On the issue of regulation and the practice of bringing to justice traitors to the Motherland by military tribunals in the years the Great Patriotic war

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issues of regulation and practice of bringing traitors to the Motherland to justice by military tribunals during the Great Patriotic War. The article examines certain aspects of the political and legal approach of the Soviet state to the activities of military tribunals, expressing the nature of its changes during the war period, the peculiarities of judicial practice, judicial and departmental control, prosecutorial supervision, in the context of cases against traitors to the Motherland.

The author comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to unambiguously assess the activities of military tribunals during the war years. On the one hand, their practice of passing unjust sentences and admitting violations of the rule of law has contributed to the history of repression during the war period. At the same time, they played a significant role in strengthening discipline at the front and in the rear, ensuring the security and defense capability of the country, bringing to justice real traitors and accomplices of the Nazi invaders. The activities of the military tribunals were carried out in accordance with the provisions of the emergency procedural legislation of the war period and within the framework of a strict national approach to solving the tasks of countering collaborationism and other threats of the war period, determined by the political leadership of the country. The author identifies and analyzes organizational and legal measures that contributed to both the tightening of criminal repression and the provision of procedural guarantees of legality, proper criminal legal qualification, differentiation and individualization of punishment.