Crimes Against the Governmental Order
Crimes Against the Governmental Order
in Soviet criminal law, crimes that infringe on the normal activities of the Soviet state apparatus. Unlike official crimes, crimes against the governmental order are committed by persons who are not employees of the governmental apparatus. The norms prescribing criminal responsibility for crimes against the governmental order are found in special chapters in the criminal codes of the Union republics, for example, Chapter 9 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.
Crimes against the governmental order are subdivided into four groups, depending on the object of the offense. The first group includes crimes against the authority of the Soviet state and social system, such as spreading deliberate lies that defame the Soviet state and social system, desecrating the state emblem or flag, and organizing or actively participating in group actions that violate law and order. In the second group are crimes against the normal activities of governmental agencies or public organizations: using threats or force against an official or citizen performing a civic duty; arbitrarily appropriating the title or authority of an official; stealing or damaging documents, stamps, seals, and forms or making or selling forged documents, stamps, seals, and forms; seizing land; building without authorization; usurping power; violating the laws on registering documents of civil status; and violating the regulations for the protection of communication lines. The third group includes crimes against the normal activities of governmental agencies or public law enforcement organizations, such as resisting a representative of the government or the public who is fulfilling his duty to maintain law and order, resisting a militia worker or people’s guard, and attacking a militia worker or people’s guard. The fourth group consists of crimes that violate international conventions, including illegally using the symbols of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, illegally raising the state flag of the USSR or of a Union republic on a merchant vessel, failing to render assistance in a ship collision or failing to communicate the name of the ship, and damaging underwater telegraph cables.
The criminal codes of some Union republics include other crimes against the governmental order: violation of the regulations for using radios on boats in the Azerbaijan, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian SSR’s, the illegal sale of living space in the Latvian SSR, and the illegal purchase or sale of orders and medals in the Kazakh SSR.