Legal Regulation of the Application of Pre-Revolutionary Legislation in Soviet Russia

Abstract

In the first year of Soviet regime, one of the most important issues for the decision of the leaders of the Soviet state was the question of the possible law enforcement  of the Russian Empire and the Provisional Government of Russia for regulation of social relations under the new government.

The author shows the ideological basics and announced positions of the leaders of the Soviet state regarding the need for the complete destruction of the state and law of the Russian Empire and, as a result, the complete rejection of the use of pre-revolutionary legislation. However, until July 1918, the Bolsheviks did not have full power in the new state, as they were forced to share power with the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs), whose members were deputies of the Soviets at all levels and had a huge influence on the country's population. Based on this, the Bolsheviks were unable to implement their radical plans to completely abandon the use of the legislation of the Russian Empire and the Provisional Government of Russia and were forced to agree with the position of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party on the need to preserve the enforcement of pre-revolutionary legislation for the period of formation of new Soviet legislation.

The author examines archival documents containing materials on the application of pre-revolutionary legislation by the new courts of the Soviet state, indicating that, despite the normative consolidation of the possibility of its enforcement, in practice, Soviet courts refused to use it, and made their judicial decisions on the basis of revolutionary legal consciousness and the dictates of revolutionary conscience. The author shows that the final decision to prohibit the use of the legislation of the Russian Empire and the Provisional Government of Russia to regulate public relations was normatively fixed in 1918 in a new regulation on the people's court, in connection with the excluding from all Soviets of representatives of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party on the basis of a decree V All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', Cossacks' and Peasants' Deputies.