Editing Human rights in the Soviet Union

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'''[[Human rights]] in the [[Soviet Union]]''' were severely limited. The [[Soviet Union]] was a [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian state]] from [[History of the Soviet Union (1927–53)|1927 until 1953]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=totalitarianism {{!}} Definition, Examples, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/totalitarianism|access-date=2021-01-03|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Rutland, Peter (1993). The Politics of Economic Stagnation in the Soviet Union: The Role of Local Party Organs in Economic Management. Cambridge University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-521-39241-9. "after 1953 ...This was still an oppressive regime, but not a totalitarian one."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Krupnik, Igor (1995). "4. Soviet Cultural and Ethnic Policies Towards Jews: A Legacy Reassessed". In Ro'i, Yaacov (ed.). Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-714-64619-0. "The era of 'social engineering' in the Soviet Union ended with the death of Stalin in 1953 or soon after; and that was the close of the totalitarian regime itself."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=von Beyme, Klaus (2014). On Political Culture, Cultural Policy, Art and Politics. Springer. p. 65. ISBN 978-3-319-01559-0. "The Soviet Union after the death of Stalin moved from totalitarianism to authoritarian rule."}}</ref> and a [[one-party state]] until 1990.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-10-10|title=Закон СССР от 14 марта 1990 г. N 1360-I "Об учреждении поста Президента СССР и внесении изменений и дополнений в Конституцию (Основной Закон) СССР"|url=http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1977/zakony/185465/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010070843/http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1977/zakony/185465/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2017-10-10|access-date=2021-01-04}}</ref> [[Freedom of speech]] was suppressed and dissent was punished. Independent political activities were not tolerated, whether they involved participation in free [[labour union|labor union]]s, private [[corporation]]s, independent churches or opposition [[political party|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]], [[Criminal justice|protection of law]] and [[Property rights|guarantees of property]],<ref name="Pipes2001"/><ref name="Pipes1994"/> which were considered examples of "bourgeois morality" by Soviet legal theorists such as [[Andrey Vyshinsky]].<ref name="Vyshinsky1949"/> 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.<ref name=thomas-hrideas/>{{rp|117}} 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 [[freedom (political)|freedoms]] to which all humans are entitled."<ref>Houghton Mifflin Company (2006)</ref> including the right to [[life]] and [[liberty]], [[freedom of speech|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 human rights law|international law]]. According to [[Law of the Soviet Union|Soviet legal theory]], "it is the government who is the beneficiary of human rights which are to be asserted ''against'' the individual".<ref>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.</ref> The [[Soviet state]] was considered as the source of human rights.<ref name=shiman>{{cite book | last = Shiman | first = David | title = Economic and Social Justice: A Human Rights Perspective | publisher = Amnesty International | year= 1999 | url = http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/hreduseries/tb1b/Section1/tb1-2.htm | isbn = 978-0967533407}}</ref> Therefore, the Soviet legal system considered [[law]] an arm of politics and it also considered courts agencies of the government.<ref name="Pipes"/> Extensive [[Extrajudicial punishment|extrajudicial powers]] were given to the [[Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies|Soviet secret police agencies]]. In practice, the Soviet government significantly curbed the [[rule of law]], [[civil liberties]], [[Criminal justice|protection of law]] and [[Property rights|guarantees of property]],<ref name="Pipes2001">[[Richard Pipes]] (2001) ''Communism'' Weidenfeld & Nicolson. {{ISBN|0-297-64688-5}}</ref><ref name="Pipes1994">[[Richard Pipes]] (1994) ''Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime''. Vintage. {{ISBN|0-679-76184-5}}., pages 401&ndash;403.</ref> which were considered as examples of "bourgeois morality" by Soviet law theorists such as [[Andrey Vyshinsky]].<ref name="Vyshinsky1949">{{Cite book|title = Teoria dowodów sądowych w prawie radzieckim|last = Wyszyński|first = Andrzej|publisher = Biblioteka Zrzeszenia Prawników Demokratów|year = 1949|pages = 153, 162|url = http://echelon.pl/files/echelon/Wyszy%C5%84ski%20-%20Teoria%20dowod%C3%B3w%20s%C4%85dowych%20(OCR).pdf}}</ref>

The USSR and other countries in the [[Eastern Bloc|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.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Mary Ann Glendon| title = A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights| publisher = Random House| location = New York| year = 2001| isbn = 9780375760464}}</ref>{{rp|167–169}} 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.<ref name=thomas-hrideas>{{Cite journal| volume = 7| issue = 2| pages = 110–141| last = Thomas| first = Daniel C.| title = Human Rights Ideas, the Demise of Communism, and the End of the Cold War| journal = Journal of Cold War Studies| year = 2005| url = http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cws/summary/v007/7.2thomas.html| doi=10.1162/1520397053630600| s2cid = 57570614}}</ref>{{rp|117}} Under [[Joseph Stalin]], the [[death penalty]] was extended to adolescents as young as 12 years old in 1935.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mccauley |first1=Martin |title=Stalin and Stalinism: Revised 3rd Edition |date=13 September 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-86369-4 |page=49 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oQ7dAAAAQBAJ&dq=stalin+death+penalty+12+years+old&pg=PA49 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wright |first1=Patrick |title=Iron Curtain: From Stage to Cold War |date=28 October 2009 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-162284-7 |page=342 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ps5wZUFnE7IC&dq=stalin+death+penalty+12+years+old&pg=PA342 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Boobbyer |first1=Philip |title=The Stalin Era |date=2000 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-18298-0 |page=160 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYMsIE5KjmMC&dq=stalin+death+penalty+12+years+old+boys&pg=PA160 |language=en}}</ref>

[[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".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://grani.ru/Society/History/m.243716.html | title=Засчитать поражение | publisher=Grani.ru | date=2015-08-22 | access-date=August 23, 2015 | author=Oleg Pshenichnyi}}</ref>

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, [[Speculation|a desire to make a profit]] could be interpreted as a [[Counter-revolutionary|counter-revolutionary activity]] punishable by death.<ref name="Pipes"/> [[Dekulakization|The liquidation and deportation of millions of peasants in 1928&ndash;31]] was carried out within the terms of the Soviet Civil Code.<ref name="Pipes">[[Richard Pipes]] ''Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime'', Vintage books, Random House Inc., New York, 1995, {{ISBN|0-394-50242-6}}, pages 402&ndash;403</ref> Some Soviet legal scholars even said that "criminal repression" may be applied in the absence of guilt.<ref name="Pipes"/> [[Martin Latsis]], chief of [[Soviet Ukraine]]'s [[Cheka|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 [[social class|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]]."<ref name="State">[[Yevgenia Albats]] and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. ''The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia &ndash; Past, Present, and Future'', 1994. {{ISBN|0-374-52738-5}}.</ref>

The purpose of [[Show trial|public trials]] was "not to demonstrate the existence or absence of a crime &ndash; that was predetermined by the appropriate [[CPSU|party authorities]] &ndash; but to provide yet another forum for [[Soviet propaganda|political agitation and propaganda]] for the instruction of the citizenry (see [[Moscow Trials]] for example). Defense lawyers, who had to be [[CPSU|party members]], were required to take their client's guilt for granted..."<ref name="Pipes"/>

==Freedom of political expression==
{{Main article|Soviet political repressions}}
In the 1930s and 1940s, political repression was widely  practiced by the Soviet [[secret police]] services, [[OGPU]] and [[NKVD]].<ref>[[Anton Antonov-Ovseenko]] ''Beria'' (Russian) Moscow, AST, 1999. [http://fictionbook.ru/author/antonov_ovseenko_anton/beriya/antonov_ovseenko_beriya.html Russian text online]</ref> 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.<ref name="Informants">Koehler, John O. Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police. Westview Press. 2000. {{ISBN|0-8133-3744-5}}</ref>

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 class]]es, which Marxism considered antagonistic to the class of the [[proletariat]]. The legal basis of the repression was formalized into [[Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code)|Article 58]] in the code of the [[RSFSR]] and similar articles for other [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet republic]]s. [[Aggravation of class struggle under socialism]] was proclaimed during the Stalinist terror.

==Freedom of literary and scientific expression==
{{Main article|Suppressed research in the Soviet Union|Socialist Realism}}
[[Censorship in the Soviet Union]] was pervasive and strictly enforced.<ref name="FreeSpeech">[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former). Chapter 9 – Mass Media and the Arts. The Library of Congress. Country Studies]</ref> 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 research in the Soviet Union|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 "[[Wrecking (Soviet crime)|wreckers]]" or [[enemy of the people|enemies of the people]] and imprisoned. Some scientists worked as prisoners in "[[Sharashka]]s" (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.<ref name="BDDSU">[https://books.google.com/books?id=1IQzecjGQX0C ''Biographical Dictionary of Dissidents in the Soviet Union, 1956–1975''] By S. P. de Boer, E. J. Driessen, H. L. Verhaar; {{ISBN|90-247-2538-0}}; p. 652</ref>

==Right to vote==
{{Main article|Soviet democracy}}
According to [[Soviet propaganda|communist ideologists]], the Soviet political system was a true democracy, where [[workers' council]]s ("[[soviet (council)|soviet]]s") represented the will of the working class. In particular, the [[1936 Soviet Constitution|Soviet Constitution of 1936]] guaranteed direct [[universal suffrage]] with a [[secret ballot]].<ref name=StalinHoward>Stalin, quoted in [http://cfbh.org/en/lcm.php?./online/StalinHoward/StHo-02-interview.wiki ''IS WAR INEVITABLE? being the full text of the interview given by JOSEPH STALIN to ROY HOWARD''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216073754/http://cfbh.org/en/lcm.php?.%2Fonline%2FStalinHoward%2FStHo-02-interview.wiki |date=2018-12-16 }} as recorded by K. UMANSKY, Friends of the Soviet Union, London, 1936</ref> Practice, however, departed from principle. For example, all candidates were selected by Communist Party organizations, until [[Demokratizatsiya (Soviet Union)|democratization]] and the [[1989 Soviet Union legislative election|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: [[1936 Soviet Constitution|a model constitution]] adopted in [[Great purge|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."<ref name="reflections">[[Robert Conquest]] ''Reflections on a Ravaged Century'' (2000) {{ISBN|0-393-04818-7}}, page 97</ref>

==Economic rights==
{{See also|Property rights|Shortage economy|Second economy of the Soviet Union|Consumer goods in the Soviet Union}}

[[Personal property]] was allowed with limitations. [[Real property]] mostly belonged to the State.<ref name="feld">{{cite book | last = Feldbrugge, Simons | title = Human Rights in Russia and Eastern Europe: essays in honor of Ger P. van den Berg | publisher = Kluwer Law International | year= 2002| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pbp51bthZucC | isbn = 978-90-411-1951-3}}</ref>  Many forms of private trade with the intent of gaining profit were considered "[[speculation]]" ({{langx|ru|спекуляция}}) and banned as a criminal offense to be punished with fines, imprisonment, confiscation and/or [[Corrective labor colony|corrective labor]]. "Speculation" was specifically defined in article 154 of the Penal Code of the USSR.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Статья 154. Спекуляция ЗАКОН РСФСР от 27-10-60 ОБ УТВЕРЖДЕНИИ УГОЛОВНОГО КОДЕКСА РСФСР (вместе с УГОЛОВНЫМ КОДЕКСОМ РСФСР) |url=https://zakonbase.ru/content/part/417416 |access-date=2020-05-02 |website=zakonbase.ru}}</ref> Health, housing, education, and nutrition were formally guaranteed through the provision of full employment and economic welfare structures,<ref name="feld"/> 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 [[:Category:Famines in the Soviet Union|Soviet famines]].<ref>Davies and Wheatcroft, p. 401. For a review, see {{cite web | url = http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/faculty/harrison/reviews/davies-wheatcroft2004.pdf | publisher = Warwick | title = Davies & Weatcroft, 2004}}</ref>  The 1932–33 famine was caused primarily by [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|Soviet-mandated collectivization]],<ref>{{cite web | title = Ukrainian Famine | url = http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/famine.html | access-date=2011-04-21 | work=Ibiblio public library and digital archive}}</ref> although the famine in part was also caused by natural conditions.<ref name="Davies & Wheatcroft 2009">{{cite book|last1=Davies|first1=Robert W.|last2=Wheatcroft|first2=Stephen G.|year=2009|title=The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture 1931–1933|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|page=xv|doi=10.1057/9780230273979|isbn=9780230238558}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=An Economic History of the USSR 1917–1951|last=Nove|first=Alec|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1952|pages=373–375}}</ref> In response to frequent [[Shortage economy|shortages]], massive [[Second economy of the Soviet Union|second economy]] existed for all categories of goods and services.<ref name="treale">Vladimir G. Treml and Michael V. Alexeev,[https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1993-900-03-Treml.pdf "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.</ref>

==Freedoms of assembly and association==
Workers were not allowed to organize free [[Trade union|union]]s. [[Trade unions in the Soviet Union|All existing unions]] were organized and controlled by the state.<ref name="Unions">[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former). Chapter 5. Trade Unions. The Library of Congress. Country Studies. 2005.]</ref> 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.<ref name="BDDSU"/> Organizing in camps could bring the death penalty.<ref name="BDDSU"/>

==Freedom of religion==
[[File:Astrakhan Temple of St Vladimira.jpg|thumb|St. Vladimir's Cathedral in [[Astrakhan]], which served as a bus station in Soviet times.]]
{{Main article|Religion in the Soviet Union}}
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.

Some actions against Orthodox priests and believers included torture; being sent to [[gulags|prison camps]], [[sharashka|labour camps]], or [[Psikhushka|mental hospitals]]; and execution.<ref>Father Arseny 1893–1973 Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father. Introduction pg. vi–1. St Vladimir's Seminary Press {{ISBN|0-88141-180-9}}</ref><ref name="lalex">[http://www.memo.ru/history/DISS/books/ALEXEEWA/ L.Alexeeva, History of dissident movement in the USSR, in Russian]</ref><ref name="gins">[http://www.index.org.ru/journal/11/ginzburg.html A.Ginzbourg, "Only one year", "Index" Magazine, in Russian]</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Sullivan|first=Patricia|date=2006-11-26|title=Anti-Communist Priest Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |language=en-US|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/25/AR2006112500783.html|access-date=2020-11-24|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> Many Orthodox (along with peoples of other faiths) were also subjected to [[psychological punishment]] or torture and [[Brainwashing|mind control]] experimentation in an attempt to force them give up their religious convictions (see [[Punitive psychiatry in the Soviet Union]]).<ref name="lalex"/><ref name="gins"/><ref>Dumitru Bacu (1971) ''[http://litek.ws/k0nsl/detox/anti-humans.htm The Anti-Humans. Student Re-Education in Romanian Prisons] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927051409/http://litek.ws/k0nsl/detox/anti-humans.htm |date=2007-09-27 }}'', Soldiers of the Cross, [[Englewood, Colorado]]. Originally written in Romanian as ''Piteşti, Centru de Reeducare Studenţească'', Madrid, 1963</ref><ref>[[Adrian Cioroianu]], ''Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc'' ("On the Shoulders of Marx. An Incursion into the History of Romanian Communism"), [[Editura Curtea Veche]], Bucharest, 2005</ref>

Practicing Orthodox Christians were restricted from prominent careers and membership in communist organizations (e.g. the party and the [[Komsomol]]). Anti-religious propaganda was openly sponsored and encouraged by the government, to which the Church was not given an opportunity to publicly respond. Seminaries were closed down, and the church was restricted from publishing materials. Atheism was propagated through schools, communist organizations, and the media. Organizations such as the [[Society of the Godless]] were created.

==Freedom of movement==
[[File:19730110 Soviet refuseniks demonstrate at MVD.jpg|thumb|January 10, 1973. Jewish [[refusenik]]s demonstrate in front of the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union)|Ministry of Internal Affairs]] for the right to emigrate to [[Israel]].|305x305px]]
{{See also|Passport system in the Soviet Union|Population transfer in the Soviet Union}}

The [[passport system in the Soviet Union]] restricted migration of citizens within the country through the "[[propiska in the Soviet Union|propiska]]" (residential permit/registration system) and the use of [[internal passport]]s. For a long period of Soviet history, peasants did not have [[internal passport]]s, and could not move into towns without permission. Many former inmates received "[[wolf ticket (Russia)|wolf ticket]]s" and were only allowed to live a minimum of [[101st kilometre|101 km away from city borders]]. Travel to [[Closed city|closed cities]] and to the regions near USSR state borders was strongly restricted. An attempt to illegally escape abroad was punishable by imprisonment for 1–3 years.<ref name="BDDSU"/>

== Human rights movement ==
{{Main article|Human rights movement in the Soviet Union}}Human rights activists in the Soviet Union were regularly subjected to harassment, repressions and arrests. In several cases, only the public profile of individual human rights campaigners such as [[Andrei Sakharov]] helped prevent a complete shutdown of the movement's activities.

A more organized human rights movement in the USSR grew out of the current of dissent of the late 1960s and 1970s known as "rights defenders (''pravozashchitniki'').<ref name=horvath-legacy>{{Cite book| publisher = RoutledgeCurzon| isbn = 9780203412855| last = Horvath| first = Robert| title = The Legacy of Soviet Dissent: Dissidents, Democratisation and Radical Nationalism in Russia| location = London; New York| year = 2005| chapter = The rights-defenders | pages = 70–129}}</ref> Its most important [[samizdat]] publication, the ''[[Chronicle of Current Events]]'',<ref>[https://chronicle6883.wordpress.com/ ''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (in English)]</ref> circulated its first number 
in April 1968, after the United Nations declared that it would be the International Year for Human Rights (20 years since Universal Declaration was issued), and continued for the next 15 years until closed down in 1983.

A succession of dedicated human rights groups were set up after 1968: the [[Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR|Action Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR]] went public in May 1969 with an appeal to the [[UN Human Rights Committee]];<ref>[https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2013/09/28/8-10-appeal-to-the-un-commission-on-human-rights/ An appeal to the UN Commission on Human Rights", ''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (8.10), 30 June 1969].</ref> the [[Committee on Human Rights in the USSR]] was established in 1970;<ref>[https://chronicle6883.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/17-4-the-committee-for-human-rights-in-the-ussr/ "The Committee for Human Rights in the USSR", ''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (17.4), 31 December 1970.]</ref> and a Soviet section of [[Amnesty International]] appeared in 1973. The groups variously wrote appeals, collected signatures for petitions, and attended trials.

The eight member countries of the [[Warsaw Pact]] signed the [[Helsinki Final Act]] in August 1975. The "third basket" of the Final Act included extensive human rights clauses.<ref name="thomas-effect">{{Cite book|publisher = Princeton University Press|isbn = 9780691048598|last = Thomas|first = Daniel C.|title = The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights, and the Demise of Communism|location = Princeton, N.J|year = 2001}}</ref>{{rp|99–100}} In the years 1976–77, several "Helsinki Watch Groups" emerged in the USSR, to monitor the Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Final Act.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190212044957/https://chronicleofcurrentevents.net/2017/02/22/40-13-a-new-public-association-the-moscow-helsinki-group/ "A new public association", A Chronicle of Current Events (40.13), 12 May 1976]}}.</ref> The first group was the Moscow Helsinki Group, followed by groups in Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia and Armenia.<ref name="thomas-helsinki2">{{Cite book|publisher = Princeton University Press|isbn = 978-0691048581|last = Thomas|first = Daniel C.|title = The Helsinki effect: international norms, human rights, and the demise of communism|location = Princeton, N.J|year = 2001}}</ref>{{rp|159–194}} They succeeded in unifying different branches of the human rights movement.<ref name="thomas-effect" />{{rp|159–166}} Similar initiatives began in Soviet [[satellite states]], such as [[Charter 77]] in the [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]].

Over the next two years the Helsinki Groups would be harassed and threatened by the Soviet authorities and eventually forced to close down their activities, as leading activists were arrested, put on trial and imprisoned or pressured into leaving the country. By 1979, all had ceased to function.

==Perestroika and human rights==
{{Main|Perestroika}}
The period from April 1985 to December 1991 witnessed dramatic change in the USSR.

In February 1987 [[KGB]] Chairman [[Viktor Chebrikov|Victor Chebrikov]] reported to Soviet General Secretary [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] that 288 people were serving sentences for offenses committed under Articles 70, 190-1 and 142 of the RSFSR Criminal Code; a third of those convicted were being held in psychiatric hospitals.<ref>[https://bukovsky-archive.com/2016/07/03/1-february-1987-183-ch/ Bukovsky Archive, KGB report to Gorbachev, 1 February 1987 (183-Ch)].</ref> Most were released during the course of the year, spurred on by the death in prison of veteran dissident [[Anatoly Marchenko]] in December 1986.<ref>[https://vesti-iz-sssr.com/2017/01/15/osvobozhdenie-politzekov-1987-3-1/ "Release of a large group of political prisoners", ''Vesti iz SSSR'', 1987 (15 February, 3.1)] in Russian.</ref> Soon ethnic minorities, confessional groups and entire nations were asserting their rights, respectively, to cultural autonomy, freedom of religion and, led by the [[Baltic states]], to national independence.

Just as [[glasnost]] did not represent "freedom of speech", so attempts by activists to hold their own events and create independent associations and political movements met with disapproval and obstruction from Gorbachev and his Politburo. Early in December 1987 [[Shevardnadze]], [[Yakovlev]] and Chebrikov reported on a proposed human rights seminar to be held in Moscow on 10–14 December 1987 with guests from abroad, and suggested ways of undermining, restricting and containing the event organised by former Soviet dissidents.<ref>[https://bukovsky-archive.com/2017/04/29/04-december-1987-2451-ch/ Bukovsky Archive, report by Shevardnadze, Yakovlev and Chebrikov, 4 December 1987 (2451-Ch)].</ref> The reaction to a similar proposal seven months later was much the same.<ref>[https://bukovsky-archive.com/2016/07/03/27-july-1988-1541-k/ Bukovsky Archive, Kryuchkov to Politburo, 27 July 1988 (1541-K)].</ref> As they conceded more and more of the rights over which the Communists had established their monopoly in the 1920s, events and organisations not initiated or overseen by the regime were frowned on and discouraged by the supposedly liberal authorities of the brief and ambivalent period of [[perestroika]] and official [[glasnost]].

In the remaining two and a half years the rate of change accelerated. The [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|Congress of People's Deputies]] held its second autumnal session in 1989 during a nationwide miners' strike. One consequence was the abolition in March 1990 of [[Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution]] (1977), which had explicitly established the primacy of the Communist Party within the Soviet State, a hitherto unspoken but all-pervasive dominance of the system.

The authorities formed units of riot police [[OMON]] to deal with the mounting protests and rallies across the USSR. In Moscow, these culminated in a vast demonstration in January 1991, denouncing the actions of Gorbachev and his administration. The demonstrations in [[January Events|Lithuania]], [[April 9 tragedy|Tbilisi]], [[Black January|Baku]] and [[1990 Dushanbe riots|Tajikistan]] have been suppressed resulting in deaths of many protesters.<ref>{{cite web|author=Подрабинек, Александр|script-title=ru:Буковский против Горбачева. Не юбилейные показания|trans-title=Bukovsky vs Gorbachev. Non-jubilee testimonies|url=http://ru.rfi.fr/rossiya/20110330-bukovskii-protiv-gorbacheva-ne-yubileinye-pokazaniya|publisher=[[Radio France Internationale]]|language=ru|date=30 March 2011}}</ref><ref>[https://bukovsky-archive.com/2016/07/10/23-january-1991-pb-223/ Bukovsky Archive, Moscow Party committee to CPSU Central Committee, 23 January 1991 (Pb 223)]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Human rights movement in the Soviet Union]]
*[[Criticism of Communist party rule]]
*[[Human rights in Russia]] 
*[[Racism in Russia]]
*[[Political repression in the Soviet Union]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|title=Denial of human rights to Jews in the Soviet Union: hearings, Ninety-second Congress, first session. May 17, 1971|date=1971|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ykY1AAAAIAAJ}}
* {{cite book|title=Human rights–Ukraine and the Soviet Union: hearing and markup before the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations, House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, First Session, on H. Con. Res. 111, H. Res. 152, H. Res. 193, July 28, July 30, and September 17, 1981|date=1982|publisher=[[U.S. Government Printing Office]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1OmFqg6QYYC}}
* {{cite magazine|title=Human rights: the dissidents v. Moscow|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=21 February 1977|volume=109|issue=8|pages=28|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918665,00.html}}
*Applebaum, Anne (2003) ''[[Gulag: A History]]''. Broadway Books. {{ISBN|0-7679-0056-1}}
* {{cite journal|author=Boim, Leon|title=Human rights in the USSR|journal=Review of Socialist Law|date=1976|volume=2|issue=1|pages=173–187|doi=10.1163/157303576X00157}}
* {{cite book|author=Chalidze, Valeriĭ|title=Important aspects of human rights in the Soviet Union; a report to the Human Rights Committee|date=1971|publisher=American Jewish Committee|location=New York|oclc=317422393}}
* {{cite journal|author=Chalidze, Valery|title=The right of a convicted citizen to leave his country|journal=[[Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review]]|date=January 1973|volume=8|issue=1|pages=1–13|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/hcrcl8&div=4}}
*Conquest, Robert (1991) ''[[The Great Terror]]: A Reassessment''. Oxford University Press {{ISBN|0-19-507132-8}}.
*Conquest, Robert (1986) ''[[The Harvest of Sorrow]]: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-505180-7}}.
* {{cite book|author=Daniel, Thomas|title=The Helsinki effect: international norms, human rights, and the demise of communism|date=2001|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691048598|location=Princeton, N. J.}}
* {{cite journal|author=Dean, Richard|title=Contacts with the West: the dissidents' view of Western support for the human rights movement in the Soviet Union|journal=Universal Human Rights|date=January–March 1980|volume=2|issue=1|pages=47–65|doi=10.2307/761802|jstor=761802}}
* {{cite journal|author=Fryer, Eugene|title=Soviet human rights: law and politics in perspective|journal=[[Law and Contemporary Problems]]|date=Spring 1979|volume=43|issue=2|pages=296–307|jstor=1191202|doi=10.2307/1191202|url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol43/iss2/14}}
* {{cite journal|author=Graubert, Judah|title=Human rights problems in the Soviet Union|journal=Journal of Intergroup Relations|date=October 1972|volume=2|issue=2|pages=24–31|url=http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ068188}}
* {{cite journal|author=Johns, Michael|title=Seventy years of evil: Soviet crimes from Lenin to Gorbachev|journal=[[Policy Review]]|date=Fall 1987|pages=10–23}}
*Khlevniuk, Oleg & Kozlov, Vladimir (2004) ''The History of the Gulag : From Collectivization to the Great Terror (Annals of Communism Series)'' Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-09284-9}}.
* {{cite book|author=Samatan, Marie|title=Droits de l'homme et répression en URSS: l'appareil et les victimes|trans-title=Human rights and repression in the USSR: mechanism and victims|date=1980|publisher=Seuil|location=Paris|language=fr|isbn=978-2020057059}}
*Pipes, Richard (2001) ''Communism'' Weidenfled and Nicoloson. {{ISBN|0-297-64688-5}}
*Pipes, Richard (1994) ''Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime''. Vintage. {{ISBN|0-679-76184-5}}.
*Rummel, R.J. (1996) ''Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917''. Transaction Publishers. {{ISBN|1-56000-887-3}}.
*{{cite book|author=Szymanski, Albert|title=Human rights: the USA and the USSR compared|date=1984|publisher=Lawrence Hill & Co|isbn=978-0882081588}}
*Yakovlev, Alexander (2004). ''A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia.'' Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-10322-0}}.

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071008041146/http://www.demokratizatsiya.org/Dem%20Archives/DEM%2001-04%20armes.pdf Chekists in Cassocks: The Orthodox Church and the KGB] – by Keith Armes.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110727211257/http://www.regels.org/humanright.htm G.Yakunin, l.Regelson. Letters from Moscow. Religion and Human Rights in USSR.] – Keston College Edition.
*[http://naitused.humanrightsestonia.ee/soviet/en/ Human Rights in the Soviet Society]: - virtual exhibition about the Human Rights in the Soviet Society, by the Estonian Institute of Human Rights

{{Soviet Union topics}}
{{Human rights in Europe}}{{Asia topic|Human rights in}}{{Fall of Communism}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Human Rights In The Soviet Union}}
[[Category:Human rights in the Soviet Union| ]]