ABSTRACT
Law enforcement in the Soviet Union represented a unique form of authoritarian social control in which the police practices of continental European, colonial and communist societies were combined. The degree to which the Soviet militia intervened in the daily lives of the diverse peoples of the USSR can be explained by its amalgamation of these three distinct types of policing, making it a powerful instrument of state power. Its authority rooted in a single, centralized Party that enjoyed a monopoly of power, the militia undermined citizen autonomy and destroyed indigenous legal cultures throughout the USSR for over seven decades. As in many other authoritarian and colonial societies, however, the impunity of the Soviet police bred widespread corruption and inefficiency that mitigated its power.2
