Stalin's dreaded 'block councils' return, but this time by popular demand

[IndianaGreen]

This Europe: Stalin's dreaded 'block councils' return, but this time by popular demand
By Fred Weir in Moscow
14 August 2003

Any citizen summoned to his local "block council" in Soviet times had good reason to be terrified. The ruling Communist Party's watchdogs of community morals and order had the power to inflict serious penalties, public humiliation or even arrest.

Hated by all, the councils were junked when the USSR collapsed. But now Moscow's city authorities have decided to reinvent them, along with the dreaded networks of paid informers with speed-dial links to the local police.

A bill being rushed through the Moscow Duma, or city legislature, expects to install a Soviet-style system of grassroots supervision and control in all of Moscow's 600 districts by next month.

"We face new and ruthless enemies, and that's why police need to have eyes and ears everywhere," says Colonel Anatoly Shlyikov, a veteran Moscow police commander and an author of the new law. "People want to be protected, and they are ready to take a hand in defending their neighbourhoods."

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=433378

[OldCurmudgeon]

1. here in the US...

we call them "homeowner's associations".

They attract the same "quality" of little tin dictators, too.

[w4rma]

2. Russia is falling farther and farther back into totalitarianism

:(

[Democat]

3. Homeland Security by any other name

Sad for us and them.