“Even Small Things Can Play a Big Role” (on Soviet Criminal Investigation in the 1940s–1950s)

Abstract

This article studies the development of criminal investigation techniques employed by the Soviet police (militia) during the post-war years (from 1945 to the late 1950s). The author demonstrates that the high crime rate in general and the large number of robberies and gang crimes in particular threatened people’s daily life. Thus, it was essential that the Soviet police should implement diverse measures, primarily, improve their criminal investigation techniques. Further, the author underlines that during the post-war years many people who had previously never been associated with crime found themselves involved in criminal activities. The situation was aggravated by the fact that a great number of police officers had only been recently employed and therefore had no criminal investigation experience. It considerably impeded the process of crime detection and prosecution, indicating the necessity to develop new and effective methods of criminal investigation. The paper analysed a wide range of sources, such as departmental publications, operational reviews on grave crimes written by chief police officers, as well as memoires of law enforcement officers. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the Soviet police employed a vast variety of criminal investigation techniques and procedures, such as investigating citizens’ reports containing criminal conduct allegations (including anonymous), working undercover, etc. The study shows that Soviet police officers managed to improve their methods of criminal investigation, increase the number of potential informers and create sites for trapping criminals. The successful efforts of the Soviet police to improve the criminal investigation techniques and procedures contributed to reducing the crime rate in the country in the late 1950s.