In 1936, Stalin unveiled a new constitution.
The New York Times enthused: “Today, when the democratic-bourgeois cause is on the defensive…the proposed new Soviet Constitution brings it unexpected aid and comfort.” The document in question promised broad civil liberties and economic guarantees to all Soviet citizens. It received a rapturous response from many in Europe and the United States who thought it compared favorably with America’s constitution, particularly in light of the Great Depression.
But what did this new constitution really mean for life in the Soviet Union, especially considering the fact that the country was, at that very moment, descending into the savage political persecution of Stalin’s Great Purge? And why did a man as uninterested in legal niceties as Stalin put so much work into writing a constitution?
To understand law in the Soviet Union, it is necessary to start with its revolutionary founder. Vladimir Lenin—who had studied law as a young man—argued that bourgeois law was merely a means of repression of the proletariat. As such, a revolutionary dictatorship would use violence, not the law, to maintain power. And once the revolution was firmly ensconced in power, law would be nothing more than an “organ of power of the proletariat” and “an instrument for inculcating discipline.” In practice, this meant a primitive and utilitarian sort of “justice” with few norms, little standardization, and no legal protections for potential victims.
The New York Times enthused: “Today, when the democratic-bourgeois cause is on the defensive…the proposed new Soviet Constitution brings it unexpected aid and comfort.” The document in question promised broad civil liberties and economic guarantees to all Soviet citizens. It received a rapturous response from many in Europe and the United States who thought it compared favorably with America’s constitution, particularly in light of the Great Depression.
But what did this new constitution really mean for life in the Soviet Union, especially considering the fact that the country was, at that very moment, descending into the savage political persecution of Stalin’s Great Purge? And why did a man as uninterested in legal niceties as Stalin put so much work into writing a constitution?
To understand law in the Soviet Union, it is necessary to start with its revolutionary founder. Vladimir Lenin—who had studied law as a young man—argued that bourgeois law was merely a means of repression of the proletariat. As such, a revolutionary dictatorship would use violence, not the law, to maintain power. And once the revolution was firmly ensconced in power, law would be nothing more than an “organ of power of the proletariat” and “an instrument for inculcating discipline.” In practice, this meant a primitive and utilitarian sort of “justice” with few norms, little standardization, and no legal protections for potential victims.
