Anti-Sovietism or anti-Soviet sentiment are activities that were actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union.
78-872: Three common uses of the term include the following: During the Russian Civil War that followed the October Revolution of 1917, the anti-Soviet side was the White movement . During the Interwar period , some resistance movements, particularly in the 1920s, were cultivated by Polish intelligence in the form of the Promethean project . After Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, anti-Soviet forces were created and led primarily by Nazi Germany (see Russian Liberation Movement ). During
156-773: A Tsarist official in Kiev. I spent 11 years at hard labour. After the Revolution, I was freed. I favoured the Constituent Assembly and am still for it. Kaplan referenced the Bolsheviks' growing authoritarianism, citing their forcible shutdown of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918, the elections to which they had lost. When it became clear that Kaplan would not implicate any accomplices, she
234-499: A crime. The Soviet Union made extensive use of the term "enemy of the people" (Russian: враг народа , romanized : vrag naroda ). The term was first used in a speech by Felix Dzerzhinsky , the first chairman of the Cheka , after the October Revolution . The Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee printed lists of "enemies of the people", and Vladimir Lenin invoked it in his decree of 28 November 1917: all leaders of
312-767: A larger army than the Whites, but with members indifferent towards communist ideology . The Red Army also utilized former Tsarist officers as "military specialists" ( voenspetsy ); sometimes their families were taken hostage in order to ensure their loyalty. At the start of the civil war, former Tsarist officers formed three-quarters of the Red Army officer-corps. By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers. The White movement (Russian: pre–1918 Бѣлое движеніе / post–1918 Белое движение , romanized : Beloye dvizheniye , IPA: [ˈbʲɛləɪ dvʲɪˈʐenʲɪɪ] ) also known as
390-688: A strong imprint on the specifics of the Civil War. During the Russian Civil War, the White movement functioned as a big tent political movement representing an array of political opinions in Russia united in their opposition to the Bolsheviks—from the republican-minded liberals and Kerenskyite social-democrats on the left through monarchists and supporters of a united multinational Russia to
468-799: A symptom (e.g., "delusion of reformism"), and a diagnosis (e.g., " sluggish schizophrenia "). The 70th and 190th Articles of the Criminal Code concerning "slanderous fabrications that discredited the Soviet system" and "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" served as the formal basis to sentence Vladimir Bukovsky , Pyotr Grigorenko , Valeria Novodvorskaya , Zhores Medvedev , Andrei Amalrik and many dissidents to months and sometimes years of indefinite confinement in psychiatric institutions. On 19 February 1986, nuclear physicist and dissident Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov in his letter to Mikhail Gorbachev wrote, "application by courts of Articles 70 and 190-1
546-697: Is pronounced persecution for beliefs." In 1990, a year before the very end of the Soviet regime, "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" was excluded from the Russian SFSR Criminal Code after the three decades of its application. In April 1989, Article 70 was reformulated as part of a series of statutory changes made under perestroika . It was more strictly formulated and became explicitly related to violent actions. The terms "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda" were replaced by "public appeals", "subversion" ( podryv , подрыв) and "overthrow" ( sverzheniye , свержение). In October 1992, following
624-400: Is worth seven years in the labor camp and five in exile. – Vladimir Bukovsky The penalty was from six months to 7 years of imprisonment, with possible subsequent internal exile from 2 to 5 years. Article 70 was considered by critics of the Soviet regime as a grave violation of freedom of speech . It was one of the two main legal instruments for the prosecution of Soviet dissidents ,
702-518: The Cheka (the Bolshevik state secret police ). In January 1918, after significant Bolshevik reverses in combat, the future Russian People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs Leon Trotsky headed the reorganization of the Red Guards into a Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in order to create a more effective fighting force. The Bolsheviks appointed political commissars to each unit of
780-628: The Cold War , the United States led the anti-Soviet and anti-communist Western Bloc . During the Russian Civil War, whole classes of people, such as the clergy, kulaks and former Imperial Russian officers, were automatically considered anti-Soviet. More categories are listed in the article " Enemy of the People ". Those who were deemed anti-Soviet in this way, because of their former social status, were often presumed guilty whenever tried for
858-630: The Constitutional Democratic Party , as a party of enemies of the people, are hereby to be considered outlaws, and are to be arrested immediately and brought before the revolutionary court. Other similar terms were in use as well: In particular, the term "enemy of the workers" was formalized in the Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code) , and similar articles in the codes of the other Soviet Republics . At various times these terms were applied, in particular, to Tsar Nicholas II and
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#1732790981628936-537: The Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom) decided to liquidate criminal recklessness associated with anarchists and disarm all anarchist groups in the face of their militancy. From early 1918, the Bolsheviks started physical elimination of opposition, other socialist and revolutionary fractions. Anarchists were among the first: Of all the revolutionary elements in Russia it is the Anarchists who now suffer
1014-841: The Czechoslovak Legions overthrew Bolshevik rule in Siberia , the Urals and the Volga region in late May-early June 1918 and the center of SR activity shifted there. On June 8, 1918, five Constituent Assembly members formed the All-Russian Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly ( Komuch ) in Samara and declared it the new supreme authority in the country. The Social Revolutionary Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia came to power on 29 June 1918, after
1092-461: The Imperial family , aristocrats , the bourgeoisie , clerics , business entrepreneurs , anarchists , kulaks , monarchists , Mensheviks , Esers , Bundists , Trotskyists , Bukharinists , the " old Bolsheviks ", the army and police, emigrants , saboteurs , wreckers (вредители, "vrediteli"), " social parasites " (тунеядцы, "tuneyadtsy"), Kavezhedists (people who administered and serviced
1170-611: The KVZhD (China Far East Railway), particularly the Russian population of Harbin , China), and those considered bourgeois nationalists (notably Russian , Ukrainian , Belarusian , Armenian , Lithuanian , Latvian, Estonian nationalists , Zionists , Basmachi ). Since 1927, Article 20 of the Common Part of the penal code that listed possible "measures of social defence " had the following item 20a: "declaration to be an enemy of
1248-723: The Left Socialist Revolutionaries had assumed positions in Lenin's government and led commissariats in several areas. This included agriculture ( Kolegaev ), property ( Karelin ), justice ( Steinberg ), post offices and telegraphs ( Proshian ) and local government (Trutovsky). The Bolsheviks also reserved a number of vacant seats in the Soviets and Central Executive for the Menshevik and Left Socialist Revolutionaries parties in proportion to their vote share at
1326-515: The October Revolution , where the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government of the new Russian Republic . Bolshevik seizure of power was not universally accepted, and the country descended into civil war. The two largest combatants were the Red Army , fighting for the establishment of a Bolshevik-led socialist state headed by Vladimir Lenin , and the loosely allied forces known as
1404-535: The Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. Soviet Russia sought to re-conquer all newly independent nations of the former empire, although their success was limited. Estonia , Finland , Latvia , and Lithuania all repelled Soviet invasions, while Ukraine , Belarus (as a result of the Polish–Soviet War ), Armenia , Azerbaijan and Georgia were occupied by the Red Army. By 1921, Soviet Russia had defeated
1482-606: The Volunteer Army began amassing support. The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk also resulted in direct Allied intervention in Russia and the arming of military forces opposed to the Bolshevik government. There were also many German commanders who offered support against the Bolsheviks, fearing a confrontation with them was impending as well. Anti-Soviet agitation Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (ASA) ( Russian : антисове́тская агита́ция и пропага́нда (АСА) )
1560-646: The White Army , which functioned as a political big tent for right - and left-wing opposition to Bolshevik rule. In addition, rival militant socialists, notably the Ukrainian anarchists of the Makhnovshchina and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries , were involved in conflict against the Bolsheviks. They, as well as non-ideological green armies , opposed the Bolsheviks, the Whites and the foreign interventionists. Thirteen foreign nations intervened against
1638-573: The Whites ( Белые , Beliye ), was a loose confederation of anti-communist forces that fought the communist Bolsheviks , also known as the Reds , in the Russian Civil War and that to a lesser extent continued operating as militarized associations of rebels both outside and within Russian borders in Siberia until roughly World War II (1939–1945). The movement's military arm was the White Army (Бѣлая армія / Белая армия, Belaya armiya ), also known as
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#17327909816281716-493: The 1920s introduced the offence of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda as one of the many forms of counter-revolutionary activity grouped together under Article 58 of the Russian RSFSR Penal Code . The article was put in force on 25 February 1927 and remained in force throughout the period of Stalinism . Article 58:10, " propaganda and agitation that called to overturn or undermining of the Soviet regime ",
1794-521: The Bolshevik Party who had peacefully stood down from the Soviet when they failed to win the elections. As a result, the Bolsheviks banned each opposition party when it turned against the Soviet government. In some cases, bans were lifted. This banning of parties did not have the same repressive character as later bans enforced under the Stalinist regime. In December 1917, Felix Dzerzhinsky
1872-608: The Bolshevik police. The Union of Regeneration was founded in Moscow in April 1918 as an underground agency organizing democratic resistance to the Bolshevik dictatorship, composed of the Popular Socialists, Right Socialist Revolutionaries, and Defensists, among others. They were tasked with propping up anti-Bolshevik forces and to create a Russian state system based on civil liberties, patriotism, and state-consciousness with
1950-656: The Bolsheviks then ended dual power by overthrowing the Provisional Government in late October, on the eve of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies , in what would be the second Revolution of 1917. The initial stage of the October Revolution which involved the assault on Petrograd occurred largely without any human casualties . Despite the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, they lost to
2028-595: The Bolsheviks: in the Voronezh Oblast, the Red Guards killed sixteen peasants during the pacification of the village, while another village was shelled with artillery in order to force the peasants to surrender and in the Novgorod Oblast the rebelling peasants were dispersed with machine-gun fire from a train sent by a detachment of Latvian Red Army soldiers. While the Bolsheviks immediately denounced
2106-402: The Civil War (1917–1922), During interrogation by the Cheka , she made the following statement: My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot Lenin. I did it on my own. I will not say from whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was exiled to Akatui for participating in an assassination attempt against
2184-653: The Congress. The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was also approved by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists , both groups were in favour of a more radical democracy . From mid-1917 onwards, the Russian Army , the successor-organisation of the old Imperial Russian Army , started to disintegrate; the Bolsheviks used the volunteer-based Red Guards as their main military force, augmented by an armed military component of
2262-527: The Public Memory Center and sent to the corresponding municipalities who were recommended to change them. Russian Civil War [REDACTED] White movement The Russian Civil War was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the liberal-democratic Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution , as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in
2340-495: The Red Army to maintain morale and to ensure loyalty. In June 1918, when it had become apparent that a revolutionary army composed solely of workers would not suffice, Trotsky instituted mandatory conscription of the rural peasantry into the Red Army. The Bolsheviks overcame opposition of rural Russians to Red Army conscription units by taking hostages and shooting them when necessary in order to force compliance. The forced conscription drive had mixed results, successfully creating
2418-681: The Red Army, notably the Allied intervention , whose primary goal was re-establishing the Eastern Front of World War I . Three foreign nations of the Central Powers also intervened, rivaling the Allied intervention with the main goal of retaining the territory they had received in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Soviet Russia. The Bolsheviks initially consolidated control over most of
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2496-633: The Republic: Great plan! Finish it with Dzerzhinsky. While pretending to be the "greens" (we will blame them later), we will advance by 10–20 miles (versts) and hang kulaks, priests, landowners. Prize: 100.000 rubles for each hanged man. Leonid Kannegisser , a young military cadet of the Imperial Russian Army , assassinated Moisey Uritsky on August 17, 1918, outside the Petrograd Cheka headquarters in retaliation for
2574-586: The SR Nikolai Avksentiev and some followers were arrested for organizing a conspiracy. This was the first time Bolsheviks used this kind of repression against a socialist party. Izvestia said the arrest was not related to his membership in the Constituent Assembly. On January 4, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee made a resolution saying the slogan "all power to the constituent assembly"
2652-650: The Socialist Revolutionary Party in the 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election , and the Constituent Assembly was dissolved by the Bolsheviks in retaliation. The Bolsheviks soon lost the support of other far-left allies, such as the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries , after their acceptance of the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk presented by the German Empire. Conversely, a number of prominent members of
2730-478: The Soviet state and social system (1966), which was a weaker version of Article 70. It basically repeated the Article 70, with the omitted provision of the "anti-Soviet purpose". The penalty was lower: up to three years of imprisonment. Petro Grigorenko in his memoirs wrote that any critique of the Soviet government or events in the Soviet Union was easily classified as ASA. Dissemination of any information which
2808-461: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and opposed Trotsky's insistence that no one try to attack German troops in Ukraine. According to historian Marcel Liebman , Lenin's wartime measures such as banning opposition parties was prompted by the fact that several political parties either took up arms against the new Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , or participated in sabotage, collaboration with
2886-783: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: the United Baltic Duchy , Duchy of Courland and Semigallia , Kingdom of Lithuania , Kingdom of Poland , the Belarusian People's Republic , and the Ukrainian State . Following Germany's Armistice in World War I in November 1918, the states were abolished. Finland was the first republic that declared its independence from Russia in December 1917 and established itself in
2964-866: The Ukrainian national movements and occupied the Caucasus , although anti-Bolshevik uprisings in Central Asia lasted until the late 1920s. The armies under Kolchak were eventually forced on a mass retreat eastward . Bolshevik forces advanced east, despite encountering resistance in Chita , Yakut and Mongolia . Soon the Red Army split the Don and Volunteer armies , forcing evacuations in Novorossiysk in March and Crimea in November 1920. After that, fighting
3042-423: The White Guard (Бѣлая гвардія / Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya ) or White Guardsmen (Бѣлогвардейцы / Белогвардейцы, Belogvardeytsi ). When the White Army was created, the structure of the Russian Army of the Provisional Government period was used, while almost every individual formation had its own characteristics. The military art of the White Army was based on the experience of World War I, which, however, left
3120-453: The abdication of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia . As a result, the social-democratic Russian Provisional Government was established, and soviets , elected councils of workers, soldiers, and peasants, were organized throughout the country, leading to a situation of dual power . The Russian Republic was proclaimed in September of the same year. The Provisional Government, led by Socialist Revolutionary Party politician Alexander Kerensky ,
3198-404: The bloodthirsty kulaks and that we will continue to do so ... Yours, Lenin. P.S. Find tougher people. In a mid-August 1920 letter, having received information that in Estonia and Latvia, with which Soviet Russia had concluded peace treaties, volunteers were being enrolled in anti-Bolshevik detachments, Lenin wrote to E. M. Sklyansky, deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of
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3276-410: The country as a one-party state with all opposition parties outlawed. A simultaneous demonstration in favor of the Constituent Assembly was dispersed with force, but there was little protest afterwards. The first large Cheka repression involving the killing of libertarian socialists in Petrograd began in April 1918. On May 1, 1918, a pitched battle took place in Moscow between the anarchists and
3354-433: The deposed Tsarists, or made assassination attempts against Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders. Liebman noted that opposition parties such as the Cadets and Mensheviks who were democratically elected to the Soviets in some areas, then proceeded to use their mandate to welcome in Tsarist and foreign capitalist military forces . In one incident in Baku , the British military, once invited in, proceeded to execute members of
3432-408: The dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russian law retained an offense of "public appeals to alter the constitutional order by force or to seize power, as well as the largescale distribution of material with such content", punishable by detention for a period of up to three years or a fine of twenty monthly minimum wages. In the new Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, effective from 1 January 1997,
3510-422: The elections with the majority of the seats, after which Lenin's Theses on the Constituent Assembly argued in Pravda that formal democracy was impossible because of class conflicts, conflicts with Ukraine and the Kadet-Kaledin uprising. He argued the Constituent Assembly must unconditionally accept sovereignty of the soviet government or it would be dealt with "by revolutionary means". On December 30, 1917,
3588-406: The end of the Second World War , there were Eastern European anti-Communist insurgencies against the Soviet Union. In August 2022 Estonia began removing Soviet monuments, beginning with a T-34 tank in Narva, claiming it was necessary for "public order" and "internal security". On 6 May 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine , Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš announced that
3666-420: The ensuing Finnish Civil War between pro-independence White Guards and pro-Russian Bolshevik Red Guards from January–May 1918. The Second Polish Republic , Lithuania , Latvia and Estonia formed their own armies immediately after the abolition of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and the start of the Soviet westward offensive and subsequent Polish-Soviet War in November 1918. In the European part of Russia
3744-593: The events that would officially catalyze the Red Terror , Vladimir Lenin had sent telegrams "to introduce mass terror" in Nizhny Novgorod in response to a suspected civilian uprising there, and to "crush" landowners in Penza who resisted, sometimes violently, the requisitioning of their grain by military detachments: Comrades! The kulak uprising in your five districts must be crushed without pity ... You must make example of these people. Do all this so that for miles (versts) around people see it all, understand it, tremble, and tell themselves that we are killing
3822-458: The execution of his friend and other officers. On August 30, the SR Fanny Kaplan unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Lenin, who sought to eliminate political dissent, opposition, and any other threat to Bolshevik power. As a result of the failed attempt on Lenin's life, he began to crack down on his political enemies in an event known as the Red Terror . More broadly, the term is usually applied to Bolshevik political repression throughout
3900-413: The formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution , which was one of the key events of the 20th century . The Russian monarchy ended with the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II during the February Revolution , and Russia was in a state of political flux. A tense summer culminated in
3978-420: The former empire. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was an emergency peace with the German Empire , who had captured vast swathes of the Russian territory during the chaos of the revolution. In May 1918, the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia revolted in Siberia. In reaction, the Allies began their North Russian and Siberian interventions . That, combined with the creation of the Provisional All-Russian Government , saw
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#17327909816284056-453: The goal to liberate the country from the "Germano-Bolshevik" yoke. On May 7, 1918, the Eighth Party Council of the Socialist Revolutionary Party commenced in Moscow and recognized the Union's leading role, putting aside political ideology and class for the purpose of Russia's salvation. They decided to start an uprising against the Bolsheviks with the goal of reconvening the Russian Constituent Assembly. While preparations were under way,
4134-399: The government to heed Dzerzhinsky's lobbying for greater terror against opposition. The campaign of mass repressions would officially begin thereafter. The Red Terror is considered to have officially begun between 17 and 30 August 1918. Protests against grain requisitioning of the peasantry were a major component of the Tambov Rebellion and similar uprisings; Lenin's New Economic Policy
4212-511: The most ruthless and systematic persecution. Their suppression by the Bolsheviki began already in 1918, when — in the month of April of that year — the Communist Government attacked, without provocation or warning, the Anarchist Club of Moscow and by the use of machine guns and artillery "liquidated" the whole organisation. It was the beginning of Anarchist hounding, but it was sporadic in character, breaking out now and then, quite planless, and frequently self-contradictory. On 11 August 1918, prior to
4290-432: The other being Article 190 of the Russian SFSR Criminal Code. Other means of control were extrajudicial, such as the use of punitive psychiatry or the generalised offence of " social parasitism ". In particular, the clause about literature targeted samizdat . Shortly after the Sinyavsky-Daniel show trial , the Soviet Penal Code was augmented with Article 190–1, Dissemination of knowingly false fabrications that defame
4368-416: The possibility that Communist revolutionary ideas would spread (a concern shared by many Central Powers). Hence, many of the countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies. Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be "strangled in its cradle". The British and French had supported Russia during World War I on a massive scale with war materials. After
4446-409: The rebellion as orchestrated by the SRs, there is actually no evidence that they were involved into peasant violence, which they deemed as counterproductive. The Western Allies armed and supported opponents of the Bolsheviks . They were worried about a possible Russo-German alliance, the prospect of the Bolsheviks making good on their threats to default on Imperial Russia's massive foreign debts and
4524-433: The reduction of Bolshevik-controlled territory to most of European Russia and parts of Central Asia . In 1919, the White Army launched several offensives from the east in March, the south in July, and west in October. The advances were later checked by the Eastern Front counteroffensive , the Southern Front counteroffensive , and the defeat of the Northwestern Army . By 1919, the White armies were in retreat and by
4602-490: The removal of the controversial monument to the Red Army was inevitable. Five days later a public fundraising campaign was launched and more than 39,000 euros had been donated by 12 May when the Saeima voted to suspend the functioning of a section regarding the preservation of memorial structures in an agreement between Latvia and Russia. By 13 May, the total amount of donations had almost reached 200,000 euros. A rally "Getting Rid of Soviet Heritage" taking place on March 20
4680-401: The start of 1920 were defeated on all three fronts. Although the Bolsheviks were victorious, the territorial extent of the Russian state had been reduced, for many non-Russian ethnic groups had used the disarray to push for national independence. In March 1921, during a related war against Poland , the Peace of Riga was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between
4758-476: The treaty, it looked like much of that material would fall into the hands of the Germans. To meet that danger, the Allies intervened with Great Britain and France sending troops into Russian ports. There were violent clashes with the Bolsheviks. Britain intervened in support of the White forces to defeat the Bolsheviks and prevent the spread of communism across Europe. The German Empire created several short-lived buffer states within its sphere of influence after
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#17327909816284836-426: The ultra-nationalist Black Hundreds on the right. The Russian Constituent Assembly had been a demand of the Bolsheviks against the Provisional Government, which kept delaying it. After the October Revolution the elections were run by the body appointed by the previous Provisional Government. It was based on universal suffrage but used party lists from before the Left-Right SR split. The anti-Bolshevik Right SRs won
4914-503: The uprising in Vladivostok . At the Fifth All–Russian Congress of Soviets of July 4, 1918, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries had 352 delegates compared to 745 Bolsheviks out of 1132 total. The Left SRs raised disagreements on the suppression of rival parties, the death penalty, and mainly, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Bolsheviks excluded the Right SRs and Mensheviks from the government on 14 June for associating with counterrevolutionaries and seeking to "organize armed attacks against
4992-422: The war was fought across three main fronts: the eastern, the southern and the northwestern. It can also be roughly split into the following periods. The first period lasted from the Revolution until the Armistice, or roughly March 1917 to November 1918. Already on the date of the Revolution, Cossack General Alexey Kaledin refused to recognize it and assumed full governmental authority in the Don region, where
5070-443: The workers and peasants" (though Mensheviks had not supported them), while the Left SRs advocated forming a government of all socialist parties. The Left SRs agreed with extrajudicial execution of political opponents to stop the counterrevolution, but opposed having the government legally pronouncing death sentences, an unusual position that is best understood within the context of the group's terrorist past. The Left SRs strongly opposed
5148-442: The workers with deprivation of the union republic citizenship and hence of the USSR citizenship , with obligatory expulsion from its territory". Nevertheless, most "enemies of the people" suffered labor camps, rather than expulsion. Later in the Soviet Union, being anti-Soviet was a criminal offense, known as " Anti-Soviet agitation ". The epithet "antisoviet" was synonymous with " counter-revolutionary ". The noun "antisovietism"
5226-430: Was a criminal offence in the Soviet Union . Initially, the term was interchangeably used with counter-revolutionary agitation . The latter term was in use immediately after the October Revolution of 1917. The offence was codified in criminal law in the 1920s, and revised in the 1950s in two articles of the Russian SFSR Criminal Code. The offence was widely used against Soviet dissidents . The new Criminal Codes of
5304-450: Was appointed to the duty of rooting out counter-revolutionary threats to the Soviet government . He was the director of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (aka Cheka ), a predecessor of the KGB that served as the secret police for the Soviets. The Bolsheviks had begun to see the anarchists as a legitimate threat and associate criminality such as robberies , expropriations and murders with anarchist associations. Subsequently,
5382-478: Was attended by approximately 5,000 people, while a counter rally by Latvian Russian Union was prevented from taking place by security forces, claiming threat to "public security". A list of 93 street names still glorifying the Soviet regime (such as 13 streets named after the Pioneer movement ), as well as 48 street names given during the Russification at the end of the 19th century (like streets named after Alexander Pushkin ), has been compiled by historians of
5460-444: Was counterrevolutionary and equivalent to "down with the soviets". The Constituent Assembly met on January 18, 1918. The Right SR Chernov was elected president defeating the Bolshevik supported candidate, the Left SR Maria Spiridonova (she would later break with the Bolsheviks and after the decades of gulag , she was shot on Stalin's orders in 1941). The Bolsheviks subsequently disbanded the Constituent Assembly and proceeded to rule
5538-430: Was executed in Alexander Garden . The order was carried out by the commander of the Kremlin, the former Baltic sailor P. D. Malkov and a group of Latvian Bolsheviks on September 3, 1918, with a bullet to the back of the head. Her corpse was bundled into a barrel and set alight. The order came from Yakov Sverdlov , who only six weeks earlier had ordered the murder of the Tsar and his family. These events persuaded
5616-535: Was introduced as a concession. The policies of "food dictatorship" proclaimed by the Bolsheviks in May 1918 sparked violent resistance in numerous districts of European Russia : revolts and clashes between the peasants and the Red Army were reported in Voronezh , Tambov , Penza , Saratov and in the districts of Kostroma , Moscow , Novgorod , Petrograd , Pskov and Smolensk . The revolts were bloodily crushed by
5694-479: Was not officially recognized was classified as "anti-Soviet slander". In this way, nearly all members of the Helsinki Watch human rights group were imprisoned. Anti-Soviet political behavior, in particular, being outspoken in opposition to the authorities, demonstrating for reform, and writing books, were defined in some persons as being simultaneously a criminal act (e.g., violation of Articles 70 or 190–1),
5772-414: Was punishable with at least 6 months of imprisonment, up to and including the death sentence in periods of war or unrest. As applied under during Stalin 's rule, the phrase in practice could mean virtually anything that a State security interrogator or informant wanted it to mean; consequently, the charge became an exceedingly potent weapon in political or personal quarrels and intrigues. The offence
5850-621: Was rarely used and the noun "antisovietist" ( Russian : антисоветчик , romanized : antisovetchik ) was used in a derogatory sense. Anti-Soviet agitation and activities were political crimes handled by the Article 58 and later Article 70 of the RSFSR penal code and similar articles in other Soviet republics . In February 1930, there was an anti-Soviet insurgency in the Kazak Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic village of Sozak . After
5928-638: Was significantly revised in the post-Stalin Criminal Code of the Russian SFSR, introduced in 1958. Article 58.10 was replaced by Article 70, Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. It was defined as: The new definition, despite being less draconian than its predecessor, had few if any parallels in the criminal codes of democratic countries. 'You are a Soviet man,' says the KGB detective, 'and therefore obliged to help us.' And what can you say in reply? If you're not Soviet, what are you: anti-Soviet? That alone
6006-714: Was sporadic until the war ended with the capture of Vladivostok in October 1922, but anti-Bolshevik resistance continued with the Muslim Basmachi movement in Central Asia and Khabarovsk Krai until 1934. There were an estimated 7 to 12 million casualties during the war, mostly civilians. The Russian Empire fought in World War I from 1914 alongside France and the United Kingdom ( Triple Entente ) against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire ( Central Powers ). The February Revolution of 1917 resulted in
6084-601: Was unable to solve the most pressing issues of the country, most importantly to end the war with the Central Powers. A failed military coup by General Lavr Kornilov in September 1917 led to a surge in support for the Bolsheviks , who took control of the soviets , which until then had been controlled by the Socialist Revolutionaries. Promising an end to the war and "all power to the Soviets",
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