Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR

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The Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR was adopted on 25 February 1927, revised several times. After the fatal assassination attempt on Sergei Kirov (1886–1934) it was tightened and remained in force until 1959. On the basis of the article, people should be punished for counter-revolutionary activities. Those convicted on the basis of this, " political " and " counterrevolutionaries ", were mostly referred to as "58ers" after the article. In the jargon of the Gulag , the criminal section was briefly called the "58".

Lenin had already provided the rough draft for it earlier in the era of the Red Terror . The paragraph defined who was considered a class enemy or an enemy of the people . These were divided into traitors and saboteurs . Article 58 was a so-called rubber paragraph , its individual provisions could be interpreted broadly.

content

  • Article 58.1: Acts committed by citizens of the USSR to the detriment of the military power of the USSR, their state independence or the inviolability of their territory are considered counterrevolutionary. This also applies analogously to acts that have been committed to the detriment of other “states of workers”.
  • Article 58.1a (in force from 1934), Treason of the Fatherland: acts by Soviet citizens that weaken the military strength of the USSR, its independence or the integrity of its territory. The maximum penalty for this is the execution and confiscation of all property or, under extenuating circumstances, ten years imprisonment and confiscation of all property.
  • Article 58.1b (in force from 1934): If Article 58.1a is violated, military personnel will be punished with shooting and confiscation of all property.
  • Article 58.1c (in force from 1934): If a military person deserted, the adult family members who supported or knew about it and did not report the facts are punished with imprisonment for five to ten years and confiscation of all property. The other family members who lived with the deserter or who were financially dependent on him were deprived of their right to vote and were exiled to remote areas in Siberia for five years.
  • Article 58.1d (in force from 1934): Failure to notify a military person of impending or completed treason will result in a ten-year imprisonment. Failure to notify other persons is punishable by Article 58.12.
  • Article 58.2: Armed insurrection or invasion of Soviet territory by armed gangs with counterrevolutionary intent, seizure of central or local power with the same and, in particular, with the intention of forcibly separating any of their territories from the USSR and the individual Union Republic or those of the USSR with foreign ones Repeal concluded treaties. The maximum penalty is shooting or declaring an enemy of the people and confiscating all assets and civil rights of the USSR, including expulsion from the Soviet Union. In extenuating circumstances, this can be changed to a prison sentence of at least three years with confiscation of all assets.
  • Article 58.3: Relations with counterrevolutionary intent to a third state or its representatives and any support of states that are at war with the USSR or are in conflict with the USSR through blockades or interventions are punishable by the punitive measures set out in Article 58.2.
  • Article 58.4: Any support of the "world bourgeoisie", the non-recognition of the fact that the communist system will replace the capitalist system, the attempt to overthrow the communist system and the implementation of hostile actions under the influence of "bourgeois social groups" leads to those in the article 58.2, except that imprisonment is not only possible in extenuating circumstances.
  • Article 58.5: The preference for a foreign state or social groups within it, communication with representative statesmen, the use of false documents and other measures that lead to the fact that the foreign state declares war on the USSR, carries out hostile actions, or that the If diplomatic relations are deteriorated, the sanctions in Article 58.2 will be punished.
  • Article 58.6: espionage, d. H. Forwarding, stealing or collecting messages for the purpose of forwarding, which, according to their content, represent a state secret worthy of special protection, in favor of foreign states, counterrevolutionary organizations or private individuals, will be punished analogously to Article 58.2.
  • Article 58.7: The undermining of state industry, trade, transport, the flow of money and the credit system and work in state institutions for counterrevolutionary purposes, as well as work in the interests of former owners or capitalist organizations, are punishable by the penalties under Article 58.2.
  • Article 58.8: The commission of terrorist acts against representatives of the Soviet power or functionaries of revolutionary organizations of workers and peasants as well as the participation of persons not belonging to a counterrevolutionary organization in the execution of such acts will be punished with the punitive measures from Article 58.2.
  • Article 58.9: With counterrevolutionary intent by means of demolition, arson or otherwise committed destruction or damage to railways or other traffic routes and means, national communication media, water pipes, public depots or other state public property, the penalties set out in Article 58.2 are punishable by the punitive measures set out in Article 58.2.
  • Article 58.10: Propaganda or agitation calling for the overthrow, undermining or weakening of Soviet rule or the commission of individual counterrevolutionary crimes (Articles 58.2–58.9 of this Code), as well as the distribution, production or storage of writings with the same content, are subject to the punitive measures from Article 58.2 punished.
  • Article 58.11: Organizational activity of any kind aimed at the preparation or commission of the crimes provided for in this chapter, as well as participation in an organization which has been formed for the preparation or commission of a crime provided for in this chapter, is subject to the corresponding, in this article, Penalties punished.
  • Article 58.12: Failure to report a counterrevolutionary crime in preparation or completed, of which one has credibly obtained knowledge, is punishable by imprisonment for at least six months.
  • Article 58.13: Active actions and active struggle against the working class and the revolutionary movement, carried out in positions of responsibility or in the secret service (agency) during the tsarist regime or in counterrevolutionary governments during the civil war, are punishable by the punitive measures under Article 58.2.
  • Article 58.14: Counterrevolutionary Sabotage, d. H. deliberate non-fulfillment of certain obligations or their willful inadequate fulfillment with the specific intention of impairing the power of the government and the functioning of the state apparatus are punished with imprisonment for at least one year and confiscation of all assets, in serious cases up to the maximum penalties in Article 58.2.

Punish

The penalties envisaged ranged from partial or total confiscation of the property to several years or life imprisonment and banishment to the death penalty . All of these punitive measures were referred to as "social protection measures", that is, they were aimed at protecting the socialist society.

literature

  • Alexander Solzhenitsyn : Der Archipel GULAG , Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 31st edition, 1974, vol. 1, pp. 66-72. DNB link
  • Varlam Shalamov : Article 58. Prisoner Shalanov's records . Translated from the Russian by Gisela Drohla . Middelhauve, Cologne 1967. DNB link
  • Ralf Stettner: The Soviet law of the Stalin era: Recruiting instrument for the GULag . In: "Archipel GULag". Stalin's forced camp - a terrorist instrument and economic giant. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 1996, ISBN 3-506-78754-3 , pp. 99-103.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralf Stettner: The Soviet law of the Stalin era: Recruiting instrument for the GULag . In: "Archipel GULag". Stalin's forced camp - a terrorist instrument and economic giant. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 1996, ISBN 3-506-78754-3 , p. 99.
  2. ↑ Ralf Stettner: The political prisoners: "Political", "Counterrevotionaries" and "58ers" . In: "Archipel GULag". Stalin's forced camp - a terrorist instrument and economic giant. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 1996, ISBN 3-506-78754-3 , pp. 182-184.