Minusnyky in the Space of the Soviet Terror (1917–1953)

Abstract

Minusnyky (Minus-People) is a linguistic and social invention that was created by the Soviet state through the discrimination and control over the people. The Soviet state formed social groups of “soviet citizens” and “alien” marking “alien” with punitive methods and with creating a specific language to define them. Minusnyky is a specific category of residents of the Soviet state, that were recognized as “socially-dangerous” and were given a prohibition to live in a number of localities of the USSR. Residents, that were repressed by this method were given an attachment to their personal papers, where forbidden locations were marked as “minus 6”, “minus 12” etc. The digits meant the number of areas banned for living, and the word “minus” made its way into the Soviet newspeak as a root structure of the term defining a repressed and discriminated community.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the Minusnyky (Minus-People) that, for a long time, was an invisible category of repressed people for historians. The research goals include analyzing the process of constructing the Bolshevik concept of the geographical isolation of the mentioned persons, as well as institutionalization, instrumentalization, practical implementation of this kind of suppression of “disloyal” people and defining the logic of creating the Soviet space as a space of prohibitions.

The methodology of the research connects the tools of historical and juristical analysis, social anthropology, and the conception of social space creation.

The scientific novelty of the research lies not only in including a new concept Minusnyky into the research thesaurus but also in an expansion of a general understanding of the political terror and its consequences. The regime of the Soviet territories is analyzed not as a manifestation of Stalin’s repressive policies but as an organic part of the existence of a totalitarian mechanism, the first rotations of which came at the same time with the capturing of power by the Bolsheviks. The socio-political portraits of Minusnyky and the reasons for gaining them such status are presented for the first time. The article traces the change of “forbidden map” and clarifies the logic and paradigmatic changes in the creation of symbolic Soviet geography.

Conclusion. It is already proved , that the total terror, except the well known forms of repressions (physical eliminations, imprisonment, exiles), is widely used “purge” of the society by geographical isolation of residents, that were recognized as “social-dangerous”, and the former political prisoners of GULAG’s. The forced eviction and prohibition of living in certain areas became an effective mechanism of the social engineering with long term action. Creating the big community of Minusnyky (Minus-People) was a part of society atomization process, creation of the soviet territorial hierarchy, social exclusion of people and territories.