Принудительная «трудотерапия» в СССР: между ГУЛАГом и «большой химией»

Abstract

The paper focuses on the process of transformation of ideas and practices of social control in the USSR in the 1950s-1960s in relation to various categories of people named as “persons with an antisocial way of living” (lazy freeloaders). This process was reflected in the liberalization of the criminal law and punishment practices, as well as in the changing attitudes towards people with deviant behavior. The study focuses on the social category of “lazy freeloaders” and the discourse of forced labor construed as “occupational therapy” (when applied to “lazy freeloaders”). The transformation of social control norms and practices is described in the context of socio-political changes during the “thaw” period helping to raise questions that are more general: quality and limits of the Soviet system’s viability, its ability to face the challenges of time, adapt to changing social realities and new public sentiments. The paper is based on some new archival sources, as well as on the materials of the Soviet press.