The Unbounded Disorder of the Time of Transformation of Property

Abstract

Surveys of the population indicate that the problem of crime disturbs people as greatly as the problem of inflation and rising prices. Many factors are at work here, both real and mythical. Long years of Soviet propaganda represented social life as generally good, darkened by only a few shortcomings. A lack of reliable comparative statistics and silence concerning the actual state of affairs, against a background of selective publication regarding the most nefarious crimes and the punishments for them, created the illusion that the Party program of finally eradicating crime was being successfully accomplished. Propaganda created a positive picture of the law-enforcement authorities, who enjoyed universal popular support. Workers enlisted in voluntary people's brigades and were recruited into other ways of promoting law and order. Objectively, this helped maintain public tranquillity, but to a far greater degree it created an appearance of well-being.