March 27, 1953
The USSR declared a large-scale amnesty—the largest in the entire history of Russia.
The amnesty, carried out in a bid to gain popularity among the people, flooded the entire country with a wave of murderers, bandits and thieves, who were caught with difficulty after the war. (Solzhenitsyn, “The Gulag Archipelago”)
Lavrentiy Beria initiated the amnesty, and the decree was signed by Klim Voroshilov, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. This occurred less than three weeks after Stalin's funeral.
The main reason was the deep crisis of the penal system and the low productivity of forced labor in the camps. By that time, there were 2,5 млн people - every 74th resident of the country. More than 1,2 million, and taking into account minors and those removed from the register of exiles - 1,35 million
According to Beria's plan, prisoners sentenced to prison terms were released up to 5 years old which should not have posed a threat to society.
Those who committed official, economic and minor military crimes were also released.
In addition, pregnant women and mothers with children under 10 years of age were released.
The amnesty also extended to those suffering from a “serious incurable illness,” all minors, men over 55, and women over 50.
The maintenance of a large number of prisoners in camps, prisons and colonies, among whom there is a significant proportion of those convicted of crimes that do not pose a serious danger to society, including women, adolescents, the elderly and sick people, is not caused by state necessity (From Beria's note to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU)
For all other prisoners, the sentence was reduced by half (except for serious charges for counter-revolutionary crimes, large-scale theft of socialist property, banditry and premeditated murder).
It's commonly believed that the amnesty didn't affect political prisoners—there were almost half a million of them in the country. This isn't entirely true.
The decree applied to, for example, those sentenced to prison for counter-revolutionary crimes. up to 5 years. However, there were few of them: of all those convicted under this article, only 2% served such terms. 1725 people. For the rest, they were longer than 5 years. For example, those who told anti-Soviet jokes were most often sentenced to 8-10 years old.
Each amnestied prisoner was given a passport, a release certificate, a ticket home, and some money for food. However, because many camps were located in remote areas, former prisoners were transported to junction stations, where they could wait for weeks. Passersby were assaulted, and cafes and stores were raided.
Due to the shortage of transport, it was necessary to violate regulations: for example, to put men and women in the same carriage.
There was a 100% guarantee that none of the female prisoners would arrive alive. They were gang-raped and then thrown out of the train cars. It was a mass phenomenon. (Galina Ivanova, Gulag History Museum)
Those who returned home faced employment problems: many positions simply refused to hire those with criminal records. This also drove people toward criminality.
By the end of 1953, banditry had grown by 72%, murders - on 48%, robbery - on 177%, pickpocketing - on 137%, rape - on 43%.
Already a year later 84 thousand Those amnestied (7%) were convicted again.
