In Soviet Russia “speculator” was one of the worst of insults. It summed up all the pejorative associations of capitalist activity that the socialist state instilled in its citizens.
Indeed, in the 1960s, the government of Nikita Khrushchev mounted a campaign against foreign currency speculators. Suspects were arrested and sentenced to long prison sentences. But the public demanded capital punishment. A judge told Khrushchev that the law did not sanction the death penalty for currency speculation.
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