“The cold summer of 1953” in the Kirov region: amnesty, crime and fight against it

The article examines the reasons for the 1953 amnesty and its impact on the socio-political and criminal situation in the Kirov region, based on the documents from the Central State Archive of the Kirov Region and the Archives of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Kirov Region, as well as published documents from the State Archives of the Russian Federation and the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. The authors show that the appearance of several thousand amnesties in the spring and summer of 1953 in the region led to a sharp increase in almost all types of crimes, as well as to an increase in organized crime. Contrary to expectations, the amnesty exacerbated the situation in prisons and caused additional tension in society. The rise in crime became a serious challenge for law enforcement. The reasons for the aggravation of tensions in society were laid in the content of March 27, 1953 decree “About Amnesty”, adopted without sufficient elaboration of the amnesty mechanism. In fact, neither the Soviet state and party bodies, nor law enforcement were fully prepared to implement it. The authors of the decree did not pay attention to the issues of social adaptation of persons released from places of detention. As a result, many former prisoners, deprived of their livelihood, began to engage in illegal activities again. By the end of 1953, the situation was stabilized (with the exception of the Vyatlag zone). The research results show that the proposed version of the 1953 amnesty did not help stabilize the situation in the camps and did not become a significant factor in improving the socio-political situation in the region.