How it was 18.07.2001 (2001)

The program theme is "Amnesty". 1953. With the death of Stalin, certain hopes for amnesty and rehabilitation arose among the GULAG prisoners.

In the spring of 1953, L. P. Beria accelerated the rehabilitation process.

On March 24, 1953, L. P. Beria sent N. S. Khrushchev a note with a draft resolution, which stated that at the moment more than 2.5 million prisoners were being held in correctional labor camps and colonies.

Of these, 590 thousand were sentenced to up to 5 years.

Taking this into account, L. P. Beria proposed adopting a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on amnesty.

The draft envisaged the release of about 1 million people.

The amnesty included those whose terms did not exceed 5 years; those convicted of official, economic and some military crimes; those with young children and pregnant women; minors; elderly people and disabled people.

The decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on amnesty was unanimously approved at a meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU on March 27, 1953. All proposals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding amnesty for those repressed in the 1930s and 1940s were rejected.

Beria was told that he was carrying out such measures with excessive haste.

As of August 10, 1953, 1,032,000 people had been released from prison under the amnesty.

Soon, passport and security restrictions were lifted in 340 cities, with the exception of Moscow, Leningrad, Vladivostok, Sevastopol and Kronstadt.

Another consequence of the amnesty was the fact that in many cities and towns of the country the level of criminal offenses sharply increased.

In the studio: Former prisoners, amnestied in 1953. Sukhomlinov Andrey - Honored Lawyer of Russia, Gerlin Valeria - GULAG prisoner, Panasyuk Vladimir - GULAG prisoner, Livandovskaya Rimma Mikhailovna - GULAG prisoner, Ikonnikov Dmitry Sergeevich - son of a GULAG prisoner, Chronicle: Stalin's funeral, speech by Beria L.P., the audience applauds standing.

Fragment of the film "News of the Day": workers of the "Bolshevik" factory at a meeting on the case of Beria L.P. and his accomplices.