Formation of the Soviet political system. Features of the political system of the Soviet type in the former USSR

>>History: The political system in the 30s.

The political system in the 30s.

1. Features of the political system of the USSR in the 30s. The role of the party in the life of the state.

2. State ideology. System mass organizations.

3. Formation of Stalin's personality cult.

4. Massive repressions.

5. Show trials.

6.Constitution of "victorious socialism".

Features of the political system of the USSR in the 30s.

The role of the party in the life of the state. The grandiose tasks set before the country demanded the centralization and exertion of all forces. They led to the formation of a special political regime in which state power is concentrated in the hands of communist party which destroyed democratic freedoms in the country and the possibility of the emergence of political opposition. The ruling group completely subordinated the life of society to their interests and retained power through violence, mass repressions, and the spiritual subjugation of the population.

The core of the political regime was the Bolshevik Party. Party bodies were in charge of the appointment and removal of officials in the country, nominated candidates for deputies of the Soviets at various levels. Only members of the CPSU(b) occupied all responsible government posts, were at the head of the army, law enforcement and judicial agencies, and led the national economy. Not a single law in the country could be adopted without prior approval from the Politburo. Many state and economic functions were transferred to party bodies. The Politburo determined the external and internal politics state, solved the issues of planning and organization of production. For the needs of the party, not only party funds were spent, but also money from the state budget, including some of them sent abroad for the needs of the world revolution.

In the 30s. a situation developed in the country when it was absolutely impossible to distinguish between where the state begins and where the party ends (and vice versa). Even the party symbols acquired an official status - the red banner and the party anthem "The Internationale" became state.

By the end of the 30s. the face of the CPSU(b) also changed. She finally lost the remnants of her former democracy. Gone were the heated discussions characteristic of the 1920s. Complete “unanimity” reigned in the party ranks. At the same time, ordinary members of the party and even the majority of members of the Central Committee were excluded from the development of party policy, which became the lot of the Politburo and the party apparatus.

state ideology. The system of mass organizations.

By the mid 30s. Marxism-Leninism became not only a party, but also an official state ideology. In practice, this meant strengthening the fight against dissent. If until the mid-20s. sometimes the works of political and ideological opponents were still published Bolsheviks, then from the mid-30s. all this literature was withdrawn from the libraries.

Party control over funds played a special role. mass media through which official views were disseminated and explained. With the help of the Iron Curtain, the problem of the penetration of other ideological views from the outside was solved.

The system has also changed education. Teaching was now based on Marxist-Leninist theory, not only in the social sciences, but sometimes in the natural sciences as well. The party took control of the upbringing of children both at school and in the family. All the media, literature, cinema and other forms of art inspired that the interests of the collective, the state are higher than the interests of the family and the individual, that a person should not hesitate to expose his family members, friends, if any of them is suspected of deviating from the party line. .

Under the influence of the party was the creative intelligentsia, ideological control over the activities of which, along with party bodies, was carried out by specially created creative unions. In 1932, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution "On the restructuring of literary and artistic organizations." It was decided to "combine all writers supporting the platform Soviet power and striving to participate in socialist construction, in a single union of Soviet writers ... To carry out similar changes in the line of other types of art. In August 1934, the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers took place. The congress adopted the charter and elected the board of the Union, headed by M. Gorky.

Work began on the creation of creative unions of artists, composers, cinematographers, and architects, which were supposed to unite all those who worked professionally in these areas in order to establish party control over them. For "spiritual" support from the creative intelligentsia, the authorities provided members of the unions with various material benefits and privileges (the use of creative houses, workshops, receiving advance payments during a long creative work housing, pensions, etc.).

In addition to creative workers, other categories of the population were covered by mass organizations. All employees of enterprises and institutions were members of trade unions, which were completely under the control of the party. From the age of 14, young people were in a single organization - the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (VLKSM), declared a reserve and assistant to the party. Mass organizations were created for innovators, inventors, women, athletes and other categories of the population. The children were members of the All-Union Pioneer Organization.

In the 30s. increased pressure on church. Throughout the country there was a campaign of "ceremonial" dropping of bells from churches and sending them to be melted down for the needs of industrialization. In rural areas, as a rule, after the creation of a collective farm, the church was closed and turned into a warehouse or club, and the priest was arrested or sent into exile along with the kulaks.

Formation of Stalin's personality cult.

One of the elements of the political regime of the USSR in the 30s. was the formation of Stalin's personality cult.
December 21, 1929 Stalin turned 50 years old. Prior to this, all members of the Politburo were called "party leaders" and were listed in alphabetical order. From that day on, the "institute of leaders" was liquidated, and Stalin was publicly declared "the first disciple of Lenin" and the only "leader of the party." Stalin began to be called the organizer of October, the founder of the Red Army and an outstanding commander - the winner of the armies of the White Guards and interventionists, the keeper of Lenin's "general line", the leader of the world proletariat and the great strategist of the five-year plan. They began to call him "wise", "great", "brilliant". A “father of peoples” and “best friend of Soviet children” appeared in the country. Academics, artists, workers and party workers challenged each other for the palm of praise for Stalin. But everyone was surpassed by the Kazakh folk poet Dzhambul, who wrote in Pravda that “Stalin is deeper than the ocean, higher than the Himalayas, brighter than the sun. He is the teacher of the universe."

Mass repression.

Along with ideology Stalinist regime had another support - a system of punitive organs for the persecution of dissidents.

In the early 30s. the last political trials took place over the former opponents of the Bolsheviks - the former Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. Almost all of them were shot or sent to prisons and camps.

At the end of the 20s. The Shakhty case served as an impetus for the development of the fight against "pests" from among the scientific and technical intelligentsia in all sectors of the national economy.

From the beginning of the 30s. mass repressions were launched against the kulaks and "sub-kulakists". On August 7, 1932, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted the law written by Stalin "On the protection of property of state enterprises, collective farms and cooperation and the strengthening of public (socialist) property", which went down in history as the law "on five spikelets", according to which even minor theft relied long term imprisonment or execution.

From November 1934, a Special Council was formed under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, which was given the right to administratively send "enemies of the people" into exile or forced labor camps for up to five years. The special meeting was given the right to consider cases in the absence of the accused, without the participation of witnesses, the prosecutor and the lawyer.

The reason for the deployment of mass repressions in the country was the assassination on December 1, 1934 in Leningrad of a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the first secretary of the Leningrad Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, S. M. Kirov. A few hours after this murder, a law was passed introducing a "simplified procedure" for the consideration of cases of terrorist acts and organizations. According to him, the investigation was to be carried out in an accelerated manner and complete its work within ten days; the indictment was handed over to the accused a day before the case was heard in court; cases were heard without the participation of the parties - the prosecutor and the defense counsel; requests for pardon were prohibited, and execution sentences were carried out immediately after their announcement.

Other laws have appeared that toughen punishments and expand the circle of persons subjected to repression. The resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of April 7, 1935 ordered "minors, starting from the age of 12, caught committing theft, causing violence, bodily harm, murder or attempted murder, to be brought to criminal court with the application of all measures of criminal punishment" including the death penalty.

Show trials.

In 1936, the first of the major trials of the leaders of the internal party opposition took place. Lenin's closest associates - G. Zinoviev, L. Kamenev and others - were on trial. They were accused not only of killing Kirov, but also of trying to kill Stalin and his closest associates, as well as overthrow the Soviet regime. Prosecutor L. Vyshinsky said in his final speech: “I demand that the enraged dogs be shot - every one of them!” The court granted this requirement.

In 1937, a second trial took place, during which another group of leaders of the "Leninist guard" was convicted. In the same year, by decision of a closed court, a large group of senior officers headed by Marshal M.N. Tukhachevsky was repressed.

In March 1938, a third trial took place. The former head of the government A. Rykov and the "favorite of the party" N. Bukharin were shot. Each of these processes caused a wave of repression against tens of thousands of people, primarily relatives and friends, colleagues and housemates of the repressed. Only in senior management armies were destroyed:

out of 5 marshals - 3;
out of 5 commanders of the 1st rank - 3;
out of 10 commanders of the II rank - 10;
out of 57 corps commanders - 50;
out of 186 division commanders - 154;
out of 16 army commissars of I and II rank - 16;
out of 26 corps commissars - 25;
out of 64 divisional commissars - 58;
out of 456 regimental commanders - 401.

In total, about 40 thousand officers of the Red Army were repressed.

At the same time, a Secret Department was created in the NKVD, which was engaged in the destruction of political opponents of the authorities who found themselves abroad. In August 1940 L. Trotsky was killed in Mexico. Many leaders of the Comintern and even the white movement abroad became victims of the Stalinist regime.

There were not enough free places in prisons. A wide network of concentration camps began to take shape.

According to official data, in 1930 - 1953. 3.8 million people were repressed on charges of counter-revolutionary, anti-state activities, of which 786 thousand were shot.

The constitution of "victorious socialism".

Despite mass repressions, official Soviet propaganda continued to call the USSR the most democratic state in the world. Of great importance was the adoption on December 5, 1936 at the VIII All-Union Extraordinary Congress of Soviets of the new Constitution of the USSR.

Stalin, justifying the need for a new Constitution, stated that Soviet society "carried out what the Marxists call the first phase of communism - socialism." The Stalinist Constitution proclaimed the elimination of private property (and hence the exploitation of man by man) and the creation of two forms of ownership - state and collective-farm-cooperative as the economic criterion for building socialism. The Soviets of Working People's Deputies were recognized as the political basis of the USSR. The Communist Party was assigned the role of the leading core of society, Marxism-Leninism was declared the official state ideology.

The Constitution provided all citizens of the USSR, regardless of their gender and nationality, with basic democratic rights and freedoms - freedom of conscience, speech, press, assembly, inviolability of the person and home, as well as direct equal suffrage.

The supreme governing body of the country was the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, consisting of two chambers - the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities. In the intervals between its sessions, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was to exercise executive and legislative power. As part of the USSR, 11 union republics were fixed: Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Azerbaijan, Georgian, Armenian, Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik, Kazakh, Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republics.

The new Soviet Constitution was an amazing document in its duality. TO real life many of its norms, connected primarily with the democratic rights of the population, had nothing to do with it. On the other hand, some of the social rights enshrined in the Constitution were quite real for Soviet citizens: the right to work, to free healthcare, etc. However, main goal Stalinist socialism was not about creating economic, political and cultural prerequisites for the free development of each member of society, but about building up the power of the state, often at the expense of infringing on the interests of the majority of its citizens. The functions of disposing of "socialist" property and political power were concentrated in the hands of Stalin and the party-state apparatus and turned out to be alienated from the people. Nevertheless, the democratism of the content of the Constitution had a great impact on society.

Thus, in the 30s. 20th century in the USSR, state power was completely in the hands of a narrow circle of party leaders headed by I.V. Stalin, a cruel political regime was established in the country, characterized by the complete curtailment of democracy, the establishment of unanimity, and mass repressions.

Document

From André Gide's book "Return from the USSR" (1936)

In the USSR, it was decided once and for all that there should be only one opinion on any issue. However, the consciousness of people is formed in such a way that this conformism is not a burden to them, it is natural for them, they do not feel it, and I don’t think that hypocrisy could be mixed with this ... Every morning Pravda informs them that they should know what to think and what to believe... It turns out that when you speak with some Russian, you speak as if with all at once. It’s not that he literally followed every instruction, but due to circumstances he simply cannot differ from others ... It must also be borne in mind that such a consciousness begins to form from the very beginning. early childhood... Hence the strange behavior that sometimes surprises you, a foreigner, hence the ability to find joys that surprise you even more. You feel sorry for those who stand in line for hours - they think it's normal. Bread, vegetables, fruits seem bad to you - but there is nothing else. Fabrics, things that you see seem ugly to you - but there is nothing to choose from. Since there is absolutely nothing to compare with - except just with the accursed past - you gladly take what is given to you. The most important thing in this is to convince people that they are as happy as one can be happy expecting the best, to convince people that others everywhere are less happy than they are. This can be achieved only by reliably blocking any connection with the outside world (I mean with foreign countries).

Questions and tasks:

1. What do you see as objective reasons for the assertion in USSR hard political regime?

2. What subjective factors contributed to this?

3. Prove that the CPSU(b) was the core of the Soviet political system.

4. What role in the state was given to public organizations?

5. What were the features of mass consciousness in the 30s? How was it formed? (Use the document when answering.)

THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE SOVIET SOCIETY Soviet political mechanism under socialism. The core of the political system of Soviet society is the Communist Party Soviet Union*. Under its leadership, all other links of this system function - the Soviet state, trade unions, Komsomol, cooperative and other public organizations, reflecting the unity and originality of the interests of all sections of the population.

The process of revolutionary restructuring and renewal of socialist society taking place in the USSR led to the conclusion that it was necessary to reform the political system of Soviet society, aimed at strengthening and developing fundamental principles socialist statehood, born October. The political system of Soviet society must be freed from everything connected with the consequences of the personality cult, command and administrative methods of management, bureaucracy, alienation of the working people from power. It must become dynamic, capable of timely renewal, taking into account the changing conditions of domestic and international life.

In the light of this, the role of the CPSU appears in a new way. According to the Leninist concept of the party as the political vanguard of the working class, of all working people, it is called upon, based on the Marxist-Leninist teaching, to develop a theory and strategy community development, internal and foreign policy, to form the ideology of socialist renewal, to conduct political and organizational work among the masses, to educate and place personnel. During the life of V. I. Lenin and under his leadership, the party acted in this way. However, after Lenin's death, a departure from Lenin's principles, from the concept of socialist construction developed by him, began. This situation, to one degree or another, persisted in the years of stagnation. This had a negative impact on the implementation of the basic functions of the party, led to a weakening of its political and ideological influence, and exacerbated many problems of social development. The CPSU found the strength to self-critically assess the situation. The Party seeks to create such political mechanisms and guarantees that would rule out in the future the possibility of violating the Leninist principles of Party leadership of society.

The key issue of the party's policy is the development and strengthening of the Soviet socialist state. The task is set to complete the creation of a socialist legal state, in which the highest principle will be the unconditional submission of everything and everyone to the law. Of key importance in this regard is the delimitation of the functions of party and state bodies and the revival of the sovereignty of the Soviets of People's Deputies as the basis of socialist statehood and self-government in our country. In this regard, great importance is being attached to improving the forms of popular representation in the Soviets. The reform of the electoral system is called upon to play an important role in this matter.

Of paramount importance is the transfer to the consideration and decision of the Soviets of all, without exception, issues of state, economic and socio-cultural life. In this regard, it is necessary to expand the material possibilities of local Soviets, the transparency and openness of their activities, and to establish the true supremacy of the Soviets over the executive bodies.

The most important prerequisite for the effective functioning of the political system of Soviet society will be the transformation of the supreme power in the state. The Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, which forms the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, is envisaged as the country's supreme body of power, a constantly functioning legislative, administrative and control body. The post of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, elected by the congress, is established.

The democratization of Soviet society necessitates the restructuring of the state apparatus and all government bodies. The question is raised of how to achieve the elimination of superfluous links and a reduction in the size of this apparatus, the eradication of command and pressure methods, bureaucracy and formalism in it.

The resolution of the 19th All-Union Conference of the CPSU "On the Democratization of Soviet Society and the Reform of the Political System" sets out the task that Soviet statehood in in full corresponded to the concept of a nationwide state, so that all affairs in the country were decided by the people and their authorized representatives, were under their full and effective control.

The restructuring of the political system of Soviet society presupposes internal democratization and an increase in the role of public organizations in the political process. The party sees their main task in developing social and political activity, satisfying the diverse interests of citizens, and instilling the skills of public self-government.

Under the conditions of perestroika, it becomes necessary to fully embody Lenin's ideas of organizing control and make it effective. In this regard, it seems expedient to create a unified system of public and state control subordinate to elected authorities.

The question of taking urgent measures for the further development of the Soviet federation is acquiring great importance. At the same time, the key to the further development of nations and, at the same time, the strengthening of friendship between them, the cohesion of Soviet society, is the organic combination of the independence of the Union and Autonomous Republics and other national formations with their responsibility for all-Union interests.

The party is steadily pursuing a policy of democratizing management, the process of developing and making state decisions, ensuring the choice of their best options, taking into account and comparing the various opinions and proposals of the workers. The range of issues will be expanded, decisions on which can only be made after discussion in labor collectives, in the standing committees of the Soviets, in public organizations. The practice of nationwide discussion and voting on the most important issues of the life of the country will be further developed, as well as the use of other

channels for the development of direct democracy: meetings of citizens, mandates of voters, speeches in the press, radio, television, letters from workers, and other means of revealing public opinion.

The CPSU attaches fundamental importance to the expansion of glasnost as an effective form of nationwide control, as well as to the development of such a tried and tested tool of socialist democracy as criticism and self-criticism.

An important role in the creation of a socialist legal state should be played by the reform of the judiciary and other institutions that ensure legal regulation relations between the state and citizens, the protection of political, economic, social and personal rights of all members of society.

In carrying out the tasks of improving Soviet democracy, the Party itself is in continuous development and critically evaluates the results achieved. In the general course of the democratization of Soviet society, it also considers questions of expanding party democracy. To the 27th Congress! The CPSU, when making additions and amendments to the Party Rules, implemented a number of important provisions aimed at strengthening the democratic principles of the life of the Party. The CPSU is striving to ensure that the full development of intra-Party democracy permeates the activities of all its links, from the primary organizations to the Central Committee, in order to fully restore the Leninist understanding of the principle of democratic centralism. The CPSU pursues its political course through communists working in the organs state power in all spheres of Soviet society.

The political system of Soviet society operates and develops within the framework of the Constitution of the USSR and Soviet laws.

Speaking about the need to restructure the political system of Soviet society, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, M. S. Gorbachev, in a speech at the February (1988) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, emphasized that " we are talking, of course, not about replacing operating system but about introducing qualitatively new structures and elements into it, giving it new content and dynamism that would ensure the successful development of our society.”

Project Revision Notes

* As Ilf and Petrov said, through the mouth of Skumbrievich: "all this work is being done" in the order of a mirage "". The political system of Soviet society underwent a similar reform - in the order of delirium: it was deprived of its core, around which it was built and, of course, fell apart into dust. There was a liquidation of the state as an institution. It was replaced by a private corporation-state, which began cutting the budget. However, the above article shows the then idea (or dream) of the planned transformations of the political system.

One of the most discussed issues in modern historiography of the Soviet period in the history of Russia is the problem of determining the form of government in the USSR. The difficulty lies in the fact that the Soviet political elite was created unparalleled in the world system of management of the union state. The political terminology of this period is ambiguous: the position of General Secretary in terms of the internal content of the term clearly does not correspond to its meaning in the relationship between power structures and officials of the Soviet Union.

The main types of forms of government

Before finding out what form of government was in the USSR, it is necessary to determine the direct content of this term. The form of government is understood as the organization of state power, the system of higher state bodies, the order of their formation, as well as the relationship both within them and with the population of the state.

There are two main forms of government: Each of them is divided into subtypes. Monarchy is understood as personal autocracy. If it is not limited by anything, the monarchy is considered absolute, if there is a parliament that does not have a significant impact on the political life of the country - dualistic. If the powers of the monarch are limited by the parliament and the government responsible to it, the monarchy is called constitutional.

Under the republican form of government, the powers of the people, expressed through elections, are vested in collective power structures: parliament, government. Most often, the republic is headed by a president. Its subtypes are determined by the established system of interaction between the president and parliament. If the latter has broad powers, forms the government and plays a leading role in the political life of the country, then the republic is considered parliamentary. Otherwise, presidential. In some cases, researchers insist on the allocation of super-presidential and mixed forms of government.

Political regime

The study of the established political system in the chosen country from the point of view of only the established form of government will be incomplete. For a full description of what form of government was in the USSR, it is necessary to consider the main types of political regimes.

There are three main classifications:

1. According to the state power - ochlocracy, oligarchy, tyranny;
2. According to the applied methods of exercising power, liberal, moderate and repressive political regimes are distinguished;
3. According to the mechanism of exercising power: democratic, authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.

In history, one can outline three milestones in its development associated with the personality of the highest official in the state: the final coming of I. V. Stalin to power (1928-1929), his death (1953), the coming to power of M. S. Gorbachev and the launch of the modernization process, known in everyday life and sciences under the name "perestroika" (1985) . These milestones make it possible to concisely outline changes in the political regime according to its three types:

On this moment the curtailment of democratic initiatives and processes, the transition to more stringent forms of government in the USSR, the states Western Europe and Latin America. The thirties of the last century became the era of the formation of totalitarian dictatorships in the most diverse countries in terms of development and political culture: Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and in the states of Latin America. The inhabitants of even such countries as France and Great Britain were seriously afraid of the totalitarian threat. The devastating First World War continued with a difficult period of reconstruction interrupted by the global economic crisis that broke out in 1929. The loss of former values ​​and guidelines contributed to the spread of radical ideas.

Revolution of 1917 in Russia

Soviet historiography insisted on singling out the February Revolution as bourgeois-democratic and the October Revolution as socialist. At present, this division is recognized as artificial and unproductive, and the events of October 25 (November 7, according to a new style) are a logical consequence of the inability of the Provisional Government to resolve the most pressing issues: peace with the powers of the Quadruple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria) , on the redistribution of land and on urgent measures to correct the grave economic situation in the country.

In any case, the storming of the Winter Palace - the seat of the Provisional Government - marked the collapse of the hopes of the liberal sections of society for a democratic settlement. The Bolsheviks came to power, the most radical of the then existing political forces, headed by V. I. Lenin, L. D. Trotsky, G. E. Zinoviev and others. The revolution in Petrograd and Moscow did not mean the immediate transfer of the entire country under the rule of the Bolsheviks. They managed to defend their right to exercise power only in the long and bloody Civil War (1917 - 1922).

Formation of the USSR

By 1922, the resistance of the whites (including both convinced monarchists and supporters of democratic reforms) was basically broken. The political map of the territory of the former Russian Empire was a conglomerate of spontaneously emerging state associations. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic consisted of numerous autonomous entities annexed during the Civil War. A similar situation was observed in the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic formed by Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Two more powerful centers were Ukraine and Belarus.

Historical tradition and pressing needs demanded the organization of cooperation between the four republics. Even during the Civil War, their leaders were looking for possible ways of agreement and unification of states. There was no consensus on the methods of unification: one side proposed a unitary republic (Stalin was its ardent supporter), the other insisted on federation. After long disputes and a fierce struggle, during which many leaders of the republics were removed, on December 30, 1922, an alliance treaty was signed at the Bolshoi Theater. The normative definition of the essence of the new state dragged on for another year. The final date of the emergence of the USSR can be considered January 31, 1924, when the Constitution was approved and adopted at the II Congress of Soviets.

Form of government in the USSR according to the Constitution of 1924

After the adoption of the Union Constitution and bringing the basic laws of the republics into line with it, a unified system of governing bodies was established. The supreme legislative body was the All-Union Congress of Soviets, which was supposed to meet in a planned manner once a year. Between congresses, the current legislative power was exercised by the Central Executive Committee, which, on the principle of equality, included the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities. Inside the Central Executive Committee of the USSR there was a Presidium that formed the government - the Council of People's Commissars, the first head of which - although formal due to serious health problems - was V. I. Lenin.

The Council of People's Commissars consisted of branch people's commissariats, which were divided into three types:

• all-union (foreign affairs, foreign trade, military and maritime affairs, communications, post and telegraph);
• united (duplicated in each republic);
• republican (existed only in a particular subject; their presence was determined specific features republics).

Although open fighting By 1924 they stopped completely, there were certain sections of society who did not want to put up with the victory of Bolshevism and Soviet power. In addition, factions and trends began to appear within the ruling party, ready to fight for power after the death of Lenin. In order to counteract these forces, the Council of People's Commissars created the United State political administration controlled only by the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court.

Symbols of the USSR

The constitution finally consolidated the position of Moscow as the capital of the USSR, and also introduced new state symbols. The coat of arms was the image of a sickle and a hammer on the background the globe and the inscription on state languages USSR (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Georgian, Armenian and Turkic-Tatar) "Proletarians of all countries, unite!".

The flag of the state was a red cloth with a width to length ratio of 1:2. In the upper corner, next to the shaft, there was a golden hammer and sickle with a five-pointed star above them.

Political struggle after the death of Lenin and the transformation of the political regime

In the USSR, the form of government was determined by the needs of appeasing and restoring the national economy. To this end, Lenin initiated the New Economic Policy (NEP), which allowed for private cooperation and a multi-structural economy. However, a progressive illness did not allow him to finish the job. The paralyzed leader spent the last years of his life in virtual isolation at his dacha in Gorki near Moscow.

Already at the very early stage of the existence of the USSR, personnel changes became one of the main instruments of control over the political life of the country. The increasing bureaucratization of the highest bodies of state administration contributed to the erosion of their powers of authority. Under these conditions, everything greater value acquires the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (later the name of this post changed in accordance with the name of the party). Initially, the functions of the General Secretary included only the leadership of the party apparatus, but I. V. Stalin, who found himself in this position, managed to concentrate considerable power in his hands, which caused fears of both the decrepit Lenin and his possible successors - Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev.

Immediately after Lenin's death, a political struggle for leadership broke out in the party. Trotsky was the main candidate for leadership, but the coalition of Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin succeeded in pushing him into the background. This was followed by a conflict already in the camp of winners, from which Stalin emerged victorious.

The logic of the political struggle forced Stalin to follow the path of toughening the authoritarian tendencies that had already taken shape during the Civil War and the system of war communism. By 1924, the main political rivals of the Bolsheviks were destroyed, as well as their allies - the Left SRs. Dissent in the party was not approved: the fight against Trotsky, and then against Zinoviev and Kamenev, was positioned as a fight against opportunism and the right (or left) deviation. Thus, the legal possibilities for the existence of the opposition were destroyed.

The dictatorship of the proletariat, proclaimed after the revolution, was carried out not by the workers themselves, and even more so by the peasants - it was the prerogative of the party. This slogan has also become a convenient cover for centralization and tightening the control system. NEP that existed short term, was not able to radically change the state of affairs in the economy, and the possibility of multistructural structure inherent in it could not exist and be realized when a dictatorship was established in the political sphere.

Already in the 1920s, the process of merging the party and the state began: any position, even an insignificant one, could only be occupied by a Bolshevik. Ultimately, a ramified and clumsy class of party nomenklatura emerged, whose existence was not provided for by the Constitution. After the large-scale nationalization of the means of production, the largest factories and factories were in the hands of the nomenklatura.

The situation in which the constitutional governing bodies actually had no real power, and the nomenklatura took everything into their own hands, was in the hands of Stalin as the main person responsible for personnel reshuffles. This power allowed him to defeat N. I. Bukharin. A fight between these two contenders for power was inevitable: after Lenin's death, Bukharin became the main ideologist of the party, had the opportunity to express his ideas through Pravda, the country's main newspaper, and his proteges occupied top leadership positions. In addition, Bukharin did not shy away from intrigues and played a prominent role in the beginning of the repression. Stalin's victory was possible only because of Bukharin's association with the failing NEP, as well as incessant intrigues.

Establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship

Having dealt with his rivals, Stalin was able to bring the whole country to uniformity. Private cooperation was destroyed during the processes of industrialization and collectivization, and the Secretary General dealt with the remaining rivals by repressive methods. At the 7th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1934, the old Bolsheviks made their last attempt to remove Stalin from power. He was criticized for the mistakes made in the course of collectivization, and most of party members voted against his re-election. However, S. M. Kirov, the main candidate for the post of general secretary, resigned, and the election results were rigged, which was one of the steps to establish a totalitarian form of government in the USSR under Stalin.

As a result, the party congress ceased to be held at all (under Stalin this happened only twice: in 1939 and 1952). The unsolved murder of Kirov gave rise to mass repressions, during which all those who disagreed with the general line of the party were physically destroyed. In parallel, the growth of Stalin's personality cult: his opinion became an indisputable authority in all scientific research, poems were composed in his honor. Thus, the form of government in the USSR in the 1930s acquired all the characteristics of a totalitarian dictatorship.

1936 constitution

The changes that took place during the struggle for power and the establishment of totalitarianism were reflected in the text of the new Union Constitution. It formalized the leadership role of the Communist Party, but at the same time separated the organs of executive and legislative power. So, the latter belonged exclusively to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, elected for 4 years. Inside it, the former chambers were preserved - the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities - with the same right of legislative initiative. The law was approved if both chambers adopted it by a majority vote.

The Supreme Council worked on a sessional basis. In the intervals between sessions, the Presidium of the Supreme Council held the supreme power. executive power belonged to the Council of People's Commissars, which included 8 all-union people's commissariats and 10 union-republican ones. In the interests of uniformity, purely republican people's commissariats were abolished.

Further changes in the control system

Form of government in the USSR in 1945-1953. everything is characterized big stature totalitarian tendencies and Stalin's personality cult. The Second World War gave way to the Cold War, which provoked new repressions aimed at However, even those in the circle of Stalin's closest associates increasingly doubted the appropriateness of such a course.

With the death of Stalin, the struggle for power flared up again, from which N. S. Khrushchev emerged victorious. On his initiative, in 1956, a secret report was read, condemning the cult of personality and revealing the truth about large-scale repressions that became an integral part of the form of government in the USSR under Stalin. This event was the first on the path of gradual democratization of the regime.

Thus, the activities of the punitive organs were limited, and they themselves began to bear responsibility to the party. Even under Stalin, the people's commissariats were replaced by branch ministries, which was supposed to be part of the reform of government bodies. This was continued by Khrushchev, who believed that excessive centralization of power leads to a decrease in the effectiveness of the administration of power functions. However, the consequence of this was a sharp increase in bureaucracy. This did not affect the efficiency that Khrushchev dreamed of in the best way.

Khrushchev's reform aspirations aroused fears among the party nomenklatura.

The possibility of losing numerous privileges and control over the most profitable industries provoked a conspiracy, as a result of which Khrushchev was removed from power, and Leonid Brezhnev became the new leader of the country.

Form of government in the USSR according to the Constitution of 1977

It is no coincidence that Brezhnev's rule is called stagnation: stagnation was observed not only in the economic sphere, but also in the political one. The fullness of power was in the hands of the nomenklatura and the bureaucracy, the management system was practically paralyzed by red tape and endemic bribery.

All this was reflected in the text of the new Constitution, which introduced an unprecedented definition of the Soviet people and the state of developed socialism. Formally, democratic principles of governance, the rights and freedoms of citizens were declared, but in reality the system of power structures remained authoritarian, and the real power in the country was wielded by the oligarchy. The merging of the party and the state was stated by the provision on the leading role of the CPSU, on its central position in the system of power.

In the final part of the Constitution, the capital status of Moscow was confirmed, and state symbols were also fixed. It was still a sickle and a hammer on the background of the globe as a coat of arms and a red flag with a sickle and a hammer as a flag. The difference from 1924 was that the inscription was now duplicated in all the languages ​​of the Union republics.

The era of perestroika

The need to change the form of government of the USSR under Gorbachev was obvious to everyone. Senior positions were occupied by elderly people who were unable to adequately solve the problems of reforming the internal structure and economy of the country. This was especially pronounced during the years of government in those who replaced Brezhnev (Yu. A. Andropov, K. U. Chernenko).

The reform of the political system began under the slogan of personnel renewal: in the first two years of perestroika, about 80% of the leaders were dismissed. Following this, Gorbachev resolutely began to introduce democratic methods: in elections to local government in 1987, several candidates were allowed to participate. Then it is allowed to create new political parties, associations and movements. This dealt such a significant blow to the nomenklatura that in 1989 it was possible to relatively peacefully abolish the article of the Constitution, which establishes the leading and guiding role of the CPSU, and the following year, the post of general secretary was also abolished, instead of which the institution of the presidency was introduced.

In the wake of glasnost and democratization of public life, the question of revising the 1922 union treaty was increasingly raised. Many republics remembered the existence of an article allowing them to secede from the USSR - before it was just a formality. The change in the form of government in the USSR under Gorbachev launched the process of decentralization of the state. The introduction of the institute of presidency in the Union republics, the creation of a system of democratic equal elections made it possible to demand new concessions from the authorities. The result of this, as you know, was the collapse of the USSR.

Thus, the form of government in the USSR from 1922 to 1991. somehow changed. From attempts to democratically reorganize the country in the inter-revolutionary period through the difficult stage of first military communism, and then totalitarian dictatorship, society came to Brezhnev's stagnation and authoritarian methods of government. Gorbachev's perestroika managed to revive democratic traditions, but the price for this was the collapse of the state.

Features of the political system of the Soviet state. The 1936 Constitution and Soviet Society

The main features of the Soviet political system began to take shape during the period of the Civil War and intervention. In the young Soviet state, the Bolshevik Party became the fundamental element of the state administration system, whose members led the army, industrial enterprises, state institutions, etc. Thus, it happened fusion of party and state apparatuses. In the 1920s, this process was actually completed: the most significant government decisions taken first Central Committee RCP (b) and only after that were fixed in the decisions of state, i.e. Soviet bodies, which were also headed by members of the Central Committee M. I. Kalinin (chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee since March 1919), L. D. Trotsky (People's Commissar for And maritime affairs), L. B. Kamenev (Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars), I. V. Stalin (People's Commissar for Nationalities), etc. The RCP(b) became the core of the political system of society. This led to another significant feature of the political system in the USSR - virtual absence of separation of powers into independent branches (executive, legislative, judicial). Neither the government nor the Supreme Council could take decisions other than the directives of the Communist Party. Formally, all Soviet constitutions proclaimed that power belongs to the people represented by elected Soviets. However, in reality it was just a declaration, the deputies obediently voted for the guidelines adopted by the party. The assertion of Stalin's sole power in the late 1920s led to the folding personality cult. Monuments were erected to Stalin throughout the country, collective farms, streets, schools and cities were named after him. In fact, he became a god during his lifetime. The newspapers were full of laudatory articles about the wise leadership of the "leader, teacher, friend." “Let the father live, long live our dear father - Stalin the sun!” wrote Pravda in March 1939.

The state, represented by the Communist Party, played a huge role in the life of society, striving to control all spheres of its life through the created system of mass organizations (pioneer and Komsomol organizations, trade union committees, local committees, women's councils, associations of scientists, athletes, artists, etc.). The created system was supported by broad repressive actions, and the end of the 1930s became, perhaps, the bloodiest page in Soviet history. In 1936, the first trial of the internal party opposition took place - G. Zinoviev and L. Kamenev. The list of accusations was long and heavy: the murder on December 1, 1934 of S. Kirov (Secretary of the Central Committee and the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks), a conspiracy to assassinate Stalin and overthrow the Soviet regime. All of them were severely sentenced to death. Repressions spread, the phrase “enemy of the people” firmly entered everyday life. From December 1934, a “simplified procedure” for considering cases was introduced: the investigation lasted 10 days, cases were heard without the participation of the parties, and requests for pardon were prohibited. By the end of the 1930s, the flywheel of repression was launched at full capacity: in 1937, a large group of senior officers led by Marshal M. Tukhachevsky was tried (a total of 40 thousand officers of the Red Army), and in 1938 the former the head of the government A. Rykov and the "favorite of the party" N. Bukharin.

In 1936 a new constitution was adopted, in which the Soviet Union was declared a socialist state of workers and peasants. The leading role was assigned to the working class. All exploiting classes were recognized as liquidated. Stalin's modernization required a huge amount of labor, which led to the growth of the urban population, but did not improve its social position. In April 1929, a rationing system was introduced for many types of food, and later it was extended to industrial goods. In 1929, the worker was supposed to: 600 g of bread per day (300 g for family members), 1 kg of sugar per month, 30-36 m of calico per year. The manifestation of discontent was severely suppressed - the workers were fired, which entailed the deprivation of cards, eviction from hostels, and arrest. On the pages of the periodical press, all the difficulties were explained by "wrecking", the workers were urged to be vigilant. Lawsuits swept across the country: the “Shakhty case” (1928), the “doctors' case” (1933), etc. The abolition of cards in 1935 did not lead to an improvement in life. If in 1913 the average monthly wage allowed a worker to buy 53 kg of meat, then in 1935 - only 19 kg. The result of dispossession and collectivization was the elimination of social gradation in the peasant environment: the kulaks, middle peasants and poor peasants disappeared. The position of the peasantry was extremely difficult and difficult. During the 1930s there were fixed prices for cereals, while prices for manufactured goods were constantly increasing. This led to the ruin of collective farms, transferring them into the category of debtors. The incomes of collective farmers were calculated in workdays, the labor of collective farmers was practically not paid for with money. Since 1935, collective farmers were allowed to have household plot, a cow, two calves and a pig with piglets. Nevertheless, the peasants in the 30s continued to be the most disenfranchised category of the population. They were deprived of freedom of movement and choice of occupation because they did not have passports. In fact, it was the restoration of serfdom. Between the class of workers and the class of peasants, according to the Constitution of 1936, the existence of labor, or popular, intelligentsia- "layers". Official statistics included officials, teachers, doctors, engineers, etc. in this group. social structure Soviet society in the 1930s, another group was formed, called the "nomenklatura". Formally, being equal citizens of society, nomenclature workers actually had huge advantages over everyone else, using many material benefits in conditions of limited funds.

Nomenclature(from lat. nomenclatura- list, list of names) - a list of the most important positions in state and public organizations of the USSR, the appointment to which was carried out by the decision of the party organizations of the corresponding level. The nomenklatura principle of the formation of the administrative apparatus began to take shape immediately after the Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917 and lasted until the end of the 1980s.

IN historical science, both in Russia and abroad, attempts have been repeatedly made to determine the nature of the Soviet political system that took shape in the 1920s-1930s.

First point of view. A real socialist society was created in the USSR.

Second. After October 1917, Russia became the first country in the world to begin the transition to socialism. However, for a number of reasons, a special model was created– Stalinist, characterized by the concentration of power in one hand. This model is called differently in historical science: feudal socialism, barracks socialism, state-bureaucratic socialism, crude socialism.

Third. IN The USSR was built state capitalism, where the exploitation of the state was tougher than under “pure” capitalism.

Fourth. At the turn of the 20-30s, a totalitarian system of government was formed in the USSR, the crown of which was Stalin's personal power (the cult of personality). Features of the totalitarian system: one-party system; no separation of powers; uniformity of all social life, etc. Fifth. Its supporters evaluate the political system in the USSR from the standpoint of a civilizational approach, noting the predominance of eastern features(a strong vertical of power, its concentration in the hands of one person, the absence of a dialogue between the authorities and society, etc.).

It should be noted that the socio-political system that had developed in the USSR by the end of the 1930s was rather contradictory. In a short time, by an incredible effort of all the forces of society, a strong industrialized state was created - a superpower capable of competing with the countries of the West. However, high rates of economic growth were ensured through the over-centralization of sectors of the national economy, the creation of a system of administrative command management, the nationalization of all spheres of society, including the private life of citizens. The broad proclamation of democratic freedoms (the Constitution of 1936) was combined with mass repressions; the use of forced labor of prisoners - with the enthusiasm of the Stakhanov movement. The ambiguous nature of the changes that have taken place in the USSR will clearly manifest itself during a terrible test for the Soviet people - during the Great Patriotic War.

Forced strategy economic development, administrative command methods of managing the national economy, total planning, and the expansion of the sphere of forced labor contributed to the tightening of the political regime in the Soviet Union. The identification of the state form of ownership with the socialist, the attitude to all other forms as secondary created a solid economic base for the existing administrative apparatus. The authorities were a single bureaucratic system built on a hierarchical principle. The party apparatus subjugated the state apparatus, practically merged with it. Under conditions of strict centralization, real power was concentrated in the hands of a narrow group of people.
Why did such a political system arise in the USSR, under which democracy is curtailed, violence becomes the norm of life, a cult of power and personality arises, personifying power? Of course, the personal qualities of the leader of the ruling party I.V. Stalin - Skillful demagoguery, the use of revolutionary phrases, the party apparatus, intolerance of alternative points of view. This list goes on. However, to reduce everything only to the personality of I.V. Stalin would be wrong.
Let's try to highlight other reasons that are of paramount importance. Firstly, the administrative-command model of management directly followed from the concept of socialism as social order, which does not develop spontaneously, which needs to be built. And this requires strong centralization. Secondly, negative role played the low cultural level of the masses, rank-and-file communists and most of the leading party and Soviet workers. In 1917, 75% of the country's population were illiterate, and in the early 40s. 70% of the secretaries of district committees and city committees of the CPSU (b) had only primary education. Thirdly, there were practically no democratic traditions in the country. A long, bitter civil war left its mark on political thinking. The spirit of irreconcilability and intolerance to any dissent has been established. Fourth, there was no sufficiently reliable mechanism for the democratic control of society over the activities of the apparatus of power. Fifth, the ruling party itself was riddled with bureaucracy. Even the leaders of various oppositions, speaking out against the curtailment of democracy in the party, did not touch upon the main principle - the suppression of freedom in society in the name of strengthening power. And the party “lower classes” have turned into extras who have no real influence on the leadership.
In the process of formation and development, the administrative command system relied on various strata of society. Initially the main support the authorities became the least well-off in material terms, the sections of the working class and the peasantry who did not have a political culture, as well as part of the intelligentsia, who were critical of the bourgeois system. Simple, clear slogans October revolution, the hope for a rapid improvement in their situation attracted the masses to the side of the Bolsheviks. Gradually, in the process of abandoning the ideals of October, the social base also changed. new government. The party-state bureaucracy, the apparatus of the army and "law enforcement" bodies acquired more and more weight. To maintain support among the workers and peasants, social demagogy and propaganda of the idea of ​​a "bright future" were widely used.
Over time, arbitrariness and tyranny in the political system of Soviet society intensified. By the end of the 30s. autocracy of the leader and the cult of personality took on completely ugly forms, the dictatorship of one man became a reality. In the public mind, the leader did not act as a politician, but was perceived as a demigod with superhuman properties and superhuman wisdom.
It is enough to open any newspaper page of that time, to recall the ideas that prevailed among the masses, to be convinced of the unlimited power of I.V. Stalin, in the impossibility of challenging his decisions. On the day of the leader's 50th birthday, December 21, 1929, all Soviet newspapers were filled with panegyrics in his honor. The Pravda newspaper for 5 days published lists of organizations that sent their congratulations to him. In the official biography of I.V. Stalin was called "Lenin's most faithful disciple" and "an outstanding successor" to his work.
Even former members of the opposition joined the general choir of praise. At the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1934 (“Congress of the Winners”) N.I. Bukharin called I.V. Stalin "the commander of the proletarian forces", "the best of the best." L.B. Kamenev declared that the modern era would go down in history as the era of Stalin, just as the previous one was the era of Lenin.
The American writer J. Steinbeck describes his impressions of visiting the Soviet Union as follows: “In many speeches that we had to listen to in Russia, the speakers suddenly cited a quote from Stalin as the final proof of the justice of their thought ... In Russia, Stalin’s word is the ultimate truth and no matter what he says, no one will object. And this is an indisputable fact, no matter how they try to explain it - propaganda, education, constant reminder, iconography that is everywhere present. You can feel it in full measure when you hear, as we have heard many times: “Stalin was never wrong. He has never made a mistake in his entire life." And the person who says this does not present it as an argument - it is irrefutable, he says it as an absolute truth beyond any arguments.
How did it manage to turn the minds of many people in such a way, so pervert moral values, that tyranny seemed to them the highest form humanism, and the tyrant - the genius of all times and the leader of all peoples?
For this, the principles used by all dictatorships were used, regardless of what clothes they hide behind and in what part of the globe they arise. To implement these principles, it was necessary: ​​to monopolize the apparatus of propaganda; to prevent the open expression of alternative points of view; not to give the opportunity to compare life inside the country with the standard of living of the rest of the world, that is, to erect an "iron curtain" on the borders; to attribute all the successes of the existing government, and to explain all the failures by the intrigues of its external and internal opponents; to regulate all spheres of culture, to rewrite history in order to create the image of a wise leader; force as much as possible more people to repeat official lies, that is, turn citizens into accomplices of the regime; create new idols that have nothing to do with humanism, which means rejecting universal human values.
A powerful ideological apparatus, influencing almost the entire society, had a significant impact on people, many of whom sincerely believed in the correctness of the path of development imposed on them, the propagandized moral values. But none of the totalitarian regimes can be based only on faith. There is one more element that comes into play: fear. Terror directed against the people has become one of the most important constituent parts public policy. Gulag, NKVD, "enemies of the people" - without them, the Stalinist regime simply could not exist.
The establishment of immense personal power led to a sharp curtailment of even those elements of democracy that existed in the early 1920s. The April (1929) Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the 16th Party Conference proclaimed a policy of purging the Party of those who did not observe the "class line". As a result of the purge, more than 11% of the communists were expelled from the CPSU(b). The new party cadres, above all the workers, the poorest peasants, due to their low cultural level, were predisposed to the administrative implementation of the directives of the top party leadership. In 1928, the distribution of the transcripts of the plenums of the Central Committee, the work plans of the Politburo and the Orgburo was stopped; in 1929 - the publication of the information magazine "Izvestia" of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Party congresses, conferences, and plenums began to be convened less frequently. The party “tops” became practically uncontrollable from below.
In 1933, a new large-scale purge of the CPSU (b) began, during which 18% of the communists were expelled from the party. Lasting about a year and a half, it was designed to eliminate the possibility of opposition sentiments in the ranks of the ruling party. The 17th Party Congress demonstrated the strength of Stalin's positions and the absence of real opposition. At the congress, another step was taken towards the lack of control of the party elite. The TsKKRKI, which was authorized to control party and state bodies at all levels, was transformed into the Party Control Commission under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Soviet Control Commission under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, that is, into bodies that do not control the Central Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, but are subordinate to them.

The sharp increase in inner-party centralism was associated with the assassination of the SM. Kirov on December 1, 1934. This tragic event was used by I.V. Stalin as a pretext for tightening the regime. The Central Committee sent out to all party organizations a closed letter "On the consequences of the events connected with the villainous murder of Comrade Kirov"; it spoke of a conspiracy of Trotskyists and Zinovievites, who must be exposed and expelled from the ranks of the CPSU (b).
In 1935, a campaign to check party cards began. In the summer, a network of regional departments of the Main Directorate of Personnel of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, headed by N.I. Yezhov. The check covered 81% of party members, of which 9% were expelled. Party documents were checked not only by party organizations, but also by the NKVD. All those expelled from the party were registered and undercover surveillance was organized for them.
By this time, the legal basis for the repressive policy had already been prepared. On December 1, 1934, a resolution of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee “On the Procedure for Conducting Cases for the Preparation or Commitment of Terrorist Acts” was issued, adopted within a few hours after receiving the news of the murder of SM. Kirov. The duration of the investigation was limited to 10 days. The participation of defenders was excluded, sentences were not subject to appeal, and death sentences were carried out immediately. Since 1935, criminal liability (up to the death penalty) has been officially established for children from the age of 12. In March 1935, the law on the punishment of family members of traitors to the Motherland came into force.
In 1934, the centralization of punitive bodies was carried out. The OGPU became part of the NKVD of the USSR, which concentrated the state security agencies, police, internal and border troops, labor camps and huge construction sites, mines, logging, where prisoners worked. in connection with the reform of the NKVD in 1934, the GULAG was formed - the Main Directorate of Correctional Labor Camps, Labor Settlements and Places of Confinement. As of
On March 1, 1940, the GULAG included 53 camps, 425 correctional labor colonies and 50 juvenile colonies. There were 1,668,200 people in places of detention. The paramilitary guards numbered about 107 thousand people.
The share of those convicted for counter-revolutionary crimes (i.e., under Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR) in 1940 was 33.1%. In total, according to the KGB, from 1930 to 1953. under article 58, 3,778,234 people were convicted, of which 786,098 were shot.
To justify the need for repression, the thesis of the aggravation of the class struggle, put forward by I.V. Stalin back in the mid-20s, but received special meaning in the 30s Its essence was that as socialism was being built, the hostile classes, feeling the inevitability of their defeat and hating the victorious workers, intensified their sabotage activities and resorted to terror tactics.
The apotheosis of the "great terror" was the February March (1937) plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Spies and pests, said I.V. Stalin, penetrated into all or almost all organizations - both economic, and administrative and party, and not only to grassroots positions, but also to responsible posts. According to I.V. Stalin, many wreckers are people with a party card, and their danger lies precisely in the possession of this card. V.M. Molotov clarified that the wreckers pretend to be ardent supporters of the Soviet regime and even often have merits before the party and the Soviet state in the past. I.V. Stalin expressed the idea that "a real wrecker should from time to time show success in his work." Both speakers took up arms against those who refused to believe in the mass penetration of "enemies of the people" into the party ranks, into production, into the sphere of culture. From the point of view of V.M. Molotov, no matter how high rank and position a person is, if he is not able to notice the pests working under his nose, he is not a leader.
In 1937 I.V. Stalin, on behalf of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, instructed the NKVD authorities to apply “physical measures” to those arrested, that is, he allowed the accused to be beaten and tortured. Two years later, in 1939, in a new telegram sent not only to the internal affairs bodies, but also to the Central Committee of the Union republics, regional and regional committees of the party, the leader demanded the mandatory application of such measures "as an absolutely correct and expedient method."
Cruelty has become the norm of social life. I.V. needed repressions. Stalin according to different reasons. They allowed miscalculations in economic and social policy to be attributed to "pests" and "enemies of the people"; gave a lot of workers who were not covered by either social programs or labor laws; created an atmosphere of fear that suppressed attempts to resist; destroyed political opponents of I.V. Stalin, strengthened his personal power in the party and state apparatus.
The repressions became so massive that the judicial system was unable to cope with the increasing flow of accused. Therefore, a significant part of the citizens were subjected to punishment on the basis of decisions of extrajudicial bodies - the Special Conference, "threes", "twos".
However, in some cases, when it came to the largest figures of the party and the Soviet state, Stalin found it necessary to organize open trials, in which it was necessary to publicly prove guilt in supposedly committed crimes. The beginning was laid by the Shakhty case (1928), the processes of the Industrial Party, the "Union Bureau of the Mensheviks" (1930-1931). But the processes of the late 1930s received the greatest public outcry.
In August 1936, the first Moscow trial of the leaders of the former opposition was organized. In the case of the Anti-Soviet United Trotskyist-Zinoviev Center, 16 people were convicted, among whom were G.E. Zinoviev and L.B. Kamenev. All the accused were sentenced to death. In January 1937, the second show trial took place in the case of the "Parallel Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center"; among the 17 convicts were Yu.L. Pyatakov, G.Ya. Sokolnikov, K.B. Radek. In March 1938, N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov, G.G. Berry.
The accused confessed to the most fantastic atrocities: espionage and plots to kill I.V. Stalin and other members of the government, the sale to the imperialist states of various parts of the Soviet Union, the murder and poisoning of entire villages, industrial sabotage, sabotage and the organization of famine in the country. With the help of torture, moral terror, threats against the families of those under investigation, it was not difficult to get confessions from them.
Almost all the defendants were sentenced to death with execution immediately after the trials. During the years of perestroika, during the rehabilitation of the victims of the Stalinist terror, they were acquitted by the Supreme Court of the USSR for lack of corpus delicti, and the trials were found to be falsified. Rehabilitation is absolutely fair. But one cannot imagine these people as heroes, fighters against totalitarianism. Victims and executioners were people of the same formation, one worldview. The dead were themselves active builders of the regime that was ultimately used by I.V. Stalin for the massacre of the "old communists". It was a time of executioners and victims, and they often changed places.
In June 1937, it was reported that a secret meeting of a military tribunal had passed death sentences on military leaders accused of espionage and treachery. Among them were Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Marshal M.N. Tukhachevsky, major military leaders I.E. Yakir, R.P. Eideman, V.K. Putna, A.I. Cork. Over the next two years, according to General A.I. Todorsky, the army was repressed: out of 5 marshals of the Soviet Union - 3; out of 2 army commissars of the 1st rank - 2; out of 4 commanders of the 1st rank - 2; out of 12 commanders of the 2nd rank - 12; out of 2 fleet flagships of the 1st rank - 2; out of 15 army commissars of the 2nd rank - 15; out of 67 commanders - 60; out of 28 corps commissars - 25; out of 199 division commanders - 136; out of 397 brigade commanders - 221; out of 36 brigade commissars - 34.
The highest party, state, and economic leaders were subjected to repressions. Representatives were sent from the center to all regions of the country to purge and destroy the national elite in the republics. At the same time, the central authorities were also “cleansed”. Members of the Politburo SV were repressed. Kosior, P.P. Postyshev, Ya.E. Rudzutak, V.Ya. Chubar, R.I. Eikhe. Out of 139 members and candidate members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, 98 were arrested, out of 1966 delegates to the XVII Congress of the Communist Party - 1108.
Further strengthening of the repressive policy could lead to a complete disorganization of the power structure. In January 1938, the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution "On the mistakes of party organizations in the expulsion of communists from the party, on the formal bureaucratic attitude towards appeals of those expelled from the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and on measures to eliminate these shortcomings." The repressions did not stop, without them the Stalinist regime could not exist. They ceased to be uncontrollable, "emergency", they took on a planned character. And guilty of the next
"Excesses" were local authorities and direct executors - the NKVD bodies, which had too much independence during the period " great terror". Two people's commissars of internal affairs - G.G. Yagoda, who held this post in 1934-1936, and N.I. Yezhov (1936-1938) were arrested and shot. In November 1938, the NKVD was headed by L.P. Beria.
The goals set by I.V. Stalin, have been achieved. Party committees and punitive organs brought the entire society under total control. The Soviets carried out only secondary economic and organizational functions. The party and other institutions of the political system have become obedient instruments of the leader. This statement seems to contradict the adoption of the Constitution of the USSR in 1936, which proclaimed the expansion of democratic freedoms. However, the constitutional norms were purely nominal in nature, without affecting everyday life.
In the USSR by the end of the 30s. an integral social system - "socialism" - was formed. The Constitution stated that the USSR "is a socialist state of workers and peasants." The Soviet society of the 1930s, built under the leadership of the Communist Party, headed by I.V. Stalin, was a natural result of the implementation of the ideas of V.I. Lenin about commodityless socialism, carried out through revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The abolition of market relations, the denial of democracy could only lead to the variant of building society, which became the Soviet reality. The Soviet social system was characterized by complete state control over all spheres of life, the virtual elimination of constitutional rights and freedoms, and repressions against the absolute majority of citizens.