Enemy of the people

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The pejorative term enemy of the people is used to justify fighting political opponents. In the 20th century it was widespread as an ideological battle term in the Soviet Union (especially during Stalinism ) and National Socialism .

The term was significantly coined in the Roman Empire , where at least since 88 BC. BC citizens were repeatedly declared hostis publicus and henceforth were outlawed . In modern times the expression ennemi du peuple was used many times in the French Revolution , it served to justify the reign of terror . During the Russian Civil War , the Russian equivalent Враг народа Wrag naroda was picked up by Lenin and used instead of the original Marxist term class enemy to brand opponents. During the purges of Stalin , it was used to describe alleged counter-revolutionaries , divers , saboteurs and spies, as well as the accused in the so-called “ doctors' conspiracy ”. Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR , which was also applied in other Union republics, served as legalization . Other totalitarian regimes also used to stigmatize and punish their respective opponents as “enemies of the people” or “enemies of the state” .

The hostis publicus in the Roman Empire

The concept of the popular enemy (hostis publicus) comes from Roman law . Originally one understood by an enemy (hostis) of the Romans only a foreign state organized community with which a "just war" was to be waged. It was not until the time of crisis in the late Roman Republic that the term hostis publicus was also used in internal conflicts. It was now transferred to individual citizens who were accused of being enemies of their own state and people . They were charged with disregarding laws, planning an overthrow and wanting to replace the republican form of government with a tyranny . Therefore, in the opinion of their opponents, they should be considered enemies of the people and, in the event of an emergency, like external enemies of the country, be killed without a court judgment so that the state can be saved. However, this demand contradicted the legal principle that a citizen accused of political crimes could only be killed in an ordinary legal process if convicted.

A forerunner was the case of the tribune Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus , who died in 133 BC. BC with his followers was slain by opponents without a legal basis after the responsible consul had refused to take illegal action against him. The act was justified with an emergency caused by the tribune. His behavior was considered high treason . A (controversial) right of the senators to use force was derived from this, but there has not yet been a formal declaration of hostis publicus in this case.

A similar situation occurred in 121 BC. After violent riots broke out between the supporters of the former tribune Gaius Sempronius Gracchus and their opponents. This time the Senate decided to take action against the partisans on the Gracchian side, who were then attacked, defeated and killed as obvious rebels. A formal hostis declaration had apparently not been made this time either.

The first attested formal hostis declaration was made in 88 BC. Decided by the Senate at Sulla's instigation . Sulla's adversary Gaius Marius and eleven of his supporters were branded as enemies of the state because they had sparked an uprising and waged war against the legitimate state authority. When the supporters of Marius had the upper hand in Rome the following year, they in turn ensured that Sulla was declared hostis . The law of emergency was used by the victorious party to provide a legal basis for their violent actions. From then on it became customary to declare a person considered to be a rebel hostis publicus (" public enemy") or hostis populi Romani ("enemy of the Roman people"). This step turned a citizen into a lawless man to be killed.

One of the most famous late republican hostis declarations is the one against the conspirator Catiline in 63 BC. Chr.

During the Roman Empire , emperors were repeatedly ostracized by the Senate as enemies of the state when they were disempowered or posthumously after their killing. This involved the annulment of their rulings. The Senate made the first attempt at a posthumous hostis declaration after the assassination of Caligula . The new emperor Claudius , who wanted to prevent the senatorial authority over the imperial authority that could be derived from it, prevented a corresponding senate decision . After his overthrow, Nero was declared an enemy of the state by the Senate; there was a death sentence associated with it. Further hostis declarations were made against the emperors Otho and Didius Julianus , among others . Even the emperor Hadrian , hated in the Senate, would have been posthumously ostracized as an enemy of the people if his adoptive son and successor Antoninus Pius had not contradicted this. Hostis declarations were still not uncommon in the civil wars of late antiquity , well-known cases in the 5th century were the generals Stilicho and Heraclianus .

French Revolution

The law of the 22nd Prairial , which was adopted on June 10, 1794 in the National Convention under the leadership of Maximilien de Robespierre , leader of the Jacobins , empowered the Revolutionary Tribunal to punish enemies of the people. People from the Ancien Régime who sought the re-establishment of the monarchy “either by force or with cunning” or who were accused of efforts against the National Convention were considered enemies of the people . The death penalty was provided as the only possibility of judgment (Article 7). Every citizen was urged to denounce (Art. 9). Anyone charged with conspiracy had no right to a defense (Art. 16).

Soviet Union

Lenin considered the radicalism of the Jacobins during the reign of terror to be exemplary and wrote in 1917 that the Bolsheviks , as the 'Jacobins' of the 20th century, had to do something “great, immortal and unforgettable”.

During the October Revolution , the Council of People's Commissars , chaired by Lenin, called “ imperialists ”, “landlords”, “bankers” and “their allies”, the “ Cossack generals ”, “enemies of the people” in an appeal to the whole population . Shortly afterwards, on November 28th, the Council of People's Commissars issued jul. / December 11, 1917 greg. a decree in which the liberal- oriented party of the Cadets was branded as the "party of the enemies of the people" and at the same time the arrest of its leaders was ordered. With the simultaneous decline of the Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks , the multi-party system disappeared from the beginning of the 1920s .

The term “enemy of the people” also appears in Article 131 of the 1936 Soviet Constitution .

The great terror

Yezhov was head of the NKVD for the enforcement of the ordered by Stalin Great Terror responsible. During the second Moscow show trials from January 23-30, 1937, Soviet newspapers published a propaganda campaign to increase mass enthusiasm and hatred of "enemies of the people". Shortly thereafter, kin liability for "enemies of the people" was introduced. On July 5, 1937, the Politburo passed a resolution according to which “all wives of convicted traitors to the fatherland, Trotskyist spies, are subject to imprisonment in a camp for a period of at least five to eight years” and their children were to be placed in children's homes and closed boarding schools. Yezhov himself was arrested and on 10 April 1939 as a particularly dangerous enemy of the people on February 4, 1940 executed .

Kulak operation: On the basis of NKVD order No. 00447 of July 30, 1937, also called "kulak operation", a total of 800,000 to 820,000 people were arrested as kulaks from August 1937 to November 1938 , of which at least 350,000 - possibly up to 445,000 - were shot , the rest were sent to the Gulag camp. Even before the "kulak operation", on July 25, 1937, the secret NKVD order No. 00439 was put into effect.

German Operation: The so-called " German Operation " was directed against Soviet citizens of German descent , German specialists who had come to the Soviet Union in the early 1930s to help rebuild socialism , emigrants from Germany - including members of the Communist Party of Germany - and everyone who had professional or personal relationships with Germany or Germans. As a result of this NKVD order, 55,005 people were arrested, 41,898 of them were shot and 13,107 were sentenced to camp imprisonment for between five and ten years.

Polish operation: On the basis of NKVD order no. 00485 of August 11, 1937, also known as the “ Polish Operation ”, 143,810 Soviet citizens of Polish descent or with Polish-sounding names or with work contacts or private connections to Poland were arrested. 139,885 of them were convicted and 111,091 shot.

Japanese operation: On September 20, 1937, the NKVD order No. 00593 followed against persons in connection with alleged terrorist activities as well as espionage and sabotage initiated by Japan . In particular, Soviet citizens from Harbin , which had been occupied by Japanese troops in 1932 , were suspected across the board of working for the Japanese secret service against the Soviet Union. 46,317 people from this group were convicted, 30,992 of them shot.

Latvian Operation: The Latvian Operation , ordered in NKVD circular No. 49990 of November 30, 1937, resulted in the arrest of 22,360 people of Latvian descent , of whom 16,573 were shot.

As the last “enemy of the people” in the history of the Soviet Union, Lavrenti Beria , head of the NKVD from 1938 , was arrested on June 26, 1953 and shot six months later on December 23.

rating

In his secret speech about the personality cult and its consequences following the XX. At the CPSU party congress in 1956, Khrushchev named Stalin as the exclusive originator of the term “enemy of the people”. In the "Bible" of Stalinism Short Course in the History of the CPSU (B) , which was written according to the specifications and with the participation of Stalin, it says, for example:

"The Soviet power firmly punishes these scum [Trotskyists, Zinoviev people ] of humanity and ruthlessly reckons with them as enemies of the people and traitors of the homeland."

- History of the CPSU (B) - Short course

In Pravda and the entire controlled Soviet press , this ideological empty formula was spread in many variations for decades, so that the term “enemy of the people” became part of the vocabulary of “ Homo sovieticus ”.

During the Cold War , the anti-communist manifesto of the Congress for Cultural Freedom in West Berlin in June 1950 condemned tendencies "in totalitarian states" to persecute and condemn deviants as "enemies of the people" or "socially unreliable elements".

Germany

Under National Socialism , the term “enemy of the people” was also used for the legal prosecution and punishment of various parts of society. At the center of these persecutions were Jews and Gypsies . Political opponents of the NSDAP such as communists and social democrats were also considered "enemies of the people" . Homosexuals could also be persecuted and punished as "enemies of the people".

Today's right-wing extremists continue to regard political opponents as "enemies of the people".

Russian Federation

Svetlana Alexievich declared in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea : “The Stalinist vocabulary has been completely restored” and described how anyone who did not cheer was considered an enemy of the people. Natalia Gromova compared those arrested in the 1930s with today's Facebook profiles observed by the state when they went beyond "the usual". Anyone who just wanted to talk about the West was considered an enemy of the people, according to Jelle Brandt Corstius in 2015. President Vladimir Putin had already announced in his first message to parliament in 2000 that privately financed media were hindering the urgent need to build a strong state real "enemies of the state" are. The hatred that Russian propaganda generated by naming enemies of the people was also criticized within Russia .

Use of terms in art

Usage in the USA

In English, however , the term public enemy has a slightly different meaning. Originally only used in the sense of public enemy for serious criminals ( gangsters ) who pose a threat to public order. Even in the McCarthy era , the use of this for political opponents is undetectable. Recently, the term “enemy of the people” has been used several times by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for journalists and the media who question him critically.

Individuals

Yugoslavia

In communist Yugoslavia , after the sudden death of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Vikentije (1890-1958), a campaign to elect his successor was carried out in 1958 , in which three candidates were put up. The state's preferred candidate was Bishop German (1899–1991, real name Hranislav Đorić), who finally won the election as patriarch. An opposing candidate, Bishop Hrizostom, was described as an "enemy of the people" and friend of Justin Popović during the campaign .

Albania

Enver Hoxha , the dictator of Albania for decades , declared his Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu an enemy of the people and an agent of several secret services as part of a “purge” . Vinçenc Prennushi , Catholic Archbishop of Durrës , was arrested by Albanian Communists in 1947 , tortured and sentenced as an enemy of the people to twenty years in prison and forced labor. Weakened by torture and imprisonment, he died in prison in 1949.

North Korea

Jang Song-thaek was a senior North Korean politician. In early December 2013, he was deposed by his nephew, the ruling dictator Kim Jong-un . As a result, Jang was charged with subversive acts, corruption and drug abuse . In the Korean Central Television showed how he during a meeting of the Politburo was arrested. According to the North Korean media, Jang was removed from office, expelled from the Labor Party of Korea and executed on December 12, 2013.

See also

literature

  • Ralph Ardnassak: Father's mistrust. The world of Josef Stalin. Second volume: From great death to war. Neobooks Self-Publishing, Munich 2014. ISBN 978-3-8476-8958-4 .
  • Hermann Bott: Die Volksfeind-Ideologie: To the critique of right-wing radical propaganda Volume 18 of series of quarterly books for contemporary history, Walter de Gruyter 2010, ISBN 3-486-70365-X .
  • Wilhelm Kube : People's enemy social democracy: armaments in the fight for the Third Reich. Buchdruckerei und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH 1930.

Web links

Wiktionary: Enemy of the people  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg : Hostis. In: Der Neue Pauly , Volume 5, Stuttgart 1998, Col. 747 f .; Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg: Studies on the Late Republican Emergency Law , Munich 1970, p. 8.
  2. ↑ See Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg: Investigations on the late republican emergency law , Munich 1970, pp. 7-20.
  3. ↑ See Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg: Investigations on the Late Republican Emergency Law , Munich 1970, pp. 63–67.
  4. ↑ See Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg: Investigations on the Late Republican Emergency Law , Munich 1970, pp. 74–78.
  5. ↑ Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg offers a list of the republican hostis declarations: Investigations on the late republican emergency law , Munich 1970, p. 116 f. Note 153.
  6. ^ Friedrich Vittinghoff: The Public Enemy in the Roman Empire , Berlin 1936, pp. 87–89, 91–105.
  7. ↑ Der Spiegel, January 26, 2010
  8. ↑ Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of November 28 (December 11) 1917
  9. ^ Memorial Krasnoyarsk: "The Great Terror": 1937–1938. Short chronicle
  10. ↑ Ralph Ardnassak: Father's Mistrust. The world of Josef Stalin
  11. ↑ On the rhetoric of an omnipresent conspiracy, see Gábor T. Rittersporn: The Omnipresent Conspiracy: On Soviet Imagery of Politics and Social Relations in the 1930s . In: Nick Lampert and Gábor T. Rittersporn (Eds.): Stalinism. Its nature and aftermath. Essays in honor of Moshe Lewin . ME Sharpe, Armonk, NY 1992, ISBN 0-87332-876-0 , pp. 101-120.
  12. ↑ Ralph Ardnassak: Father's Mistrust. The world of Josef Stalin
  13. ^ Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung: Online archive
  14. ^ German translation of Khrushchev's secret speech
  15. ^ History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) - Kuzer course, Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1951, p. 411
  16. ↑ Manifesto of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, Berlin, June 26-30, 1950
  17. ↑ a b Brandenburg State Center for Political Education People's Enemy . Retrieved June 21, 2016.
  18. ↑ See for example Peter Longerich : "We didn't know anything about it!". The Germans and the Persecution of the Jews 1933–1945 . Online resource, Munich 2009 (the marked quote there).
  19. ↑ Whoever does not cheer is an enemy of the people , FAZ, April 15, 2014
  20. ↑ The literary historian Natalia Gromova: "The agency is the nerve of the system" , Novaya Gazeta, April 24, 2018
  21. ↑ Grensland: Onder het oppervlak (4/8) , vpro , 2015, minute 21
  22. ↑ Margareta Mommsen, Angelika Nussberger: The Putin system: controlled democracy and political justice in Russia. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54790-4 , p. 47, received by Roger Blum , Loudspeakers and Opponents: An Approach to Comparing Media Systems. Herbert von Halem, 2014, ISBN 978-3-86962-152-4 , p. 128, as well as by Jerzy Maćków (ed.), Authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe. Springer, Heidelberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-91615-6 , p. 248 and Johannes Schuhmann in: Governance structures in the regional environmental policy of Russia: Negotiations between the state, business and civil society. Springer, Heidelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-531-19560-5 , p. 60.
  23. ↑ GULag drawings. Edited by Hans-Peter Böffgen, Thees Klahn and Andrzej Klant. Two thousand and one, Frankfurt / M. 1993, ISBN 3-86150-001-9 .
  24. ↑ Fig. Also in the appendix by: IW Dobrowolski (Ed.): Black Book GULAG. The Soviet concentration camps. Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz 2002, ISBN 3-7020-0975-2 , pp. 300-312.
  25. ^ The Trump Administration's War On The Press. In: MediaMatters. 18th May 2017.
  26. ↑ Klaus Buchenau: Orthodoxy and Catholicism in Yugoslavia 1945–1991. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004
  27. ↑ Execution in North Korea - Kim's work, Lenin's contribution. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 13, 2013
  28. ↑ Chang disempowered top management: North Korea humiliates Kim's uncle. Spiegel Online, December 9, 2013 ; Television in North Korea shows the arrest of Kim's uncle Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 9, 2013