How the USSR fought against bribery, and how the country's party elite was corrupted

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

There have always been corrupt officials in Russia. Even capital punishment did not deter citizens from abuses. In Soviet society, where everyone was a priori equal, there was always someone who wanted to stand out. And even if the authorities demonstrated political will in an effort to eradicate bribery and extortion, corrupt officials began to act like a real gang, covering each other, bribing judges and investigators. And even though not everyone was punished, but the loudest trials were rather indicative, from time to time rather cunning corruption chains unraveled.

The worst punishment for a party corruptor

After Stalin, the level of Soviet corruption increased manifold. Now the corrupt officials were no longer sent to the camps, and the maximum that threatened them was excommunication from the feeding trough. Highly corrupt officials risked only removal from office or expulsion from the party. And then in the most extreme cases. In such hothouse conditions, the party nomenklatura little by little appropriated the privilege of untouchability, becoming practically non-jurisdictional. It got to the point that, without a signal from above, law enforcement officers did not have the right to initiate criminal cases against criminals from the top management.

The fight against corruption in the state was regulated exclusively by the party, which is why it logically acquired the signs of company behavior. The country was divided into spheres of influence according to the principle of distribution of scarce goods. It was during that period that the approach was formed: “there is money, but nothing to buy”. In this form, it existed until the very "shock therapy" of the Gaidar government, being replaced by another: "You can buy everything, but no money."

The absence of punishment for corrupt officials was observed until the mid-60s. The central authorities, on the other hand, used this situation as a tool to maintain obedience. At any moment it was possible to initiate an anti-corruption case against the satrap who had beaten off his hands. Thus, scarcity has become a way of earning money, and bribery and nepotism have become an instrument of loyalty.

Brezhnev initiatives

The high-profile anti-corruption processes that began closer to the 1970s were more reminiscent of the removal of unwanted people and flexing their muscles within the framework of the law. For example, the "knitwear business" under Khrushchev looked like this, when the first leader set his sights on scaring all Soviet shadow workers in one fell swoop. As a result of the arrests, which began in 1961, 700 people were imprisoned, from whom billions were seized during a search. 28 of those arrested were sentenced to death, five of whom were later pardoned.

In the same period, a loud revelation of a Moscow group led by Korshilova, the director of a Moscow department store, thundered. Investigators announced that over 5 years she had stolen state property worth more than 2 million rubles. This amount was considered "firing squad". But the patronage of the notorious minister Furtseva saved Korshilova from responsibility, and after a short time the corrupt woman was already heading another large Moscow store. Less fortunate were her two accomplices who were shot.

A more decisive opposition to Soviet corrupt officials was undertaken by Brezhnev. He considered the current trend dangerous. By that time, corruption had reached a new, republican level. The national party elites intertwined in well-developed corruption schemes with commercial and industrial circles so much that the threat of the formation of separate political associations grew until the collapse of the Union.

Theft schemes of the republican scale

When the widespread corruption in the Azerbaijani republic began to threaten the so-valued union stability, State Security General Aliyev was placed at the head of Azerbaijan. After a massive purge of personnel, he removed up to 2,000 officials from their jobs, some of whom were arrested. Such a picture temporarily lent the rotting party power a moral appeal. At the same time, the scale of corruption in the republic has not decreased. There was only a change of elites and the transfer of important positions with access to the treasury to another clan.

The new leadership enjoyed life more than ever. Everything was bought and sold not only in Azerbaijan. In 1982, the Prosecutor General of the USSR received a statement from the first secretary of the Khorezm regional party committee Khudaibergenov, in which he admitted giving them a bribe in the amount of 1.5 million rubles to the first secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan for the promised title of Hero of Socialist Labor. And the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan Kakhramanov could not explain during interrogation how he, who was born in 1940, became the owner of medals for participation in the Second World War and the defense of Khalkhin Gol. But the most ambitious case of that revelatory period was the "cotton" one.

More than half a million tons of non-existent cotton were “surrendered” to the state annually - one can only imagine how much money was stolen from the state treasury. With these funds, the Uzbek elite could afford a sweet life, willingly sharing stolen goods with the capital's authorities. Local party members, having established an almost feudal regime, disposed of the peasants as property. And the police and the prosecutor's office were tame. Local leaders owned expensive cars and wealthy mansions. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Tashkent residents alone vegetated in semi-dugouts without sewerage and running water. As a result of the investigation completed in 89, 800 cases of embezzlement and bribery were initiated, about 4 thousand people were convicted. But Karimov, who became president of Uzbekistan in 1991, decided to pardon all those involved in the case and serving sentences within the republic.

Andropov and the term for the General Secretary's son-in-law

Andropov, who came to power, focused on fighting the trade mafia. One of the first to be arrested for a bribe was the director of the first Eliseevsky grocery store. Despite the truthful testimony and assistance to law enforcement officers, he was awarded the highest measure. This arrest was followed by thousands of others. In total, about 15 thousand people from the sphere of trade were brought to justice.

But the most tangible public response was caused by the revelations of the closest circle of the first leaders. Gennady Borovin, secretary of "dear Leonid Ilyich", received 9 years in prison for abuse. He was followed, like a mere mortal, by Yuri Churbanov, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and also Brezhnev's son-in-law. With the coming to power of Gorbachev, the state suspended its sensitive fight against corruption, and later its very existence.

In tsarist Russia, Peter the Great fought corruption most actively, and for these reasons, he was unable to complete what he had begun.