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Soviet Union [USSR] Legal Codes and Abuses of the System
The fundamental principles of the civil and criminal branches
of Soviet law were established at the all-union level and then set
down in the legal codes of the republics. The Civil Code dealt with
contract law, tort law, and law governing wills and inheritance.
Separate codes existed for family law and labor law. The Criminal
Code concerned itself with all aspects of criminal behavior.
The Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the
Russian Republic were revised completely (along with the codes of
the other republics) in 1960, incorporating the 1958 Fundamental
Principles of Criminal Procedure, approved by the Supreme Soviet.
These codes represented a sharp departure from the Stalinist
criminal codes, which had provided a formal legal basis for the
arrest and prosecution of innocent citizens on groundless charges.
Under the Stalinist code, for example, an individual could be
prosecuted for committing an act not specifically prohibited by the
criminal code but "analogous" to such an act. The 1960 codes
abolished the principle of analogy.
The 1960 codes defined political crimes in a more restricted
form and made punishments considerably less severe. They also
established procedural rules to govern the arrest and detention of
suspected criminals. According to the law, a suspect could not be
detained for more than three days without a warrant. Thereafter,
permission for detention had to be obtained from the procurator or
from the courts. The maximum period of pretrial detention was nine
months. At the end of such detention, the accused was entitled to
the services of a defense lawyer. The trial itself was supposed to
be public, with the prosecution conducted by the procurator, who
could recommend sentencing.
Despite the existence of formal laws to protect the rights of
the accused, ample evidence indicated that these laws were not
adhered to when political or other interests of the party came into
play. The party was the ultimate authority in the administration of
justice, and party officials frequently interfered in the judicial
process to protect their own interests. Party approval was required
before appointment to any important position in the legal
apparatus, and this control over personnel appointments gave the
party substantial power
(see Soviet Union USSR - Nomenklatura
, ch. 7). The party also
exerted influence in the oversight of the legal and judicial
organs.
The party sometimes interfered in the administration of
justice. CPSU officials put pressure on procurators, judges, and
defense attorneys in the conduct of individual cases. In some
instances, party officials pressed members of the legal system to
arrest and convict innocent persons who were viewed as politically
unorthodox. (In these cases, the KGB was often the agency exerting
such pressure on behalf of the party.) At other times, party
officials arranged to have crimes covered up or ignored to protect
their personal or economic interests. This situation frequently
occurred with corruption and bribery offenses.
Data as of May 1989
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