Kiev authorities seek informers
by Dr. Roman Solchanyk
An unsigned samvydav document, a copy of which recently reached the West, reports that the authorities in Kiev have launched a campaign that can only be interpreted as an attempt at mass recruitment of police informers among the population.
In September, residents of the city began receiving postcards requesting them to report anonymously any violations of public order or of the rules of socialist life. The postcards are sent out in the name either of the appropriate neighborhood Council of the Public Station for Maintenance of Order (Soviet obshchestvennogo punkta okhrany poriadka) or of the community (obshchestvennost) of a given raion._1_
The "public stations" are attached to raion police departments and are manned by druzhynnyky, volunteers who carry out auxiliary police duties. An example of one of the postcards is appended to the samvydav document and reads as follows:
"Dear Comrade!
"The public stations for maintenance of order and the organs of internal affairs are making great efforts to institute exemplary public order in our raion. The achievement of this goal will be greatly facilitated by prompt reaction to every violation of the law and by calling to account the guilty persons. For this, the extensive support and participation of the entire population is required. The faster violations of the law and crimes are known about, the faster measures can be taken.
"We ask you to report, without mentioning your name, all cases known to you of violations of public order and the rules of Socialist communal life, of persons leading an anti-social way of life, failing to work, or abusing alcoholic beverages, of problem families, and of adolescents who have given up their studies, to the Council of the Public Station for Maintenance of Order of the Zhadanovsky microraion between 19:00 and 23:00 hours at telephone No. 27-41-01, and at other times to the Department of Internal Affairs of Zaliznychnyi Raion at telephone No. 76-70-21 or 77-31-00.
"Council of the Public Station for Maintenance of Order of the Zhadanovsky Raion."
The samvydav document points out that this is the first time since Stalin's days that the authorities have appealed to members of the public on such a scale to inform on their fellow citizens. Certainly, the campaign suggests that the police in Kiev, which is the third largest city in the Soviet Union and has a population of over 2 million, is experiencing difficulties in maintaining an acceptable level of public order.
A further indication of concern about crime prevention is the fact that on October 9 and 10 the city hosted a republican scientific-practical conference that focused on "Problems of Improving the Activity of the Organs of Internal Affairs in Preventing Violations of the Law in Light of the Requirements of the 26th Congress of the CPSU and the 26th Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine."_2_
The principal speakers at the conference, which was opened by the Ukrainian minister of internal affairs, Col. General I. Kh. Golovchenko, were: I. D. Gladush, Ukrainian first deputy minister of internal affairs; I. I. Karpets, a doctor of juridical sciences and head of the All-Union Scientific-Research Institute of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs; and Col. A. P. Zakaliuk, a candidate of juridical sciences. Other participants included representatives of the republican Ministry of Justice, the People's Control Committee, the Council of Trade Unions, the Komsomol, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, the State Committee on Vocational Education, the sports Committee, and functionaries of the party Central Committee and the Council of Ministers.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 27, 1981, No. 52, Vol. LXXXVIII
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