Northern (N): Soviet Union (NS). Crime and Punishment

A file of correspondence and reports concerning justice in the Soviet Union. The documents contain a report produced by the American Bureau of Intelligence and Research on "popular justice" in the Soviet Union. This report covers how the Soviet government has sought to transfer the control of justice in the Soviet Union away from the state; how the Soviet government has introduced several alternative forms of "preventive and correctional justice"; and how the number of cases brought to criminal courts in the Soviet Union fell by twenty percent in 1959 when compared with 1958. The report also discusses how the present Soviet campaign in support of "popular justice" has manifested in the creation of several new bodies, including "voluntary people's guards" and "comrades' courts", designed to try and punish those accused of minor offences. Other documents feature the Soviet government's attempt to punish those convicted of "avoiding socially useful work".