Documentary exhibition «Fight against corruption in the BSSR»
On December 9, 2024, the documentary exhibition «Fight against corruption in the BSSR» prepared by the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus opened at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus.
Starting in 2024, December 9 is celebrated as the International Anti-Corruption Day.
Corruption is the lack of integrity and honesty of officials (especially susceptibility to bribery), the use of official position to obtain benefits by dishonest means. Corruption is considered an important socio-political problem that reduces the rate of economic growth.
Despite the fact that in the USSR era the concept of «corruption» was absent from the Criminal Code, the phenomenon itself was relatively widespread due to the problem of widespread shortages. This was used by some unscrupulous trade workers who sold goods under the counter at inflated prices (as evidenced to some extent by the famous case of the Eliseevsky grocery store). The BSSR was no exception in this regard.
The USSR had a system of distributing free housing, which was far from transparent and equal and created conditions for numerous abuses and bribery. Queues for the purchase of a car, furniture and other prestigious and expensive goods were conducted in a similar form, which inevitably went beyond the legal framework. In addition, there were cases of fictitious employment of close relatives or acquaintances, which ultimately seriously undermined the economic security of the country.
At the same time, according to some researchers on this topic, the situation with corruption in the BSSR was relatively calm, the indicators of detected crimes were low, which generally indicated the effective preventive work of local law enforcement agencies.
The exhibition presents documents from the archival funds of the «Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus», «People’s Commissariat of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection of the BSSR», «People’s Control Committee of the BSSR» and others.
The exhibition was reviewed by employees of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus.
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| 1. Documentary exhibition «Fight against corruption in the BSSR» |
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| 2. Employees of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus get acquainted with the exhibition of archival documents |
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| 3. Employees of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus at the exhibition |
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| 4. Archival documents at the exhibition |
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| 5. Archival documents at the exhibition |
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| 6. Opening of the documentary exhibition at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus |