July 08, 2022

Soviet Law Against Sabotage May Return


Soviet Law Against Sabotage May Return
Ammar Sabaa

According to Meduza, the National Anti-Corruption Committee (NAC) has proposed resurrecting the Soviet-era law against “wrecking” (or “sabotage”), adding back an article to the Criminal Code.

The head of NAK, Kirill Kabanov, wrote a letter to Senator Andrei Klishas, in which he said that the criminal code does not contain “the concept of harm and material damage as it relates to defense capability, national and economic security.” Therefore, he said, he believes that people responsible for “a decrease in the country's defense capability, for a negative impact on domestic industrial and financial markets, for disruption of the state order" cannot be held accountable if there is no direct material damage.

Kabanov proposed that Klishas evaluate the possibility of returning a sabotage statute to the criminal code, “considering modern realities and the law of the Russian Federation.”

Klishas said that Kabanov's proposal “at a minimum is worthy of serious discussion… when you consider the successes of our institutions at ‘import substitution’ and in other areas, one would really like to return an article on wrecking to the criminal code."

The USSR’s 1930 criminal code did not have a separate article about wrecking per se, but several points in the section on “counterrevolutionary activity” dealt with wrecking, and several million persons were repressed (imprisoned and/or killed) in the Soviet era as “saboteurs.” Most cases against “saboteurs,” according to Mediazona, were initiated under Article 58.7 – “Obstruction of the Normal Activities of State Institutions and Enterprises… for Counter-revolutionary Purposes.”

In 1960, sabotage appeared as a separate offense in the Criminal Code of the USSR. It was described by Article 69, in the section "Especially Dangerous State Crimes." The article provided for up to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property. The RSFSR Criminal Code article "Sabotage" remained in effect until 1996, when a new Russian Criminal Code came into force.

In 2015, Valery Rashkin, at that time a member of the State Duma from the Communist Party, suggested that the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, and the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General’s Office, return the “Sabotage” article to the Russian Criminal Code. No law enforcement response to his proposal was reported.

 

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Survival Russian
February 01, 2009

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

Little Golden Calf
February 01, 2010

Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

Murder and the Muse
December 12, 2016

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

The Latchkey Murders
July 01, 2015

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

Jews in Service to the Tsar
October 09, 2011

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

Faith & Humor
December 01, 2011

Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

The Little Humpbacked Horse
November 03, 2014

The Little Humpbacked Horse

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

About Us

Russian Life is the 31-year-old publication of an award-winning publishing house that also creates books, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955