Development of the Soviets and the Tasks of Science

The conditions of development of socialist society require intensification of the ties between science [nauka] and the practice of the building of communism. As L. I. Brezhnev emphasized in the Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the Twenty-fourth Party Congress, "theoretical interpretation of the phenomena of social life and its leading trends enables the Party to foresee the course of social processes and to develop the right political course, avoiding errors and subjectivist solutions." The Congress advanced the task of giving even greater attention to the development of theory and achieving an intimate connection of the social sciences with practical work and the solution of current problems in the building of communism.     

The Production Principle in Party Structure

The November Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, which discussed Comrade N. S. Khrushchev's report "Economic Development of the USSR and Party Guidance of the Economy," was an event of exceptional importance. Its work manifested with new force such Leninist characteristics of our Party as a creative approach to problems of the building of communism which are ripe for solution; the ability at each new stage to distinguish the main link in the chain; the ability to pose problems with revolutionary breadth, and to merge politics, economics, and organizing activities into a single whole. Having condemned the Stalin personality cult, our Party is working persistently to overcome its consequences. It has added to and developed the Leninist traditions. Lenin's standards for conducting Party affairs and his principles of leadership are being asserted more and more fully.     

Legal Problems Involved in the Convergence of Collective and State Farms and the Emergence of a Single Type of Publicly-Owned Agricultural Enterprise

The Party Program adopted by the 22nd CPSU Congress, representing a creative advance of Marxism-Leninism, has defined scientifically the perspectives and courses to be followed to achieve a further sharp rise in agriculture as a prerequisite for the building of a communist society in our country. The CPSU Program points out: "The further advance of the village toward communism will follow the course of development and improvement of both forms of socialist enterprise — collective and state farms." They are both becoming transformed into highly productive and highly profitable forms of enterprise. The economic basis for their development is the continuous growth of the productive forces and improvement in their utilization, improved organization of production and methods of management, a steady rise in labor productivity, and rigorous adherence to the principle that good work and superior results lead to higher pay. On this basis, the collective and state farms will increasingly become enterprises of a communist type in their production relations, the character of the work involved, the living and cultural standards of their personnel. As the building of communism progresses, and as production is improved and increased in volume, "the collective farms will," says the CPSU Program, "come to be agricultural enterprises under general public ownership, by virtue of their economic condition."     

The March Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee and the Organizational and Legal Problems in Guiding Agriculture

A Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee took place in March 1962. It discussed a report by the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, N. S. Khrushchev, entitled "The Present Stage in the Building of Communism and the Tasks of the Party in Improving Guidance to Agriculture" and adopted a comprehensive resolution on this matter.     

The Further Evolution of the State Enterprise as a Legal Entity

The 22nd Congress of the CPSU adopted a new Program for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and set forth in it a concrete plan for the building of a communist society in the USSR. The CPSU Program envisages as the chief economic task of the next twenty years the establishment of the material and technical base for communism. Effectuation of this vast undertaking also presupposes a further "improvement of the legal norms regulating functions of economic organization, culture and education, and promoting the solution of the tasks of the building of communism and the allround flourishing of the personality." (1)     

Protection of the Volga's Waters: A State Task

The concern of the Party and the state for protection of natural resources, including bodies of water, was emphasized once again at the Twenty-fifth Party Congress. In his Report to the Congress, L. I. Brezhnev, General-Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, commented that today we have well-grounded legal provisions permitting purposeful conduct of the work of environmental protection. These juridical norms include, in particular, those of the decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers of March 13, 1972, "On Measures to Prevent Pollution of the Volga and Ural Watershed by Untreated Waste Waters," providing a set of measures whose implementation will make it possible by 1980 to totally eliminate pollution of the waters of "Russia's Main Street."     

The Legal Service of an Economic Branch Ministry

In December 1970, the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers adopted a decree "On Improving Legal Work in the Economy" (1), which is of key importance to further developing and improving that work. The decree notes that the significance of legal work in the economy has increased under the conditions of implementing the economic reform, expanding the rights of enterprises, ministries, and agencies, enlarging the role of business contracts, and effecting measures to improve the methods of leadership in government and the economy.     

Editor's Introduction

The Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee takes note that during the year that has elapsed since the 22nd Congress of the CPSU our country has achieved major successes both in its internal affairs and in the international arena. The decisions of the Congress and the new Party Program have proved to be powerful accelerators of social development, and have stimulated the activity of the working masses for peace, democracy and socialism.     

Baikal Today and Tomorrow

The decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers "On Supplementary Measures to Assure the Rational Use and Preservation of the Natural Resources of the Lake Baikal Basin" is evidence of the constant concern of the Party and government for saving and multiplying our nation's natural resources, for protecting the environment in the face of the revolution in science and technology and the further upsurge in the socialist economy.     

The June Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee and Certain Questions Concerning Scientific Organization of the Struggle Against Crime

The June Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee posed the question of further intensification of ideological and educational activity, elevation of the educational and cultural level of the people, and struggle against bourgeois ideology. The primary aspects of all our ideological work at present are the training of all working people in the spirit of lofty ideals, devotion to communism, and a communist attitude toward labor and the public economy, the complete overcoming of vestiges of bourgeois attitudes and morality, the rounded and harmonious development of the personality, and the creation of a rich intellectual and moral culture.     

The Struggle against Violations of Labor Law - One of the Most Important Tasks of the Courts

In the last several years, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Soviet Government have carried out a number of exceedingly important measures to expand substantially the labor rights of workers and office employees. The working day has been reduced, the wages of the lower income brackets in both manual and white collar employment have been increased, and there has been an extension of pregnancy and postnatal leave. In addition, a number of legal measures have been adopted to expand socialist democracy and to reinforce the role and significance of the trade unions as schools of management, schools of communism.     

The Party Nucleus of a Soviet

In the decisions of the Central Committee of the Party on the work of local government authorities at various levels, attention has repeatedly been called to the need to make the groups of Party members in the Soviets more active and to assure that they will influence in every way the work of the bodies of representative government. This was also emphasized in the 1971 decree of the CPSU Central Committee, "On Measures to Further Improve the Work of the District and City Soviets of Working People's Deputies."     

The District and City Soviets: Current Problems

Among measures implemented by the Party in recent years to develop socialist democracy, a large part is played by measures to raise the role and improve the work of Soviet representative organs — Soviets of working people's deputies — which, as L. I. Brezhnev noted in the Summary Report of the Party Central Committee to the Twenty-Fourth Congress of the CPSU, are the foundation of the socialist state and most completely embody its democratic character. Either directly or through organs subordinate to them, the Soviets deal with all questions pertaining to state, economic, and sociocultural development. Their activity is directed toward implementing the Party line of more completely satisfying the material and cultural needs of the Soviet people.     

Monitoring the Work of the Apparatus of a Ministry

The rise in the scale and complexity of the tasks of building communism constantly puts new and higher demands on the apparatus for managing the country's economic and social development. A special role in assuring that the mechanism of administration will proceed without fits and starts belongs to the ministries, upon which are placed the full responsibility for the state of affairs in the branches of economy and culture under their jurisdiction. The December 1977 Plenum of the CPSU Centr Committee emphasized that the duty of the heads of each branch and each ministry requires that, as they seek improvement of their indices, they tie this as closely as possible to the final effect of their work on the national economy, that they overcome elements of localism and departmentalism, and that they help to satisfy real social needs in the most economical and effective manner possible.     

Pressing Questions in the Development of the Soviet Science of Public Law

The resolution of the CPSU Central Committee, "On Measures for the Further Development of Jurisprudence and Improvement of Legal Education in the Country," is evidence of the rising role of Soviet jurisprudence in the building of communism and of the party's constant concern for the development of this discipline. The resolution provides a profound analysis of the reasons for the backwardness of jurisprudence in general and of its major shortcomings, and outlines measures to bring about a fundamental improvement of research in the field of Soviet legal studies.     

On Dissertations Concerning Party Development

One of the important measures taken in furtherance of the joint decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers "On Measures to Further Improve Certification of Research and Teaching Personnel" has been a revision of the "List of Specialties of Scholarly Personnel," in accordance with which degrees are granted. The new list, issued by the State Committee on Science and Technology of the USSR Council of Ministers in May 1977, introduced "Party development" as a distinct specialty for work in which the degrees of candidate and doctor of historical or philosophical sciences may be awarded.     

Contemporary Models of Political Parties : A Round-Table Discussion

Improvement in the quality of production is a matter of constant concern to the Communist Party and the Soviet government. This is entirely understandable, as improvement in the quality of production is equivalent to an increase in production without additional outlays of labor and funds. Much attention is devoted to problems of quality of production in the Party Program and the decisions of the November (1962) Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee. The June (1963) Plenum, devoted to ideological matters, also gave much attention to the question of improving the quality of production.     

On Improving the Legislation on Territorial and Regional Soviets of Working People's Deputies

The Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU to the Twenty-fifth Party Congress advanced the proposal of adopting laws to define the jurisdiction of territorial [krai], regional [oblast'], and area [okrug] soviets of working people's deputies. This proposal was adopted unanimously by the delegates to the congress. In the course of the work begun to draft these laws, which will define the content and form of activity at the present stage of the building of communism of such an important link in the system of soviets as the regional and territorial soviets, many questions have arisen demanding profound and comprehensive scientific study. In this connection the editors invite legal scholars and practical workers to share in the pages of the journal the results of their research and generalizations from the experience of the work of the soviets and from application of the prevailing legislation, and to express judgments, proposals, and recommendations on the paths to be followed in improving the legislation on territorial, regional, and area soviets.     

The Economy and Economic Law

In recent years a major undertaking has been under way in our country to improve the mechanism of socialist management. The need for a serious improvement in the laws regulating economic life is directly associated with it. Shortcomings in the legal regulation of economic activity were noted by Comrade L. I. Brezhnev, secretary general of the CPSU Central Committee, in his speech to voters on June 14, 1974. "Unfortunately, these questions were for a long time not given the attention they deserved, and as a result many unsolved problems were accumulated in this regard. Thousands of different directives and instructions are in effect in each branch of the economy. Try to find your way through them! The more so since many of these instructions have become obsolete and contain unjustified limitations and petty regulation. This inhibits initiative and contradicts the new requirements which the economy now faces." As we see, the problem has matured and requires immediate solution, with no delay.     

Interrelations Between Local Soviets and Law Enforcement Agencies

The question of interrelations between local soviets and law enforcement agencies is of both general theoretical and practical importance for the intensification and development of the struggle against criminal and other antisocial phenomena. The Political Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the Twenty-seventh Party Congress voiced the demand "to steadfastly raise the responsibilty of law enforcement and other agencies, to strengthen state arbitration and the legal services in the soviets and in the national economy, and to improve the legal education of the population. The use of the entire force of Soviet laws in the struggle against crime and other legal infractions, so that people in every population center feel the concern of the state for their peace and inviolability, so that they be assured that not a single law breaker will escape the punishment he deserves, is an unceasing task."¹