Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR: responsibility for counterrevolutionary activity

The Soviet Union was one of those states that left behind many unsolved mysteries and undisclosed questions. As a totalitarian state with strict control of all spheres of life of ordinary citizens, the USSR had an appropriate constitution that fully defended the priorities that underpinned communist power. In particular, a special case was political repression directed at those who expressed any discontent with the existing authorities. Political repression gained a grandiose scope under Joseph Stalin. To do this, there was a special article 58. Until now, historians can not come to a single conclusion about this issue. Therefore, it is worth investigating whether a citizen in the USSR, even for a simple anecdote about the leader, could be in the camps or even be shot.

Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the USSR

All political convicts, regardless of the type of their crime, went through article 58 of the Criminal Code of the USSR. The article provided for punishment for counter-revolutionary activity. What was she like? Counterrevolutionary activities were actions that prevented the dissemination or implementation of certain revolutionary ideals and provisions supported by communist power. The first paragraph of this article stated that counter-revolutionary actions are any attempts to undermine or weaken the Soviet power in the territory of the USSR, as well as attempts to weaken the external power and political, military or economic gains. According to the concept of workers' solidarity, the same responsibility fell on those who committed crimes against the state, which was not part of the USSR, but lived according to the proletarian system.

In fact, 58 articles in Stalin's time were intended to bring to justice those who somehow denied or opposed the Soviet power. In modern society, such people would be called extremists. We should take a closer look at all the points that include article 58 in order to understand what was coming under the actions that the Soviet authorities considered counter-revolutionary.

Paragraph 1

Paragraph 1a contains provisions concerning treason to the Motherland, namely, the transfer to the enemy's side, the issuance of state secrets to the enemy, espionage, and flight abroad. For these crimes, the death penalty was the death penalty, and under mitigating circumstances - imprisonment for 10 years with confiscation (full or partial) of the property. This should be said a few words. Since the USSR at that time was in a very hostile environment, it is not surprising that the flight (namely, the flight, rather than leaving the country) was punished so severely, because in fact it was the same treason to the Motherland.

Paragraph 1b contains the same provisions as in 1a, but already with regard to persons in military service. And undoubtedly, the same crimes committed by persons liable for military service are more serious, however, if these crimes have any kind of gradation at all. So it is not surprising that the Criminal Code of the RSFSR punishes the military so severely.

Paragraph 1c establishes the responsibility of families of servicemen who have committed a crime. If family members knew about the upcoming crime, but did not report it to the authorities or contributed to its commission, they are sentenced for a term of 5 to 10 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. This item can be considered one of the most inhumane in the whole article, but, according to the study of the archives, only 0.6% of all political prisoners served their sentence, that is, it was rarely used. The Criminal Code of the RSFSR in general can be called inhumane, but because of the then realities, it seemed to the authorities appropriate.

Paragraph 1d provides for punishment for failure to inform servicemen of the impending treason. For the military then it was a direct duty, so it's no surprise that it was so severely punished. As for civilians, there was point 12, which provided for the same penalties. But with the current system, the seemingly cruel punishment looked quite logical, because at that time there were no liberal thoughts.

Point 2

Point 2 provided for the death penalty - for those who, through armed insurrection, tried to overthrow Soviet power in regions or union republics. Sometimes, as a mild form of punishment, expulsion from the USSR was used with deprivation of all rights and confiscation of property. Such actions are strictly punished in a number of modern states.

Items 3, 4, 5

Paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 state that for co-operation with a foreign state, aiding in enemy spies or other actions directed against the Soviet Union, the same penalties as in paragraph 2 apply.

Paragraph 6

Point 6 dealt with everything that was considered espionage, namely, the issuance of state secrets or important information to the enemy, which are not secret, but not subject to disclosure. For this, shooting or expulsion from the country also relied.

Items 7, 8, 9

Paragraphs 7, 8 and 9 establish the same penalties for sabotage or counter-revolutionary terrorist attacks on the territory of the USSR.

Item 10 - anti-Soviet agitation

Perhaps the most notorious is paragraph 10. It addresses the problem of so-called anti-Soviet agitation, the essence of which was that any calls, propaganda for the overthrow of Soviet power, storage of prohibited literature, public expression of discontent, etc., were punished by deprivation of liberty for a minimum of 6 Months. Indeed, in the Soviet state there was no such thing as freedom of speech. This item is also being amended in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Article 280.

Items 11 to 14

Clauses 11 to 14 contain provisions regarding bureaucratic crimes, anti-people actions during the Civil War (and later - the Great Patriotic War), the preparation of terrorist acts, and so on.

They called the person affected by this article - the enemy of the people. Such people, as was said above, were subjected to executions, expulsion from the country, they were in prisons and camps. Many of those convicted under article 58 were those who really deserved it, but there were also those who were accused of betraying unfairly. At that time, the security authorities were not very interested in the truth, so the confessions of those who were in the field of view on this article were simply beaten. This is evidenced by many evidences of that time. Those who served their punishment were still under surveillance for a long time. They were forbidden to get a job, get pensions, apartments, they were limited in the opportunities that an ordinary Soviet citizen had.

Article 58 in Stalin's time was the most current document, which allowed repressing civilians and military. However, already during Khrushchev, a special commission was set up to investigate these crimes. Many of the unjustly convicted were rehabilitated, unfortunately, posthumously. Those who survived returned to their former rights and privileges.

Any state should protect its territorial integrity and constitutional rights. Article 58 of the USSR was just such a guarantor of protection. Of course, now such harsh penalties can be considered a blatant violation of human rights, but at that time, Article 58 seemed appropriate and really gave a fair punishment to those who plotted a crime against Soviet power.