Informing the Population About the Activity of State Agencies

Under the conditions of developed socialism, the general problem of informing the population, and that of its knowledge about matters of state and law in particular, becomes increasingly more pertinent. "The development of socialist democracy," said L. I. Brezhnev at a meeting with voters of the Bauman Electoral District in Moscow on June 10, 1966, "demands the solution of many problems that the Party has placed on the order of business." One of these tasks is "providing fuller information to the people about everything happening within the country and on the world scene, and increasing publicity [glasnost'] about the work of the agencies of Soviet government." The Communist Party associates improvement of socialist democracy particularly with the level of society's information "about the policies of the Party and state." (1) Therefore, the Soviet government pays much attention to the solution of questions associated with informing the citizenry about the work of governmental agencies and also about their regulation by law. Thus, for example, in the RSFSR law "On the District Soviet of Working People's Deputies of the RSFSR" (June 29, 1971), we read about the responsibility of the executive committee to inform the population about questions placed on the order of business of the soviet (Article 33), to bring decisions of the district soviet to the knowledge of the citizens (Article 38), and to report on its work at meetings of the working population and at citizens' places of employment (Article 55). Article 93 reads: "The district soviet of working people's deputies is responsible for informing the population about its functioning. …" Presidiums of the supreme Soviets of union and autonomous republics monitor observation of provisions of the law, assuring that the population will be widely informed on the work of state agencies. (2) In this connection, examination of the question of the content and forms whereby the population of the USSR becomes informed about the activity of state agencies is of interest.     

The Militia Inspector in a Village or Settlement

Please explain how the relationships between a village soviet and the precinct [uchastkovyi] militia inspector should be organized. I am particularly interested in the following question: is the militiaman [policeman] required to notify the village executive committee when he will be away for twenty-four hours or more in connection with his duties? Our precinct inspector, Comrade V. M. Bodrov, states that he is not subordinate to the executive committee of the village soviet and, consequently, is not subject to its monotoring. And a second question. The village soviet executive committee sometimes receives citizens' complaints of improper behavior by neighbors (abusive behavior, disorderly quarrels, etc.). Do we have the right to instruct the precinct inspector to look into such complaints?     

The Newspaper Died of Chauvinism

The Novosibirsk Oblast Court terminated the activity of the newspaper Russkaia Sibir' [Russian Siberia] in satisfaction of a suit brought by the procurator of the oblast Vladimir Tokarev. It was established that a number of items published in this periodical "justify the necessity for and call for the commission of acts that incite nationality-based and religious hatred, as well as denigrate national dignity." In Novosibirsk oblast, this is the first instance in which a newspaper has been officially held to be extremist and its activity terminated.     

A Comparative Criminological Study of Crime in Moscow (1923 and 1968-69)

In the spring of 1923, a criminological study of crime in Moscow was undertaken on the initiative of the Administrative Department of the Moscow Soviet of Working People's Deputies by law students of the School of Social Sciences of Moscow University No. 1. A collection of articles, The Criminal World of Moscow [Prestupnyi mir Moskvy], edited by Professor M. Gernet and published in 1924, was based upon it.     

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.     

Ideology and Politics in Soviet Society

A few days ago the former leader of the Lithuanian Communists, A. Brazauskas, became president of Lithuania, the republic where democratic transformations first began in the old USSR. The circle has been closed, as it were. The Party's old guard in Russia is celebrating, counting the days until it can "begin to roll" again in Moscow. The Communist Party has risen again from the ashes. On the television screens, the "Gekachepists" [members of the State Committee for the State of Emergency] are being hailed as good angels. Rumors of their impending demise—dear Tat'iana Ivanovna Koriagina, indeed you defended them so zealously—have turned out to be greatly exaggerated. There they are, all having grown a little younger, with shining eyes. …     

Editor's Introduction

Fear is the unifying theme of the articles that follow. Not the strakh about which Anatolii Rybakov wrote, but rather the fear for the future of stability, democracy, and social justice in Russia. But most of our authors conclude either on a hopeful note or with recommendations for action. In the first article ("The Electoral Map of Contemporary Russia"), Vladimir Kolosov and Rostislav Turovskii present the findings of their analysis of voting behavior in Russia's many regions. While not unlocking individual motivations at this level of analysis, they examine the commonplace assertion that the presidential election of June-July 1996 turned on the decline in people's living standards since the overthrow of Communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Almost all press commentary has reported, or assumed, that the anti-Yeltsin vote reflected disillusion with a government that has increasingly impoverished most Russians. Conceding that "the political stratification of Russian regions into reformist and oppositional regions has intensified," the authors nevertheless find that poorer regions sometimes supported Yeltsin over the Communist candidate, Gennadii Ziuganov. Thus, for example, Yeltsin carried Ivanovo Oblast despite its having the highest unemployment rate in the country. They find no direct connection between quality of life and voting patterns in the elections. Political criteria, not economic determinism, offer the best explanation for why people voted the way they did.     

Proposals Regarding the Laws on Housing-Construction Cooperatives

The fundamental legal document regulating the activity of the housing-construction cooperative in the RSFSR is the Model Charter approved by decree No. 1143 of the RSFSR Council of Ministers, October 2, 1965 (SP RSFSR, 1965, no. 23, item 144). As a consequence of the broad scope of cooperative housing construction, life has posed many new questions that are not regulated by the Model Charter or require changes in provisions of the law. Some of its provisions are actually in conflict with the prevailing legislation. For example, Point 3 states that the charter of a cooperative adopted by a meeting shall be recorded in the housing administration (or department) of municipal services of the executive committee of the local soviet, whereas, according to Article 19d of the RSFSR law "On the District Soviet of Working People's Deputies of the RSFSR" and Article 16 of the RSFSR law "On the City and Urban District Soviet of Working People's Deputies of the RSFSR," recording of a charter is by the executive committee. Point 7 of the charter forbids government enterprises from participating with their funds in the construction of housing by a cooperative, while in accordance with the joint decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers (Pravda, September 18, 1977), the councils of ministers of the union republics have the right to permit the heads of state farms and other state enterprises in agriculture, water-control enterprises, and the Agricultural Equipment Association, located in rural places, to make good, under certain conditions, up to 50 percent of the state credit issued to equipment operators who are members of housing-construction cooperatives.     

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.     

The Law Faculty of M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,Decorated with the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor

The Law Department of Moscow State University (MGU) is the oldest school for higher legal education in the country. It was founded in 1755 and in 1804 was reorganized as the Division of Ethics and Politics, In 1835 a Faculty of Law again made its appearance in the structure of MGU. In 1919 at MGU a Faculty of Social Sciences came into being, within which a Division of Politics and Law was established (taking the place of the Law Faculty), and this in turn was renamed the Law Division in 1921. In 1925 a Faculty of Soviet Law was established at MGU in place of the Law Division. This faculty ceased to exist in 1931, and its place was taken by two independent institutions: the Moscow Institute of Soviet Law of the People's Commissariat of Justice of the USSR, and the Moscow Institute of Soviet Government under the All-Union Central Executive Committee (VTsIK). In March 1942 the Law Faculty was revived and continues to exist. In 1954 the Moscow Juridical Institute was merged into the Law Faculty of MGU.     

Editor's Note

All of the Soviet codifications referred to by the authors of Forensic Psychiatry have been translated into English, as follows:

Criminal Law

Fundamentals of Criminal Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics, and Fundamentals of Criminal Procedure of the USSR and Union Republics: F. J. Feldbrugge, in Law in Eastern Europe, No. 3, under "The Federal Criminal Law of the Soviet Urion" (Z. Szirmai, ed.), A. W. Sythoff, Leyden, 1959; George H. Hanna, in Fundamentals of Soviet Criminal Legislation, the Judicial System, and Criminal Court Procedure, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1960; in Current Digest of the Soviet Press, March 4, 1959.     

Editor's Introduction

The future of socialism and of the former Soviet Union is the unifying theme of this issue of Russian Politics and Law. Swedish sociologist Per Månson asks whether the historic events of 1989-91 toll the death knell of the entire era of socialism or whether they signify the end merely of the Soviet variant of an otherwise viable ideology. Any answer to this question largely depends on whether the observer regards the former Soviet Union as having been a deformation of "genuine" socialism rather than its very embodiment. Månson believes the USSR was a caricature of real socialism, which, he argues, requires democratic control of the economy, not state control. Although Månson provides an excellent summary of the contradictions of social democracy, he does not explore in depth the posited distinction between "democratic" and "state" control of the economy in a democratic state.     

Advokatura: In Search of Professionalism and Pluralism in Moscow and Leningrad

This investigation sought to discover whether, and in what respects, Soviet advocates in the wake of perestroika are comparable with legal professions in the West. Taped interviews with ten advocates and various other legal specialists in Moscow and Leningrad in the winter of 1988–89 centered on four major professional goals. The responses showed (1) that Soviet advocates felt that their colleges effectively control admission to the bar; (2) that they have little sense of occupational jurisdiction, except in relation to the newly established legal cooperatives; (3) that they behaved like members of a self-governing profession in that bar association chairmen and bureau managers were perceived as colleagues rather than bosses, while party and state intervention control was dismissed as insignificant; (4) although they feel their status has risen dramatically since Gorbachev, it is not clear that this owes much to their collective efforts or that they have developed a corporate ideology to defend their position. Overall, the evidence supports the view that professional aspirations and institutions comparable to those in the West are to be found among Soviet advocates. Whether this might be seen as the reassertion of civil society, and of pluralism, in Soviet society is a much debated but currently unanswerable question. Negative and positive indications on this matter emerged during the research, the latter being rather the more persuasive.     

If a Deputy is Guilty…

A people's deputy! Great trust and human respect are joined in this concept, so familiar to the Soviet people. A deputy's person is inviolable. This means that criminal proceedings cannot be instituted against him, nor can he be arrested or subjected to administrative punishment imposed by the courts without the consent of the relevant soviet or, while it is not in session, without the consent of its presidium or executive committee.     

Unfinished Construction Jobs

Let us begin this dispatch with an excerpt from a decision of the Standing Committee on Construction and Industrial Building Materials of the Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen SSR on the course of work on public-health structures, December 25, 1972. It says: "Having heard and discussed reports by Deputy Ministers of Construction and of Rural Construction A. S. Shirshov and Ia. P. Tsybul'skii, the committee finds that the erection of health structures in the republic is proceeding unsatisfactorily."     

The Law on the Status of Deputies to the Soviets - In Action

The Law on the Status of Deputies to Soviets of Working People's Deputies in the USSR, adopted by the Supreme Soviet, has been in effect now for over a year and a half. Taking into consideration the special importance of exact and undeviating implementation of that law, the Committees on Legislative Proposals and the Mandate Committees of the two houses of the USSR Supreme Soviet have made a careful study of experience in carrying out this law and discussed this question in March 1974 at a joint meeting. A report to this meeting was presented by I. K. Lutak, deputy to the USSR Supreme Soviet and leader of a group of member-deputies of these committees who had prepared this question for consideration. G. I. Usmanov, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and deputy to the USSR Supreme Soviet, presented a report on experience in applying the Law on the Status of Deputies, as did N. A. Evsigneev, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Voronezh Regional Soviet of Working People's Deputies. Animated discussion arose at the meeting. Participating in it were deputies R. Kh. Abdullaeva, L. T. Torkkeli, A. N. Balandin, F. S. Kuralenok, B. P. Beshchev (USSR minister of transportation), and also S. I. Gusev, deputy procuratorgeneral of the USSR. I. V. Kapitonov, chairman of the Committee on Legislative Proposals of the Council of the Union and a secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, also spoke at the meeting.     

Review of Political Sciences in the USSR. An Index of the Soviet Literature, 1975-1979

The Eleventh World Congress of the International Political Science Association, held in Moscow in August 1979, was a noteworthy event in international scholarly affairs. Among the publications whose appearance was timed for the congress, one's attention is drawn by the bibliographical index of the Soviet literature in the years 1975-1979 prepared by the Sector on Bibliographic Research Information on State and Law of the Institute of Scientific Information in the Social Sciences, USSR Academy of Sciences. The significance of this work lies principally in the fact that it is essentially the first attempt at compiling and publishing an extensive bibliography of political sciences in the USSR. Its appearance is all the more timely because political scientists abroad have little information on research of this kind in the USSR. The bibliographic index is designed not only for the Soviet but for the foreign reader, and for that reason it is published in Russian and in English. The book has a detailed index of names, which facilitates the search for needed literature.     

Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital – Parliamentary Intention and Damages Caused by Maladministration of a Contractual Dismissal Procedure

In Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2011] UKSC 58 [2012] 2 W.L.R. 55 the Supreme Court addressed the following question: is an employee, who can establish that (a) if a contractual disciplinary process had been correctly administered he would have been exonerated, and (b) thereafter employed until retirement, able to sue for loss of the earnings that he would have acquired until retirement? Three members of the Supreme Court held that such a remedy was not reconcilable with the enactment, originally in the Industrial Relations Act 1971, of a statutory unfair dismissals protection regime. It was Parliament's intention that an employee should not be able to outmanoeuvre the statute's compensation limitation rules by deploying a superior common law remedy. This note considers that reading of Parliament's intention.     

Stalin and Mao Zedong

During Mao Zedong's visit to Moscow in February 1950, our Department of Culture decided to acquaint our Chinese friends more intimately with the intellectual life of the capital. They thought they ought to begin with the pride of Soviet ballet, The Red Poppy, at the Bolshoi Theater.     

A Reform That Will Take Three Years

In recent days, at the regular meeting of the government, the ministers and a number of governors considered, among other things, the question of preparation for the realization of federal law No. 131. It is this law that is to reform the system of Russian municipal formations. The recently elected governor of Saratov Oblast, Pavel Ipatov, was present at the meeting, and shared his view of this reform with "RG."