1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union

none 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1936 12 05 y 1977 10 07 y Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union File:Coat of arms of the Soviet Union (1936–1946).svg Joseph Stalin Flag of the Soviet Union (1936–1955, bright).svg Soviet Union 1924 Constitution of the Soviet Union 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union Repealed The 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union, also known as the Stalin Constitution, was the basic law of the USSR adopted on 5 December 1936. The 1936 Constitution was the second constitution of the Soviet Union and replaced the 1924 Constitution, with 5 December being celebrated annually as Soviet Constitution Day from its adoption by the Congress of Soviets.Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Russian (2007). Routledge. p. 250. 0415320941. This date was considered the "second foundational moment" of the USSR, after the October Revolution in 1917.Kriza Elisa Simonsen Karen-Margrethe Discursive Framings of Human Rights 2016 Routledge London 9781138944503 81 From Utopia to Dystopia: Bukharin and the Soviet Constitution of 1936 The 1936 Constitution redesigned the government of the Soviet Union, expanded all manner of rights and freedoms, and spelled out a number of democratic procedures. The Congress of Soviets replaced itself with the Supreme Soviet, which amended the 1936 Constitution in 1944. The 1936 Constitution was the longest surviving constitution of the Soviet Union, and many Eastern Bloc countries later adopted constitutions that were closely modeled on it. It was replaced by the 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union ("Brezhnev Constitution") on 7 October 1977. Basic provisions thumb|1951 postage stamp marking the 15th anniversary of the Soviet Constitution, illustrating the right to recreation The 1936 Constitution repealed restrictions on voting, abolishing the lishentsy category of people, and added universal direct suffrage and the right to work to rights guaranteed by the previous constitution. In addition, the 1936 Constitution recognized collective social and economic rights including the rights to work, rest and leisure, health protection, care in old age and sickness, housing, education and cultural benefits. The 1936 Constitution also provided for the direct election of all government bodies and their reorganization into a single, uniform system. Article 122 states that "women in the U.S.S.R. are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life." Specific measures on women included state protection of the interests of mother and child, prematernity and maternity leave with full pay, and the provision of maternity homes, nurseries, and kindergartens. Article 123 establishes equality of rights for all citizens "irrespective of their nationality or race, in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social, and political life."Boer Roland Stalin : from theology to the philosophy of socialism in power 2017 Springer 978-981-10-6367-1 Singapore 166 1007090474 Advocacy of racial or national exclusiveness, or hatred or contempt, or restrictions of rights and privileges on account of nationality, were to be punished by law. Freedom of religion and speech Article 124 of the constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, including separation of (1) church and state, and (2) school from church. The reasoning of the Article 124 is framed in terms of ensuring "to citizens freedom of conscience ... Freedom of religious worship and freedom of anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens." Stalin included Article 124 in the face of stiff opposition, and it eventually led to rapprochement with the Russian Orthodox Church before and during World War 2. The new constitution re-enfranchised certain religious people who had been specifically disenfranchised under the previous constitution. The article resulted in members of the Russian Orthodox Church petitioning to reopen closed churches, gain access to jobs that had been closed to them as religious figures, and the attempt to run religious candidates in the 1937 elections.Fitzpatrick, Sheila (1999). Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s. New York. Oxford University Press. p. 179. Article 125 of the constitution guaranteed freedom of speech of the press and freedom of assembly. Leading role of Communist Party The 1936 constitution specifically mentioned the role of the ruling All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) for the first time.https://books.google.com/books?id=69woVmAqZfgC Ruling Communist Parties and Their Status Under Law 1986 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 9789024732098 Loeber Dietrich André Dietrich A. Loeber Law in Eastern Europe 31 Dordrecht 438 [...] with the exception of the 1924 Mongolian Constitution, all of the constitutions of the Eastern European and Asian Communist states were adopted after the second USSR Constitution of 1936 had been promulgated in which the first direct mention of the Communist Party can at last be found 19 December 2015. Article 126 stated that the Party was the "vanguard of the working people in their struggle to strengthen and develop the socialist system and representing the leading core of all organizations of the working people, both public and state".Конституция (Основной закон) Союза Советских Социалистических Республик (утверждена постановлением Чрезвычайного VIII Съезда Советов Союза Советских Социалистических Республик от 5 декабря 1936 г.). Глава Х: Основные права и обязанности граждан Constitution (Basic Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (confirmed by the decision of the Extraordinary 8th Session of the Soviets of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of 5 December 1936). Chapter 10: Basic rights and duties of citizens http://constitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1936/red_1936/3958676/chapter/10/ 19 December 2015 Sait Konstitutsii Rossiiskoi Federatsii НПП "Гарант-Сервис" ru Статья 126. В соответствии с интересами трудящихся и в целях развития организационной самодеятельности и политической активности народных масс гражданам СССР обеспечивается право объединения в общественные организации: профессиональные союзы, кооперативные объединения, организации молодежи, спортивные и оборонные организации, культурные, технические и научные общества, а наиболее активные и сознательные граждане из рядов рабочего класса и других слоев трудящихся объединяются во Всесоюзную коммунистическую партию (большевиков), являющуюся передовым отрядом трудящихся в их борьбе за укрепление и развитие социалистического строя и представляющую руководящее ядро всех организаций трудящихся, как общественных, так и государственных. This provision was used to justify banning all other parties from functioning in the Soviet Union and legalizing the one-party state.Tamara O. Kuznetsova, Inna A. Rakitskaya and Elena A. Kremyanskaya (2014). Russian Constitutional Law. Nomenclature changes The 1936 Constitution replaced the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union with the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Unlike its unicameral predecessor, the Supreme Soviet contained two chambers: the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities.Waller Sally Tsarist and Communist Russia 1855–1964 Oxford University Press 2015 978-0-19-835467-3 Oxford 142 The constitution empowered the Supreme Soviet to elect commissars, which performed most of the Supreme Soviet's work. The Central Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets was replaced by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet which, much like its predecessor, exercised the full powers of the Supreme Soviet between sessions and had the right to interpret laws. The Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet became the titular head of state of the Soviet Union. The Council of People's Commissars, known after 1946 as the Council of Ministers, continued to act as the executive arm of the government.Law, David A. https://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C Russian civilization Ardent Media 1975 0-8422-0529-2 185 The 1936 Constitution changed the names of all Union Republics, the constituent states of the Soviet Union, transposing the second word "socialist" and third word "soviet" (or equivalent e.g. "radianska" in Ukrainian). Republics were named after the primary nationality and followed by "Soviet Socialist Republic" (SSR), except for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, one of the four republics to sign the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, was dissolved and its constituent republics, the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, were elevated to union republics individually. Drafting The 1936 Constitution was written by a special commission of 31 members which General Secretary Joseph Stalin chaired. Those who participated included (among others) Andrey Vyshinsky, Andrei Zhdanov, Maxim Litvinov, Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Nikolai Bukharin, and Karl Radek, though the latter two had less active input.J. Arch Getty (Spring 1991). "State and Society Under Stalin: Constitutions and Elections in the 1930s". Slavic Review. Vol. 50. No. 1. p. 19, 22. The 1936 Constitution introduced Stalin's view of a "socialist legal culture" proposed to increase regularity and predictability of legal outcomes and institutionalize the results of industrialization and collectivization.Wang Yueduan The New Dual State: Judicial Autonomy and Political Control in China 2026 Cambridge University Press 978-1-009-66167-6 Cambridge, UK; New York, NY4 Soviet reactions The 1936 Constitution enumerated economic rights not included in constitutions in the Western democracies. The constitution was presented as a personal triumph for Stalin, who on this occasion was described by Pravda as "genius of the new world, the wisest man of the epoch, the great leader of communism".Pravda (25 November 1936). According to J. Arch Getty, "Many who lauded Stalin's Soviet Union as the most democratic country on earth lived to regret their words. After all, the Soviet Constitution of 1936 was adopted on the eve of the Great Terror of the late 1930s; the "thoroughly democratic" elections to the first Supreme Soviet permitted only uncontested candidates and took place at the height of the savage violence in 1937. The civil rights, personal freedoms, and democratic forms promised in the Stalin constitution were trampled almost immediately and remained dead letters until long after Stalin's death."J. Arch Getty (1991) "State and Society Under Stalin: Constitutions and Elections in the 1930s". Slavic Review. Vol. 50. No. 1. pp. 18–35. 1944 amendments The 1944 amendments to the 1936 Constitution established separate branches of the Red Army for each Soviet Republic, and also established Republic-level commissariats for foreign affairs and defense, allowing them to be recognized as sovereign states in international law. This allowed for two Soviet Republics, Ukraine and Byelorussia, to join the United Nations General Assembly as founding members in 1945."Walter Duranty Explains Changes In Soviet Constitution" https://web.archive.org/web/20150904015513/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NAQtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mdMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3477,829499&hl=en 2015-09-04 . Miami News. 6 February 1944."League of Nations Timeline – Chronology 1944"."United Nations – Founding Members". Criticism Many historians and contemporary observers have been dismissive of the 1936 constitution as a propaganda document. Leonard Schapiro, for example, wrote in 1971: "The decision to alter the electoral system from indirect to direct election, from a limited to a universal franchise, and from open to secret voting, was a measure of the confidence of the party in its ability to ensure the return of candidates of its own choice without the restrictions formerly considered necessary"; and that "a careful scrutiny of the draft of the new constitution showed that it left the party's supreme position unimpaired, and was therefore worthless as a guarantee of individual rights".Leonard Schapiro (1971). The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (2nd ed.). Random House. New York. pp. 410–411. Isaac Deutscher called it "a veil of liberal phrases and premises over the guillotine in the background," while Hannah Arendt observed that it was hailed as the ending of the Soviet Union's "revolutionary period", but was immediately followed by the country's most intense purges in its history,The Origins of Totalitarianism Arendt Hannah Harcourt (1976); Mariner Books (2001) 1976 978-0156701532 394–395 registration https://archive.org/details/originsoftotali100aren/page/394 the Great Purge in which many of the constitution's organizers and draftees — such as Yakov Yakovlev, Aleksei Stetskii, Boris Markovich Tal',https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/60487/CSEES_MWSC_2014_Lomb_paper.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y A Fundamental Conflict of Vision: Stalin's Constitution and Popular Rejection Lomb Samantha March 2014 Ohio State University 8 June 2019 Vlas Chubar, Karl Radek, Nikolai Bukharin, and Ivan Akulovhttps://books.google.com/books?id=v789DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT35 Stalin's Constitution: Soviet Participatory Politics and the Discussion of the 1936 Draft Constitution Lomb Samantha Routledge 2017 978-1138721845 — were imprisoned or executed as counterrevolutionaries shortly after their work was complete. By way of contrast, historian and conservative commentator on Soviet affairs William Henry Chamberlin, while allowing that much of the 1936 constitution remained dead letter, asserted there was one subtle yet important change connected with the document — the abolition of disfranchisement on the basis of class.William Henry Chamberlin, The Russian Enigma: An Interpretation. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1943; p. 151. Chamberlin explained: "All Soviet citizens, criminals and lunatics excepted, now enjoy the right to vote. This change is important not for political, but for social and moral reasons.... [D]isfranchisement carried with it very serious practical disabilities. The Soviet citizen who could not vote could not go to the university, was excluded from social insurance benefits, found it difficult, sometimes impossible, to obtain state employment in a country where the government is the dispenser of almost all jobs.... The elimination of these social disabilities was a long step towards ending of the class war spirt in Russia, towards the cementing of a sense of genuine national unity under the new regime." See also Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union Government References 30em Further reading Samuel Dobrin, "The New Soviet Constitution," Transactions of the Grotius Society: Problems of Peace and War, Papers Read before the Society in the Year 1936, vol. 22, (1936), pp. 99-116. J. Arch Getty, "State and Society Under Stalin: Constitutions and Elections in the 1930s," Slavic Review, vol. 50, no. 1 (Spring 1991), pp. 18-35. William Partlett, Why the Russian Constitution Matters: The Constitutional Dark Arts. New York: Hart Publishing, 2024. Peter Petroff (July 1936). "New Constitution of the U.S.S.R.". Labour, July 1936, pp. 266-267. Joseph R. Starr, "The New Constitution of the Soviet Union," American Political Science Review, vol. 30, no. 6 (Dec. 1936), pp. 1143-1152. Olga Velikanova, Mass Political Culture under Stalinism: Popular Discussion of the Soviet Constitution of 1936. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. Ellen Wimberg, "Socialism, Democratism and Criticism: The Soviet Press and the National Discussion of the 1936 Draft Constitution," Soviet Studies, vol. 44, no. 2 (1992), pp. 313-332. External links Constitution of the Soviet Union (1936) "Конституция С.С.С.Р. 1936 г.". (full text and all subsequent laws amending the 1936 Constitution) ru. "1936 Constitution of the U.S.S.R." (since page 199). (full text and all subsequent laws amending the 1936 Constitution) en. Category:Constitutions of the Soviet Union Soviet Constitution Constitution Category:1936 documents Category:December 1936 in Europe Category:Constitutions of communist states