The Soviet conception of human rights was very different from conceptions prevalent in the West . According to the Soviet legal theory , " it is the government who is the beneficiary of human rights which are to be asserted '' against '' the individual " , whereas Western law claimed the opposite . The Soviet state was considered as the source of human rights . Therefore , the Soviet legal system regarded law as an arm of politics and courts as agencies of the government . Extensive extra-judiciary powers were given to the Soviet secret police agencies . The regime abolished Western rule of law , civil liberties , protection of law and guarantees of property which were considered as examples of " bourgeois morality " by the Soviet law theorists such as Andrey Vyshinsky . According to Vladimir Lenin , the purpose of socialist courts was " not to eliminate terror ... but to substantiate it and legitimize in principle "
terror
Great Purge
Human rights in the Soviet Union