At a session about social security yesterday, one of the speakers invited us to celebrate the inspirational anniversary of the Russian Revolution. As someone mainly concerned with security rights and dignity in social security, there’s some incongruity in that request. Soviet Russia was not wholeheartedly supportive of people who needed benefits to survive. The laws against “parasites, tramps and beggars” varied between the different republics of the Soviet Union, but they included penal policies and fora for public humiliation. There are three articles about it by Beerman in the journal Soviet Studies: “A discussion on the draft law against parasites, tramps and beggars”, 1958, 9(2), 214-222; “The law against parasites, tramps and beggars”, 1960 11(4), 453-455, and “The parasites law”, 1961, 13(2), 191-205. No doubt a similar law would go down well with certain sections of the UK press, but it’s not a model to be followed.