Great Terror of 1937 – 1938 as an Eugenistic Aspect of Communist Cultural Revolution: view from modern Ukraine

NAZAR RUDYI; VOLODYMYR MAKARCHUK

doi:10.31861/10.31861/ehrlichsjournal2019.03.005

NAZAR RUDYI Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7338-4867
VOLODYMYR MAKARCHUK National University "Lviv Polytechnic" http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5441-0468

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31861/10.31861/ehrlichsjournal2019.03.005

Abstract

Scientific research at the junction of history, theory and philosophy of law, political science, sociology and paramedical discipline – eugenics is presented. A rather extensive bibliography of the Great Terror of 1937-1938 is gathered, analyzed and systematize; it is conventionally divided into three directions. An attempt is made to objectively estimate the number of victims of terror and the social belongings of the repressed and executed. The mechanism of the implementation of the Great Terror (1937-1938) is discovered, which was to develop and approve for each region of the Soviet Union the limits for the "first category" (shooting) and for "the second category" (imprisonment in camps for a term from 8 to 10 years).

The theory and practice of the creation of a "new person" in the Union of SSR of the 1920s-1930s as a total denial of human rights are considered. The main trends of eugenics and their representatives in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are determined. There is a clear division of eugenistic views into positive ones, according to which eugenics was engaged in the derivation of a more perfect breed of people through promoting births from parents with "good" genes, and negatives that promoted elimination from the reproductive process of carriers of "bad" genes (sterilization of mentally ill, alcoholics, mentally inferior, etc). Clear parallels between the views of the Soviet leading eugenics experts on the creation of a superman and similar desires of the leaders of the USSR are made. Taking into account such common views and goals of academics and officials, it was highly desirable to use the state repressive and punitive apparatus to implement the idea of creating the ideal gene pool of the future communist community.

The scientific concept of the Great Terror (1937-1938) is proposed as a general attempt to create a person of the communist future. The consequences of this global crime against humanity and the ways to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies in the future are assessed.

Keywords: eugenics in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; cultural revolution in the theory and practice of the communist states; Great Terror 1937-1938; denial of human rights; crimes against humanity in the practice of communist regimes

Author Biographies

NAZAR RUDYI, Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine

PhD, Associate Professor,

Associate Professor of the Department of History of State and Law,

Constitutional and International Law of Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine

VOLODYMYR MAKARCHUK, National University "Lviv Polytechnic"

LLD, Professor,

Head of the Department of History of State and Law of the Institute of Law and Psychology of the National University "Lviv Polytechnic", Ukraine

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