ILLEGAL METHODS OF INTERROGATION OF THE CLERGY IN CHERNIGIV REGION IN THE 1930S. (ACCORDING TO THE MATERIALS OF CRIMINAL CASES)

Abstract

The article highlights the illegal methods of interrogation of the clergy in the Chernihiv region in the 1930s. The clergy, like the vast majority of Soviet society, was subjected to repression in the 1930s. However, the abuse did not begin in the correctional labor camps (hereinafter referred to as the VTT), but already in the detention centers. Investigators and employees of the NKVD departments used various methods and techniques during interrogations in order to extract confessions from the arrested person, even if the person did not commit a crime. This topic has not been investigated at the local level, and therefore the novelty of our work consists in revealing the facts of the use of illegal interrogation methods, performing their step-by-step analysis, and outlining physical and psychological methods. The main source base is the criminal cases of the 1930s, which are stored in the State Archive of the Chernihiv Region (hereinafter referred to as DACHO) and the archive of the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Chernihiv Region (hereinafter referred to as the Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Chernihiv Region). To achieve the goal and objectives of the research, general scientific and special research methods (heuristic, historicalretrospective, genetic) were applied. In order to establish the facts of the use of physical methods by the investigators during the interrogation, a critical analysis of the complaints and statements of the priests, who mentioned physical violence in the specified documents, was carried out. With the help of analysis, synthesis, deduction and induction, psychological methods were studied. The work also presents the classification of interrogation methods in the USSR in the 1930s by George Robert Conquest, which, in his opinion, was a universal tool of the Soviet employee during interrogations. The article lists the most common physical and psychological methods of interrogation, which are confirmed by the memories of victims of repression. We came to the conclusion that most often the investigators beat out the testimony from the arrested person using the following methods: “rack”, “conveyor belt”, beating, blackmail, threats, distortion of facts and through forced detention in mental hospitals.