Soviet Union
The system of VPDs was introduced according to the joint resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and USSR Council of Ministers of March 2, 1959 On the Participation of the Workers in the Maintenance of Public Order, which formalized and widely propagated the 1958 Leningrad invention of the Voluntary People's Druzhina formally independent of militsiya. The druzhinas were not subordinated to militsiya and the management staff was established from various Soviet organizations: Soviets, trade unions, Komsomol, etc. The patrolling druzhinas themselves were often accompanied by police officers (militsioners), for general guidance and official support. Although druzhinas were informal, they could perform citizen arrests of various petty offenders: drunkards, hooligans, etc. Druzininniks were also used to support militsiya in performing non-dangerous arrests and other law enforcement duties.
The 1974 USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium Ukase "About the Main Duties and Rights of Voluntary People's Drushina in Guarding the Public Order" governed the druzhinas until the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Druzhinas mostly operated in urban neighborhoods. Druzhinniks were distinguished by red armbands with the text "ДНД" or "дружинник" on them.
Read more about this topic: Voluntary People's Druzhina
Famous quotes by soviet union:
“In the Soviet Union everything happens slowly. Always remember that.”
—A.N. (Arkady N.)
“Today he plays jazz; tomorrow he betrays his country.”
—Stalinist slogan in the Soviet Union (1920s)
“Nothing an interested foreigner may have to say about the Soviet Union today can compare with the scorn and fury of those who inhabit the ruin of a dream.”
—Christopher Hope (b. 1944)
“If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.... The United States does not concede that those countries are under the domination of the Soviet Union.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)