Kilde: Dekret fra Centralkomiteen vedrørende terror på landet, maj 1933

SECRET
Not for publication
INSTRUCTIONS
To all party-soviet officials and to all organs of the OGPU, the courts, and the procuracy.

The desperate resistance of the kulaks to the kolkhoz movement of the toiling peasants, already in full swing at the end of 1929 and taking the form of arson and terror against kolkhoz officials, has made it necessary for Soviet authorities to resort to mass arrests and harsh measures of repression in the form of mass expulsions of kulaks and their henchmen to northern and remote regions.

The continued resistance by kulak elements – taking the form of sabotage within the kolkhozy and sovkhozy, a fact brought to light in 1932, the mass plundering of kolkhoz and sovkhoz property – have made necessary the further intensification of repressive measures against kulak elements, against thieves and saboteurs of every stripe.

Thus the past three years of our work in the countryside have been years struggle for the liquidation of the kulaks and for the victory of the kolkhozy. 

And these three years of struggle have led to the crushing defeat of the forces of our class enemies in the countryside, to the definitive consolidation of our Soviet socialist positions in the countryside…

The Central Committee and the Council of People’s Commisars (SNK) [the government] are of the opinion that, as a result of our successes in the countryside, the moment has come when we are no longer in need of mass repression, which affects, as is well known, not only the kulaks but also independent peasants [edinilichniki] and some kolkhoz members as well.

True, demands for mass expulsions from the countryside and for the use of harsh forms of repression continue to come in from a number of regions, while petitions by others for the expulsions of one hundred thousand families from their regions and territories are presently in the possession of the Central Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars. Information has been received by the Central Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars that makes it evident that disorderly arrests on a massive scale are still being carried out by our officials in the countryside. Arrests are being carried out by chairmen of village soviets, by the secretaries of cells and by district and territorial commissioners. Anyone who feels like arresting does so, including those who have, properly speaking, no right whatsoever to make arrests. It is no wonder, therefore, that with such an orgy of arrests, the organs [of state] having the right to make arrests, including the organs of the OGPU and especially of the police [militsiia], have lost all sense of proportion. More often than not, they will arrest people for no reason at all, acting in accordance with the principle; “Arrest first, ask questions later!”.

What does all this mean?

It means that now a few comrades in certain regions and territories have yet to understand the new situation. They still live in the past…

It looks as if these comrades are willing to replace and are already replacing the political work conducted among the masses and designed to isolate the kulaks and antikolkhoz elements by the administrative-chekist “operations” of organs of the GPU and the regular police. They do not understand that if this kind of action took on a massive character to any extent, it could nullify the influence of our party in the countryside.

These comrades apparently do not understand that these tactics of massive deportation of the peasants outside their regions has, in the new circumstances, already outlived itself, that such deportation can only be applied on an individual and partial basis and then applied to the leaders and organizers of the struggle against the kolkhozy.

These comrades do not understand that the methods of mass, disorderly arrests – if this can be considered a method – represents, in light of the new situation, only liabilities, which diminish the authority of Soviet Power. They do not understand that making arrests ought to be limited and carried out under the strict control of the appropriate organs. They do not understand that the arrests must be directed solely against active enemies of Soviet Power.

The Central Committee and the Council of People´s Commissars do not doubt but that all these errors and deviations from the party line and others like them will be eliminated as soon as possible.

It would be wrong to assume that the new situation and the necessary transition to new methods of operation signify the elimination or even the relaxation of the class struggle in the countryside. On the contrary, the class struggle in the countryside will inevitably become more acute. It will become more acute because the class enemy sees that the kolkhozy have triumphed, that the days of his existence are numbered, and he cannot grasp – out of sheer desperation – at the harshest forms of struggle against the Soviet power. For this reason there can be no question at all of relaxing our struggle against the class enemy. On the contrary, out struggle must be intensified with all the means at our disposal and our vigilance must be sharpened to the utmost. Therefore we are talking here about intensifying our struggle against the class enemy. The point, however, is that in the present situation it is impossible to intensify the struggle against the class enemy and to liquidate him with the aid of old methods of operation because these methods have outlived their usefulness. The point therefore is to improve the old methods of struggle, to streamline them, to make each of our blows more organized and better targeted, to politically prepare each blow in advance, to reinforce each blow with the actions of the broad masses of the peasantry. For only through such improvement in the methods of our operation can the definitive liquidation of the class enemy in the countryside be accomplished…

The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) and the Council of People’s Commissars decree:

I. ON DISCONTINUING THE MASS EXPULSIONS OF PEASANTS

All mass expulsions of peasants are to cease at once. Expulsions are to be permitted only on a case-by-case and partial basis and only with respect to those households whose heads are waging an active struggle against the sowing of crops and their purchase by the state…

II. ON REGULATING THE MAKING OF ARRESTS

1. All persons who are not fully authorized by law to make arrests, namely, the chairman of District Executive Committees (RIK), district and territorial commissioners, chairmen of village soviets, chairmen of kolhozy and kolkhoz associations, secretaries of cells, and others, are prohibited from doing so.
   
   Arrests may be carried out solely by organs of the procuracy, by organs of the OGPU, or by head of police.
   
   Investigators may make arrests only with the preliminary sanction of the procurator.
   
   Arrests carried out by heads of police are to be sanctioned or revoked by the district commissioners of the OGPU or by the corresponding procuracy within 48 hours after said arrest. 
    
2. The organs of the procuracy, the OGPU, and the police are prohibited from taking a person into preventive custody prior to trial for petty crimes. 
   
   Only persons accused of counterrevolution, terroristic acts, sabotage, gangsterism, robbery, espionage, border crossing and smuggling of contraband, murder, grave bodily injury, grand larceny and embezzlement, professional speculation in goods, speculation in foreign exchange, counterfeiting, malicious hooliganism, and professional recidivism may be taken into preventive custody.
    
3. The organs of the OGPU are to obtain the prior consent of the directorate of the procuracy when making arrests, except in cases involving terroristic acts, explosions, arson, espionage, defection, political gangsterism, and counterrevolutionary, antiparty groups…
    
4. The procurator of the USSR and the OGPU are under obligation to guarantee the strict implementation of the instruction of 1922 pertaining to the procurator’s control over the making of arrests and the maintenance in custody of persons arrested by the OGPU.

III. ON REDUCING THE POPULATION OF PLACES OF CONFINEMENT

1. The maximum number of persons that may be held in custody in places of confinement [fænglser] attached to the People’s Commissariat for Justice (NKYu), the OGPU, and the Chief Directorate of the Police, other than in camps an colonies, is not to exceed 400 thousand persons for the entire Soviet Union.
   
   The procurator of the USSR, along with the OGPU, is to determine within the next 20 days the maximum number of prisoners for each of the republics and regions (territories), proceeding from the base figure above.
   
   The OGPU, the People’s Commissariat for Justice of each of the Union republics, and the Procuracy of the USSR are to proceed immediately to reduce the population of places of confinement. The total number of those confined is to be reduced within the next two months from the current figure of 800,000 to 400,000 persons.
   
   The Procuracy of the USSR is charged with the responsibility for carrying out this decree to the letter. 
    
2. A maximum number of persons kept in each given place of confinement is to be established, proceeding from the base figure of 400,000 above.
   
   The superintendents of places of confinement are prohibited from taking prisoners in excess of the maximum number that has been established.
    
3. The maximum period for holding a person in custody in police lockups is to be three days. Those incarcerated are to be provided with bread rations without fail.
    
4. The OGPU and the People’s Commissariat for Justice of each of the republics, as well as the Procuracy of the USSR, are to immediately reexamine the cases of those under arrest and under investigation, with a view to replacing their state custody with some other preventive measure (such as release on bail, on surety, or on their own recognizance). This is to apply to all cases except those involving particularly dangerous elements.
    
5. The following measures are to be taken with respect to those convicted: 
   
   a) All persons convicted to a term of up to 3 years of imprisonment are to have their sentence commuted to 1 year of forced labour, with the remaining 2 years of probation.
   b) Persons convicted to a term of 3 to 5 years of imprisonment, inclusively, are to be assigned to the labour settlements of the OGPU.
   c) Persons convicted to a term of over 5 years are to be assigned to OGPU camps.
   d) Kulaks convicted to terms of 3 to 5 years, inclusively, are to be assigned to labor settlements along with their dependents…

Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR
V. Molotov (Skriabin)
Secretary of the Central Committee of the VKP(b)

I. Stalin
8. May 1933.