU. . And such examples of "repentance for past ideological mistakes" can be cited quite a lot, even K.I. Satpaev did not escape such humiliating procedures from the authorities.

As before, censorship tightly controlled the works of Kazakh writers. For example, in 1953-1954. A special list of works to be excluded from the consolidated lists of prohibited literature was approved. This list has been condensed and changed several times. As a result, the best works of Kazakh literature were withdrawn from the book trade and libraries, "as containing ideological and political errors." These are the works of the following authors: M. Auezov - "Akyn aga", 1950, circulation 20,000 copies; K. Shangytbaev - "Honour", 1945, circulation 10,000 copies; U. Turmanzhanov - "Collection of Kazakh proverbs and sayings", 1935, circulation 5,150 copies; "Native Land", 1944, 5,000 copies. The album “Kazakhstan” was also subject to seizure, the circulation of which was 10,000 copies, because. pictures of "enemies of the people" were printed in it.

This consideration was shared by many other works of Kazakh writers.

After the XX Congress of the CPSU (February 1956), the process of rehabilitation of victims on political charges of the 30s-40s - early 50s began to take place more intensively, was significantly simplified. In order to speed up the procedure, special commissions were sent to the camps to review cases, which were temporarily vested with the rights of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and could carry out rehabilitation, pardon, reduction of sentences, etc. The bulk of the rehabilitated accounted for the period from 1956 to 1961. Over the years, more than 700 thousand people have been rehabilitated across the country.

But, unfortunately, starting from 1962, the work to rehabilitate the “victims of arbitrariness” gradually began to curtail and by 1964 it stops completely.

In Kazakhstan, in two regions - Almaty and Dzhambul (which were taken for calculation), the number of rehabilitated was: “In 1956 - 155, in 1957 - 537, in 1958 - 372, in 1959 - 163 1960 - 179, in 1961 - 71, in 1962 - 69, in 1963 - 51, in 1964 - 64 people ".

The rehabilitation work had many shortcomings. First, it proceeded unevenly, selectively, and became one of the most controversial phenomena of the period under review. The mass return from the camps was a natural catalyst for public sentiment, causing deep social stress. The authorities did not answer the most burning questions: “How many people suffered innocently, how many died, and most importantly, why were they sent to prison dungeons”? The silence of the authorities gave rise to a very different attitude towards the rehabilitated.

The return of former prisoners to normal life was exceptionally difficult. For many of them, certain activities were “closed”. So, the scientist-historian E. Bekmakhanov, having returned from prison in 1954, was able to start teaching only a year later. The same situation has developed with another Kazakhstani historian Bek Suleimenov.

Many of the rehabilitated were so psychologically broken that they could no longer engage in any active activity. For example, the former first secretary of one of the republican regional party committees, N. Kuznetsov, after his release, got a job as a simple forester. And the famous communist M.L. Fishman, who was a member of the German partisan detachment during the Civil War, returned from the camp and was forced to live in a German cemetery in Moscow for 7 months. Nobody wanted to help her.

The selective nature of rehabilitation created a huge resonance in society. Priority was given to the repressions of 1937-1938, the early 50s against party leaders, and the repressions of the 20s, "false trials" fabricated in the period of the 30s-40s against the "oppositionists", such as the "anti-Soviet Right-Trotsky bloc", the "Bukharin group", the "workers' opposition" and others were not even presented for consideration.

In Kazakhstan, the state activities of the Alash-Orda continued to be a taboo topic (although an amnesty was announced for the participants in the Alash movement back in the early years of Soviet power), the collectivization period of the 20-30s, the famine that claimed almost 49% of the population of Kazakhstan and others " forbidden things.

At a meeting on ideological issues, it was once again emphasized that “... the works of the leaders of Alash are not subject to reprint. The Party must continue to work to eliminate the harmful consequences of the personality cult on the ideological front, but this does not mean whitewashing everyone and everything.

Many historians tend to think that N.S. Khrushchev omitted these years on purpose, because. “In the mid-30s, he headed the metropolitan party organization, was a member of the Central Committee, i.e. during the period of the great "purges" was at their center. Subsequently, in his memoirs, he said: “On the issue of open trials of the 30s and 40s, we were ambivalent. We were afraid to speak to the end, although there was no doubt that these people were not to blame, that they were victims of arbitrariness. The leaders of the fraternal communist parties were present at the open trials, so we postponed the rehabilitation of Bukharin, Zinoviev, Rykov and other comrades for an indefinite period, it is possible to compile a whole book only from the names of the largest, military, party, Soviet, Komsomol and economic leaders, diplomats and scientists. All of these were honest people. They became victims of arbitrariness without any reason.”

In fact, the number of victims of repression is so great that this would require not a single book, but a large multi-volume edition.

The attitude of the authorities towards former prisoners was ambiguous, many of them were rechecked several times, not allowed to participate in public and party work. At one of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, the following was said: “Having studied the decisions of the Bureau of the Alma-Ata regional party committee, as well as appeals, amnestied and rehabilitated cases, we came to the conclusion that the Bureau of the regional party committee, in some cases, is not serious and incorrectly approaches the restoration of former prisoners into the party, showing excessive indulgence and liberalism in this matter. Meanwhile, among them there are people who are viciously opposed to the Soviet regime, especially from among the former Trotskyites and Alashorda. Such an indiscriminate approach to the matter of restoring the ranks of the party can lead to clogging up the party organization with unnecessary party people.

Noteworthy is the document concerning the activities of T. Yskulov, according to which the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (November 1960) expressed the opinion that the rehabilitation of T. Ryskulov is not a basis for revising his activities as anti-party, national and pan-Turkist.

Secondly, even for those who were rehabilitated in the 1950s and 1960s, the mechanism of lawlessness was not completely exposed, the rehabilitation of the “victims of arbitrariness” remained incomplete for many years. Information about the rehabilitated was carefully concealed. So, the writer K. Ikramov later recalled how he received a document on the posthumous rehabilitation of his father, along with a secret instruction "not to spread this with anyone."

Third, the rehabilitation of the executed or deceased prisoners in the camps was carried out only at the request of close relatives, if there were none, then the case was not considered. Inquiries from relatives about the fate of people close to them very often received incorrect information (such as that their relatives died of natural causes, even indicating the diagnosis of the disease, in fact, many of them were shot). Only in modern conditions, those rehabilitated in the 1950s and 1960s acquired the right to have their descendants learn the truth about the drama of their life and death.

Fourth, the impossibility of determining the exact extent of the charges of deliberate falsification, since many of the politically motivated accusations were deliberately hidden, and party, economic, military and other leaders were sent to prison under other articles. A huge number of documents were destroyed on the basis of "approved screening lists". Most of the cases of prisoners after rehabilitation were burned. In folders with the inscription "keep forever", instead of protocols and denunciations, there was a short certificate of rehabilitation, or a license plate of the case. As a result, society still does not know either the exact scale of terror or the exact scale of rehabilitation in the late 1950s and 1960s.

The most monstrous injustice was that no one condemned and did not bring to justice the NKVD investigators who tortured the convicts, the heads of prisons, guards and informers. These people, who ruined hundreds of thousands of lives, remained unpunished.

But, despite these shortcomings, the process of rehabilitation of the “victims of the Stalinist regime” was also of great progressive importance. Hundreds of sons and daughters of the Kazakh people returned from prison to their homeland.

The works of repressed writers became available to Kazakhstanis: S. Seifullin, I. Dzhansugurov, B. Mailin and others. Mirzoyan, S. Mendyshev, M. Masanchi, A. Rozybakiev and others. True, one cannot fail to mention such a sad fact that almost all of them were rehabilitated posthumously.

The rehabilitation processes of the victims of political repressions were not brought to an end, democratic and progressive undertakings were hampered by the totalitarian system itself, which, in principle, remained untouched, with its administrative-command methods.

Again, work on the rehabilitation of victims of political processes was resumed by the Party Control Committee under the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union Republics in September 1987.

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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 opportunity 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. The social status of the 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 such a radicalization of domestic politics was the assassination 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, having "creatively developed 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 the Soviet government and provide scope for further falsifications 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, parallel to 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 was 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 wise to reduce the 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 the immediate provision of food for the swollen 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 extraordinary 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 eviction 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 horrific: brutal beatings, breaking out of joints, partial strangulation, mock 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 Russian State Duma, published in April 2008, revealed 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 teenagers from 12 years old to be brought to trial and determines 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 personality cult was characterized not only by the showcase facades of Soviet cities. The repressions of the “leader of the peoples” gave rise to the 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 nations, the train with prisoners stopped right in the taiga or in the steppe, and the convicts themselves built a camp and a special 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.

The 20th Congress of the ruling CPSU, held in February 1956, announced a course towards the de-Stalinization of Soviet society, but failed to complete the process. Rehabilitation was carried out on an individual basis according to the statements of the victims of repressions themselves or their relatives, if the first died in Stalin's dungeons and camps.

The country's leadership following him put the brakes on the issue and even tried to disguise it. Everyone pretended that there was nothing like this in the country.

Perestroika in the mid-1980s gave impetus to new attempts by society and democratic forces to resume the process of rehabilitating victims of political repression. And if in the second half of the 50s it was only about individual decisions on the rehabilitation of the victims of Stalinism, then at the end of the 80s it was about the rehabilitation of all those who innocently fell into the millstones of state terror.

The first glimpse appeared on January 16, 1989, with the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On additional measures to restore justice in relation to the victims of repressions that took place in the period of the 30s-40s and early 50s."

On November 14, 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the Declaration "On the Recognition as Illegal and Criminal of Repressive Acts against Peoples Subjected to Forcible Resettlement and Ensuring Their Rights."

On August 13, 1990, the President of the Soviet Union M. Gorbachev issued a Decree "On the restoration of the rights of all victims of political repressions of the 20-50s."

But Stalinism subjected to repression not only on ethnic grounds. State terror was subjected to social, class, corporate and individual characteristics. The rehabilitation of these categories of Soviet citizens was also devoted to the Law of the Russian Federation N 1761-1 “On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression”, adopted on October 18, 1991, which was subsequently amended.

“During the years of Soviet power, millions of people became victims of the arbitrariness of the totalitarian state, were subjected to repressions for political and religious beliefs, on social, national and other grounds. Condemning the many years of terror and mass persecution of its people as incompatible with the idea of law and justice, the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation expresses deep sympathy to the victims of unjustified repressions, their families and friends, declares a steady desire to achieve real guarantees of the rule of law and human rights," the preamble said. Law. The purpose of the Law was declared "rehabilitation of all victims of political repressions subjected to such in the territory of the Russian Federation since October 25 (November 7), 1917, restoration of their civil rights, elimination of other consequences of arbitrariness and provision of currently feasible compensation for material damage."

Perhaps this is an accident, but the next day, November 15, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the State Committee on National Affairs (Goskomnats RSFSR) was formed, however, which subsequently underwent repeated transformations and liquidations.

By the Decree of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of October 18, 1991 "On the Establishment of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions", October 30 was officially established as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions. The choice of the date was connected with the memory of the hunger strike, which was started on October 30, 1974 by political prisoners of the Mordovian and Perm camps in protest against political repressions in the USSR.

In the same year, 1991, it was decided to create corresponding subdivisions within the information centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republics, the Internal Affairs Directorate of the territories and regions, and in the Main Information Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia - the Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions and Archival Information. As the head of the Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia K. Nikishin reported, over the past five years, 2 million 600 thousand applications and requests for rehabilitation and recognition as victims have been received throughout the country. (See Legal Gazette, No. 23, November 1996)

On December 16, 1991 and March 30, 1992, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation approved, respectively, the commission for the restoration of the rights of rehabilitated victims of political repression and the Regulations on it.

Subsequently, in continuation and expansion of the first documents on the problem, a number of normative acts of the Parliament and the Government of Russia were adopted, providing for monetary compensation for lost housing and property or its return (Federal Laws: No. 5698-1 of September 3, 1993 and No. 166-FZ November 4, 1995)

On March 3, 1994, the Government of Russia adopted Decree No. 419, which approved the Regulations on the procedure for granting benefits to rehabilitated persons and persons recognized as victims of political repression. The Ministry of Finance of Russia was instructed to provide in the federal budget, starting in 1994, “the necessary funds to ensure the provision of benefits to these categories of citizens.

On March 16, 1992, the Russian government adopted a regulation on the procedure for paying monetary compensation to persons rehabilitated in accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation N 1761-1 "On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression", which was amended and supplemented on July 18, 1994.

On August 2, 1994, the Cabinet of Ministers of Russia adopted Decree No. 899 “On approval of the Regulations on the conditions and procedure for paying compensation to persons subjected to Nazi persecution.” It was about compensation from the funds allocated by the Federal Republic of Germany for this category of Russian citizens.

On August 12, 1994, the same cabinet of ministers adopted Decree No. 926, which approved the provision on the procedure for returning to citizens illegally confiscated, seized or otherwise out of possession in connection with political repressions of property, reimbursement of its value or payment of monetary compensation.

Taking into account that they were also subjected to repressions based on religious beliefs, President B. Yeltsin issued Decree No. 378 of March 14, 1996, which condemned "the many years of terror unleashed by the Bolshevik party-Soviet regime against clergy and believers of all faiths", instructed The Prosecutor General's Office, the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia to rehabilitate them, executive authorities at all levels "to assist believers in the restoration of religious buildings, the return of property seized from churches, mosques, synagogues, and other places of worship."

On April 23, 1996, President of Russia B. Yeltsin adopted Decree No. 602 “On Additional Measures for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression”, which allows them to be recognized as repressed even in the absence of documents - on the basis of a court decision.

Rehabilitation was announced and repressed in connection with participation in the events in Novocherkassk in June

Decree of the President of Russia No. 1509 of December 2, 1992 established the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions. In 2004, the new President of Russia, V. Putin, issued Decree No. 1113 of August 25

2004, by which he approved the Regulations on the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions.

Along with those who really suffered from Stalinist repressions, other categories of Russian citizens were also tried to be brought under this process. There were attempts to rehabilitate, for example, the leader of the White movement, A. Kolchak, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, and even the organizer of the mass repressions themselves, L. Beria and others. The Don Cossacks advocated the rehabilitation of the ataman of the Cossack troops, General P. Krasnov, who during the Great Patriotic War actively collaborated with the Nazi troops and was executed by a Soviet court. Of these, only Nicholas II from the second call in 2008 was rehabilitated along with his family. On March 28, 2009, Beria's rehabilitation was denied.

If in the whole country the rehabilitation process was selectively concerned, then for the titular people of the Republic of Ingushetia, the problem of rehabilitation concerned almost everyone who was born before 1957.

As is known, on April 26, 1991, the Law of the Russian Federation “On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples” was adopted, fateful for many ethnic groups that were repressed on a national basis.

Decree of the Government of the Republic of Ingushetia

No. 97 of June 10, 1994 “On the Commission for the Restoration of the Rights of Rehabilitated Victims of Political Repressions” in order to implement the Law of the Russian Federation of October 18, 1991 “On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions”, the Law of the Russian Federation of April 26, 1991 “On rehabilitation of repressed peoples” under the Government of the Republic of Ingushetia, a commission was established to restore the rights of rehabilitated victims of political repression, headed by the head of the Government M.I. Didigov.

Decree No. 2 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ingushetia dated January 4, 1995 “On Additional Measures to Implement Decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation on the Restoration of the Rights of Victims of Political Repressions” the Ministry of Finance was obliged to “take measures to provide budgetary support for the costs associated with compensation for damage and the provision of benefits to repressed citizens.” A government commission and a working group began to work.

On February 20, 1995, Government Decree No. 26 adopted a regulation on the procedure for restoring the rights of repressed citizens of the Republic of Ingushetia and stateless persons living on the territory of the Republic of Ingushetia.

On December 31, 1997, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ingushetia adopted another Decree No. 337 “On further measures for the rehabilitation of victims of political repression in the Republic of Ingushetia”, which approved the Regulations “On the procedure for returning to citizens who lived and live in the Republic of Ingushetia, illegally confiscated, seized or released otherwise from possession of property in connection with political repressions, reimbursement of its value or payment of monetary compensation”, on the republican commission for the restoration of the rights of repressed citizens living in the Republic of Ingushetia and the composition of the commission itself, headed by Minister of Justice Kh.I. Yandiev.

On July 31, 1999, a new normative act of the Government of the Republic of Ingushetia No. 211 “On streamlining the normative acts of the Government of the Republic of Ingushetia on the rehabilitation of victims of political repressions” was issued.

Unlike previous regulations, the latter provided for rehabilitation, payment of compensation and restoration of the rights of the repressed citizens of North Ossetia of the Ingush nationality. The order of compensation for damage caused in connection with the use of repressions in 1944 was established. First of all, there were those directly subjected to repressions and who were the owners of confiscated property or housing. Next came the heirs of the first stage, then the spouses and children, then the grandchildren.

Twice by Order of the President of Ingushetia No. 9-rp dated January 20, 1998 and No. 14-rp dated February 18, 2000, Republican commissions for the rehabilitation of victims of political repressions were approved.

Initially, the repressed received about 8,000 rubles, then the amount was close to 10,000 rubles for one residential building for all who lived in it. The amount, of course, was scanty, but people were happy to receive it.

In the USSR, the term "rehabilitation" became especially widespread under N. S. Khrushchev in connection with the rehabilitation of hundreds of thousands of people repressed under I. V. Stalin, moreover, the majority - posthumously. Listed below is only a small part of the rehabilitated people - known both in Russia and abroad.

The process of rehabilitation of repressed persons in the USSR began in 1953-1954. , illegal acts against peoples subjected to resettlement and expulsion were canceled, decisions of extrajudicial bodies of the OGPU-NKVD-MGB, issued on political cases, were declared illegal. However, in the early 1960s the number of those rehabilitated is gradually decreasing, the reason for which is the recurrence of the totalitarian policy of the state, including attempts to return to the Stalinist ideological guidelines. Then the process of rehabilitation, nevertheless, was continued in the late 80s. By the Decree of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU of July 11, 1988 "On additional measures to complete the work related to the rehabilitation of those unreasonably repressed in the 30s - 40s and early 50s" an instruction was given to the USSR Prosecutor's Office and the USSR KGB in conjunction with local authorities authorities to continue work on the review of cases against persons repressed in the 30-40s. , without the need for applications for rehabilitation and complaints from repressed citizens. On January 16, 1989, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued, canceling extrajudicial decisions made in the period of the 30s - early 50s. extrajudicial "troikas" of the NKVD-UNKVD, collegiums of the OGPU and "special meetings" of the NKVD-MGB-MVD of the USSR. All citizens who were subjected to repression by these bodies were rehabilitated, excluding traitors to the Motherland, punishers, Nazi criminals, workers involved in the falsification of criminal cases, as well as persons who committed murders.

According to information provided by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, over the entire period of rehabilitation as of January 1, 2002, more than 4 million citizens were rehabilitated, including 2,438,000 people who were convicted in a judicial and non-judicial manner to criminal penalties.

The legitimacy of the commissions for the rehabilitation of political prisoners appears, however, to be highly questionable. So the first commission created by Khrushchev, along with his personal appointee Shvernik, included persons convicted of anti-Soviet activities: O. Shatunovskaya, who provided deliberately false figures for the number of prisoners and executed. Subsequently, the Commission was headed by an ardent anti-Salinist A.N. Yakovlev, who also presented false data, both on the number of prisoners and on the number of rehabilitated. Extremely often for propaganda purposes, as in the West. so in Russian anti-Stalinist literature the number of prisoners in general and the number of "political" prisoners are identified. Even if the number of political prisoners includes only those convicted under Article 58 (their number never exceeded 25% of the total number of prisoners), it is not taken into account that the vast majority of this article was included in all later versions of the Criminal Code of the USSR and the modern Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, because it de- fact, included entire sections of the modern Criminal Code.

Decisions on rehabilitation were made by extrajudicial bodies on the basis of voluntaristic ideas about the legality of the leaders and members of the Commission, who not only did not have judicial powers, but even had no legal education. Yes, comrade. Shvernik did not have a higher education at all, and A.N. Yakovlev had a historical education.