The socialist system has invented an effective mechanism to minimize corruption. We can say that the large nomenklatura party workers simply had no reason to take bribes. The state already created excellent living conditions for them: special food, special medicine, special health resorts, special vehicles, special tasks.
The person in the boss's office always wants more than is. But the guilty "nomenklatura" after Stalin were no longer imprisoned, they were simply "excommunicated from the trough." And only the people did not consider it a triumph of justice when some small boss could be sent to prison for receiving a bottle of cognac, and a high-ranking leader for receiving much more expensive donations was simply sent to lead, for example, agriculture.
Khrushchev's strictness
Gradually, the party nomenklatura appropriated the privilege of untouchability. By controlling the power structures, she simply became not subject to jurisdiction. The worst thing that could await high-ranking corrupt officials was their removal from office and expulsion from the CPSU. In fact, without the approval of the party leadership, law enforcement officers could not even initiate a criminal case against any major leader. For example, the leadership of the UBKHS of the Sverdlovsk region had to obtain permission from the first secretary of the regional committee, Boris Yeltsin, in order to bring his driver to criminal responsibility.
Since the fight against corruption in the country was regulated by the party, it sometimes acquired signs of campaigning. So, one of the voluntaristic decisions of the head of state, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, was an instruction to check how much money people use to build summer cottages. Moreover, by his order, dachas could be seized without proof of guilt. With general approval, dachas were confiscated from trade workers and transferred to children's institutions.
At the initiative of Khrushchev, in the early 1960s, they again began to severely punish for economic crimes. In just one year, 183 robbers and bribe-takers were sentenced to capital punishment. The authorities again preferred to take the path of toughening penalties for economic crimes instead of correcting distortions in the economy itself. Meanwhile, these distortions became more and more painful.
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Regional kings
The so-called stagnant years further exacerbated one of the main problems of the Soviet economy - the problem of deficit. For example, this notorious shortage has become the source of the emergence of a "trade mafia" in the country. The heads of the bases, shops and restaurants acquired connections with the authorities, which protected them from increased scrutiny from the OBKhSS employees. The shadow economy was developing. "Tsekhoviks" held entire secret symposia on the exchange of experience and the division of spheres of influence, organized training for their employees.
However, stagnation reigned both in the state system and in the fight against corruption, which had become simply threatening in some republics of the Union.
A real bolt from the blue in the country was the facts of corruption in all branches of government in Uzbekistan, revealed by the investigative-operational brigade of Gdlyan and Ivanov in the "cotton case". A large-scale panorama of abuses in the cotton growing system of Uzbekistan was revealed. To conceal the records of about a million tons of cotton per year, the heads of Uzbek ginneries sent cotton waste instead of cotton to processing plants in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, the so-called lint. A bribe of 10 thousand rubles was given for the acceptance of each car of waste. As a result of these machinations, Uzbek enterprises were actually paid over three billion rubles from the state budget for air.
The ramified and corrupt system of theft was uncovered in the same 1984 in Kyrgyzstan. Only there the machinations were not connected with cotton, but with meat. The robbers established an uninterrupted and massive theft of cattle from neighboring Kazakhstan, illegally transferred sums of money for the purpose of their subsequent seizure. For bribes and gifts, these frauds were insured by the deputy prosecutor of the republic, the prosecutor and the head of the OBKhSS of the city of Tokmak.
A number of major "cotton" scandals swept across Kazakhstan. The criminal case against the Karaganda auto service caused a great resonance. According to him, the first secretary of the district committee was arrested, who, by the way, voiced a very curious theory. As if, having received more than a million rubles in bribes, he did not undermine the domestic economy at all, since he kept this money in the Savings Bank.
True, in Kazakhstan, the fight against corruption has followed the "velvet path". The prosecutor's office and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the republic decided to exempt repentant robbers and bribe-takers from criminal responsibility if their sins were not particularly grave. They even appealed to the conscience of the swindlers through the press, and this had a certain effect. Over two years in Kazakhstan, more than 15 million of stolen money was handed over. Although there are great doubts that this money was given really voluntarily.
The development of clandestine workshops was particularly widespread in the Caucasian republics: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan. And this was primarily due to the same mentality - in the Caucasus, the "tsehoviks" quickly and more successfully found mutual understanding with representatives of the authorities and law enforcement agencies.
Trade Mafia
The situation in the fight against corruption changed only when Yuri Andropov took over as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. It was he who sanctioned the attack on the "trade mafia". Loud revelations began. One of the first to be arrested was the director of the Eliseevsky grocery store No. 1 Yuri Sokolov. He was detained red-handed while receiving another bribe. Unfortunately, Sokolov was sentenced to capital punishment "as a reward" for his truthful testimony about the system of abuse and bribery in the Moscow trading network. For many, it became clear that "omerta" - the law of silence - is effective not only in the ranks of the Sicilian mafia, but also in Moscow trade. Nevertheless, high-profile processes continued. After some time, more than 15 thousand trade workers were brought to criminal responsibility in Moscow alone.
Begalman, director of the Kuibyshevsky district food service department, Filippov, director of the Novoarbatsky grocery store, Uraltsev, head of the Mosplodovoshchprom, and a number of other leaders were arrested. During the investigation, it was established that in the Moscow Glavtorg, which was headed by the unsinkable Tregubov, there was a whole system of abuse and bribery, into the sphere of which more than 700 employees were involved. Treguboe himself behaved with restraint during interrogations, admitted his abuses, but did not testify against the higher leadership in the Ministry. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Silent Cantor
Now the next in line for the law enforcement agencies was the director of the Sokolniki department store Vladimir Kantor. True, he was under the auspices of the first secretary of the Moscow City Conservatory, Grishin. The operation was started by the GUBKhSS staff when Grishin headed the government delegation to Hungary. Those who searched Kantor's apartment seemed to have ended up in an antique store. And in numerous caches they found 750 pieces of jewelry worth about a million rubles.
In the course of the investigation, it was established that in just two years of work in a department store, Kantor had embezzled several million rubles, it was also proved that he had received over twenty bribes from his subordinates, and a number of "non-judicial", but very curious facts emerged. For example, due to good relations with the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee Promyslovym, Kantor received 15 apartments from the Moscow administration for his department store and two for his sons.
Considering the sad example of Sokolov, Kantor behaved in a closed manner during the investigation. But the high patrons he had hoped for did not help. The court sentenced him to eight years of strict regime.
And yet, much greater public outcry than the fight against the "trading and fish mafias" combined, caused the exposure of abuses in the inner circle of the former Secretary General Brezhnev. Gennady Brovin was sentenced to nine years in prison, for 13 years he worked as the secretary of “dear Leonid Ilyich”. And then, like a "mere mortal", they sent to the zone of Brezhnev's son-in-law - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Yuri Churbanov.
But then Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the country. And under his careful leadership, the state first stopped fighting high-ranking corrupt officials, and then simply collapsed.
Magazine: Mysteries of History No. 35. Author: Oleg Loginov