This article is written by Shourya Singh during his internship with Le Droit India.
INTRODUCTION
The Soviet Union rewrote justice not as a level, impartial force of resolution of conflict, but as a tool open to state manipulation for the enforcement of the precepts of Marxism-Leninism. In contrast to liberal democracies in which the courts operate as autonomous mediators between state and citizen, the Soviet judicial system was designed to serve as an ideological apparatus. Its main aim was neither legal equality nor rights protection but the application of socialist legality and the consolidation of state power. In so doing the Soviet system ended up redefining the very concept of justice, institutionally entrenching the kind of system in which political exigency ruled the courts and was an integral part of the machinery of government.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND BACKGROUND
With the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, the pre-revolutionary legal framework functioning under the tsars was eliminated and a revolutionary tribunal regime was established in its stead. The new order was based on the belief that law was not supposed to be impartial but an expression of workers’ interests. Vladimir Lenin correctly believed that the law is an instrument of class domination and will have to be employed in the interests of the dictatorship of the proletariat. It legitimated the full integration of the judiciary within the Communist Party, which was a feature that would identify the Soviet legal system throughout its history.
In the early years, the tribunals were ad hoc committees reflecting local revolutionary enthusiasm. Subsequently, the Soviet Union acquired a formal court hierarchy, which although becoming more bureaucratized, remained politically engaged. The growth of the courts under Stalin further consolidated the doctrine that the courts were there to advance the Party. Judicial independence was weighed against judicial reliability—judges were not to interpret law impartially, but to apply it in a manner beneficial to the Party.
COMRADES’ COURTS
(Товарищеский суд)
At the bottom of the Soviet legal system was the Comrades’ Court.
They were ad hoc courts set up in factories, collective farms, schools, and neighbourhoods. They were not courts of legal judgment in the traditional sense but ideological correction and moral education. Comrades’ Courts tried minor offenses like absenteeism, work slackness, drunkenness, and petty larceny. Membership in the courts was elected by the local collective and often did not undergo formal legal instruction. Their rules were informal, and their judgments were influenced more by social custom and Party line than by statute. The ultimate goal was to impart community discipline and foster socialist conduct. They could only impose fines of 50-120 roubles
PEOPLE’S COURTS
(Народный суд)
People’s Courts were the first tier of the regular judicial system. They were created right after the revolution succeeded in February of 1918.
They were situated in each district and city and disposed of the majority of civil and criminal cases. Every People’s Court had a professional judge and two people’s assessors who were laymen chosen to embody proletarian morals. They handled crimes from theft and assault to family conflicts and contract disputes. In addition, they enforced labour and administrative law. Procedurally structured, People’s Courts were heavily politicized. Judges were appointed for their loyalty to the Party and judgements were to reflect the principles of socialist legality. Appeals to them were addressed to the higher regional courts.
OBLAST AND REPUBLICAN SUPREME COURTS
(ОБЛАСТНЫЕ И РЕСПУБЛИКАНСКИЕ ВЕРХОВНЫЕ СУДЫ)
Higher than the People’s Courts were the Oblast Courts at provincial level, and the Supreme Courts of each Union Republic.
They were courts of appeal in one, and they tried cases of higher complexity and seriousness as courts of first instance. They confirmed to panels in criminal, civil, and administrative cases. They also exercised supervisory jurisdiction over the courts of first instance within their jurisdiction. They rendered binding decisions and had to exercise ideological homogeneity in the judiciary. Most especially in republican Supreme Courts, rulings would be directed by the respective Party Committees of republics directly.
SUPREME COURT OF THE USSR
(Верховный Суд СССР)
On top of the hierarchical structure was positioned the Supreme Court of the USSR. It was created in November of 1923 after the end of the Russian civil war and began operations in late 1924 after the enactment of the 1924 constitution.
It was the supreme court of the Soviet Union and oversaw all of the republics. There were numerous collegiums of the Supreme Court: criminal, civil, military, and special collegiums like that of transportation. It acted as the last court of cassation and appeal, received appeals from the lower courts, and possessed the authority to promulgate obligatory guidebook interpretations that influenced jurisprudence across the nation. The Court also convened plenary sessions that issued binding directives on the interpretation of laws to maintain ideological and legal uniformity. Judges within the Court were elected by the Supreme Soviet but screened and appointed through Party processes.
MILITARY COLLEGIUM AND MILITARY TRIBUNALS
( Военная коллегия Верховного суда СССР)
The Supreme Court’s Military Collegiums’ heard the most politically sensitive cases, especially under the Stalinist period. Established by the Supreme court in 1924 to try cases specially related to article 58 of the 1927 Penal code of the Union which was made specially to prosecute people accused of going against the union, The military collegiums was dissolved in 1971 during Leonid Brezhnev s efforts to reform the soviet union.
These were treason, espionage, counter-revolutionary crimes, and mass purges. The Collegiums also heard appeals of military tribunals and checked their conformity with centre policy. Military tribunals functioned in the military and were tasked to uphold military discipline as well as prosecute soldiers charged with criminal or political offenses. They were under the control of formal procedure of courts but, in the majority of cases, especially the politically motivated ones, proceeded at speed with limited opportunity for defence.
TROIKAS AND EXTRAORDINARY COURTS
(ТРОЙКИ И ЧРЕЗВЫЧАЙНЫЕ СУДЫ)
In times of political stress, particularly the Great Purge, the Soviet state used extrajudicial commissions called Troikas.
They were three-member tribunals usually consisting of an NKVD representative, a Party member, and a state procurator. Troikas by-passed the regular court system and made summary judgments, normally resulting in execution or imprisonment for long terms. They worked in closed sessions, refused defendants’ access to lawyers or appeal, and were tools of mass political repression. They made judgments quota and directive-determined by high-level authorities and reflecting the absolute merger of executive and judicial power.
THE PROCURACY
(П РОКУРАТУРА)
The strongest legal organ of the Soviet apparatus was the Procuracy, and its head was the Procurator General. The body was formed in 1936 and recognised under the new 1936 constitution
It was tasked with making all state organs, courts, factories, and citizens stick to the law without exception. In contrast to their counterparts in the West, the Soviet procurators had control functions over the judicial branch too. They could initiate criminal proceedings, appeal against court decisions, and even demand a new investigation of closed cases. The Procuracy oversaw judicial decisions to be in harmony with the Party’s instructions and socialist legality. It was a vertically established institution subordinate to the Party’s central leadership and was an important tool of ensuring legal and political control.
Collapse
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, successor states created a resolution on December 28, 1991, which was to abolish the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union by January 2, 1992.In addition the Position of procurator general was dissolved on January 29, 1992. All of this was part of the policy to abolish the remaining organs of the Soviet Union.
Interestingly even before the collapse of the USSR. Mikhail Gorbachev dissolved the Soviet ministry of justice (formed 1946) in Early November 1991.
CONCLUSION
The Soviet judiciary was intentionally built to respond to the Communist Party’s ideological and political needs.
From the morally corrective role of the Comrades’ Courts to the politically inspired decisions of the Supreme Court and its Military Collegiums, all branches of the judiciary were drawn into the state apparatus. Courts were not restraints on power; they wielded it. Judges were not dispassionate umpires but Party veterans. Prosecutors were not neutral legal functionaries but tools of political conformity. In remaking justice, the Soviet Union substituted the legal freedom and human rights tradition with central authority and ideological conformity.
REFERENCES
Law of the Soviet Union. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_Soviet_Union
The Court System. Seventeen Moments in Soviet History, Michigan State University.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=6&article=1030&context=michigan_legal_studies&type=additional
