Soviet justice authorities in the struggle against anti-Soviet agitation in the rear during the initial period of the Great Patriotic War (on the material of Chelyabinsk region)
Authors:   Higher School of Economics University, Starkov Arsenii V. 
Published: October 2024

The article examines the features of the punitive policy of the Soviet justice authorities toward crime of antiSoviet agitation (Article 58.10 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR) on the material of Chelyabinsk region. The goal of the article is, on the one hand, to analyze the general directions of the judicial authorities against such political crimes, utilized punishments and fluctuations of this policy, and, on the other hand, to examine the direct content of statements which were perceived by the authorities as anti-Soviet. Moreover, social and age structure of the accused are considered. The research is based on the records of the Chelyabinsk Regional Court and the court management bodies (People's Commissariats of Justice of the USSR and RSFSR), as well as on materials of investigative cases on anti-Soviet activities. The Chelyabinsk region can be regarded as representative for studying the specificities of relations between the Soviet state and the society during the war. Particularly, this region (like the Urals as a whole) became one of the centers of large-scale evacuation in 1941-1942. Mass migration of evacuees to the east have led to a significant complication of the social landscape and socio-economic relations here. In the conditions of political uncertainty of the first war years, the growth of social and every-day problems and general socio-psychological fatigue in the rear provoked a significant increase in anti-Soviet sentiments, which included: criticism of the authorities, dissatisfaction with the current conditions of living, and defeatism. The Soviet state, realizing the significant danger of such moods, launched a large-scale campaign against ideological opponents. At the same time, repressions against counter-revolutionary crimes were interpreted in the traditions of the pre-war period of the "Great terror" as a struggle against the "fifth column". As a consequence, persons accused in anti-Soviet agitation were perceived as real accomplices of the Nazis. From the very beginning of this campaign, death sentences accounted a significant proportion amongst the elected punishments. Accused person could be sentenced to capital punishment only for oral statement against the Soviet state. Since the spring of 1942, the higher bodies of justice of the RSFSR and the USSR began to gradually decelerate this campaign. Consequently, the number of new cases under Article 58.10 slightly decreased, as well as percentage of death sentences, which were replaced with imprisonment. The latter, in many respects, was caused by a reduction in "human resources" and intention to keep them. To summarize, the overwhelming number of the accused persons expressed, mainly, every-day grievances related to the life deterioration in the wartime. A significant part of the accused were ordinary workers, employees, and collective farmers, who were not class alien elements. A significant decrease in the punitive policy on political charges by the beginning of 1943 was due to the stabilization of the situation at the front. When the threat to the existence of the Soviet state and its system passed, such statements no longer represented the same danger as in the initial period of the war. Furthermore, the level of open statements criticizing the Soviet government or containing defeatism among the citizens has also significantly decreased.