Corruption in the Soviet Union

Corruption in the Soviet Union and Soviet Russia was observed since the early days of the

In February 1920, a special commission, Rabkrin (People's Commissariat of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection) was set to combat two major plagues, inefficiency and corruption at all levels of administration.^[a]

Brezhnev and later

Corruption at highest levels had grown considerably during Brezhnev's tenure had become a major problem to the Soviet Union's economic development by the 1980s. When

Notable cases

Khrushchev era

Brezhnev era

• Vasil Mzhavanadze, Georgian high party functionary, publicly accused of corruption, but left without criminal prosecution
• Soviet fish mafia
• Soviet fur mafia
• Uzbek cotton scandal; investigations continued well into the late 1980s, during Breshnev's, Andropov's and Gorbachev's times

Andropov

• Yeliseyevsky [ru] case (Russian: Елисеевское дело, also known as the Mosprodtorg case, Russian: дела Моспродторга); large-scale theft/misappropriation of foodstuff goods and bribery^[6]
• Technopromexport case ended in executions of its director Yuri P. Smelyakov and his deputy V.A. Pavlov and long prison terms for several other persons.^[7] Among accusations was a large kickback while contracting the works at the Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant in Finland.^[8]
• Nikolai Shchelokov

Gorbachev era

• Brezhnev's family, Yuri, Galina and Yuri Churbanov, were investigated for corruption during Mikhail Gorbachev's administration.^[9] Churbanov was sentenced to twelve years in prison on charges of large-scale embezzlement and corruption in the context of the Uzbek cotton scandal. By December 1988 Churbanov had been stripped of all state honours, and sent to a labour camp. Galina, along with the rest of Brezhnev's family, lost all their state privileges.
• 1990-1993: ANT case about alleged smuggling of T-72 tanks abroad

See also

• Second economy of the Soviet Union
• Nomenklatura

Notes