Human rights in the Soviet Union were restricted. The Soviet Union was a totalitarian state from 1927 until 1953 and a one-party state until 1990. Freedom of speech was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether they involved participation in free labor unions, private corporations, independent churches or opposition political parties. The citizens' freedom of movement was limited both inside and outside the country.
In practice, the Soviet government significantly curbed the very powerful rule of law, civil liberties, protection of law and guarantees of property, which were considered examples of "bourgeois morality" by Soviet legal theorists such as Andrey Vyshinsky. The Soviet Union signed legally-binding human rights documents, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1973, but they were neither widely known or accessible to people living under Communist rule, nor were they taken seriously by the Communist authorities. Human rights activists in the Soviet Union were regularly subjected to harassment, repressions and arrests.
Soviet concept of human rights and legal system
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human rights are the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled."Houghton Mifflin Company (2006) including the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.
The Soviet conception of human rights was very different from international law. According to Soviet legal theory, "it is the government who is the beneficiary of human rights which are to be asserted against the individual".Lambelet, Doriane. "The Contradiction Between Soviet and American Human Rights Doctrine: Reconciliation Through Perestroika and Pragmatism." 7 Boston University International Law Journal. 1989. pp. 61–62. The Soviet state was considered as the source of human rights. Therefore, the Soviet legal system considered law an arm of politics and it also considered courts agencies of the government. Extensive extrajudicial powers were given to the Soviet secret police agencies. In practice, the Soviet government significantly curbed the rule of law, civil liberties, protection of law and guarantees of property,Richard Pipes (2001) Communism Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Richard Pipes (1994) Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime. Vintage. ., pages 401–403. which were considered as examples of "bourgeois morality" by Soviet law theorists such as Andrey Vyshinsky.
The USSR and other countries in the Soviet Bloc had abstained from affirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), saying that it was "overly juridical" and potentially infringed on national sovereignty. The Soviet Union later signed legally-binding human rights documents, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1973 (and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), but they were neither widely known or accessible to people living under Communist rule, nor were they taken seriously by the Communist authorities. Under Joseph Stalin, the death penalty was extended to adolescents as young as 12 years old in 1935.
Sergei Kovalev recalled "the famous article 125 of the Constitution which enumerated all basic civil and political rights" in the Soviet Union. But when he and other prisoners attempted to use this as a legal basis for their abuse complaints, their prosecutor's argument was that "the Constitution was written not for you, but for American Negroes, so that they know how happy the lives of Soviet citizens are".
Crime was determined not as the infraction of law, instead, it was determined as any action which could threaten the Soviet state and society. For example, a desire to make a profit could be interpreted as a counter-revolutionary activity punishable by death. The liquidation and deportation of millions of peasants in 1928–31 was carried out within the terms of the Soviet Civil Code.Richard Pipes Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, Vintage books, Random House Inc., New York, 1995, , pages 402–403 Some Soviet legal scholars even said that "criminal repression" may be applied in the absence of guilt. Martin Latsis, chief of Soviet Ukraine's secret police explained: "Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what is his background, his education, his profession. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror."Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia – Past, Present, and Future, 1994. .
The purpose of public trials was "not to demonstrate the existence or absence of a crime – that was predetermined by the appropriate party authorities – but to provide yet another forum for political agitation and propaganda for the instruction of the citizenry (see Moscow Trials for example). Defense lawyers, who had to be party members, were required to take their client's guilt for granted..."
Freedom of political expression
In the 1930s and 1940s, political repression was widely practiced by the Soviet secret police services, OGPU and NKVD.Anton Antonov-Ovseenko Beria (Russian) Moscow, AST, 1999. Russian text online An extensive network of civilian informants – either volunteers, or those forcibly recruited – was used to collect intelligence for the government and report cases of suspected dissent.Koehler, John O. Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police. Westview Press. 2000.
Its theoretical basis was the theory of Marxism concerning class struggle. The terms "repression", "terror", and other strong words were official working terms, since the dictatorship of the proletariat was supposed to suppress the resistance of other social classes, which Marxism considered antagonistic to the class of the proletariat. The legal basis of the repression was formalized into Article 58 in the code of the RSFSR and similar articles for other Soviet republics. Aggravation of class struggle under socialism was proclaimed during the Stalinist terror.
Freedom of literary and scientific expression
Censorship in the Soviet Union was pervasive and strictly enforced.A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former). Chapter 9 – Mass Media and the Arts. The Library of Congress. Country Studies This gave rise to Samizdat, a clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature. Art, literature, education, and science were placed under strict ideological scrutiny, since they were supposed to serve the interests of the victorious proletariat. Socialist realism is an example of such teleologically oriented art that promoted socialism and communism. All humanities and social sciences were tested for strict accordance with historical materialism.
All natural sciences were to be founded on the philosophical base of dialectical materialism. Many scientific disciplines, such as genetics, cybernetics, and comparative linguistics, were suppressed in the Soviet Union during some periods, condemned as "bourgeois pseudoscience". At one point Lysenkoism, which many consider a pseudoscience, was favored in agriculture and biology. In the 1930s and 1940s, many prominent scientists were declared to be "wreckers" or enemies of the people and imprisoned. Some scientists worked as prisoners in "Sharashkas" (research and development laboratories within the Gulag labor camp system).
According to the Soviet Criminal Code, agitation or propaganda carried on for the purpose of weakening Soviet authority, or circulating materials or literature that defamed the Soviet State and social system were punishable by imprisonment for a term of 2–5 years; for a second offense, punishable for a term of 3–10 years.Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents in the Soviet Union, 1956–1975 By S. P. de Boer, E. J. Driessen, H. L. Verhaar; ; p. 652
Right to vote
According to communist ideologists, the Soviet political system was a true democracy, where workers' councils ("soviets") represented the will of the working class. In particular, the Soviet Constitution of 1936 guaranteed direct universal suffrage with a secret ballot.Stalin, quoted in IS WAR INEVITABLE? being the full text of the interview given by JOSEPH STALIN to ROY HOWARD as recorded by K. UMANSKY, Friends of the Soviet Union, London, 1936 Practice, however, departed from principle. For example, all candidates were selected by Communist Party organizations, until democratization and the March 1989 elections. Historian Robert Conquest described the Soviet electoral system as "a set of phantom institutions and arrangements which put a human face on the hideous realities: a model constitution adopted in a worst period of terror and guaranteeing human rights, elections in which there was only one candidate, and in which 99 percent voted; a parliament at which no hand was ever raised in opposition or abstention."Robert Conquest Reflections on a Ravaged Century (2000) , page 97
Economic rights
Personal property was allowed with limitations. Real property mostly belonged to the State. Many forms of private trade with the intent of gaining profit were considered "speculation" () and banned as a criminal offense to be punished with fines, imprisonment, confiscation and/or corrective labor. "Speculation" was specifically defined in article 154 of the Penal Code of the USSR. Health, housing, education, and nutrition were formally guaranteed through the provision of full employment and economic welfare structures, but these guarantees were rarely met in practice. For instance, over five million people lacked adequate nutrition and starved to death during the Soviet famine of 1932–1933, one of several Soviet famines.Davies and Wheatcroft, p. 401. For a review, see The 1932–33 famine was caused primarily by Soviet-mandated collectivization, although the famine in part was also caused by natural conditions. In response to frequent shortages, massive second economy existed for all categories of goods and services.Vladimir G. Treml and Michael V. Alexeev,"The Second Economy and the Destabilization Effect of Its Growth on the State Economy in the Soviet Union: 1965-1989" (PDF), BERKELEY-DUKE OCCASIONAL PAPERS ON THE SECOND ECONOMY IN THE USSR, Paper No. 36, December 1993.
Freedoms of assembly and association Workers were not allowed to organize free unions. All existing unions were organized and controlled by the state.A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former). Chapter 5. Trade Unions. The Library of Congress. Country Studies. 2005. All political youth organizations, such as Pioneer movement and Komsomol served to enforce the policies of the Communist Party. Participation in unauthorized political organizations could result in imprisonment. Organizing in camps could bring the death penalty.
Freedom of religion
The Soviet Union promoted Marxist-Leninist atheism and persecuted religion. Toward that end, the Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. Actions toward particular religions, however, were determined by State interests, and most organized religions were never outlawed outright.