Lawlessness in the USSR

...Lawlessness in the USSR Criminal Russia: A Study of Crime in the Soviet Union By Valery Chahdze Translated by P S Falla Random House 240 pp $10 00 Reviewed by Louise I. Shelley Assistant Professor of Criminology, American University, author, "History Without Jews" Despite official pronouncements about the cleansing effects of Communism, crime still flourishes today in the USSR And exiled Soviet dissident Valery Chalidze, by combining extensive research with personal experience, here provides the first analysis of the relationship between present Soviet and past Russian criminality Chalidze traces, for example, the ambivalence toward crime shown in both Tsarist Russia and the USSR Before 1917, theft was condemned when a member of the community was robbed, but sanctioned when an outsider was the victim As a result, large-scale brigands became heroes, while local thieves were objects of fear and scorn After 1917, a similarly contradictory attitude continued to prevail The Soviets will approve, and occasionally order, the commission of certain crimes, yet severely punish the real or suspected perpetrators of others Chalidze attributes the survival of this dual standard to the Bolshevik revolutionaries, who "began by regarding themselves as liberators and resorted to pillage and terror only as means of raising funds for their cause " Soon, though, they started to differentiate between their purposeful lawlessness and the less ideological trespasses of ordinary criminals A second area of similarity between the Russians and Soviets involves their inadequately developed sense of property Tsar Nicholas I once told his son, "I believe you and I are the only people in Russia who don't steal," and Soviet authorities initially exploited the traditional disregard for other people's possessions (in particular against kulaks) Later, in World War II, they allowed soldiers to expropriate the personal belongings of foreigners But this policy has ironically turned against the government The authorities have made considerable efforts at education, yet the people cannot seem to learn that what belongs to the state does not belong to them Theft of government property occurs on all levels, and in contrast to the stealing of private property, is universally considered acceptable on a modest scale Chalidze points out that this is the case not merely because the people are after personal aggrandizement, but because in some cases the goods they need to carry out their occupations lawfully are otherwise unavailable Not much more progress has been made on bribery, an unavoidable fact of prerevolutionary life that has, if anything, increased under Communism Chalidze tells of bribes given to the man who reads the electric meter, to a furniture salesman, to a university administrator (to secure admission), to a doctor (for a secret abortion), and to a graveyard employe (to reserve a particular cemetery plot) As with robbery, much of the palm-greasing has less to do with the desire for gain than with the omnipresent shortages in the Soviet Union today The Soviets have had better luck in destroying other criminal traditions mob violence, the bloodshed that had always accompanied holiday drinking, and the collusion between offenders and rural communities The last is a special triumph Unlike their predecessors on Russian communes, farmers on present-day Soviet collectives dutifully report all serious crimes to the authorities The Soviets have broken the peasants' traditional loyalty to each other, channeling their instincts of private vengeance into institutionalized informing While this system of stool pigeons is no longer as efficient as it was during Stalin's time, it continues to keep a check on both potential and actual criminality In addition, the Soviets have had a good deal of success in their drive to eliminate the criminal underworld an important milestone being the willingness of professional thieves to fight against the Nazis in World War II This segment of society still exists, however, and in one of his most interesting sections Chalidze describes those criminals who reject other institutions as well as property," who do not value what they steal Their attitudes toward females is fascinating They are physically rough with women, often treating them as slaves, yet the wives are devoted Indeed, Soviet prostitutes aspire to marrying a thief even though doing so means renouncing their livelihood, since the underworld severs all connections with the outside But the highest possible status a woman can hold in this world is being a thief's mother A valuable feature of Criminal Russia is its wealth of data We learn, for instance, that murder committed during a theft or holdup is less common in the USSR than in the United States, that cannibalism is not defined as a crime in the Soviet Union, and has actually existed there during periods of famine (a situation explained both by the absence of food and by a Russian belief in the supernatural qualities of certain parts of the body), that accusations of witchcraft are still made, occasionally serving as motives for murder, and that blood feuds and maternal infanticide survive as well?though both are less common now than under Tsansm Homosexuality, Chalidze reports, is an offense punishable by imprisonment in the Soviet Union It is so disapproved of, in fact, that upon being released from jail, homosexuals are often rearrested for their behavior behind bars As in the United States, rape is both underreported and sometimes charged falsely That it is particularly brutal in the Soviet Union is shown by the fact that group rape and grave physical injury to the victim are characteristics of 85 per cent of the known cases Different from Valery Chalidze's previous writings on political dissent and dissenters, Criminal Russia focuses on its subject with wit and insight Anyone intrigued by criminality, or by the enigma of Russian and Soviet society, will find reading this engrossing and entertaining book a valuable experience...