Origins and Early Soviet Times
| Repression in the Soviet Union |
|---|
| General |
| Political repression • Economic repression • Ideological repression |
| Political repression |
| Red Terror • Collectivization • Great Purge • Population transfer • Gulag • Political abuse of psychiatry |
|
Ideological repression |
| Religion • Suppressed research • Censorship • Censorship of images |
Early on, the Leninist view of the class struggle and the resulting notion of the dictatorship of the proletariat provided the theoretical basis of the repressions. Its legal basis was formalized into the Article 58 in the code of Russian SFSR and similar articles for other Soviet republics.
At times, the repressed were called the enemies of the people. Punishments by the state included summary executions, sending innocent people to Gulag, forced resettlement, and stripping of citizen's rights. At certain times, all members of a family, including children, were punished as "traitor of the Motherland family-members". Repression was conducted by the Cheka and its successors, and other state organs. Periods of the increased repression include Red Terror, Collectivisation, the Great Purges, the Doctor's Plot, and others. The secret-police forces conducted massacres of prisoners on numerous occasions. Repression took place in the Soviet republics and in the territories occupied by the Soviet Army during World War II, including the Baltic States and Eastern Europe..
State repression led to incidents of resistance, such as the Tambov rebellion (1920-1921), the Kronstadt rebellion (1921), and the Vorkuta Uprising (1953); the Soviet authorities suppressed such resistance with overwhelming military force. During the Tambov rebellion Tukhachevsky (chief Red Army commander in the area) allegedly authorized Bolshevik military forces to use chemical weapons against villages with civilian population and rebels. (According to witnesses' accounts, chemical weapons were never actually used.) Prominent citizens of villages were often taken as hostages and executed if the resistance fighters did not surrender.
Read more about this topic: Political Repression In The Soviet Union
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