Offenses committed by employees of punitive and repressive bodies of the USSR in the Stanislav region in 1944-1953

Abstract

Soviet punitive and repressive bodies in the 1940s and 1950s of the 20th century pursued the goal of destroying any resistance in the western Ukrainian lands to the communist imperial power system. This goal was achieved through oppression, destruction or deportation of the classes of wealthy peasantry, sanctimony and national intellectuals hostile to the communists, suppression of the armed resistance of Ukrainian insurgent army and the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists. The staff of the internal affairs and state security agencies in the Stanislav region in the vast majority had a low qualification and educational level and consisted largely of people not from the Ukrainian SSR. Thus, in 1947, in the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR, among 2447 employees of law enforcement agencies there were only 4% of locals.
Employees of law enforcement and judicial bodies committed a significant number of crimes and offenses on the territory of the region. In the general statistics of crimes committed by employees of state authorities, the vast majority were offenses committed by employees of law enforcement agencies and judicial bodies. The total number of employees of the Soviet law enforcement agencies of Western Ukraine who were prosecuted for illegal actions against citizens in 1945–1953 amounted to more than two thousand people. Among them there were cases of illegal detention, extrajudicial killings, robbery, torture, banditry, theft, appropriation of other people’s property, corruption, and sexual crimes. In many cases, offenses were committed while under the influence of alcohol. Thus, in 1945 in the Stanislav region, almost 95% of crimes by law enforcement officers were committed while intoxicated. Such a state of violation of «Soviet legality» was recognized by the party leadership of the republic and region, and in some places even received informal support to intimidate the population of the region. In fact, the Soviet law enforcement system kept outright criminals in its midst, even from the point of view of Soviet legality.