Soviets, in Major Reform of Legal Code, Soften Rules on Political Crimes

The Soviet Union, in a major reform of its legal system, put into force Tuesday new legislation that more narrowly defines political crimes, requires fuller proof for conviction and provides for lighter sentences for those found guilty.

Soviet legal authorities described the move, part of the broad political liberalization here under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, as an important step toward allowing greater political pluralism and even as protecting the right of dissent.

As an amendment to the country’s criminal code, the new legislation replaces a previous statute that outlawed, with little definition, “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” and defamation of the Soviet state or political system.

Instead, it specifically prohibits public appeals for undermining or overthrowing the Soviet state and political system or for the commission of terrorism, treason or subversion--and any actions aimed at arousing racial or inter-ethnic hostility.

In a further attempt to strengthen civil rights here, the legislation also requires proof of public actions and premeditation for conviction under this part of the criminal code, legal authorities said. Punishment is now set at three to 10 years’ imprisonment, with the possibility of a fine instead, depending on the severity of the crime.

Hundreds of political dissidents were jailed and sent into internal exile for up to 15 years under the old law; the last 40 or so were freed and allowed to return from internal exile at the end of 1988.

The old law was itself a reform of a previous decree by dictator Josef Stalin under which thousands of people were arrested, summarily convicted of anti-state activities or propaganda and then executed in the 1930s and 1940s.

“It is my deep conviction that all (of the provisions of the new legislation) are more democratic and, I would say, more clearly and coherently worded than in previous laws,” Vladimir N. Kudryavtsev, director of the Soviet Academy of Sciences’ Institute of the State and Law, said in an interview published by the Communist Party newspaper Pravda on Tuesday.

‘Letter of the Law’

“This is very important for preventing ambiguities or any broad interpretations or vagueness, because every letter of the law means a man’s fate and any imprecise wording is unacceptable here.”

But the legislation also prohibits, in a very broadly worded section, “public insults or the discrediting” of the Soviet government, its various bodies and its elected and appointed officials as well as “public organizations,” such as the Communist Party, that operate under the Soviet constitution.

This could be used, some political activists fear, to restrict the increasingly free public give and take on a broad range of issues where Soviet officials, if not government institutions as well, often come in for harsh criticism.

Those convicted of violations under this section can be jailed for up to three years or fined the equivalent of $3,200, which is about eight months’ pay for an average worker.

‘Pure Stalinism’

“This is Stalinism, pure Stalinism,” Arvydas Juozaitis, a member of the Lithuanian Reform Movement, known as Sajudis, commented in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital. “There is no conceptual difference between the new decree, the old one and the one that Stalin used.”

Alexander Podrabinek, a former political prisoner who edits Express-Khronika, an underground newspaper, said the law seems intended to control all political debate. “Any criticism or disagreement can be considered as an attempt to discredit the government or insult one of its officials,” he said. “So what will matter most of all is the way this law is implemented. The implementation will really show what their intention is.”

The subject of prolonged political and legal debate as well as discussions with Western countries pressing Moscow for a greater commitment to honoring human rights, the legislation was adopted as a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the country’s Parliament, on Saturday and went into effect with its publication Tuesday.

Although the law contains specific provisions to curb ethnic violence, such as that in the southern Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and now Georgia, officials stressed that its adoption over the weekend as demonstrations reached a peak in Georgia was coincidental.

“These changes have been a long time in coming,” Yuri Reshetov, chief of the Soviet Foreign Ministry’s human rights division, said. “They are a new manifestation of the democratization and humanization of our legal system, and they bring it into closer conformity with international practice.”

Kudryavtsev, one of the country’s most prominent reformers, said that he expects the new Supreme Soviet to amend the law further when it reviews the legislation, probably later this year or early next.