Part 2 of more, see my profile for previous.
This is section 1. I'll add bold text for emphasis here and there.
"Article 58 consisted of fourteen sections. In Section 1 we learn that any action (and, according to Aritcle 6 of the Criminal Code, any absence of action) directed toward the weakening of state power was considered to be counterrevolutionary.
Broadly interpreted, this turned out to include the refusal of prisoner camp work when in a state of starvation and exhaustion. This was a weakening of state power. And it was punished by execution.(The execution of malingerers during the war.)
From 1934 on, when we were given back the term Motherland, subsections were inserted on treason to the Motherland- 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d. According to these subsections, all actions directed against the military might of the U.S.S.R. were punishable by execution (1b), or by ten years' imprisonment (1a), but the lighter penalty was imposed only when mitigating circumstances were present and upon civilians only.
Broadly interpreted: when our soldiers were sentenced to only 10 years for allowing themselves to be taken prisoner (actions injurious to Soviet military might) this was humanitarian to the point of being illegal. According to the Stalinist code, they should all have been shot on their return home.
...
One important additional broadening of the section on treason was its application 'via Article 19 of the Criminal Code'--'via intent.' In other words, no treason had taken place; but the interrogator envisioned an intention to betray--- and that was enough to justify a full term, the same as for actual treason. True, Article 19 proposes that there be no penalty for intent, but only for preparation, but given a dialectical reading one can understand intention as preparation. And 'preparation is punished in the same way [i.e., with the same penalty] as the crime itself.'(Criminal Code).
In general, 'we draw no distinction between intention and the crime itself, and this is an instance of the superiority of Soviet legislation to bourgeois legislation.'"
Part 2 of more, see my profile for previous.
This is section 1. I'll add bold text for emphasis here and there.
"Article 58 consisted of fourteen sections. In Section 1 we learn that ****any action (and, according to Aritcle 6 of the Criminal Code, any absence of action) directed toward the weakening of state power was considered to be counterrevolutionary.****
Broadly interpreted, this turned out to include the refusal of prisoner camp work when in a state of starvation and exhaustion. This was a weakening of state power. ****And it was punished by execution.****(The execution of malingerers during the war.)
From 1934 on, when we were given back the term **Motherland,** subsections were inserted on **treason to the Motherland-** 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d. According to these subsections, all actions directed against the military might of the U.S.S.R. were punishable by execution (1b), or by ten years' imprisonment (1a), but the lighter penalty was imposed only when mitigating circumstances were present and upon civilians only.
Broadly interpreted: when our soldiers were sentenced to only 10 years for allowing themselves to be taken prisoner (actions injurious to Soviet military might) this was humanitarian to the point of being illegal. According to the Stalinist code, they should all have been shot on their return home.
...
One important additional broadening of the section on treason was its application 'via Article 19 of the Criminal Code'--'via intent.' ****In other words, no treason had taken place; but the interrogator envisioned an intention to betray--- and that was enough to justify a full term, the same as for actual treason.**** True, Article 19 proposes that there be no penalty for intent, but only for **preparation,** ****but given a dialectical reading one can understand intention as preparation.**** And 'preparation is punished in the same way [i.e., with the same penalty] as the crime itself.'(Criminal Code).
In general, ****'we draw no distinction between intention and the crime itself, and this is an instance of the superiority of Soviet legislation to bourgeois legislation.'"****
Thanks for posting this. I tried really hard to get past Chapter 15, but I just couldn't take it anymore. Thanks for the Cliff Notes version.
I omitted a short story of a polish man who was imprisoned for treason after the part of Poland he lived in was absorbed by the soviets.