Anti-Sovietism

Russian èmigré anti-Bolshevik poster,c. 1932

"Down withBolshevism!"-Nazi propagandaposter inRussianfor occupied Soviet territories.

Anti-Sovietism(Russian:антисоветчина,romanized:antisovetchina) oranti-Soviet sentimentrefers to persons and activities that were actually or allegedly aimed against theSoviet Unionor government power within the Soviet Union.^[1]

Three common uses of the term include the following:

Anti-Sovietism in international politics, such as the Western opposition to the Soviet Union during theCold Waras part of broaderanti-communism.
Anti-Soviet opponents of theBolsheviksshortly after theRussian Revolutionand during theRussian Civil War.
Soviet citizens (allegedly or actually) involved in anti-government activities.

History

In the Soviet Union

During theRussian Civil Warthat followed theOctober Revolutionof 1917, the anti-Soviet side was theWhite movement.During theInterwar period,some resistance movements, particularly in the 1920s, were cultivated byPolish intelligencein the form of thePromethean project.AfterGermany's attack on the Soviet Unionin 1941, anti-Soviet forces were created and led primarily byNazi Germany(seeRussian Liberation Movement). During theCold War,theUnited Statesled the anti-Soviet and anti-communistWestern Bloc.

During the Russian Civil War, whole classes of people, such as the clergy,kulaksand formerImperial Russianofficers, 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 a crime.^[2]^{[page needed]}

The Soviet Union made extensive use of the term "enemy of the people" (Russian:враг народа,vrag naroda). The term was first used in a speech byFelix Dzerzhinsky,the first chairman of theCheka,after theOctober Revolution.ThePetrograd Military Revolutionary Committeeprinted lists of "enemies of the people", andVladimir Lenininvoked it in his decree of 28 November 1917:^[3]

all leaders of theConstitutional 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.^[4]

Other similar terms were in use as well:

enemy of the labourers(враг трудящихся,vrag trudyashchikhsya)
enemy of the proletariat(враг пролетариата,vrag proletariata)
class enemy(классовый враг,klassovyi vrag), etc.

In particular, the term "enemy of the workers" was formalized in theArticle 58 (RSFSR Penal Code),^[5]and similar articles in the codes of the otherSoviet Republics.

At various times these terms were applied, in particular, toTsar Nicholas IIand theImperial family,aristocrats,thebourgeoisie,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 theKVZhD(China Far East Railway), particularly the Russian population ofHarbin,China), and those consideredbourgeois nationalists(notablyRussian,Ukrainian,Belarusian,Armenian,Lithuanian,Latvian,Estonian nationalists,Zionists,Basmachi).^[6]

Since 1927, Article 20 of the Common Part of the penal code that listed possible "measures ofsocial defence"had the following item 20a:" declaration to be an enemy of the workers with deprivation of the union republic citizenship and hence of theUSSR 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".Theepithet"antisoviet" wassynonymouswith "counter-revolutionary".The noun" antisovietism "was rarely used and the noun" antisovietist "(Russian:антисоветчик,romanized:antisovetchik) was used in a derogatory sense.Anti-Soviet agitationand activities werepolitical crimeshandled by theArticle 58and later Article 70 of theRSFSRpenal code and similar articles in otherSoviet republics.In February 1930, there was an anti-Sovietinsurgencyin theKazak Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republicvillage ofSozak.^[7]

After the end of theSecond World War,there wereEastern European anti-Communist insurgenciesagainst the Soviet Union.

In Post-Soviet countries

Estonia

In August 2022Estoniabegan removing Soviet monuments, beginning with aT-34tank in Narva, claiming it was necessary for "public order" and "internal security".^[8]^[9]

Latvia

On 6 May 2022, following theRussian invasion of Ukraine,Latvian Prime MinisterKrišjānis Kariņšannounced that the removal of the controversialmonumentto theRed Armywas inevitable.^[11]Five days later a public fundraising campaign was launched and more than 39,000 euros had been donated by 12 May^[12]when theSaeimavoted to suspend the functioning of a section regarding the preservation of memorial structures in an agreement between Latvia and Russia.^[13]By 13 May, the total amount of donations had almost reached 200,000 euros.^[14]

A rally "Getting Rid of Soviet Heritage" taking place on March 20 was attended by approximately 5,000 people,^[15]while a counter rally byLatvian Russian Unionwas prevented from taking place by security forces, claiming threat to "public security".^[16]

A list of 93 street names still glorifying theSoviet regime(such as 13 streets named after thePioneer movement), as well as 48 street names given during theRussificationat the end of the 19th century (like streets named afterAlexander Pushkin), has been compiled by historians of the Public Memory Center and sent to the corresponding municipalities who were recommended to change them.^[17]

References

^Conquest, Robert(2007).The Great Terror.USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 28–29.
^Yevgenia AlbatsandCatherine A. Fitzpatrick.The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia - Past, Present, and Future,1994.ISBN 0-374-52738-5.
^The black book of communism: crimes, terror, repression.Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1999.ISBN 0-674-07608-7.OCLC 41256361.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: others (link)
^Werth, Nicolas; Bartošek, Karel; Panné, Jean-Louis; Margolin, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; andCourtois, Stéphane(1999)TheBlack Book of Communism:Crimes, Terror, Repression,Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press.ISBN 0-674-07608-7
^"Article 58",an online excerpt
^"Seventeen Moments in Soviet History".^{[permanent dead link]}
^Niccolò Pianciola; Paolo Sartori (2013). "Interpreting an insurgency in Soviet Kazakhstan: the OGPU, Islam and Qazaq 'Clans' in Suzak, 1930".Islam, Society and States Across the Qazaq Steppe:297–340.
^"Estonia removes Soviet Union war monuments".POLITICO.2022-08-16.Retrieved2022-08-18.
^Olsen, Jan."Estonia removes Soviet-era monument, citing public order".ABC News.Associated Press.Retrieved2022-08-18.
^"How this tiny Russian neighbour is fighting to save its tourism industry".Time Out.16 May 2022.
^"Soviet memorial's days are numbered, confirms Latvian PM".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.6 May 2022.
^"Fundraising begins in Latvia for dismantling Soviet monument".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.12 May 2022.
^"Saeima decides to legally allow Soviet monument demolition".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.12 May 2022.
^Zvirbulis, Ģirts (13 May 2022)."Nearly EUR 200,000 collected for demolition of Soviet memorial".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.
^"Thousands turn out to support removal of Soviet relics".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.LETA.20 May 2022.
^"Security service gives red light to Latvian Russian Union's rally".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.24 May 2022.
^"Soviet-related street name change urged in Latvia".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.8 August 2022.

^The small caption in the lower right corner of this poster reads:
The Bolsheviks promised:
We'll give you peace
We'll give you freedom
We'll give you land
Work and bread
Despicably they cheated
They started a war
With Poland
Instead of freedom they brought
The fist
Instead of land – confiscation
Instead of work – misery
Instead of bread – famine.

[2] Conquest, Robert(2007).The Great Terror.USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 28–29.

[State-3] Yevgenia AlbatsandCatherine A. Fitzpatrick.The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia - Past, Present, and Future,1994.ISBN 0-374-52738-5.

[4] The black book of communism: crimes, terror, repression.Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1999.ISBN 0-674-07608-7.OCLC 41256361.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: others (link)

[Black-5] Werth, Nicolas; Bartošek, Karel; Panné, Jean-Louis; Margolin, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; andCourtois, Stéphane(1999)TheBlack Book of Communism:Crimes, Terror, Repression,Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press.ISBN 0-674-07608-7

[6] "Article 58",an online excerpt

[7] "Seventeen Moments in Soviet History".^{[permanent dead link]}

[8] Niccolò Pianciola; Paolo Sartori (2013). "Interpreting an insurgency in Soviet Kazakhstan: the OGPU, Islam and Qazaq 'Clans' in Suzak, 1930".Islam, Society and States Across the Qazaq Steppe:297–340.

[9] "Estonia removes Soviet Union war monuments".POLITICO.2022-08-16.Retrieved2022-08-18.

[10] Olsen, Jan."Estonia removes Soviet-era monument, citing public order".ABC News.Associated Press.Retrieved2022-08-18.

[11] "How this tiny Russian neighbour is fighting to save its tourism industry".Time Out.16 May 2022.

[12] "Soviet memorial's days are numbered, confirms Latvian PM".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.6 May 2022.

[13] "Fundraising begins in Latvia for dismantling Soviet monument".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.12 May 2022.

[14] "Saeima decides to legally allow Soviet monument demolition".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.12 May 2022.

[15] Zvirbulis, Ģirts (13 May 2022)."Nearly EUR 200,000 collected for demolition of Soviet memorial".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.

[16] "Thousands turn out to support removal of Soviet relics".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.LETA.20 May 2022.

[17] "Security service gives red light to Latvian Russian Union's rally".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.24 May 2022.

[18] "Soviet-related street name change urged in Latvia".Public Broadcasting of Latvia.8 August 2022.

[1] The small caption in the lower right corner of this poster reads:
The Bolsheviks promised:
We'll give you peace
We'll give you freedom
We'll give you land
Work and bread
Despicably they cheated
They started a war
With Poland
Instead of freedom they brought
The fist
Instead of land – confiscation
Instead of work – misery
Instead of bread – famine.

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