Figures that finally close the topic of those repressed under Stalin. Guess their nationality. How many victims of “Stalinist repressions” were there in reality? What is repression in the history of the USSR

As historical experience shows, any state uses outright violence to maintain its power, often successfully disguising it as the defense of social justice (see Terror). As for totalitarian regimes (see Totalitarian regime in the USSR), the ruling regime, in the name of its strengthening and preservation, resorted, along with sophisticated falsifications, to gross tyranny, to mass cruel repression (from the Latin repressio - “suppression”; punitive measure, punishment , applied by government agencies).

1937 Painting by artist D. D. Zhilinsky. 1986. The struggle against the “enemies of the people” that unfolded during V.I. Lenin’s lifetime subsequently took on a truly grandiose scale, claiming the lives of millions of people. No one was safe from the nighttime invasion of their home by government officials, searches, interrogations, and torture. 1937 was one of the most terrible years in this struggle of the Bolsheviks against their own people. In the painting, the artist depicted the arrest of his own father (in the center of the painting).

Moscow. 1930 Column Hall of the House of Unions. Special presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR, considering the “industrial party case.” Chairman of the Special Presence A. Ya. Vyshinsky (center).

To understand the essence, depth and tragic consequences of the extermination (genocide) of one’s own people, it is necessary to turn to the origins of the formation of the Bolshevik system, which took place in conditions of fierce class struggle, hardships and deprivations of the First World War and the Civil War. Various political forces of both monarchical and socialist orientations (Left Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, etc.) were gradually forcibly removed from the political arena. The consolidation of Soviet power is associated with the elimination and “reforging” of entire classes and estates. For example, the military service class, the Cossacks, was subjected to “decossackization” (see Cossacks). The oppression of the peasantry gave rise to the “Makhnovshchina”, “Antonovshchina”, and the actions of the “greens” - the so-called “small civil war” in the early 20s. The Bolsheviks were in a state of confrontation with the old intelligentsia, as they said at that time, “specialists.” Many philosophers, historians, and economists were exiled outside Soviet Russia.

The first of the “high-profile” political processes of the 30s - early 50s. the “Shakhtinsky case” appeared - a major trial of “pests in industry” (1928). In the dock were 50 Soviet engineers and three German specialists who worked as consultants in coal industry Donbass. The court handed down 5 death sentences. Immediately after the trial, at least 2 thousand more specialists were arrested. In 1930, the “industrial party case” was dealt with, when representatives of the old technical intelligentsia were declared enemies of the people. In 1930, prominent economists A.V. Chayanov, N.D. Kondratyev and others were convicted. They were falsely accused of creating a non-existent “counter-revolutionary labor peasant party.” Famous historians were involved in the case of academicians - E.V. Tarle, S.F. Platonov and others. During forced collectivization, dispossession was carried out on a massive scale and with tragic consequences. Many dispossessed people ended up in forced labor camps or were sent to settlements in remote areas of the country. By the fall of 1931, over 265 thousand families were deported.

The reason for the start of mass political repression was the murder of a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the leader of the Leningrad communists S. M. Kirov on December 1, 1934. J. V. Stalin took advantage of this opportunity to “finish off” the oppositionists - followers of L. D. Trotsky , L.B. Kamenev, G.E. Zinoviev, N.I. Bukharin, carry out a “shake-up” of personnel, strengthen their own power, instill an atmosphere of fear and denunciation. Stalin brought cruelty and sophistication in the fight against dissent to the construction of the totalitarian system. He turned out to be the most consistent of the Bolshevik leaders, skillfully using the sentiments of the masses and ordinary party members in the struggle to strengthen personal power. Suffice it to recall the scenarios of the “Moscow trials” of “enemies of the people.” After all, many shouted “Hurray!” and demanded that the enemies of the people be destroyed as “filthy dogs.” Millions of people involved in the historical action (“Stakhanovites”, “shock workers”, “promoters”, etc.) were sincere Stalinists, supporters of the Stalinist regime not out of fear, but out of conscience. Secretary General The party served for them as a symbol of the revolutionary expression of popular will.

The mindset of the majority of the population of that time was expressed by the poet Osip Mandelstam in a poem:

We live without feeling the country beneath us, Our speeches cannot be heard ten steps away, And where there is enough for half a conversation, There they will remember the Kremlin highlander. His thick fingers, like worms, are fat, And his words, like pound weights, are true, Cockroaches' whiskers laugh, And his boots shine.

The mass terror that the punitive authorities applied to the “guilty”, “criminals”, “enemies of the people”, “spies and saboteurs”, “disorganizers of production” required the creation of extrajudicial emergency bodies - “troikas”, “special meetings”, simplified (without participation of the parties and appealing the verdict) and an accelerated (up to 10 days) procedure for conducting terrorism cases. In March 1935, a law was passed to punish family members of traitors to the Motherland, according to which close relatives were imprisoned and deported, and minors (under 15 years old) were sent to orphanages. In 1935, by decree of the Central Executive Committee, it was allowed to prosecute children starting from the age of 12.

In 1936-1938. “open” trials of opposition leaders were fabricated. In August 1936, the case of the “Trotskyist-Zinoviev united center” was heard. All 16 people brought before the court were sentenced to death. In January 1937, the trial of Yu. L. Pyatakov, K. B. Radek, G. Ya. Sokolnikov, L. P. Serebryakov, N. I. Muralov and others (“parallel anti-Soviet Trotskyist center”) took place. At the court hearing on March 2-13, 1938, the case of the “anti-Soviet right-wing Trotskyist bloc” (21 people) was heard. Its leaders were recognized as N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov and M.P. Tomsky - the oldest members of the Bolshevik Party, comrades-in-arms of V.I. Lenin. The bloc, as stated in the verdict, “united underground anti-Soviet groups... seeking to overthrow the existing system.” Among the falsified trials are the cases of the “anti-Soviet Trotskyist military organization in the Red Army,” the “Marxist-Leninist Union,” the “Moscow Center,” the “Leningrad counter-revolutionary group of Safarov, Zalutsky and others.” As the commission of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, created on September 28, 1987, established, all these and other major processes are the result of arbitrariness and a flagrant violation of the law, when investigative materials were grossly falsified. Neither “blocs” nor “centers” actually existed; they were invented in the depths of the NKVD-MGB-MVD at the direction of Stalin and his inner circle.

The rampant state terror (“Great Terror”) occurred in 1937-1938. It led to disorganization government controlled, to the destruction of a significant part of the economic and party personnel, the intelligentsia, caused serious damage to the economy and security of the country (on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, 3 marshals, thousands of commanders and political workers were repressed). A totalitarian regime finally took shape in the USSR. What is the meaning and goals of mass repression and terror (“the great purge”)? Firstly, relying on Stalin’s thesis about the intensification of the class struggle as socialist construction progresses, the government sought to eliminate real and possible opposition to it; secondly, the desire to free ourselves from the “Leninist guard”, from some democratic traditions that existed in communist party during the life of the leader of the revolution (“The revolution devours its children”); thirdly, the fight against the corrupt and decayed bureaucracy, the mass promotion and training of new personnel of proletarian origin; fourthly, neutralization or physical destruction of those who could become a potential enemy from the point of view of the authorities (for example, former white officers, Tolstoyans, Socialist Revolutionaries, etc.), in anticipation of the war with Nazi Germany; fifthly, the creation of a system of forced, actually slave labor. Its most important link was the Main Directorate of Camps (GULAG). The GULAG provided 1/3 of the industrial output of the USSR. In 1930, there were 190 thousand prisoners in the camps, in 1934 - 510 thousand, in 1940 - 1 million 668 thousand. In 1940, the Gulag consisted of 53 camps, 425 forced labor colonies, 50 colonies for minors.

Repressions in the 40s. Entire peoples were also subjected - Chechens, Ingush, Meskhetian Turks, Kalmyks, Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans. Many thousands of Soviet prisoners of war, deported (evicted) to the eastern regions of the country from the Baltic states, western parts of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, ended up in the Gulag.

The policy of a “harsh hand”, the fight against what contradicted official guidelines, against those who expressed and could express other views, continued in the post-war period, until the death of Stalin. Those workers who, in the opinion of Stalin’s circle, adhered to parochial, nationalist and cosmopolitan views were also subject to repression. In 1949, the “Leningrad case” was fabricated. Party and economic leaders, mainly associated with Leningrad (A. A. Kuznetsov, M. I. Rodionov, P. S. Popkov and others), were shot, and over 2 thousand people were released from work. Under the guise of fighting cosmopolitans, a blow was struck against the intelligentsia: writers, musicians, doctors, economists, linguists. Thus, the work of poetess A. A. Akhmatova and prose writer M. M. Zoshchenko was defamed. Musical figures S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, D. B. Kabalevsky and others were declared the creators of the “anti-popular formalist movement.” In the repressive measures against the intelligentsia, an anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) orientation was visible (“the doctors’ case,” “the case of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee,” etc.).

The tragic consequences of mass repressions of the 30-50s. great. Their victims were both members of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee and ordinary workers, representatives of all social strata and professional groups, ages, nationalities and religions. According to official data, in 1930-1953. 3.8 million people were repressed, of which 786 thousand were shot.

Rehabilitation (restoration of rights) of innocent victims through the courts began in the mid-50s. For 1954-1961 More than 300 thousand people were rehabilitated. Then, during the political stagnation, in the mid-60s - early 80s, this process was suspended. During the period of perestroika, an impetus was given to restore the good name of those subjected to lawlessness and tyranny. There are now more than 2 million people. Restoring the honor of those unfoundedly accused of political crimes continues. Thus, on March 16, 1996, the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On measures for the rehabilitation of clergy and believers who have become victims of unjustified repression” was adopted.

Estimates of the number of victims of Stalin's repressions vary dramatically. Some cite numbers in the tens of millions of people, others limit themselves to hundreds of thousands. Which of them is closer to the truth?

Who is to blame?

Today our society is almost equally divided into Stalinists and anti-Stalinists. The former draw attention to the positive transformations that took place in the country during the Stalin era, the latter call not to forget about the huge number of victims of the repressions of the Stalinist regime.
However, almost all Stalinists recognize the fact of repression, but note its limited nature and even justify it as political necessity. Moreover, they often do not associate repressions with the name of Stalin.
Historian Nikolai Kopesov writes that in most investigative cases against those repressed in 1937-1938 there were no resolutions of Stalin - everywhere there were verdicts of Yagoda, Yezhov and Beria. According to the Stalinists, this is proof that the heads of the punitive bodies were engaged in arbitrariness and in support of this they cite Yezhov’s quote: “Whoever we want, we execute, whoever we want, we have mercy.”
For that part of the Russian public that sees Stalin as the ideologist of repression, these are just details that confirm the rule. Yagoda, Yezhov and many other arbiters of human destinies themselves turned out to be victims of terror. Who else but Stalin was behind all this? - they ask a rhetorical question.
Doctor of Historical Sciences, chief specialist of the State Archive of the Russian Federation Oleg Khlevnyuk notes that despite the fact that Stalin’s signature was not on many execution lists, it was he who sanctioned almost all mass political repressions.

Who was hurt?

The issue of victims acquired even greater significance in the debate surrounding Stalin's repressions. Who suffered and in what capacity during the period of Stalinism? Many researchers note that the very concept of “victims of repression” is quite vague. Historiography has not yet developed clear definitions on this matter.
Of course, those convicted, imprisoned in prisons and camps, shot, deported, deprived of property should be counted among those affected by the actions of the authorities. But what about, for example, those who were subjected to “biased interrogation” and then released? Should criminal and political prisoners be separated? In what category should we classify the “nonsense”, convicted of minor isolated thefts and equated to state criminals?
Deportees deserve special attention. What category should they be classified into – repressed or administratively expelled? It is even more difficult to determine those who fled without waiting for dispossession or deportation. They were sometimes caught, but some were lucky enough to start a new life.

Such different numbers

Uncertainties in the issue of who is responsible for the repression, in identifying the categories of victims and the period for which the victims of repression should be counted lead to completely different figures. The most impressive figures were cited by the economist Ivan Kurganov (Solzhenitsyn referred to these data in his novel The Gulag Archipelago), who calculated that from 1917 to 1959, 110 million people became victims of the internal war of the Soviet regime against its people.
In this number, Kurganov includes victims of famine, collectivization, peasant exile, camps, executions, civil war, as well as “the neglectful and sloppy conduct of the Second World War.”
Even if such calculations are correct, can these figures be considered a reflection of Stalin's repressions? The economist, in fact, answers this question himself, using the expression “victims of the internal war of the Soviet regime.” It is worth noting that Kurganov counted only the dead. It is difficult to imagine what figure could have appeared if the economist had taken into account all those affected by the Soviet regime during the specified period.
The figures given by the head of the human rights society “Memorial” Arseny Roginsky are more realistic. He writes: “Across the entire Soviet Union, 12.5 million people are considered victims of political repression,” but adds that in a broad sense, up to 30 million people can be considered repressed.
Leaders of the Yabloko movement Elena Kriven and Oleg Naumov counted all categories of victims of the Stalinist regime, including those who died in the camps from disease and harsh working conditions, those dispossessed, victims of hunger, those who suffered from unjustifiably cruel decrees and those who received excessively harsh punishment for minor offenses in the force of the repressive nature of legislation. The final figure is 39 million.
Researcher Ivan Gladilin notes in this regard that if the count of victims of repression has been carried out since 1921, this means that it is not Stalin who is responsible for a significant part of the crimes, but the “Leninist Guard”, which immediately after the October Revolution launched terror against the White Guards , clergy and kulaks.

How to count?

Estimates of the number of victims of repression vary greatly depending on the calculation method. If we take into account those convicted only on political charges, then according to the data of the regional departments of the KGB of the USSR, given in 1988, the Soviet bodies (VChK, GPU, OGPU, NKVD, NKGB, MGB) arrested 4,308,487 people, of which 835,194 were shot.
Employees of the Memorial Society, when counting the victims of political trials, are close to these figures, although their data is still noticeably higher - 4.5-4.8 million were convicted, of which 1.1 million were executed. If we consider everyone who went through the Gulag system as victims of the Stalinist regime, then this figure, according to various estimates, will range from 15 to 18 million people.
Very often, Stalin’s repressions are associated exclusively with the concept of the “Great Terror,” which peaked in 1937-1938. According to the commission led by academician Pyotr Pospelov to establish the causes of mass repressions, the following figures were announced: 1,548,366 people were arrested on charges of anti-Soviet activity, of which 681,692 thousand were sentenced to capital punishment.
One of the most authoritative experts on the demographic aspects of political repression in the USSR, historian Viktor Zemskov, names a smaller number of those convicted during the years of the “Great Terror” - 1,344,923 people, although his data coincides with the number of those executed.
If dispossessed people are included in the number of those subjected to repression during Stalin’s time, the figure will increase by at least 4 million people. The same Zemskov cites this number of dispossessed people. The Yabloko party agrees with this, noting that about 600 thousand of them died in exile.
Representatives of some peoples who were subjected to forced deportation also became victims of Stalin's repressions - Germans, Poles, Finns, Karachais, Kalmyks, Armenians, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Crimean Tatars. Many historians agree that the total number of deportees is about 6 million people, while about 1.2 million people did not live to see the end of the journey.

To trust or not?

The above figures are mostly based on reports from the OGPU, NKVD, and MGB. However, not all documents of the punitive departments have been preserved; many of them were purposefully destroyed, and many are still in restricted access.
It should be recognized that historians are very dependent on statistics collected by various special agencies. But the difficulty is that even the available information reflects only those officially repressed, and therefore, by definition, cannot be complete. Moreover, it is possible to verify it from primary sources only in the rarest cases.
An acute shortage of reliable and complete information often provoked both the Stalinists and their opponents to name radically different figures in favor of their position. “If the “right” exaggerated the scale of the repressions, then the “left”, partly out of dubious youth, having found much more modest figures in the archives, hastened to make them public and did not always ask themselves the question of whether everything was reflected - and could be reflected - in the archives, – notes historian Nikolai Koposov.
It can be stated that estimates of the scale of Stalin’s repressions based on the sources available to us can be very approximate. Documents stored in federal archives would be a good help for modern researchers, but many of them were re-classified. A country with such a history will jealously guard the secrets of its past.

One of the darkest pages in the history of the entire post-Soviet space were the years from 1928 to 1952, when Stalin was in power. For a long time, biographers kept silent or tried to distort some facts from the tyrant’s past, but it turned out to be quite possible to restore them. The fact is that the country was ruled by a repeat offender who had been in prison 7 times. Violence and terror, forceful methods of solving problems were well known to him from his early youth. They were also reflected in his policies.

Officially, the course was taken in July 1928 by the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. It was there that Stalin spoke, who stated that the further advancement of communism would encounter increasing resistance from hostile, anti-Soviet elements, and they must be fought harshly. Many researchers believe that the repressions of 30 were a continuation of the policy of Red Terror, adopted back in 1918. It is worth noting that the number of victims of repression does not include those who suffered during the Civil War from 1917 to 1922, because after the First World War a population census was not conducted. And it is unclear how to establish the cause of death.

The beginning of Stalin's repressions was aimed at political opponents, officially - at saboteurs, terrorists, spies conducting subversive activities, and anti-Soviet elements. However, in practice there was a struggle with wealthy peasants and entrepreneurs, as well as with certain peoples who did not want to sacrifice national identity for the sake of dubious ideas. Many people were dispossessed and forced into resettlement, but usually this meant not only the loss of their home, but also the threat of death.

The fact is that such settlers were not provided with food and medicine. The authorities did not take into account the time of year, so if it happened in winter, people often froze and died of hunger. The exact number of victims is still being established. There are still debates about this in society. Some defenders of the Stalinist regime believe that we are talking about hundreds of thousands of “everything.” Others point to millions of forcibly resettled people, and of these, about 1/5 to half died due to the complete lack of any living conditions.

In 1929, the authorities decided to abandon conventional forms of imprisonment and move to new ones, reform the system in this direction, and introduce correctional labor. Preparations began for the creation of the Gulag, which many quite rightly compare with the German death camps. It is characteristic that the Soviet authorities often used various events, for example, the murder of the plenipotentiary representative Voikov in Poland, to deal with political opponents and simply unwanted people. In particular, Stalin responded to this by demanding the immediate liquidation of the monarchists by any means. At the same time, no connection was even established between the victim and those to whom such measures were applied. As a result, 20 representatives of the former Russian nobility were shot, about 9 thousand people were arrested and subjected to repression. The exact number of victims has not yet been established.

Sabotage

It should be noted that the Soviet regime was completely dependent on specialists trained in Russian Empire. Firstly, at the time of the 30s, not much time had passed, and our own specialists, in fact, were absent or were too young and inexperienced. And all scientists, without exception, received training in monarchist educational institutions. Secondly, very often science openly contradicted what the Soviet government was doing. The latter, for example, rejected genetics as such, considering it too bourgeois. There was no study of the human psyche; psychiatry had a punitive function, that is, in fact, it did not fulfill its main task.

As a result, the Soviet authorities began to accuse many specialists of sabotage. The USSR did not recognize such concepts as incompetence, including those that arose in connection with poor preparation or incorrect assignment, mistake, or miscalculation. The real physical condition of employees of a number of enterprises was ignored, which is why common mistakes were sometimes made. In addition, mass repressions could arise on the basis of suspiciously frequent, according to the authorities, contacts with foreigners, publication of works in the Western press. A striking example is the Pulkovo case, when a huge number of astronomers, mathematicians, engineers and other scientists suffered. Moreover, in the end, only a small number were rehabilitated: many were shot, some died during interrogations or in prison.

The Pulkovo case very clearly demonstrates another terrible moment of Stalin’s repressions: the threat to loved ones, as well as the slander of others under torture. Not only the scientists suffered, but also the wives who supported them.

Grain procurement

Constant pressure on peasants, half-starvation, grain weaning, and labor shortages negatively affected the pace of grain procurements. However, Stalin did not know how to admit mistakes, which became official state policy. By the way, it is for this reason that any rehabilitation, even of those who were convicted by accident, by mistake or instead of a namesake, took place after the death of the tyrant.

But let's return to the topic of grain procurements. For objective reasons, fulfilling the norm was not always possible and not everywhere. And in connection with this, the “culprits” were punished. Moreover, in some places entire villages were repressed. Soviet power also fell on the heads of those who simply allowed the peasants to keep their grain as an insurance fund or for sowing the next year.

There were things to suit almost every taste. Cases of the Geological Committee and the Academy of Sciences, "Vesna", the Siberian Brigade... A complete and detailed description can take many volumes. And this despite the fact that all the details have not yet been disclosed; many NKVD documents continue to remain classified.

Historians attribute some relaxation that occurred in 1933–1934 primarily to the fact that the prisons were overcrowded. In addition, it was necessary to reform the punitive system, which was not aimed at such mass participation. This is how the Gulag came into being.

Great Terror

The main terror occurred in 1937-1938, when, according to various sources, up to 1.5 million people suffered, more than 800 thousand of them were shot or killed in other ways. However, the exact number is still being established, and there is quite an active debate on this matter.

Characteristic was NKVD Order No. 00447, which officially launched the mechanism of mass repression against former kulaks, Socialist Revolutionaries, monarchists, re-emigrants, and so on. At the same time, everyone was divided into 2 categories: more and less dangerous. Both groups were subject to arrest, the first had to be shot, the second had to be given a sentence of 8 to 10 years on average.

Among the victims of Stalin's repressions there were quite a few relatives taken into custody. Even if family members could not be convicted of anything, they were still automatically registered, and sometimes forcibly relocated. If the father and (or) mother were declared “enemies of the people,” then this put an end to the opportunity to make a career, often to getting an education. Such people often found themselves surrounded by an atmosphere of horror and were subjected to boycott.

The Soviet authorities could also persecute on the basis of nationality and previous citizenship of certain countries. So, in 1937 alone, 25 thousand Germans, 84.5 thousand Poles, almost 5.5 thousand Romanians, 16.5 thousand Latvians, 10.5 thousand Greeks, 9 thousand 735 Estonians, 9 thousand Finns, 2 thousand Iranians, 400 Afghans. At the same time, persons of the nationality against which repression was carried out were dismissed from industry. And from the army - persons belonging to a nationality not represented on the territory of the USSR. All this happened under the leadership of Yezhov, but, which does not even require separate evidence, without a doubt, had a direct relation to Stalin, and was constantly personally controlled by him. Many execution lists bear his signature. And we are talking about, in total, hundreds of thousands of people.

It's ironic that recent stalkers have often become victims. Thus, one of the leaders of the described repressions, Yezhov, was shot in 1940. The sentence was put into effect the very next day after the trial. Beria became the head of the NKVD.

Stalin's repressions spread to new territories along with the Soviet regime itself. Cleanings were ongoing; they were mandatory elements of control. And with the onset of the 40s they did not stop.

Repressive mechanism during the Great Patriotic War

Even the Great Patriotic War could not stop the repressive machine, although it partially extinguished the scale, because the USSR needed people at the front. However, now there is an excellent way to get rid of unwanted people - sending them to the front line. It is unknown exactly how many died while carrying out such orders.

At the same time, the military situation became much tougher. Suspicion alone was enough to shoot even without the appearance of a trial. This practice was called “prison decongestion.” It was especially widely used in Karelia, the Baltic states, and Western Ukraine.

The tyranny of the NKVD intensified. Thus, execution became possible not even by a court verdict or some extra-judicial body, but simply by order of Beria, whose powers began to increase. They don’t like to publicize this point widely, but the NKVD did not stop its activities even in Leningrad during the siege. Then they arrested up to 300 higher education students on trumped-up charges. educational institutions. 4 were shot, many died in isolation wards or in prisons.

Everyone is able to say unequivocally whether the detachments can be considered a form of repression, but they definitely made it possible to get rid of unwanted people, and quite effectively. However, the authorities continued to persecute in more traditional forms. Filtration detachments awaited everyone who was captured. Moreover, if an ordinary soldier could still prove his innocence, especially if he was captured wounded, unconscious, sick or frostbitten, then the officers, as a rule, were waiting for the Gulag. Some were shot.

As Soviet power spread throughout Europe, intelligence was involved in the return and trial of emigrants by force. In Czechoslovakia alone, according to some sources, 400 people suffered from its actions. Quite serious damage in this regard was caused to Poland. Often, the repressive mechanism affected not only Russian citizens, but also Poles, some of whom were extrajudicially executed for resisting Soviet power. Thus, the USSR broke the promises it made to its allies.

Post-war events

After the war, the repressive apparatus was deployed again. Overly influential military men, especially those close to Zhukov, doctors who were in contact with the allies (and scientists) were under threat. The NKVD could also arrest Germans in the Soviet zone of responsibility for attempting to contact residents of other regions under the control of Western countries. The ongoing campaign against people of Jewish nationality looks like black irony. The last high-profile trial was the so-called “Doctors' Case,” which collapsed only in connection with the death of Stalin.

Use of torture

Later, during the Khrushchev Thaw, the Soviet prosecutor's office itself investigated the cases. The facts of mass falsification and obtaining confessions under torture, which were used very widely, were recognized. Marshal Blucher was killed as a result of numerous beatings, and in the process of extracting testimony from Eikhe, his spine was broken. There are cases when Stalin personally demanded that certain prisoners be beaten.

In addition to beatings, sleep deprivation, placement in too cold or, on the contrary, too hot room without clothes, and hunger strike were also practiced. The handcuffs were periodically not removed for days, and sometimes for months. Correspondence and any contact with the outside world were prohibited. Some were “forgotten”, that is, they were arrested, and then the cases were not considered and no specific decision was made until Stalin’s death. This, in particular, is indicated by the order signed by Beria, which ordered an amnesty for those who were arrested before 1938 and for whom a decision had not yet been made. We are talking about people who have been waiting for their fate to be decided for at least 14 years! This can also be considered a kind of torture.

Stalinist statements

Understanding the very essence of Stalin's repressions in the present is of fundamental importance, if only because some still consider Stalin to be an impressive leader who saved the country and the world from fascism, without which the USSR would have been doomed. Many try to justify his actions by saying that in this way he boosted the economy, ensured industrialization, or protected the country. In addition, some are trying to downplay the number of victims. In general, the exact number of victims is one of the most disputed issues today.

However, in fact, to assess the personality of this person, as well as everyone who carried out his criminal orders, even the recognized minimum of those convicted and executed is sufficient. During the fascist regime of Mussolini in Italy, a total of 4.5 thousand people were subjected to repression. His political enemies were either expelled from the country or placed in prisons, where they were given the opportunity to write books. Of course, no one is saying that Mussolini is getting better from this. Fascism cannot be justified.

But what assessment can be given to Stalinism at the same time? And taking into account the repressions that were carried out on ethnic grounds, it at least has one of the signs of fascism - racism.

Characteristic signs of repression

Stalin's repressions have several characteristic features, which only emphasize what they were. This:

1. Mass character. The exact data depends heavily on estimates, whether relatives are taken into account or not, internally displaced people or not. Depending on the method of calculation, it ranges from 5 to 40 million.
2. Cruelty. The repressive mechanism did not spare anyone, people were subjected to cruel, inhumane treatment, starved, tortured, relatives were killed in front of their eyes, loved ones were threatened, and forced to abandon family members.
3. Focus on protecting party power and against the interests of the people. In fact, we can talk about genocide. Neither Stalin nor his other henchmen were at all interested in how the constantly diminishing peasantry should provide everyone with bread, what is actually beneficial to the production sector, how science will move forward with the arrest and execution of prominent figures. This clearly demonstrates that the real interests of the people were ignored.
4. Injustice. People could suffer simply because they had property in the past. Wealthy peasants and the poor who took their side, supported them, and somehow protected them. Persons of “suspicious” nationality. Relatives who returned from abroad. Sometimes academicians and prominent scientific figures who contacted their foreign colleagues to publish data about invented drugs after they received official permission from the authorities for such actions could be punished.
5. Connection with Stalin. The extent to which everything was tied to this figure can be eloquently seen from the cessation of a number of cases immediately after his death. Lavrentiy Beria was quite rightly accused by many of cruelty and inappropriate behavior, but even he, by his actions, recognized the false nature of many cases, the unjustified cruelty used by the NKVD officers. And it was he who banned physical measures against prisoners. Again, as in the case of Mussolini, there is no question of justification here. It’s just about emphasizing.
6. Illegality. Some of the executions were carried out not only without trial, but also without the participation of judicial authorities as such. But even when there was a trial, it was exclusively about the so-called “simplified” mechanism. This meant that the trial was carried out without a defense, exclusively with the prosecution and the accused being heard. There was no practice of reviewing cases; the court's decision was final, often carried out the next day. At the same time, there were widespread violations even of the legislation of the USSR itself, which was in force at that time.
7. Inhumanity. The repressive apparatus violated the basic human rights and freedoms that had been proclaimed in the civilized world for several centuries at that time. Researchers see no difference between the treatment of prisoners in the dungeons of the NKVD and how the Nazis behaved towards prisoners.
8. Unfounded. Despite the attempts of the Stalinists to demonstrate the presence of some kind of underlying reason, there is not the slightest reason to believe that anything was aimed at any good goal or helped to achieve it. Indeed, a lot was built by the GULAG prisoners, but it was the forced labor of people who were greatly weakened due to the conditions of their detention and the constant lack of food. Consequently, errors in production, defects and, in general, a very low level of quality - all this inevitably arose. This situation also could not but affect the pace of construction. Taking into account the expenses that the Soviet government incurred to create the Gulag, its maintenance, as well as such a large-scale apparatus as a whole, it would be much more rational to simply pay for the same labor.

The assessment of Stalin's repressions has not yet been definitively made. However, it is beyond any doubt that this is one of the worst pages in world history.

1. Stalin's repressions- massive political repressions carried out in the USSR during the period of Stalinism (late 1920s - early 1950s).

2. Scale of repression:

From a memo addressed to Khrushchev: from 1921 to the present, 3,777,380 people were sentenced for counter-revolutionary crimes, including 642,980 people to confinement in camps and prisons for a term of 25 years or less, 2,369,220 to exile and deportation - 765,180 people. (Minister of Internal Affairs).

Number of prisoners in prisons:

3. Reasons:

· The transition to a policy of forced collectivization of agriculture, industrialization and cultural revolution, which required significant material investments or the attraction of free labor (it is indicated, for example, that grandiose plans for the development and creation of an industrial base in the northern regions of the European part of Russia, Siberia and Far East required the movement of huge masses of people.

· Preparations for war with Germany, where the Nazis who came to power declared their goal to be the destruction of communist ideology.
To solve these problems, it was necessary to mobilize the efforts of the entire population of the country and ensure absolute support for state policy, and for this, to neutralize the potential political opposition that the enemy could rely on.

· The policy of collectivization and accelerated industrialization led to a sharp drop in the standard of living of the population and to mass hunger. Stalin and his circle understood that this was increasing the number of people dissatisfied with the regime and tried to portray “saboteurs” and saboteurs—“enemies of the people”—responsible for all economic difficulties, as well as accidents in industry and transport, mismanagement, etc.

· The peculiar character of Stalin

1) begins with the seizure of power in 1917 and continues until the end of 1922. The “natural allies” of the Bolsheviks - the workers - did not escape repression. However, this period of repression fits into the context of general confrontation.

2) The second period of repression begins in 1928 with a new attack on the peasantry, which is carried out by the Stalinist group in the context of political struggle in the upper echelons of power.

· Fight against sabotage

· Repression of foreign technical specialists

· Fight against internal party opposition

· With the beginning of the collectivization of agriculture and industrialization in the late 1920s and early 1930s, as well as the strengthening of Stalin’s personal power, repressions became widespread

· Dispossession

· Repressions in connection with grain procurements

· In 1929-1931, dozens of scientists were arrested and convicted in the so-called “Academy of Sciences case”

During 1933-34, as indicated Russian researcher O. V. Khlevnyuk, there was a slight weakening of repression.

3) Political repressions of 1934-1938

· Killing of Kirov (On the day that Kirov was killed, the USSR government responded with an official message about the murder of Kirov. It spoke of the need for the “final eradication of all enemies of the working class.”)

· 1937-1938 was one of the peaks of Stalin’s repressions. Over these two years, 1,575,259 people were arrested on NKVD matters, of which 681,692 people were sentenced to death[

· On July 30, 1937, NKVD Order No. 00447 “On the operation to repress former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements” was adopted

· Repression of foreigners and ethnic minorities

· In the 1930s, persons of a number of nationalities were evicted from the border zones of the USSR, mainly those foreign to the USSR at that time (Romanians, Koreans, Latvians, etc.).

· Repression and anti-Semitism

· Lysenkoism

4) Wartime repressions

Deportation of peoples in 1941-1944 (nothing like that there)

5) Political repressions of the post-war period

· Deportations of the 1940-1950s

· Repression and anti-Semitism

· Ideological control in Soviet science, Lysenkoism

IN THE USSR. I tried to answer nine of the most common questions about political repression.

1. What is political repression?

There have been periods in the history of different countries when state power, for some reason - pragmatic or ideological - began to perceive part of its population either as direct enemies, or as superfluous, “unnecessary” people. The selection principle could be different - by ethnic origin, by religious views, by financial status, by political views, by level of education - but the result was the same: these “unnecessary” people were either physically destroyed without trial or investigation, or subjected to criminal prosecution, or became victims of administrative restrictions (expelled from the country, sent into exile within the country, deprived of civil rights, and so on). That is, people suffered not for any personal fault, but simply because they were unlucky, simply because they found themselves in a certain place at a certain time.

Political repressions occurred not only in Russia, and in Russia - not only under Soviet rule. However, remembering the victims of political repression, we first of all think about those who suffered in 1917–1953, because among total number They make up the majority of Russian repressed people.

2. Why, when talking about political repressions, are they limited to the period 1917–1953? There were no repressions after 1953?

The demonstration of 25 August 1968, also called the "demonstration of the seven", was carried out by a group of seven Soviet dissidents on Red Square to protest the introduction of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia. Two of the participants were declared insane and subjected to compulsory treatment.

This period, 1917–1953, is singled out because it accounted for the vast majority of repressions. After 1953, repressions also occurred, but on a much smaller scale, and most importantly, they mainly affected people who, to one degree or another, opposed the Soviet political system. We are talking about dissidents who received prison sentences or suffered from punitive psychiatry. They knew what they were getting into, they were not random victims - which, of course, in no way justifies what the authorities did to them.

3. Victims of Soviet political repression - who are they?

They were very different people, different in social origin, beliefs, worldview.

Sergei Korolev, scientist

Some of them are the so-called “ former”, that is, nobles, army or police officers, university professors, judges, merchants and industrialists, and clergy. That is, those whom the communists who came to power in 1917 considered to be interested in the restoration of the previous order and therefore suspected them of subversive activities.

Also, a huge proportion of the victims of political repression were “ dispossessed“peasants, most of them strong farmers, who did not want to join collective farms (some, however, were not saved by joining a collective farm).

Many victims of repression were classified as “ pests" This was the name given to production specialists - engineers, technicians, workers, who were credited with the intent to cause material, technical or economic damage to the country. Sometimes this happened after some real production failures, accidents (for which it was necessary to find those responsible), and sometimes it was only about hypothetical troubles that, according to prosecutors, could have happened if the enemies had not been exposed in time.

The other part is communists and members of other revolutionary parties who joined the communists after October 1917: Social Democrats, Socialist Revolutionaries, anarchists, Bundists, and so on. These people, who actively fit into the new reality and participated in the construction of Soviet power, at a certain stage turned out to be redundant due to the internal party struggle, which in the CPSU (b), and later in the CPSU, never stopped - first openly, later hidden. These are also communists who came under attack due to their personal qualities: excessive ideology, insufficient servility...

Sergeev Ivan Ivanovich. Before his arrest, he worked as a watchman at the Chernovsky collective farm “Iskra”

At the end of the 30s, many were repressed military, starting with senior command staff and ending with junior officers. They were suspected of potential participants in conspiracies against Stalin.

It is worth mentioning separately employees of the GPU-NKVD-NKGB, some of which were also repressed in the 30s during the “fight against excesses.” “Excesses on the ground” is a concept that was coined by Stalin, implying the excessive enthusiasm of punitive authorities. It is clear that these “excesses” naturally followed from the general state policy, and therefore, in the mouth of Stalin, words about excesses sound very cynical. By the way, almost the entire leadership of the NKVD, which carried out repressions in 1937–1938, was soon repressed and shot.

Naturally, there was a lot repressed for their faith(and not only Orthodox). This includes the clergy, monasticism, active laypeople in parishes, and simply people who do not hide their faith. Although the Soviet government did not formally prohibit religion and the Soviet constitution of 1936 guaranteed citizens freedom of conscience, in fact, open profession of faith could end sadly for a person.

Rozhkova Vera. Before her arrest she worked at the Institute. Bauman. Was a secret nun

Not only individual people and certain classes were subjected to repression, but also individual peoples- Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks, Chechens and Ingush, Germans. This happened during the Great Patriotic War. There were two reasons. Firstly, they were seen as potential traitors who could go over to the side of the Germans when our troops retreat. Secondly, when German troops occupied Crimea, the Caucasus and a number of other territories, part of the peoples living there actually collaborated with them. Naturally, not all representatives of these peoples collaborated with the Germans, not to mention those of them who fought in the ranks of the Red Army - however, subsequently all of them, including women, children and old people, were declared traitors and sent into exile (where, by force inhumane conditions, many died either on the way or on the spot).

Olga Berggolts, poetess, future “muse of besieged Leningrad”

And among those repressed there were many ordinary people, who seemed to have a completely safe social origin, but were arrested either because of a denunciation, or simply because of an order (there were also plans from above to identify “enemies of the people”). If some major party functionary was arrested, then quite often his subordinates were also arrested, down to the lowest positions such as a personal driver or housekeeper.

4. Who cannot be considered a victim of political repression?

General Vlasov inspects ROA soldiers

Not all those who suffered in 1917–1953 (and later, until the end of Soviet power) can be called victims of political repression.

In addition to the “political” ones, people were also imprisoned in prisons and camps on ordinary criminal charges (theft, fraud, robbery, murder, and so on).

Also, those who committed obvious treason cannot be considered victims of political repression - for example, “Vlasovites” and “policemen”, that is, those who went to serve the German occupiers during the Great Patriotic War. Even regardless of the moral side of the matter, it was their conscious choice; they entered into a fight with the state, and the state, accordingly, fought with them.

The same applies to various kinds of rebel movements - Basmachi, Bandera, “forest brothers”, Caucasian abreks and so on. You can discuss their rights and wrongs, but the victims of political repression are only those who did not take the war path with the USSR, who simply lived ordinary life and suffered regardless of his actions.

5. How were the repressions legally formalized?

Certificate of execution of the death sentence of the NKVD troika against the Russian scientist and theologian Pavel Florensky. Reproduction ITAR-TASS

There were several options. Firstly, some of the repressed were shot or imprisoned after the opening of a criminal case, investigation and trial. Basically, they were charged under Article 58 of the USSR Criminal Code (this article included many points, from treason to anti-Soviet agitation). At the same time, in the 20s and even in the early 30s, all legal formalities were often observed - an investigation was carried out, then there was a trial with debate between the defense and the prosecution - the verdict was simply a foregone conclusion. In the 1930s, especially starting from 1937, the judicial procedure turned into a fiction, since torture and other illegal methods of pressure were used during the investigation. That is why, at trial, the accused admitted their guilt en masse.

Secondly, starting from 1937, along with ordinary judicial proceedings, a simplified procedure began to operate, when there were no judicial debates at all, the presence of the accused was not required, and sentences were passed by the so-called Special Meeting, in other words, the “troika”, literally behind 10-15 minutes.

Thirdly, some of the victims were repressed administratively, without any investigation or trial at all - the same “dispossessed”, the same exiled peoples. The same often applied to family members of those convicted under Article 58. The official abbreviation CHSIR (member of the family of a traitor to the motherland) was in use. At the same time, personal accusations were not brought against specific people, and their exile was motivated by political expediency.

But in addition, sometimes repressions did not have any legal formalization at all; in fact, they were lynchings - starting from the shooting in 1917 of a demonstration in defense of the Constituent Assembly and ending with the events of 1962 in Novocherkassk, where a workers’ demonstration protesting against rising prices for food was shot. food.

6. How many people were repressed?

Photo by Vladimir Eshtokin

This is a complex question to which historians still do not have an exact answer. The numbers are very different - from 1 to 60 million. There are two problems here - firstly, the inaccessibility of many archives, and secondly, the discrepancy in calculation methods. After all, even based on open archival data, one can draw different conclusions. Archival data is not only folders with criminal cases against specific people, but also, for example, departmental reports on food supplies for camps and prisons, statistics of births and deaths, records in cemetery offices about burials, and so on and so forth. Historians try to take into account as many different sources as possible, but the data sometimes disagree with each other. The reasons are different - accounting errors, deliberate fraud, and the loss of many important documents.

It is also a very controversial question - how many people were not just repressed, but specifically physically destroyed and did not return home? How to count? Only those sentenced to death? Or, on top of that, those who died in custody? If we count the dead, then we need to understand the causes of death: they could be caused by unbearable conditions (hunger, cold, beatings, overwork), or they could also be natural (death from old age, death from chronic diseases that began long before the arrest). Death certificates (which were not even always preserved in the criminal case) most often included “acute heart failure,” but in reality it could have been anything.

In addition, although any historian should be impartial, as a scientist should be, in reality each researcher has his own ideological and political preferences, and therefore the historian may consider some data more reliable, and some less. Complete objectivity is an ideal that should be strived for, but which has not yet been achieved by any historian. Therefore, when faced with any specific estimates, you should be careful. What if the author, wittingly or unwittingly, overstates or understates the numbers?

But to understand the scale of the repressions, it is enough to give this example of discrepancies in numbers. According to church historians, in 1937-38 more than 130 thousand clergy. According to historians committed to communist ideology, in 1937-38 the number of arrested clergy was much smaller - only about 47 thousand. Let's not argue about who is more right. Let's do a thought experiment: imagine that now, in our time, 47 thousand railway workers are arrested in Russia throughout the year. What will happen to our transport system? And if 47 thousand doctors are arrested in a year, will domestic medicine even survive? What if 47 thousand priests are arrested? However, we don’t even have that many of them now. In general, even if we focus on the minimum estimates, it is easy to see that the repressions have become a social disaster.

And for their moral assessment, the specific numbers of victims are completely unimportant. Whether it’s a million or a hundred million or a hundred thousand, it’s still a tragedy, it’s still a crime.

7. What is rehabilitation?

The vast majority of victims of political repression were subsequently rehabilitated.

Rehabilitation is the official recognition of the state that a given person was convicted unfairly, that he is innocent of the charges brought against him and therefore is not considered to have been convicted and gets rid of the restrictions that people released from prison may be subject to (for example, the right to be elected as a deputy, the right to work in law enforcement organs and the like).

Many believe that the rehabilitation of victims of political repression began only in 1956, after the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N.S. Khrushchev exposed Stalin’s cult of personality at the 20th Party Congress. In fact, this is not so - the first wave of rehabilitation took place in 1939, after the country's leadership condemned the rampant repressions of 1937-38 (which were called “excesses on the ground”). This, by the way, is an important point, because it thereby recognized the general existence of political repression in the country. It is recognized even by those who launched these repressions. Therefore, the assertion of modern Stalinists that repression is a myth looks simply ridiculous. How about a myth, if even your idol Stalin recognized them?

However, in 1939-41, few people were rehabilitated. And mass rehabilitation began in 1953 after the death of Stalin, its peak occurred in 1955–1962. Then, until the second half of the 1980s, there were few rehabilitations, but after perestroika announced in 1985, their number increased sharply. Individual acts of rehabilitation occurred already in the post-Soviet era, in the 1990s (since the Russian Federation is legally the successor to the USSR, it has the right to rehabilitate those who were unjustly convicted before 1991).

But, shot in Yekaterinburg in 1918, she was officially rehabilitated only in 2008. Previously, the Prosecutor General's Office had resisted rehabilitation on the grounds that the murder of the royal family had no legal formality and had become the arbitrariness of local authorities. But the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in 2008 found that even though there was no court decision, the royal family was shot by the decision of the local authorities, which have administrative powers and therefore are part of the state machine - and repression is a measure of coercion on the part of the state.

By the way, there are people who undoubtedly became victims of political repression, who did not commit what they were formally accused of - but there is no decision on their rehabilitation and, apparently, there never will be. We are talking about those who, before falling under the skating rink of repression, were themselves drivers of this skating rink. For example, the “iron people's commissar” Nikolai Yezhov. Well, what kind of innocent victim is he? Or the same Lavrenty Beria. Of course, his execution was unjust, of course, he was not any English or French spy, as was hastily attributed to him - but his rehabilitation would have become a demonstrative justification for political terror.

The rehabilitation of victims of political repression did not always occur “automatically”; sometimes these people or their relatives had to be persistent and write letters to government bodies for years.

8. What do they say now about political repression?

Photo by Vladimir Eshtokin

In modern Russia there is no consensus on this topic. Moreover, social polarization is manifested in attitudes towards it. Various political and ideological forces use the memory of repression in their political interests, but ordinary people, not politicians, can perceive it very differently.

Some people are convinced that political repression is a shameful chapter national history that this is a monstrous crime against humanity, and therefore we must always remember about the repressed. Sometimes this position is simplistic, all victims of repression are declared equally sinless righteous, and the blame for them is placed not only on Soviet power, but also to the modern Russian one as the legal successor of the Soviet one. Any attempts to figure out how many were actually repressed are a priori declared to be a justification of Stalinism and condemned from a moral standpoint.

Others question the very fact of repression, arguing that all these “so-called victims” are really guilty of the crimes attributed to them, that they really harmed, blew up, plotted terrorist attacks, and so on. This extremely naive position is refuted by the fact that the fact of repression was recognized even under Stalin - then it was called “excesses” and in the late 30s almost the entire leadership of the NKVD was condemned for these “excesses”. The moral deficiency of such views is equally obvious: people are so eager to wishful thinking that they are ready, without any evidence, to slander millions of victims.

Still others admit that there were repressions, they agree that those who suffered from them were innocent, but they perceive all this completely calmly: they say, it could not have been otherwise. Repression, it seems to them, was necessary for the industrialization of the country and for the creation of a combat-ready army. Without repression it would not have been possible to win the Great Patriotic War Patriotic War. Such a pragmatic position, regardless of how much it corresponds to historical facts, is also morally flawed: the state is declared to be the highest value, in comparison with which the life of each individual person is worthless, and anyone can and should be destroyed for the sake of the highest state interests. Here, by the way, one can draw a parallel with the ancient pagans, who made human sacrifices to their gods, being one hundred percent sure that this would serve the good of the tribe, people, and city. Now this seems fanatic to us, but the motivation was exactly the same as that of modern pragmatists.

One can, of course, understand where such motivation comes from. The USSR positioned itself as a society of social justice - and indeed, in many respects, especially in the late Soviet period, there was social justice. Our society is socially much less fair - plus now any injustice instantly becomes known to everyone. Therefore, in search of justice, people turn their gaze to the past - naturally, idealizing that era. This means that they psychologically strive to justify the dark things that happened then, including the repressions. Recognition and condemnation of repression (especially declared from above) among such people is coupled with approval of current injustices. One can demonstrate in every possible way the naivety of such a position, but until social justice is restored, this position will be reproduced again and again.

9. How should Christians perceive political repression?

Icon of the New Russian Martyrs

Among Orthodox Christians, unfortunately, there is also no unity on this issue. There are believers (including churchgoers, sometimes even in the priesthood) who either consider all those repressed guilty and unworthy of pity, or justify their suffering by the benefit of the state. Moreover, sometimes - thank God, not very often! - you can also hear the opinion that the repressions were a blessing for the repressed themselves. After all, what happened to them happened according to God’s Providence, and God will not do anything bad to a person. This means, say such Christians, that these people had to suffer in order to be cleansed of heavy sins and to be spiritually reborn. Indeed, there are many examples of such spiritual revival. As the poet Alexander Solodovnikov, who went through the camp, wrote, “The grille is rusty, thank you! //Thank you, bayonet blade! // Such freedom could only be given to me // by long centuries.”

In fact, this is a dangerous spiritual substitution. Yes, suffering can sometimes save the human soul, but it does not at all follow from this that suffering in itself is good. And even more so, it does not follow from this that the executioners are righteous. As we know from the Gospel, King Herod, wanting to find and destroy the baby Jesus, ordered the preventive killing of all the babies in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. These babies are canonized by the Church, but their killer Herod is not. Sin remains sin, evil remains evil, a criminal remains a criminal even if the long-term consequences of his crime are wonderful. In addition, it is one thing to talk about the benefits of suffering from personal experience, and quite another thing to say this about other people. Only God knows whether this or that test will turn out for good or for bad for a particular person, and we have no right to judge this. But this is what we can and should do - if we consider ourselves Christians! - This is to keep God's commandments. Where there is not a word about the fact that for the sake of the public good you can kill innocent people.

What are the conclusions?

First and the obvious is that we must understand that repression is evil, both social and personal evil of those who carried it out. There is no justification for this evil - neither pragmatic nor theological.

Second- this is the correct attitude towards victims of repression. They should not all be considered ideal. These were very different people, both socially, culturally, and morally. But their tragedy must be perceived without regard to their individual characteristics and circumstances. All of them were not guilty of the authorities who subjected them to suffering. We do not know which of them is righteous, which is a sinner, who is now in heaven, who is in hell. But we must feel sorry for them and pray for them. But what you definitely shouldn’t do is don’t speculate on their memories while defending our own Political Views in controversy. The repressed should not become for us means.

Third- we must clearly understand why these repressions became possible in our country. The reason for them is not only the personal sins of those who were at the helm in those years. The main reason is the worldview of the Bolsheviks, based on atheism and the denial of all previous traditions - spiritual, cultural, family, and so on. The Bolsheviks wanted to build heaven on earth, and at the same time they allowed themselves any means. Only that which serves the cause of the proletariat is moral, they argued. It is not surprising that they were internally ready to kill by the millions. Yes, there were repressions in different countries(including ours) and before the Bolsheviks - but still there were some brakes that limited their scale. Now there were no brakes - and what happened happened.

Looking at various horrors of the past, we often say the phrase “this must not happen again.” But this Maybe repeat itself, if we discard moral and spiritual barriers, if we proceed solely from pragmatics and ideology. And it doesn’t matter what color this ideology will be - red, green, black, brown... It will still end in great blood.