Enhancing the Role of the Local Soviets and Developing Civic Principles in Their Work

The decisions of the last few congresses of the CPSU have played a large role in improving the activity of the soviets. The measures envisaged in the Party Program to improve the work of the soviets, to develop their democratic foundations and civic [obshchestvennye] principles, are being implemented successfully in the local agencies of government and administration.     

The Budget and Finances

This is perhaps the most complex sphere of work of village [sel'skie] soviets. All their manifold activity is associated with it. Funds for economic and cultural development, and for maintenance of the institutions subordinate to the rural agency of power, are concentrated in the budget. The soviet's specific relationships with various enterprises and organizations on the territory within its jurisdiction take shape through it.     

Relations of Territorial and Regional Soviets with Associations not Subordinate to Them

With the establishment and functioning of industrial and protection associations, the question arose of their relationships with local soviets, above all, those at the territorial and regional levels. If one bases oneself on the text of the respective statutes on these new forms of organization of social production, one finds virtually no reference to local soviets. (1) But this does not mean that the appearance of the associations is not reflected in the work of local organs of state authority. Experience shows that both now and under earlier changes in the system of management of the national economy, local soviets do not, and cannot, stand aside from these complicated processes. Being geographic entities of the unitary Soviet authority and executing the function of state direction in the area under their jurisdiction, they enter into various relationships with new economic complexes, their components and agencies.     

Scientific-Methodological Conference of USSR Supreme Court

The Scientific Consultative Council under the USSR Supreme Court has held a scientific-methodological conference. It was in preparation for a long time. As early as July 1965, the journal Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost' informed its readers of the forthcoming conference and published an article by S. Radzhabov, "Improve the Administration of the Courts" [Sovershenstvovat' sudebnoe upravlenie], and another by S. Komissarov, "The Supervisory Powers of the USSR Supreme Court Need Improving" [Nadzornye polnomochiia Verkhovnogo Suda Soiuza SSR nuzhdaiutsia v sover-shenstvovanii]. In August of last year a report was published of a round-table conference conducted by the editors and devoted to the effectiveness of criminal punishment. Subsequently, the journals Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost', Sovetskaia iustitsiia, and Radians'ke pravo have been publishing, in each of their issues, articles, surveys, and proposals on improving the functioning of the courts and increasing the effectiveness of criminal punishment.     

Delimitation Of Competence Between USSR Agencies and Republic Agencies in the Field of Economic Guidance

The question of the scientific bases for distribution of powers [polnomochii] between the USSR and its entities [sub'ekty], the union republics, in the field of economic guidance is of political, practical, and theoretical importance.     

Coordination: Its Essence and Practice

At the present stage in our country's development, when major problems of the national economy are being resolved, particular significance attaches to Lenin's premise of proper combination of the interests of the country as a whole with those of local concern. "The lack, in the localities, of harmonized work among the various departments," wrote Vladimir Il'ich Lenin, "is one of the great evils interfering with economic development. An enormous amount of attention must be paid to this question" (Poln. sobr. soch. [Complete Works], vol. 43, p. 278). The timeliness of this instruction by Lenin is beyond question. It also pertains directly to the work of the local soviets, particularly their activity of coordination. As we know, the new laws on the local soviets have granted them the right, within the limits of their jurisdiction, to coordinate enterprises and organizations belonging to higher levels insofar as their efforts are directed toward the development of the economy within their geographic boundaries, and above all in the spheres having to do with services to the population.     

Justice and Public Opinion

One of the key questions of justice has become the subject of a discussion that has developed in Izvestia. It can be said that its kernel is the matter of the independence of the judiciary. It is this question that underlies the article by Korenevskii and Sukhodolets, "A Cause of Errors" [Otchego byvaiut oshibki] (Izvestia, No. 61), against which Galkin wrote in his article "The Court and Public Passions" [Sud i obshchestvennye] (Izvestia, No. 91).     

The Standing Committees: Techniques of Monitoring

Note from the editors of Sovety deputatov trudiashchikhsia: Continuing the study of the functioning of Soviets, personnel of the USSR Academy of Sciences' Institute of State and Law looked into the operations of local organs of power in the Latvian SSR. Jointly with practical workers in the field, they prepared a number of scholarly recommendations, including proposals to improve the techniques of monitoring [kontrol'] by the standing committees of district and city Soviets.     

The Subject of Soviet Criminology

The question of the subject of Soviet criminology remains in dispute to this day. The authors of the present article, who initially considered criminology a component of criminal law, (1) have now arrived at a different conclusion. Reviews of the textbook Soviet Criminology [Sovetskaia kriminologiia] noted, as one of its shortcomings, a vague solution of the question of the subject of this science. (2) Considering this, as well as the fact that the subject of a science is among the most important questions, we have decided to offer certain of our thoughts on this subject.     

Direction of Internal Affairs Organs By Local Soviets

The territorial organs of internal affairs are subordinate to local Soviets of working people's deputies and comprise departments or administrations of the executive committees of territorial, regional, city, and district Soviets. In their direction of these bodies local Soviets exercise essentially the same rights as in directing other departments and administrations of various branches of government under dual subordination. However, the distinctive features of the internal organizational structure of the internal affairs bodies themselves, as well as of their functioning and the specific form taken by their dual subordination, are responsible for the fact that that direction has unique aspects. (1)     

The Right of Citizens to Appeal Acts by Officials to Courts

The increased role of the courts and enlarged judicial protection of citizens' rights enunciated in the USSR Constitution constitute a further development of Soviet socialist democracy. As we know, the notion of appealing to courts the acts of administrators was propounded by the founders of Marxism-Leninism themselves. (1) In the USSR, the foundations of the institution of judicial supervision of the functioning of the executive were established in the earliest years of Soviet power and were developed in the decree of the Central Executive Committee (TsIK) and Council of People's Commissars of April 11, 1937 - establishing judicial supervision over the activities of financial bodies in recovering from citizens arrears of federal and local taxes and levies, compulsory salary insurance, and local-option taxation - and in the Statute on Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR affirmed by decree of the USSR TsIK of July 9, 1937, granting citizens the right to appeal to courts decisions of executive committees of soviets on refusal to make corrections in lists of voters. (2) This institution was subsequently developed in the Principles of Civil Procedure of the USSR and Union Republics and the corresponding codes of the union republics establishing procedural rules for trial by courts of cases arising out of relationships at administrative law.     

The Standing Committees and the Ministries

The 23rd Congress of the CPSU posed the task of enhancing the role of the supreme Soviets and defined the principal directions to be followed in solving this task. The most important of them are the further improvement in the activity of the standing committees [postoiannye komissii], which contribute to the development of socialist democracy, the improvement in the work of the supreme Soviets and the agencies of state administration, and the activization of deputies. At the first session of the seventh Supreme Soviet [sed'mogo sozyva] of the USSR, the report by N. V. Podgorny, Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, "On Organizing the Standing Committees of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities," emphasized the major role of the standing committees in social and economic development and expressed confidence that their functioning would promote the fulfillment of the tasks facing the country. (1) The seventh supreme Soviets of the USSR and of the union republics carried out a number of practical measures to implement the instructions of the party to increase the role of the standing committees.     

We Continue the Discussion "the Neighbor who Shares your Apartment"

Note by editors of Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost': In no. 1 of our journal for this year we published an article by Professor A. Ushakov, "The Neighbor Who Shares Your Apartment," dealing with the imperfections of the prevailing legislation governing exchange of dwelling space. The editors circulated this article to people engaged in application of this legislation in practice and to scholars dealing with this problem and sought their opinions.     

Chapter 14: Encephalitis

Encephalitis is infectious inflammation of the brain. The following types may be provisionally distinguished: (a) primary encephalitis with direct infection of the brain, and (b) secondary encephalitis, caused by various general infections.     

Social Interests and the Competence of Administrative Organs

A complex system of interests may be seen in socialist society. (1) With respect to the subject matter of this article, they may be classified as the interests of the country as a whole; the individual republics and territorial administrative units; branches of the economy, economic agencies and enterprises; and personal interests. Moreover, each of these may be comprised of long-range and immediate interests. Socialist property, the fact that state power is in the hands of the working people, and the leadership role played by the Communist Party create the foundation for a harmonious combining of diverse interests and a profound internal unity. The system of Soviet state administration is structured to reckon with all these interests and assures that they will be harmonized in a manner best facilitating the further forward development of society.(2)     

The CPSU and the Soviets

"Popular sovereignty in our country," we read in the Theses of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Fifty Years of the Great October Socialist Revolution, "is expressed above all in the soviets — representative bodies combining the features of state and civic organizations." The guidance given the soviets by the Communist Party is a vital factor in the Soviet system. This factor reflects the fundamental qualities of the political organization of socialist society. The entire course of the country's historical development has proved irrefutably that complete disclosure of the fundamental advantages of the Soviet organization of power and their utilization in the interests of socialism would be impossible in the absence of the leading role of the Party in the soviets. The relationship between the Party and the soviets in the system of socialist democracy provides the key to understanding the mechanism of popular sovereignty and reflects a fundamentally new interaction between the political leader, the state organization, and the masses of the people that is impossible under a system of exploitation. It is no accident that the apostles of anticommunism are particularly rabid in their attacks on the position of the Party in the republic of soviets, making it their primary target in their slanderous inventions and verbal attempts to subvert the principles of socialist society.     

Development of Legislative Activity of the Supreme Soviet of a Union Republic

The supreme soviet is the sole legislative body of a union republic. The laws, as well as other actions taken by a supreme soviet, expressing the sovereign will of the people as a republic, play an important creative role in resolving tasks in the building of communism. This circumstance determines the sociopolitical significance of the legislative activity of a supreme soviet. The Twenty-Fourth Congress of the CPSU put special emphasis on the fact that "the Party ascribes great importance to perfecting Soviet legislation."(1)     

Interpellations By Deputies

The deputy's interpellation is one of the forms whereby local Soviets perform their monitoring [kontrol'naia] function. In the Program of the CPSU, "systematic discussion by Soviets of deputies' interpellations" is regarded as one of the means of improving the forms of representative government and socialist democracy.     

The Neighbor who Shares your Apartment: A Discussion

Note by editors of Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost': Professor A. Ushakov's article poses sharply the inadequacy of the present legislation on exchange of dwelling space. Often an exchange of dwelling space worsens the housing conditions of the neighbors sharing a communal apartment and produces overcrowding. And this is sometimes justified by citing the law and the instructions issued by ministries of municipal services of the union republics. To engage in such a practice means to infringe on citizens' rights to housing.     

Court Order No, 4, USSR Supreme Court Plenum,March 18, 1963

A review of the practice in recovering court expenditures [raskhody] in civil cases and court costs [izderzhki] in criminal cases has demonstrated that courts do not always observe the laws in effect with regard to this matter, that they commit significant errors. Frequently, in accepting the filing of suits and appeals in civil cases, courts do not exact payment of the state fee provided by law, or else they determine it inaccurately. They do not always take into consideration the fact that expenditures caused the court in connection with the trial and the state fee, from which a plaintiff has been exempted, are to be recovered from the respondent for the state in proportion to the satisfied portion of the claim in the suit. In violation of Article 45 of the RSFSR Code of Civil Procedure and the corresponding articles of the civil procedural codes of the other union republics, many courts do not demand that the parties make advance payment of the sums needed to meet the costs of calling witnesses and experts, as well as the expenditures involved in on-site examinations.