Law of Spikelets
Encyclopedia
Law of Spikelets or Law of Three Spikelets was a common name of the Soviet law to protect state property of kolkhozes. The common name came into use because the law was used to prosecute not only property thieves but also anyone who collected as little as a handful of grain or "spikelets" left behind in the fields after the entire harvest was officially collected and counted.
The law was based on the decree of Central Executive Committee and Sovnarkom of the USSR "About protection of the property of state enterprises, kolkhozes and cooperatives, and strengthening of the public (socialist) property" dated August 7, 1932.
The law was also known as the "Seven Eighths Law" , because the date in Russian is written as 7/8/1932.
The primary punishment for theft according to this law was death
by shooting. Under extenuating circumstances
the punishment was at least 10 years of imprisonment. In all cases convicts' personal property was to be confiscated.
It has been estimated that a quarter of a million people were charged by the OGPU and there were more than 200,000 sentences (normally of 5 – 10 years in the Gulag) of which more than 11,000 seem to have been death sentences. Professor Ellman elaborates on why so few were sentenced to death: "Stalin
had originally proposed that ‘as a rule’ the sentence under this decree would be the death penalty. The fact that only a tiny minority of those sentenced were shot probably resulted from a general unwillingness by judicial and security personnel to implement as originally intended what was widely seen as an impractical and barbaric decree."
Convicts for crimes covered by this law were not subject to amnesty
.
The law was signed by Mikhail Kalinin
, Vyacheslav Molotov
(Skryabin), and Avel Enukidze
.
The law was based on the decree of Central Executive Committee and Sovnarkom of the USSR "About protection of the property of state enterprises, kolkhozes and cooperatives, and strengthening of the public (socialist) property" dated August 7, 1932.
The law was also known as the "Seven Eighths Law" , because the date in Russian is written as 7/8/1932.
- Section I covers theft at railroad and water communicationsTransportTransport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
. - Section II covers theft of kolkhozKolkhozA kolkhoz , plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms . The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective farm", while sovkhoz is a contraction of советское хозяйство...
and cooperativeCooperativeA cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
property. - Section III of the law covers violence, threats and intimidation of kolkhozniks. The punishment was 5 to 10 years of prison campPrison campPrison camp may be:* Concentration or internment camp* Federal prison camp, low-security facility among those on list of U.S. federal prisons* Labor camp* Death or extermination camp* Prisoner-of-war camp...
time.
The primary punishment for theft according to this law was death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
by shooting. Under extenuating circumstances
Extenuating circumstances
In law, extenuating circumstances in criminal cases are unusual or extreme facts leading up to or attending the commission of the offense which, though an offense has been committed without legal justification or excuse, mitigate or reduce its gravity from the point of view of punishment or moral...
the punishment was at least 10 years of imprisonment. In all cases convicts' personal property was to be confiscated.
It has been estimated that a quarter of a million people were charged by the OGPU and there were more than 200,000 sentences (normally of 5 – 10 years in the Gulag) of which more than 11,000 seem to have been death sentences. Professor Ellman elaborates on why so few were sentenced to death: "Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
had originally proposed that ‘as a rule’ the sentence under this decree would be the death penalty. The fact that only a tiny minority of those sentenced were shot probably resulted from a general unwillingness by judicial and security personnel to implement as originally intended what was widely seen as an impractical and barbaric decree."
Convicts for crimes covered by this law were not subject to amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
.
The law was signed by Mikhail Kalinin
Mikhail Kalinin
Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin , known familiarly by Soviet citizens as "Kalinych," was a Bolshevik revolutionary and the nominal head of state of Russia and later of the Soviet Union, from 1919 to 1946...
, Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
(Skryabin), and Avel Enukidze
Avel Enukidze
Avel Safronovich Enukidze - А́вель Сафронович Енуки́дзе - , a prominent "Old Bolshevik" and, at one point, a member of the Soviet Central Committee in Moscow...
.