The Law on Citizenship of the USSR

The new Law on USSR Citizenship, adopted by the USSR Supreme Soviet, December 1, 1978, is a notable contribution to carrying out the program of legislative activity deriving from the USSR Constitution of 1977. The issuance of such a law is envisaged directly in the Constitution, which reads: "The grounds and procedure for acquiring or forfeiting Soviet citizenship are defined by the Law on Citizenship of the USSR" (Article 33). The new law replaces the 1938 Law on USSR Citizenship. That law, consisting of only eight articles, no longer covers many questions of citizenship arising in practice at the present time. Various normative documents were adopted in addition thereto, including instructions by ministries and agencies regulating certain important relationships that should have been settled in law. In writing the new USSR Citizenship Law, the goal was to embrace all questions of citizenship requiring legislative regulation. The law reproduces the corresponding provisions of the USSR Constitution and gives consideration to provisions of the previously prevailing legislation on citizenship and to present practices in this regard. There are new provisions as well. The drafting of the bill was conducted on a broad democratic basis; participating were deputies to the USSR Supreme Soviet, the relevant ministries and agencies, the presidiums of supreme soviets of union republics, and representatives of the science of jurisprudence.     

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 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 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.     

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.     

The Russian Diaspora in the Baltic Countries

The Constitution of the USSR is the basis for the further improvement and development of all branches of law. One of the most important lines of development of the political system of Soviet society is the strengthening of the legal foundation for the affairs of government and society (Article 9, Constitution of the USSR). This provision expresses the need for further elevating the role of law and strengthening legality in the developed socialist society. (1)     

The New Laws on the Judicial System,the Criminal Code,and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation

New laws — the Law on the Judicial System of the RSFSR, the Criminal Code, and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR — were passed on October 27, 1960, at the Third Session of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet (Fifth Convocation). These laws are in accord with the Principles of Criminal Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics, the Principles of Legislation on the Judicial System of the USSR, the Union and Autonomous Republics, and the Principles of Criminal Procedure of the USSR and the Union Republics. The enactment of these laws by the Russian Federation constitutes an important landmark in the development of Soviet legislation.     

Russia and Ukraine Ten Years After the Fall of the Communist Regimes: Similarities and Differences

Ukraine made a considerable contribution to the collapse of the USSR. The continued existence of the Soviet empire was unthinkable without its participation. If Ukraine had not become fully autonomous, an alliance of the three eastern Slavic peoples would have been likely—that is, an abridged version of the USSR. After the August 1991 putsch, all the union republics except Russia seceded from the Soviet Union. According to political reality, Ukraine's independence meant its separation from Russia, since the USSR had in fact already ceased to exist by the autumn of 1991. Under Yeltsin, Russia, in a sense, swallowed up the USSR.     

The Principles of Labor Legislation Have Gone into Effect

The Principles of Labor Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics, adopted by the USSR Supreme Soviet on July 15, 1970, went into effect January 1, 1971. The Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet issued an order on November 30, 1970, defining the procedure for introducing the Principles of Labor Legislation.     

Judicial Supervision of Administrative Acts

Citizens of the USSR enjoy a broad range of socio-economic, political, and personal rights. State organs, social organizations, and officials have the function of protecting those rights and respecting persons. The idea of strengthening the legal foundation of state and social life is clearly expressed in the USSR Constitution: "The Soviet state and all its bodies function on the basis of socialist law, ensure the maintenance of law and order, and safeguard the interests of society and the rights and freedoms of citizens" (Article 4, Paragraph 1).     

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.     

The Law Protects Monuments

On October 29, 1976, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a law, "On the Protection and Utilization of Historical and Cultural Monuments," which will go into effect on March 1, 1977.     

What Does It Mean to Control Migration? Soviet Mobility Policies in Comparative Perspective

The migration policies of the former Soviet Union (or USSR) included a virtual abolition of emigration and immigration, an effective ban on private travel abroad, and pervasive bureaucratic controls on internal migration. This article outlines this Soviet package of migration controls and assesses its historical and international distinctiveness through comparison with a liberal state, the United States, and an authoritarian capitalist state, Apartheid South Africa. Soviet limitations on external migration were more restrictive than those of contemporary capitalist states, and Soviet regulation of internal migration was unusual in its direct bureaucratic supervision of the individual. However, Soviet policy did not aim at the suppression of internal migration, but at its complete regularization. The ultimate goal was “regime adherence”: the full integration of the citizen into the Soviet political order. In contrast to the USSR, migration in the contemporary world is marked by “irregularization”: policies that lead to the proliferation of insecure and unauthorized migration.     

Change in Court Procedure in divorce Cases

On December 10, 1965, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet adopted a decree entitled "On Certain Changes in Court Procedure in Hearing Divorce Cases," which states:

"1. to establish that decisions in divorce cases shall be issued by district (or city) people's courts.     

The Military Procuracy Safeguarding Legality and Law and Order during the Great Patriotic War

Soviet law-enforcement organs, including the procuracy of the USSR and its combat section, the military procuracy—whose task was to maintain higher supervision of rigorous compliance with the law in the USSR Armed Forces and, at the same time, to enforce the principle of legality, an intrinsic aspect of the Soviet system from the very beginning—played a major role in the historic complete victory of the Soviet people over the shock troops of imperialism, fascist Germany. Throughout the Great Patriotic War, constitutional principles were unceasingly adhered to in the Soviet state and its armed forces, and the procurator's office maintained continuous supervision as the most important guarantee that the law would be followed.     

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.     

The New Statute on Foreign Diplomatic and Consular Missions

On May 23, 1966, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet issued a decree that approved and put into effect a new statute on the diplomatic and consular missions of foreign states within the territory of the USSR. The issuance of this act is of major significance for the regulation of many questions arising in connection with the residence and functioning of foreign diplomatic and consular missions and their personnel in the USSR, as well as questions having to do with the work of Soviet diplomatic and consular services abroad, and for the further development and strengthening of relations between the USSR and other states.     

Dynamics of the Soviet illicit drug market

The demise of communism, Westernization, internal economic reform and the disintegration of the Soviet state create fertile soil for the growth of drug abuse and drug trafficking in (the former) USSR. Rates of drug abuse have soared since the mid-1980s, especially in the European parts of the (former) Union; also, organized interregional drug mafias have emerged to serve this rapidly expanding market. The (former) USSR does not now participate significantly in the international narcotics market as a consumer or supplier of illicit substances; however, this pattern of relative self-sufficiency could change dramatically in the 1990s. Convertibility of the ruble could result in a large flow of Western hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin or crack into European Russia. A rapid expansion of trade, travel and economic ties with Western countries will widen the pipeline for the movement of drugs. Finally, Moscow's weakening hold over the (former) Soviet Central Asian republics and Central Asia's generally bleak economic prospects correlate with an apparent massive expansion of drug crop cultivation in that region; if current trends continue, (former) Soviet Central Asia could well become a significant world supplier of hashish and opium products, during the 1990s.Research for this study was completed prior to the transformation of the USSR into the Commonwealth of Independent States.This paper was published as an occasional paper by the Kennan Institute of Advanced Soviet studies and has been updated since then.This paper was prepared for the Department of State as part of its external research program. Views or conclusions contained herein should not be interpreted as representing the official opinion or policy of the Department of State.     

The Purchase and Sale Of Licenses in the USSR

License purchase and sale operations, i.e., permissions to use and apply inventions and other technical advances, are expanding in the Soviet Union. The Directives of the 23rd Congress of the CPSU on the Five-Year Plan for Development of the National Economy of the USSR in 1966-1970 specifically provided for a "considerable expansion of trade in patents and licenses with foreign countries."