Question by : Was crime virtually non-existent in the Soviet Union since everyone was afraid of internal exile to Siberia?
Since the punishments were so stiff (probably draconian by modern standards), was crime largely a non-issue in Soviet times? Was Siberian labor a strong deterrent?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Harley Drive
siberia was mainly political prisoners and dissidents there were hundreds of other prisons for criminals and the death penalty for many including summary execution by the police or KGB
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
Dsp Delena says
is crime virtually non-existent in USA since everyone is afraid of electrocuting???
Slava T says
No, ordinary crimes (murders, rapes, theft, etc.) were very much existent in the USSR. The Soviet society (especially up to the 1960s) was a society “on the move” with huge migration flows from the countryside to the urban areas (for example, during 1931-32 alone around 20 mln people moved to the urban areas of the USSR as a result of famine and collectivisation policies) and as a consequence with a high share of the marginalised population. Moreover, if we are talking about the Stalinist time, the state conducted a conscious policy of the social marginalisation by persecution of the “former” classes: nobility, clergy, bourgeoisie, sympathisers of all but the Bolsheviks, etc. These social circumstances were a fertile ground for all kinds of usual crimes.
. says
The crime was the same. Siberia – gulags were special places for anti-regime people. Often for those who were very intelligent and did see trough the real communist agenda.