Enemy of the people
523179
226099082
2008-07-16T20:37:45Z
Mikkalai
28438
/* Soviet Union */
{{confused|Enemy of the state}}
{{for|the play by [[Henrik Ibsen]]|An Enemy of the People}}
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{{globalize}}
{{expand}}
The term '''enemy of the people''' is a fluid designation of political or [[Social class|class]] opponents of the group using the term. Its usage is derogatory, and meant to imply that the "enemies" are acting against society as a whole.
The term is similar to the notions of "[[public enemy]]" and "[[enemy of the state]]".
The term "enemies of the people" has an extensive history. Its earliest use may have been by the [[Roman Empire]], where the [[Roman Senate|senate]] used the term to apply to the [[Emperor]] [[Nero]] as a pretext for his arrest.{{fact|date=July 2008}} Since that time, many groups have used the phrase, including the [[Jacobin Club|Jacobins]] during the radical phase of the French Revolution (the [[Reign of Terror]]), the US government during the [[McCarthyism|McCarthyist]] "[[Red Scare]]" era <ref>"The Scary Echo of the Intolerance of the French Revolution in America Today" [http://hnn.us/articles/43075.html]</ref><ref>Marilyn J. Matelski, Nancy Lynch Street, Lynch Street Nancy, [[McFarland Press]], ''War and Film in America: Historical and Critical Essays'', 2003, 302 pages, ISBN:0786416734</ref>, and by the [[Soviet Union]] and other Communist Party-run countries.{{Fact|date=June 2008}}
==Soviet Union==
The Soviet Union made extensive use of the term ([[Russian language]]: '''враг народа''', "vrag naroda"), as it fit in well with the idea that the people were in control. The term was used by [[Vladimir Lenin]] after coming to power as early as in the decree of [[28 November]] [[1917]]:
:''"all leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party, a party filled with enemies of the people, are hereby to be considered outlaws, and are to be arrested immediately and brought before the revolutionary court." <ref name="Black">Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panné, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, [[Stéphane Courtois]], ''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression'', [[Harvard University Press]], 1999, hardcover, 858 pages, ISBN 0-674-07608-7 </ref>
Other similar terms were in use as well:
*''enemy of the labourers'' (враг трудящихся, "vrag trudyashchikhsya")
*''enemy of the proletariat'' (враг пролетариата, "vrag proletariata")
*''class enemy'' (классовый враг, "klassovyi vrag"), etc.
In particular, the term "enemy of the workers" was formalized in the [[Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code)]]<ref>[http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/uk58-e.html#58-1a Article 58], an excerpt online</ref>, and similar articles in the codes of the other [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet Republics]].
At various times these terms were applied, in particular, to [[Tsar Nicholas II]] and the Imperial family, [[aristocrat]]s, the [[bourgeoisie]], [[cleric]]s, [[Robber baron (industrialist)|business entrepreneurs]], [[anarchism|anarchists]], [[kulak]]s, [[monarchism|monarchists]], [[Menshevism|Mensheviks]], [[Socialist-Revolutionary Party|Esers]], [[General Jewish Labor Union|Bundists]], [[Trotskyism|Trotskyists]], [[Bukharin]]ists, the "[[old Bolsheviks]]", the army and police, [[emigrant]]s, [[sabotage|saboteurs]], [[wrecking (Soviet crime)|wreckers]] (вредители, "vrediteli"), "[[parasitism (social offense)|social parasites]]" (тунеядцы, "tuneyadtsy"), ''Kavezhedists'' (people who administered and serviced the [[KVZhD]] ([[China Far East Railway]]), particularly the Russian population of [[Harbin]], [[China]]), those considered [[bourgeois nationalism|bourgeois nationalists]] (notably [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]], [[Lithuania]]n, [[Latvia]]n, [[Estonia]]n nationalists, [[Zionism|Zionists]], [[Basmachi]]), and members of certain ethnic groups (see [[Population transfer#Soviet Union|Population transfer: Soviet Union]]).{{fact}}
An ''enemy of the people'' could be imprisoned, expelled or executed, and his property could be confiscated. Close relatives of enemies of the people were labeled as "[[NKVD Order № 00486|traitor of Motherland family members]]" and prosecuted. They could be sent to [[Gulag]], punished by the [[Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union|involuntary settlement]] in unpopulated areas, or [[Lishenets|stripped of citizen's rights]]. Being a friend of an ''enemy of the people'' automatically placed the person under suspicion.
A significant fraction of the ''enemies of the people'' were given this label not because of their hostile actions against the ''workers' and peasants' state'', but simply because of their social origin or profession before the revolution: those who used hired labor, high-ranking clergy, former policemen, merchants, etc. Some of them were commonly known as ''[[lishenets|lishentsy]]'' (лишенцы, derived from Russian word ''лишение'', deprivation), because by the [[Soviet Constitution]] they were deprived of the right of [[voting]]. This automatically translated into a deprivation of various social benefits, some of them, e.g., [[rationing]], were at times critical for survival.
Since 1927, Article 20 of the Common Part of the penal code that listed possible "measures of social defence" had the following item 20a: "declaration to be an enemy of the workers with deprivation of the union republic citizenship and hence of the USSR citizenship, with obligatory expulsion from its territory". Nevertheless most "enemies of the people" suffered labor camps, rather than expulsion.
==References==
<references/>
==Further reading==
Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panné, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, [[Stéphane Courtois]], ''The [[Black Book of Communism]]: Crimes, Terror, Repression'', [[Harvard University Press]], 1999, hardcover, 858 pages, ISBN 0-674-07608-7
[[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Political repression]]
[[Category:Soviet phraseology]]
[[cs:Nepřítel lidu]]
[[pl:Wróg ludu]]
[[ro:Inamic al poporului]]
[[ru:Враг народа]]
[[fi:Kansanvihollinen]]
[[uk:Вороги народу]]
[[zh:阶级敌人]]