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The USSR fell in 1991, the guy who went to prison in 1990s likely went there for a regular crime. Most political prisoners were released in late 80s (ones who l

The USSR fell in 1991, the guy who went to prison in 1990s likely went there for a regular crime. Most political prisoners were released in late 80s (ones who left in 90s were people who participated in various wars of 1980s-1990s or were politicians charged with regular crimes). The whole arrest at night, the family arrested too, a trial by three ("Troika") and 10 years of camps/execution is from the Collectivization and the various Purges of 1930s. In the USSR after the War, if you merely criticized the Party line (e.g. say "We are a Communist country but the Proletariat is rarely consulted by the Party, I think the Party has to pay more attention what the working class people think.") you'd get the treatment ardit33 described. You would not get arrested, you would not be thrown in prison, you'd just get, what they called "wolf's ticket" - a record of "anti-soviet agitation" and then you would not be able to get any decent job, ever. People worked as janitors or threw coal in the communal central heating. Usually a single case of doubting was not enough, you'd get a talking first (quite unlike Google, it seems). Only people who directly opposed the Party were repressed with prison/mental institution.

wahern 9y ago
AFAIU, persecution of fundamentalist religious sects has never stopped in Russia; it preceded and succeeded the USSR. It might not often have the same imprimatur of the state as more notorious persecutions, but there's plenty of evidence that it has occurred up until this day. For example, this year there's been a crackdown on Jehovah's Witnesses, though I don't know if it's been nearly as severe as previous crackdowns. I don't care to debate whether these sects deserve to be let alone. My point is merely that the Russian police state can be exceptionally harsh. You can still find people and groups systematically traumatized by it; people and groups whose real experiences expose the ridiculousness of American conservative equivocations regarding persecution. The closest equivocation one could maybe reasonably make is to how the American state treats its black populations, but it'd still be a tenuous comparison. And even that disregards that the Soviet gulags were on another level entirely. I can't know for sure whether my old co-worker was telling the truth. But there was plenty of circumstantial evidence that aligned well with the story. And while I don't know the precise timeline, it's not necessarily relevant.
- pandaman 9y ago
  I am not aware of anybody sent to prison for religious beliefs in Russia. I know one guy who had been in the USSR but he had been freed in late 80s. Got any links?

wahern 9y ago

AFAIU, persecution of fundamentalist religious sects has never stopped in Russia; it preceded and succeeded the USSR. It might not often have the same imprimatur of the state as more notorious persecutions, but there's plenty of evidence that it has occurred up until this day. For example, this year there's been a crackdown on Jehovah's Witnesses, though I don't know if it's been nearly as severe as previous crackdowns. I don't care to debate whether these sects deserve to be let alone. My point is merely that the Russian police state can be exceptionally harsh. You can still find people and groups systematically traumatized by it; people and groups whose real experiences expose the ridiculousness of American conservative equivocations regarding persecution. The closest equivocation one could maybe reasonably make is to how the American state treats its black populations, but it'd still be a tenuous comparison. And even that disregards that the Soviet gulags were on another level entirely. I can't know for sure whether my old co-worker was telling the truth. But there was plenty of circumstantial evidence that aligned well with the story. And while I don't know the precise timeline, it's not necessarily relevant.

pandaman 9y ago
I am not aware of anybody sent to prison for religious beliefs in Russia. I know one guy who had been in the USSR but he had been freed in late 80s. Got any links?