Why crime in decreasing in the Soviet Union

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Part of Socialism today

Title: Why crime in decreasing in the Soviet Union
Language: English
Source: Socialism today August 1936
Year: 1936
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Fulltext: Page 1~ SOCIALISM TODAY Why Crime Is Decreasing. the Soviet Union • ID By A. SHLY APOCHNIKOV Assi8tant Director of the Scientific Research Institute of Criminal Policy THE SOVIET UNION is converting into reality the age-long dream of the best minds of mankind: the building up of a classless socialist society. In solving this task, the Soviet Union, simultaneously with the aQ.olition of classes and survivals of the past in the minds of people, 'is abolishing crime-one of the worst survivals of the past. The October Revolution, which led to a radical break-up of old productive relations and to the elimination of private property in the means of production, could not but give rise to embittered resistance of all the forces of the old society, which were ready for any crime that might stop the victorious march of socialism. This resistance has found its expression not only in counter-revolutionary crimes, directly expressing the struggle of the remnants of hostile classes and their agency, but also in general crimes which equany reflect the traditions of the old order are a heritage of the past. The tremendous successes of socialist construction could not but bring about a considerable limitation in the scope of crime. The improvement in the living conditions of the masses, the immense growth of culture, the abolition of unemployment and the elimination of poverty in the village resulted in a sharp reduction of crime. Statistics conclusively substantiate this. Taking the number of persons convicted of criminal acts in the RSFSR during the first half of 1933 as 100, the number dropped in the second half to 93.1; at the end of 1934, the number of cases dropped to 69.9; in the first half of 1935 it fell to 60.7. In the Ukraine, the number of persons . convicted of criminal acts declined in the last quarter of 1936 to one-fourth the number in the first quarter of 1933. In 'soviet White Russia, this number declined by 67 .1 per cent. A similar picture of the reduction in crime is to he observed during the past three years in the other repubics of the Soviet Union. THE NUMBER of convictions in va. rious categories of crime shows more cIE;arl~, perhaps, the sbf-rp decrease in crime m the USSR. Thus, there has been a marked decline in the number of persons convicted for breaking the law of Aug. 7, 1932, on the protection of socialist property. Taking the number of convictions under ~his law during the first half of 1933 in the RSFSR as 100, they dropped to 27.9 in the first half of 1934 and to 9. 6 in the second ha1f of. 1936. In the Ukraine, the number of similar cases fell even more. A further drop is shown by statistics of succeeding periods. Property crimes, particularly theft, which constitute more than 70 per cent of this category of crime, have declined equally sharply. Statistics show that convictions for theft declined 61.4 per cent in the first half of 1936 in comparison with the same period in 1933. A striking reduction in the number of crimes against the person is also shown by figures. In 1926, the proportion of these acts in the total number of criminal convictions amounted to 26 per cent in the RSFSR. Beginning with 1929, the percentage decreased year by year until in 1934 it dropped to three per cent. The number of convictions for sexual crimes in the RSFSR today has dropped to 25 per cent of the number in 1929. Du4'ing the same period, the number of cases of bodily assaults dropped 40 per cent and murder convictions 60 per cent. The- main sources of juvenile crimes were homelessness, neglect and adults' instigation and recruiting of children for criminal acts. The decision of the Council of Peoples Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the Party of the USSR on the "Abolition of Child Homelessness and Child Neglect," and also the law of April 7, 1935 on the "measures of fighting against crimes among juveniles" played a .colossal role in reducing children's crimes. The law is· directed most sharply against adult instigators and against those juvenile law-breakers closely connected with a criminal environment. In the courts of Moscow Province, 54 cases of juvenile cri~e were tried in May 1935, in November the number dropped to 23 and in1 December to 21. In Voronezh Province, 8·8 were convict!!d of juvenile crimes in the second quarter of 1936, 77 in the third quarter of that year, and 34 in Jwo months of- the last quarter. A similar reduction in junnile crime is observable in other districts of the country. . . ..... . THUS, as a result of the decisive successive successes of socialism. in our country, the etiourmous rise in the standard of living arid culture of the masses, and the elimination of hostile ,class elements, the Soviet Union has 'achieN'ed .a August, . .:1986 Defentlingy the Workers and· ·National· Defense Working' men of England" have their own idea· of National 'I)efense. In his maiden speech in the House of Commons, William Gallacher, representing· the miners of West Fife, has t}J.is ta say: "There were over 1,000 men killed in the pits last year and nearly 200,000 injured. Have you defended them? "Come with me to the· mining villages, day after day you can see the terrible tragedy of ·the pit, and the tragedy of the mines' homes. "Have you defended the miners' families in Wales, Lancashire, on the North~ east coast and in Scotland? Have you defended· these places-go and look at them-which give the appearance of a country that has been devastated by the enemy? Have you defended the miners? "We say not a penny fc:ir armaments. It is a crime against the people of this country to spend another penny on armaments. "Every penny we can get should go in wages for. the miners, towards the .health and well~being of the mothers and the children and adequate pensions for the aged and infirm. We require every pe~ ny we can get to make life better for. the working class. "If the seven billion pounds which we spent during the war in ruin and destruction had been spent in making life brighter and better for the workers of this country what a difference it would· have made." · To hospitals of the big mines of the Philippines every day 'brings its train of ambulances bearing bleeding bodies of the maimed, the dying and the dead. Is our government defending these men and their famiiles? Socialists in England don't like to see school boys performing military drill. Since Socialiss are now in c:IOntrol of the Council ef the City of London military men are refused the uae of elementary school buildings for company training. They have abolished .0 T C and Cadet Corps from all schools under ' their charge. School children are forbidden to attend Navy. League lecture. Also, .when an Anti-air-craft BrigAde planned a march to stimulate recruiting the. Council refused permission to use Battersca Park for thls purpose. substantial reduction in crime. '·Th¥ -decrease should be specially noted in the rural districts as irn evidence of t.he rooting out of petty propriet0rship habits resulting from the strengthening of the collective farm order and the whole process of .remaking .the minds of these people. · The shit.rp rechi~i91l ~t. 1.1rime; howevec, August, 1936 SOCIALISM ·TODAY ECHOES·· FROM THE.FORGOTT~N ... "How did you get here?" "I walked, of course," she said. "At two o'clock this morning I got up and with my radishes walked to Warsaw .because everybody comes to buy here on Tuesdays and Fridays. · These are the big market days and I had to be here all five o'clock. It takes me longer,'' she added apologetically, "because I am old now and cannoit walk so well." "But it snowed and rained last night " "Yes. It snowed and then it turned to rain. Just before I got to Warsaw it turned to rain and the roads were very muddy and it was hard walking." · "And you stay here how long?" "All day until it gets dark and then I walk back to my village." "How much do you make #lfter a day's work like that?" "Sometimes a zloty and fifty groshen and sometimes two zloty and sometimes not even fifty groshen." "And on that you have to live half the week?" "Me and my son. He is ill now and cannot get up from bed or he would be helping me,'' she added quickly. does not in any way signify a tendency towards laxness in this field. Today, side by side with the struggle with acts against public preperty, which is the main force of resistance of the remnants of hostile elements, special attention is devoted to the fight with crimes 'against the person. In the Soviet Union, where the human being is looked upon .as the most valuable capital, the person of the citizen, his property and his rights are placed under special protection. This is precisely the reason for the measures for punishing more severely certain categories of crimes such as ruffianism, wilful refusal to pay alimony and similar cases. The unusual results in the Soviet Union's struggle against crime have been obtained on the_ 'basis of the abolition of exploitation of man by man, the abolition of poverty and unemployment, and the rise in the standard of living and the culture of the population. A tremendous role in the effectiveness of the Soviet juridical policy is played by the principles of corective labor, the whole idea of which consist in changing the minds of people, who, in the past were enemies of a socialist society and, under the Soviet system of education, have largely become converted into new people who have forgotten their previous customs and habits. We are confident that this fight with crime wil, as a resutl of the vitcory of Communism, lead to the final and complete abolition of crime in the land of the Soviets. · "When you have so· little; .what do you eat?" I asked. • "Bread and potatoes. Wbat else is there to e~t? PotatOes a~e very cheap but the bread is dear. Sometimes if I· make only fifty or sixty groshen after all day here I buy only potatoes and we have them. But if I am lucky to make a zloty, then we can have a bread too." I had been taking her time which she might have used to sell her radishes and I gave her a zloty. She offered me the seven radishes she held in her hand. "No, no," I said. " I have taken up your time so you keep this zloty." "The whole zloty!" she exclaimed, holding it in h~r hand and looking at it with unbelieving eyes. "Yes, of course. You keep it. Put it away. I guess you can use it. Life is pretty hard, isn't :il;?" And sud<jenly those old eyes filled with tears and she began to cry. "Ai, pana, pana," she sobbed, "no one knows how hard our life is". T HE desire for "something to happen-ariything"-is widespread and there is a whole vast area in Poland extending from 100 to 200 miles from the Russian border and running about 1,000 miles from the Il()rthern frontier of Czechoslovakia to the southern frontiers ttf ·Lithuania and Latvia where the "anything" is being translated into action with organization behind it. This is the "pacification area," so named because Poland is trying to "pl;lcify" the peasants. How the peasants feel and how they are being "pacified" is not being made public by the government or by the Polish press nor does the iron cens9rship permit news of it to seep out if it can be stopped. "Pacification" first began in 1913 in the region immediately north of the Carpathian-Russ section of Czechoslovakia and has become increasingly brutal and ruthless. The men and women; both radical and conservative, who told me what is being done to the peasants there were as frightened" as those who speak in Ita- . ly or Germany, for in Poland the authorities need only to suspect that you talked of these matters to find yourself on the way, without a trial, to the concentration camp at· Bereza Kartuska. 'Not far away was the Soviet Union where the peasants had been miserable but now news was seeping acros~ the frontier that Russian peasants were eating again, th~t they -had salt for their potatoes, that they ate meat, that they had bread, that things were getting better while in Poland life for the peasants was steadily growing worse .. Peasants turned their eyes eastward ·wh'ere Soviet soil now offered a haven of plenPage 1~ (Continued from .pa,ge 11) ty. A" strong Communist' s.entiment d,eveloped and this · resulted in the o:ffort · :t!> "pacify;' the regio~ •. . ·Battalions of sol~rs swarmed on villages seeking the leaders but th~ peasants refused to surrender them and in desperate 'efforts to root out the "Reefs" the officials introduced the custom of "common responsibility." This proeedure is quite ·simple, soldiers surround a village where a Communist is suspected of being active and line up all village residents. • The ·officers then announce that the village is "commonly responsible" for the existence of a Communist in their midst and unless he is s.urrendered with. in one our. every fifth i>erson, man, woman or child above fourteen, chosen at random, will be placed under arrest, beaten severely and then imprisoned on suspicion of being themselves Communists. Ori my way to the village of Kolki in the Volhynia district, where I had heard children had b.een "pacified" for asking for free schools I talked with peasants who told me many things with anxious pleas . not to tell that they had talked· with me, pleas as anxious as any I enco.untered in Italy or Germany. Even government officials in Warsaw, sick of the occurrences in the "pacification area" talked. And I heard tales· like the one when the n\i!itary swept upon and surrounded the little village of Bobraka where a Communist . was atcive. "The threat of "common responsibility" was made and either because the peasants were terrified or because there was an informer in their midst the Communist was found and taken away to prison "and the izba (peasant hut) where he had lived was burned to th(\ ground and over the cold ashes plows were drawn and the land was plowed so that no one would ever know even the ground where a Communist had lived." · There were many such tales as l went wandering around the Volhynia district, stopping' at izbas that sagged from the weight of their snow-covered strawthatched roofs and then I came to Kolki where an old and bearded peasant told me of what happened on May Day of 1935. The new Polish Constitution had guaranteed ~free schools and there had been joy in· the hearts of the "dark .people". The illiterate and hungry peasants had heard that the educated did not hunger and they wanted to see their childi:en educated so they "would not hunger as we ·are, hungering." When no schools were burl.t the -peasants began 'to demand them and at first shyly and with many apologle!j and tb'en a little irritably they asked ~Jly · the schoo1s • wer.e not being built f(),r the children · and _ th&·