Someone’s Looking at You
Zirndorf is a seemingly nondescript German village on the outskirts of Nuremberg; in the foreboding shadow of a city that owes its location on the map of European history to grandiose public pronouncements of Aryan supremacy, Zirndorf is probably only known to those who live there. However, for all of Germany’s concerted campaigns to confront its Nazi past, what followed that past remains strangely unaddressed throughout the majority of the reunified nation. Not so in Zirndorf, for the village houses a group of people known as ‘puzzlers’ and their exhaustive efforts to address the legacy of the German Democratic Republic of 1949-90 entails a lifetime’s work.
Day-after-day, this small group of dedicated individuals sift through hundreds of scraps of paper in an attempt to reunite each fragment as a whole, something that makes the tedium of assembling a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle of some old steam engine resemble an afternoon swinging in a hammock with the Cheeky Girls. These scraps are the remnants of documents retrieved from the Berlin HQ of East Germany’s formidable secret police, the Stasi. A staggering fifteen thousand sacks of shredded files were liberated in the wake of the GDR’s collapse at the end of the 1980s, files that were destroyed with such fevered haste that the shredding machines couldn’t cope with the sheer volume and the staff entrusted with their destruction eventually resorted to ripping them to pieces by hand. What these files represent are evidence of the most meticulous and thorough exercise in state-sponsored surveillance of a people the world has ever known.
Typed documents, hand-written reports, photographs, reel-to-reel audiotapes, cine-film, videotapes, index cards – every conceivable pre-digital recording format was employed by the State to observe the East German populace; the former Stasi citadel of Normannenstrasse is now the Stasi Museum and displays some of the strangest examples of the methods Stasi Head Erich Mielke considered vital in keeping tabs on every individual, such as the jars alleged to contain the smells of certain suspects. Quite what use the contents of these jars were supposed to serve is perhaps an indication of the absurdities that can become the norm when this kind of practice doesn’t know where to stop.
What lay on the other side of Europe’s Iron Curtain was an intriguing source of fascination to those of us in the West who grew-up during the decades of the GDR’s existence, the sinister setting of a dozen spy dramas and occasionally glimpsed in all its Brutalist architectural monochrome grimness via the dubbed serials that graced the BBC1 schedules during school holidays. Yugoslavia aside, no Communist countries participated in the Eurovision Song Contest or ‘Jeux Sans Frontiers’ and most mainly knew the names of these nations courtesy of their chemically pumped-up athletes scooping medals at the Olympics. Because we were largely unaware of the reality of life over the Berlin Wall, we somehow imagined its mystery equated with adventure.
Of course, the reality of life wasn’t quite so exotic. The residents were not only subjected to a paucity of choice when it came to western luxuries, they were subtly engineered to maintain the prevailing paranoia by being in perennial suspicion of everyone they came into contact with – work colleagues, friends, family, even spouses – and were advised it was their duty to report on them. The eyes and ears of the Stasi were the people themselves. Of course, the relentless propaganda of the East’s superiority over the decadent West was accompanied by social benefits like child-care and consistent employment for those who played ball. For those who didn’t, they became non-persons, blacklisted and blackballed by society – if they lived.
Like many institutions whose crimes provoke disbelief once they are shed of secrecy and are dragged into the open, the Stasi often occupy the ‘never again’ category. But, though they may have been the most extreme example of how the State can overreach its security remit, they were hardly unique. As with the events that culminated in Richard Nixon’s resignation, it’s feasible to suggest that the Stasi were merely unfortunate to get caught doing what has been done before and continues to be done in the name of ‘security’. The post-9/11 west has responded to the changing climate by introducing increasingly draconian legislation unprecedented in modern democracies, and nowhere has this been more noticeable than here in old Blighty.
The hypocritical irony of David Cameron linking arms with other world leaders on the streets of Paris to proclaim free speech as a hallmark of democracy was followed by his announcement that he intended to extend the ability of the police and security services to access the private online correspondence of the general public, only a tiny minority of whom could ever be considered a threat to the Realm. No doubt we can look forward to months of sanctimonious speeches on the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, all of which will be given without the remotest trace of self-awareness by politicians who would reject the majority of that venerable document’s demands were it delivered to Westminster tomorrow.
George Galloway’s appearance on ‘Question Time’ last week, where he was shouted down by a group of pro-Israel Jewish audience members for daring to suggest their spiritual homeland wasn’t exactly governed by the best of intentions was followed after recording ended by a mob surrounding his car, a mob whose view of free speech means they are entitled to it, but any opinion that contradicts their own isn’t. The same spirit inflames the passions of Muslim lobby groups opposing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons as well as the PC harridans posing as feminists who demanded the axing of Dapper Laughs’ TV series.
Such groups make life considerably easier for the powers-that-be to insert sly additions to the statue book by vindicating their decision to do so. They can point to an offended demographic before recycling the same old guff about the infringement of civil liberties whilst simultaneously curbing those civil liberties further. From the smoking ban and the dubious legality of police ‘kettling’ tactics at one end to the extended imprisonment without charge or trial of terrorist suspects at the other, every British Government since September 2001 has taken it upon itself to instigate measures for our ‘protection’ that the Stasi would have heartily applauded.
It’s been stated that, as long as you reside in an urban area – which, let’s face it, most of us do – any short journey you make in a day will be tracked by around seventy CCTV cameras positioned on street corners or in the vicinity of various shops and businesses. These all-seeing eyes are now so commonplace that many fail to even notice them anymore; they have blended into the street landscape as successfully as road signs or litter-bins, which is precisely the intention. I don’t know about you, but every time I go online now I am acutely aware of being monitored; not that I’m prone to visiting websites that show the latest in suicide-bomber couture or even ones that demonstrate how versatile the numerous orifices of a young lady can be; but if I did, what’s it got to do with anyone else?
Whether in the home or out-of-doors, we are being watched; whether in the home or out-of-doors, we are being listened to. Most people have never even so much as nicked a packet of cheese from their local supermarket, so what is the justification for treating everyone as a potential criminal? There isn’t one, and neither was there one for the Stasi. But that didn’t stop them. Just visit Zirndorf and see for yourself.
Petunia Winegum
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February 10, 2015 at 9:53 am -
I asked him about the rumours that had long dogged him, namely that he was into young girls.
‘You’ve got to bear in mind that we live in a funnier world than we did ten years ago,’ he said.
‘That is why in this building I don’t have the internet and I don’t have email, because someone would break in here thinking that I would be up late at night looking at all that porno business, and steal my hard drive. If I ain’t got it in the first place, they can’t get anything on me.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213931/Jimmy-Savile-Little-slaves-sordid-boasts-dark-truth-friend–biographer-Dan-Davies.html
When asked whether such rumours bothered him, he replied: ‘It doesn’t bother me in the slightest, not at all. I have a phrase when someone outs a story in a tabloid about underage sex – I say, “It would be a lot worse if it was true.” They say, “Are you saying it’s not true?” I say, “I’m not saying nothing but it would be a lot worse if it was true.” -
February 10, 2015 at 9:53 am -
Even our tv sets are spying on us now..
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February 10, 2015 at 10:33 am -
Which channel is that? The one where those birds get naked and wave their mobiles at me?
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February 10, 2015 at 10:42 am -
O/T but did you know there is now even a ‘serious’ Naked News (add dotCom to go to their homepage) on TV? I kid you not.
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February 10, 2015 at 11:51 am -
About 20 years ago there was a dire peak-time BBC programme hosted by the equally dire Noel Edmonds, during which their engineers cunningly set up someone’s TV set at home so that it could capture sound and vision from the TV’s perspective – a slot known as ‘NTV’.
Makes you wonder where the spooks got the idea from – so now that all ‘smart’ TVs are linked to the internet, it’s a doddle to include a small covert camera and microphone, link it to the house wi-fi and report on absolutely everything going on in that place (including any other local wi-fi traffic too), beaming it all back to base at Cheltenham over the global cob-web – free surveillance.
Rather than it being all down to Samsung and only ever used for their TV’s voice-control system (honest, guv), I suspect the original design was more down to Uncle Sam-sung et al.
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February 10, 2015 at 11:56 am -
I seem to recall that when TV was first introduced it was widely believed that they could watch you, just as you watched them. Presumably that’s where Orwell got the idea from, even though as an ex-BBC wallah he must have known it was bollix.
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February 10, 2015 at 1:16 pm -
Just the Samsungs.
http://rt.com/uk/230699-samsung-tv-listens-privacy/-
February 10, 2015 at 2:04 pm -
Or maybe “Just the Samsungs” have admitted it?
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February 10, 2015 at 7:29 pm -
I have a new “listening” Samsung tv – I tried telling it to switch on without pressing the microphone button, and it ignored me.
It only responds if you press the button – it does not appear to be a hear-all spy !
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February 10, 2015 at 10:12 am -
Back in the 1990s it was claimed – and I believe – that in Central London you can be on up to 300 cameras a day. Many are your local shopkeeper’s and such. I used to think this was a bad thing. Then I remembered this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW1ZDIXiuS4
then this happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECMVdl-9SQ
total surveillance cuts both ways.
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February 10, 2015 at 10:17 am -
You are making excellent points concerning our drift (or rush) into becoming a police state.
But then you go and spoil it, at least for me.
Overall, being a suicide bomber is an extremely serious criminal offence; being a reader/viewer of pornography (even a fornicator) is not.
Thus law enforcement agencies of any government should be viewed as having probable cause to investigate precursors to the former, while not having probable cause to investigate precursors to the latter.
Best regards
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February 10, 2015 at 10:32 am -
a fornicator by gad! Goodness Gracious.
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February 10, 2015 at 10:35 am -
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February 10, 2015 at 10:40 am -
…. Bullshit baffles brains every time
Probe Finds Terrorists Using Child Porn to Pass Secure Messages
Published October 17, 2008 London Times3rd April 2012 – The Sun, quoting Thereas May speech
As Home Secretary I have a responsibility to keep the British public safe. That is exactly what I intend to do. Only suspected terrorists, paedophiles or serious criminals will be investigated.http://jimcannotfixthis.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/fade-to-black.html
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February 10, 2015 at 10:54 am -
I’m not saying they’re on the same level at all, merely pointing out I don’t seek either online. Therefore, there’s no need for my traffic to be monitored – though recent proposals to change UK porn laws do actually aim to put them on the same level!
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February 10, 2015 at 11:03 am -
The so-called experts cannot even monitor Facebook as the Rigby murder demonstrated, so I shouldn’t get yourself too worked up.
“Michael Adebowale, used the social networking site to express his “intent to murder a soldier in the most graphic and emotive manner” five months before the 2013 Woolwich attack.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11300881/Terrorist-material-reappears-online-as-quickly-as-it-is-banished-warns-thinktank.html
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February 10, 2015 at 10:31 am -
“Quite what use the contents of these jars were supposed to serve is perhaps an indication of the absurdities that can become the norm when this kind of practice doesn’t know where to stop.”
The jars, DDR Style ‘Kilner’, contained items of personal clothing such as bras or underwear. Usually collected by an ‘IM’ (a ‘Snout’)- sometimes seems as if about half the DDR were spying on the other half. The Scent Jars were kept for use by sniffer dogs. That’s the legend anyways.
One of the scariest men I have ever met, and spent a night shift talking to, was a former Torturer for the Stasi. He must also be one of nicest, inoffensive I have met too. A True Believer….even after the Wall had fallen.
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February 10, 2015 at 2:03 pm -
How did he compare with Jacob Rees-Mogg?
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February 10, 2015 at 2:17 pm -
Never met JRM so I can’t say, however I once, sleeping rough in Grantchester, asked directions of Jeffrey Archer MP-not-yet-author. Despite my looking like the prophet Elijah-who’d just drunkenly staggered out of a traveller’s camp- Mr A was not only polite and helpful but didn’t patronise….whereas most of his neighbours where probably frightened about the value of their houses…”Good Grief Maude, look, a HIPPY!”
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February 10, 2015 at 11:13 am -
I bet Shaw Taylor wishes that he’d been born in more recent times – don’t forget, “Keep ’em peeled!”.
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February 10, 2015 at 11:16 am -
That’s probably what them naked birds on Channel 99 are saying on their mobiles…
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February 10, 2015 at 11:36 am -
Well written Petunia, particularly in view of the push toward citizen vigilante/snitches to support smoking bans in pubs, hotel rooms, and apartments.
North Korea has probably outdone the Stazi: I get the feeling that most of the population there IS the local Stazi and believes it right to be so. :/
I wonder if those “paper unshredders” in Germany have explored the computer programs that I believe have been written to deal exactly with such situations? Scanning those scraps in and setting a good puter at ’em would probably do the job literally a thousand (a million?) times faster!
– MJM
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February 10, 2015 at 11:41 am -
“The ratio for the Stasi was one secret policeman per 166 East Germans. When the regular informers are added, these ratios become much higher: In the Stasi’s case, there would have been at least one spy watching every 66 citizens! When one adds in the estimated numbers of part-time snoops, the result is nothing short of monstrous: one informer per 6.5 citizens. It would not have been unreasonable to assume that at least one Stasi informer was present in any party of ten or twelve dinner guests.”
https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/koehler-stasi.html-
February 10, 2015 at 1:29 pm -
As pointed out in an episode of The Nazis: A Warning From History”, in most of Germany the numbers of Gestapo officers were extremely low – nowhere near enough to oppress any sizable population. The few that did exist spent most of their time sifting information from citizens shopping their neighbours – often out of spite or merely for being the slightest bit unconventional.
It’s a depressing insight into how you only need a few curtain-twitchers in each area and a small ruthless group of enforcers to rule millions.-
February 10, 2015 at 2:08 pm -
Welcome to State religion, take your seat down the pew. The hymn this morning is: Nearer my comrade to thee.
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February 10, 2015 at 11:47 am -
Damn you Pet! I am trying to ‘get on’ with things that need to be gotted on with this morning and what I don’t need is ‘there in the square, shouting my mouth off, trying to save some fish’ going round my head….
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February 10, 2015 at 11:50 am -
In the 90’s most of the deployed CCTV cameras were useless for anything other than identifying general movement, unless zoomed in to quite a close up before it was recorded. With the modern digital high definition ones there isn’t much they can’t be used for, zoomed back they will record everything and then allow zooming in for close up identification purposes once recorded. So good is the modern version that you could achieve what the old ones did with far fewer cameras. They have more and more added each year.
The RIPPA legislation was introduced to make it possible to control surveillance of any sort by any and all authorities and to provide support in the fight against terroism. Initially it resulted in a significant drop in surveillance operations of all sorts from one offs to biggies. Since then councils and others have employed form filling experts to make it legal to spy on householders putting dustbins out too early and smokers dropping cigarette stubs or dog walkers failing to collect dog mess. All of which no doubt needs to be controlled but not by means which invade the privacy of many to catch a few.
Local authorities have responded to the alleged need to reduce pollution in towns and cities to combat Global Warming by putting in more and more restrictive parking rules and making car parking spaces smaller whilst cars get bigger. Parking controls were once used to facilitate the movement of pedestrians and vehicles. They are now used merely to raise money which gives the Authorities greater power and greater salaries. At one time a simple lack of judgement or unintended breach with no adverse consquences could be dealt with by discretion, not any more.
These are just three of the many abuses of power, which go to show that no matter how well intentioned an idea maybe at the outset it will very quickly be corrupted by people who see how their power and wealth can be improved by *using* the new rules or equipment. Once they have become accepted by the majority they will never be taken back. Now we have a TV manufacturer proudly justifying why the next generation of TV’s will record and dissemble to third parties every word said within range of the microphone and expects this to be accepted as useful to the buyer. No doubt it will, which tells us everything we need to know about who is to blame for the gradual, relentless and now unstoppable destruction of our privacy and freedom.
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February 10, 2015 at 11:53 am -
And as Petunia’s “25Hour News” suggested at the weekend they also make more money from public CCTV by selling the funniest bits to the TV networks…
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February 10, 2015 at 11:56 am -
Many public car-parks now use ANPR cameras ‘to administer the charging system’ – yeh, I bet ! I asked the question of our local airport when they installed such a system, asking who else had access to the resultant data of vehicle presence – answer came there none.
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February 10, 2015 at 1:24 pm -
‘..need to reduce pollution..’
ANPR cameras & associated kit installed local to me as part of the imposition of a low emission zone monitor every vehicle, including, I’m told, speed.
Petunia’s right, we live in a Stasi paradise.
The real shame is that yes there are a few badly behaved people, & yes we can have smart cameras watching everybody, everywhere, but surely only if we’ve tried to improve behaviour first.
Coercion & revenue raising should be the last resort, not the default tactic.
We’re not cattle to be prodded into submission.-
February 10, 2015 at 1:36 pm -
*We’re not cattle to be prodded into submission.*
Not wishing to be a Smartarse, but that is what we have allowed ourselves to become. Now putting that right is going to take a whole lot more than a few of us to be able to hold a fair few of *them* to be accountable. Can’t see it.
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February 10, 2015 at 11:55 am -
That’s you lot off my dinner party list.
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February 10, 2015 at 11:56 am -
Every now and then you read about some twat who dominates the crime figures for some area. I’ve often wondered why the locals don’t just kill such a man. I suppose the CCTV cameras would make it hard to get off with such a noble-cause crime. Pity.
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February 10, 2015 at 12:05 pm -
Maybe they do and this is what happens to all those “missing teenagers” or “children” as they call them in the newsrags.
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February 10, 2015 at 12:15 pm -
That’s a very interesting and thought-provoking article. Perhaps you know the book “Stasiland” by Anna Funder. It’s based on interviews with people who experienced the East German regime from both sides, and I thought it was very good, and could even have been longer. The film “The Life of Others” is about a Stasi officer, acted by someone who apparently had a file kept on him.
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February 10, 2015 at 2:01 pm -
February 10, 2015 at 3:14 pm -
Of course, in those good old days, the divine Frau ‘Mutti’ Merkel reportedly had a not-too-distant relationship with the Stasi, right up to the point when it became opportune to ditch that baggage and evolve quickly into the freedom-loving democrat you see today.
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February 10, 2015 at 1:58 pm -
Hi Petunia
“What these files represent are evidence of the most meticulous and thorough exercise in state-sponsored surveillance of a people the world has ever known.”
I’d question the tense.
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February 10, 2015 at 2:17 pm -
A preiscent posting, Petunia?
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February 10, 2015 at 2:28 pm -
In the spirit of unintended consequences, if people are aware that others are potential snoops, then everybody becomes more guarded as a natural response. So a State that seeks to know more about people, induces the people to become more secretive; rather like Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.
Further, those who are good at hiding the truth, such as Narcissists, or psychopaths, will flourish, whilst the natural and spontaneous, will be exposed and condemned.
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February 10, 2015 at 2:28 pm -
Well, doesn’t the onward march of technology have something to do with it?
Back in the mists of time, plotters and ne’er-do-wells had to meet and talk, and investigating their plotting had to be done by turning up in person (disguised) and listening. Or quizzing the barmaid. Then someone invented the Postal Service, and the plotters could plot inside the safety of an envelope, as it were. So legislation came about to intercept mail if there was reasonable suspicion. Then someone invented the telephone, so legislation was needed to tap phones (or compel the operator to blab…). The somebody invented the interwebs, and mobile phones, and social media, so legislation was……well, you see where this is going.
Technology tends to precede the legislation required to forestall it’s use by ne’er-do-wells. However, for the good of the law-abiding majority, legislation has to catch up. The legislation covering mail intercepts is probably still in place; nobody bothers about it these days, because the bulk of the mail most of get is junk anyway. Ditto phones.
If anybody in GCHQ wants to read my emails, they’re welcome. They’ll get crashingly bored doing it, though. I bought three paperbacks off Amazon last week (they’re my mother’s birthday present, in case anybody in GCHQ is wondering). Almost all the rest is junk mail, except for the private message from somebody on a woodworking forum asking my opinion on the dating of a vintage handsaw (mid to late 19th century, I reckon).
So that’s about the top and bottom of it. New legislation to try to keep pace with new technology. As long as you’re not planning to plant a bomb anywhere, or downloading vast quantities of kiddy porn, just carry on. It won’t bother you at all.
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February 10, 2015 at 2:48 pm -
“Article 58 of the Russian SFSR Penal Code was put in force on 25 February 1927 to arrest those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. It was revised several times. In particular, its Article 58-1 was updated by the listed sub-articles and put in force on 8 June 1934.”
So as long as you don’t ‘counter-revolt’, there will be no Stalinist purges comrade. Nope, they never happened… honest… move along… no history to see here.
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February 10, 2015 at 3:34 pm -
Are you trying to tell me that just because I’m not paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me?
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February 10, 2015 at 3:45 pm -
* downloading vast quantities of kiddy porn *
“They were being used,” Cottle added, flagging up one image of a naked girl.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/09/artist-graham-ovenden-two-years-jailCuriously, we can all look at Ovenden’s pictures on google, and all the thumbnails will be there.
There’s evidence, as Monty Python used to sing.-
February 10, 2015 at 4:26 pm -
Wasn’t quite what I was getting at, Moor. Whether or not Ovenden was the victim of a modern form of witch-hunt I don’t really know; I didn’t follow the case at all closely. It may well be the case that his paintings were made entirely innocently. However, there are people out there committing sex acts on children and photographing it with the specific intention of selling the images online, and I’d rather they were apprehended before they violate any more children. Just because we generally agree on this blog that various ageing celebrities have been rather badly used in the current climate doesn’t mean that kiddy porn isn’t out there and being downloaded by some people.
However, I do know that I’m at much at risk of ending up as an innocent victim of an atrocity perpetrated by an Islamist extremist as the next Briton, and I’d quite like the government, through the work of the various Security Services, to do their best to minimise the risk. If that means monitoring the interwebs in seach of Jihadists, fine by me.
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February 10, 2015 at 4:12 pm -
Fair point. I have nothing nefarious to hide, but I still wouldn’t like a stranger reading my diary.
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February 10, 2015 at 4:30 pm -
Agreed, but the ‘safeguard’ we, the public, have is that the security services don’t have a huge staff. The staff they do have are pulled out chasing the big threats, so they just don’t have time to bother about what you or I are doing. The time to worry is when the MI5 building is the biggest office block in every county town – and we’re a very long way from that!
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February 10, 2015 at 4:34 pm -
I think they’re called the police and they arrest you for being a nasty tweeter. Sometimes they bring in the big guns of the mass media to name and shame you and hopefully top yourself as a lesson to the rest.
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February 10, 2015 at 4:56 pm -
It hardly needs GCHQ to spot a nasty tweet, though. A sudden rush of complaints from members of the public would probably be just about enough to alert Plod that something needs attention. Whether said tweet is genuinely offensive enough to cause harm is, of course, a matter for debate.
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February 10, 2015 at 4:16 pm -
“If anybody in GCHQ wants to read my emails, they’re welcome”
I always assumed (and perhaps even ‘hoped’) that the ‘Spies’ of every nation read all email. Back when I started using the internet and emails, a elderly hacker (aged about 17) gave me some advice : “The moment you plug in that modem you are spreading your legs and inviting the whole world and his brother to come in and f*** you in the donkey (at least that’s what the word meant to me, a Brit)”. Spies spy, it’s kinda what they do. I have no problem with spies spying, what worries me is what they DO with that espied information! That’s where it gets both tricky and political. Sure everyone can agree that someone from GCHQ ringing the Met and saying ‘your anti-terror division might want to have a look at the Fecesbook account of Ali-<3-ISIS…' is probably a GOOD thing but after that, ie beyond a direct terrorist threat- a 'clear & present' danger' then where do you draw the line? First they passed on the emails of Kiddy Porners to the police then they passed on…. #niemoeller
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February 10, 2015 at 4:32 pm -
The Data Protection Act created many of the aspects of this that have now required new laws to override the old laws.
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February 10, 2015 at 7:00 pm -
The other thing we must remember is that a pair of side cutters trump most remote technology. Also, here in rural France it is amazing what the hunters can do to modern technology when chasing sanglier
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February 10, 2015 at 7:13 pm -
” a pair of side cutters trump most remote technology”
This man speaks the truth…at least until someone comes up with online 3D printer plans for an EMP hand grenade….
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February 10, 2015 at 3:02 pm -
Well, let’s see now… they are planning to get rid of the counterpart of the driving licence, all details online, so what do you do now? That bit of plastic had become a defacto ID for things like car hire and the like; so what’s the betting we’ll soon see a move (again) for a REAL ID card?
Show me your papers! -
February 10, 2015 at 3:13 pm -
From Wiki:
Note: In this section, the phraseology of article 58 is given in quotes.
The article covered the following offenses.
58-1: Definition of counter-revolutionary activity:
“A counter-revolutionary action is any action aimed at overthrowing, undermining or weakening of the power of workers’ and peasants’ Soviets… and governments of the USSR and Soviet and autonomous republics, or at the undermining or weakening of the external security of the USSR and main economical, political and national achievements of the proletarial revolution”
It was not limited to anti-Soviet acts: by “international solidarity of workers”, any other “worker’s state” was protected by this article.
58-1а. Treason: death sentence or 10 years of prison, both cases with property confiscation.
58-1б. Treason by military personnel: death sentence with property confiscation.
58-1в. In the case of flight of the offender in treason subject to 58-1б (military personnel only), his relatives were subject to 5–10 years of imprisonment with confiscation or 5 years of Siberia exile, depending on the circumstances: either they helped or knew and didn’t report or simply lived with the offender.
58-1г. Non-reporting of a treason by a military man: 10 years of imprisonment. Non-reporting by others: offense by Article 58-12.58-2. Armed uprising or intervention with the goal to seize the power: up to death with confiscation, including formal recognition as “enemy of workers”.
58-3. Contacts with foreigners “with counter-revolutionary purposes” (as defined by 58-1) are subject to Article 58-2.
58-4. Any kind of help to “international bourgeoisie” which, not recognizing the equality of communist political system, strives to overthrow it: punishment similar to 58-2.
58-5. Urging any foreign entity to declaration of war, military intervention, blockade, capture of state property, breaking diplomatic relations, breaking international treaties, and other aggressive actions against USSR: similar to 58-2.
58-6. Espionage. Punishment: similar to 58-2.
58-7. Undermining of state industry, transport, monetary circulation or credit system, as well as of cooperative societies and organizations, with counter-revolutionary purpose (as defined by 58-1) by means of the corresponding usage of the state institutions, as well as by opposing their normal functioning: same as 58-2. Note: the offense according to this article was known as wrecking and the offenders were called “wreckers”.
58-8. Terrorist acts against representatives of Soviet power or of workers and peasants organisations: same as 58-2.
58-9. Damage of transport, communication, water supply, warehouses and other buildings or state and communal property with counter-revolutionary purpose: same as 58-2.
58-10. Anti-Soviet and counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation: at least 6 months of imprisonment. In the conditions of unrest or war: same as 58.2.
58-11. Any kind of organisational or support actions related to the preparation or execution of the above crimes is equated to the corresponding offenses and prosecuted by the corresponding articles.
58-12. Non-reporting of a “counter-revolutionary activity”: at least 6 months of imprisonment.
58-13. Active struggle against revolutionary movement of tsarist personnel and members of “counter-revolutionary governments” during the civil war, same as 58-2.
58-14 (added on June 6, 1937) “Counter-revolutionary sabotage”, i.e., conscious non-execution or deliberately careless execution of “defined duties”, aimed at the weakening of the power of the government and of the functioning of the state apparatus is subject to at least one year of freedom deprivation, and under especially aggravating circumstances, up to the highest measure of social protection: execution by shooting with confiscation of property.Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his novel The Gulag Archipelago characterized the enormous scope of the article in this way:
One can find more epithets in praise of this article than Turgenev once assembled to praise the Russian language, or Nekrasov to praise Mother Russia: great, powerful, abundant, highly ramified, multiform, wide sweeping 58, which summed up the world not so much through the exact terms of its sections as in their extended dialectical interpretation.
Who among us has not experienced its all-encompassing embrace? In all truth, there is no step, thought, action, or lack of action under the heavens which could not be punished by the heavy hand of Article 58.-
February 10, 2015 at 3:38 pm -
…..and they didn’t even have Islamist extremists plotting to behead off-duty soldiers.
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February 10, 2015 at 3:47 pm -
or on-duty journalists
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February 10, 2015 at 4:49 pm -
Anyone heard of Civil Recovery? This is where you have video evidence and you don’t need a court-room and expensive lawyers because the shoplifter knows they’re bang to rights.
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2010/dec/07/civil-recovery-schemes-for-or-against
Lefties don’t like it but basically it saves you getting a criminal record so seems eminently sensible to me. Looking back at my life, the lessons I really paid attention to were the ones where I just about “got away with it”, whereas getting officially nicked just made me sullen, resentful and determined to get my own back…. one day. -
February 10, 2015 at 5:02 pm -
Under RIPA they have to have some evidence against a person before applying and carrying out directed surveillance . It needs to be justified and proportionate and has to be authorised by some one like a senior officer, there are a number of forms to complete. For phones and ip addresses, they again must show why they are doing something , they cannot go on fishing trips just because they don’t like someone, they have to confirm how the information will assist the case and why it can’t be gained by other means. They have to give undertaking to dis regard any information that is private and not relevant to the case. To view content of emails this has to be authorised at the highest levels and would again come up against proportionality tests in view into the intrusion of privacy.
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February 10, 2015 at 5:24 pm -
Only after those wicked Tories changed the law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_of_Freedoms_Act_2012-
February 10, 2015 at 5:56 pm -
And of course those same Authorities abide by all the restrictions placed upon them, including destroying various samples in the right circumstances.
Well believe what you will but you obviously haven’t ever come into contact with the CSA as was. Even the bottom feeding scum that were the lower echelons who worked for them, didn’t give a flying toss that what they were doing was ludicrously wrong and inaccurate. They had the power and boy were they going to use it. Of course they could be stopped eventually, but not before they had taken you all the way to the edge of sanity, without having even a slight hiccup of conscience. Unfortunately the higher echelons were just as bad and just as untouchable.
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February 11, 2015 at 4:58 pm -
The CMS are just as bad, they’re the same department with the same staff and using the same techniques with the same usual incompetence.
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February 10, 2015 at 5:46 pm -
*Under RIPA they have to have some evidence against a person before applying and carrying out directed surveillance *
Yep, that was the plan. As I explained above this caused an initial reduction in surveillance before ‘professional’ form fillers were employed and suddenly all sorts of Councils were surveilling all sorts of householders for all sorts of trivia. Pickles has of course vowed to stop it but gone are the days when a Prosecution will not be mounted because the spirit, if not the letter of the Law has been, has not been followed. He can issue what guidance he likes, the legislation still exists which allows these people to justify anything to the satisfaction of the Overlords.
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February 10, 2015 at 9:46 pm -
I think the councils over stepped the mark in using directed surveillance in such minor offences as misuse of refuse bins, dog fouling any many other petty crimes. However the authorities do need some surveillance in serious crime such as terrorism, violent sexual crimes, murder, drug dealing to name but a few, and of course fraud and serious tax evasion.
It’s interesting that the journalist were having there phone records examined under RIPA for relatively minor crimes when Leveson was in full swing, this was all whipped up by the luvvies , and a lot of money blown on this £33m seems to be the figure, for what were non violent crimes, which did not steal or defraud people of large amounts of money, probably was also an inappropriate non proportionate use of these powers.
As for the CSA I think they spend more than they get in,.
The trouble is if it’s a crime against a person or something there interested in then they want all powers used, but if it something they’ve done they call foulinusing RIPA
It’s an imperfect justice system in an imperfect world.
Look at the different justices meted out to the Rotherham abusers, Ched Evans & Julian Assange-
February 11, 2015 at 8:09 am -
*It’s an imperfect justice system in an imperfect world.
Look at the different justices meted out to the Rotherham abusers, Ched Evans & Julian Assange*That is entirely my point. The checks and balances do not work. They never have and they never will, because once the legislation is in place some person at some level will be motivated by money. power or sheer bloody mindedness to use the power to levels that were not intended. The only defense against those corruptions is to limit the power of the Authorities to the absolute minimum and force them to apply every time for the warrant needed for more. That at least has the merit of making it too effort consuming for all but the most determined.
That would stop Councils over stepping the mark at a stroke.
The problem is of course human nature. Once told that what they are doing is the right thing for good and the peace of the whole world, all these small minded self important jerks trot off home to take their especially prepared Jackboots out of the wardrobe ready to do battle with the evil: be they absent fathers, car drivers, middle class PAYE workers fiddling mobile phone calls on their tax bill and so on, you know, all those criminals who are such a danger to us all.
I am still fascinated that many people find it difficult to believe that so many apparently ordinary citizens of so many countries can be persuaded to routinely carry out the most Nazi or Stasi like actions.
You only have to meet those working for Authority to see the nasties at their best. Of course their are exceptions, many of them, but there are way to many of the wrong kind too. They are in their element. It would help them do their job better if they didn’t have to constantly look over their shoulder at the Nasties as well.
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February 11, 2015 at 4:59 pm -
Councils are there for collecting rubbish , cleaning the roads, a few other bits, they’re NOT there to police us We have a highly incompetent police service to do that.
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February 11, 2015 at 6:40 am -
“Under RIPA they have to have some evidence against a person before applying and carrying out directed surveillance .”
But clearly none needed to pop to your newsagent and hint that they’d really like to know what you’ve been reading…
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February 10, 2015 at 11:14 pm -
We live in a technological age and we all use its technology, surprisingly people provide more details about themselves willingly, just look at Facebook accounts. We can trace peoples movements by phone, by camera, by bank transactions , even a bus journey can be registered. Your internet researches are logged by most search engines. We live in an technological age and this is the price we pay, but most people provide information freely on-line including answering questions on their sex lives which one may never have giving to a researcher on the street. Yes CCTV may be seen as an invasion of privacy but the weakness in that argument is where does your privacy include been in public spaces.
The real question is the role of the security services in this country, over the last fifty years they have been unaccountable to anyone it seems . They seem above the law or parliament and one of the few unaccountable bodies in the country and most of all have trapped and ensnared our political leaders, and terrorism has allowed them to extend their powers leaving one to wonder if increasing State security using the fear of Islam to increase their control. The security services are the real threat to democracy in this country and they have been setting the political agenda in this country for many years. The difference between the East Germans and the British was one knew they lived in a police state while the other had no idea of the extent of the power and influence of its security services, which is becoming the state within a state.
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February 11, 2015 at 6:39 am -
“George Galloway’s appearance on ‘Question Time’ last week, where he was shouted down by a group of pro-Israel Jewish audience members for daring to suggest their spiritual homeland wasn’t exactly governed by the best of intentions was…”
…no more than the bastard would do (or rather, organise) himself, should he ever get a whiff of power! So I shed no tears for him.
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