Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T07:21:39.972Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lenin's Letter on the Soviet Procuracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Glenn G. Morgan
Glenn G. Morgan*
Affiliation:
San José State College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

According to Soviet writers, it was Lenin's “famous” letter to Stalin in May, 1922, which was responsible for the creation of the Soviet procuracy. This impression has grown through repeated statements so that the observer is led to believe that the form and content of the procuracy were set forth in this epistle and implemented with the passage of the first statute on the Soviet procuracy of May 28, 1922. The ineluctable conclusion reached is that the procuracy sprang fullblown from the head of Lenin. This article will seek to show to what extent this may be said to be true. It is the contention of this writer that although Lenin's letter was an exceedingly important factor in determining whether the procuracy would be resuscitated in 1922, its importance lay in the support which Lenin, the Party and government leader, gave to a faltering project and not in the weight of his arguments which merely repeated, for the most part, statements on the need for and desirability of the procuracy which had previously been made by others, notably N. V. Krylenko.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , February 1960 , pp. 10 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1960

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Vyshinskij, A. Ja., Sudoustrojstvo v SSSR(3rd ed.; Moscow, 1936), p. 187 Google Scholar.

2 Krylenko, N. V., Sud i Pravo v SSSR. Chast’ Pervaja. Osnovy Sudoustrojstva (Moscow, 1927), p. 91 Google Scholar.

3 Kommunisticheskaja Partija Sovetskogo Sojuza v Rezoljuciakh i Resheniakh S'ezdov, Konferencii i Plenumow Ck; hereafter cited as KPSS v Rezoljuciakh(7th ed., Moscow, 1954), I, 593Google Scholar.

4 Devjatyj Vserossijskij S'ezd Sovetov Rabochikh, Krest'janskikh Krasnoarmejshikh i Kazach'ikh Deputatov. Stenograficheskij Otchet. 22-27 dekabrja 1921 goda (Moscow, 1922), p. 22Google Scholar.

5 Krylenko, N., “Ob ukreplenii revoljucionnoj zakonnosti,” Izvestija, December 29, 1921, p.1 Google Scholar.

6 Berezovskaja, S. “Proshloe i nastojashchee obshchego nadzora,” Socialisticheshaja Zakonnost'; hereafter cited as Soc. Zak., No. 6 (June, 1937), p. 24.Google Scholar

7 Prigradov-Kudrin, A., “Voprosy Sovetskoj Justicii,” Izvestija, December 30, 1921, p. 1 Google Scholar.

8 Ezhenedel'nik Sovetskoj Justicii; hereafter cited as Ezhe. Sov, Just., No. 1 (January 1, 1922), pp. 12–13 Google Scholar.

9 Savrasov, L., “Po povodu proekta dekreta o gosudarstvennoj prokurature,“ F.zhe. Sov. Just., No. 2 (January 8, 1922), p. 1 Google Scholar.

10 Lisicyn, A., “Prokuratura i gubotjusty,“ ibid., p. 2 Google Scholar.

11 Krylenko, N., “K kritike proekta o prokurature,“ Ezhe. Sov. Just., No. 3 (January 15, 1922), p. 2.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., p. 3.

13 A short treatment of Krylenko and his “rehabilitation” is contained in Vladimir Gsovski, “Russia 5 Years After Stalin. Law and Justice,” The New Leader, May 5, 1958, p. 20 Google Scholar.

14 Lisicyn, A., “Moskovskij gubernskij s'ezd rabotnikov justicii,“ Ezhe. Sov. Just., No. 3 (January 15, 1922), p. 11 Google Scholar.

15 “Vechernee zasedanie 27 janvarja. Doklad tov. Krylenko o prokurature,” Ezhe. Sov. Just., No. 5 (January 29, 1922), p. 11 Google Scholar.

16 “TJtrennee zasedanie 28 janvarja. Prenija po dokladu tov. Krylenko o prokurature,” ibid., p. 12.Google Scholar

17 Ezhe. Sov. Just., No. 9 (March 2, 1922), pp. 12–13 Google Scholar.

18 Arsen'ev, B. Ja., “Iz istorii uchrezhdenija sovetskoj prokuratury,” Sovetskoe Gosudarstvo i Pravo; hereafter cited as Sov. Gos. i. Pravo, No. 5 (1947), p. 27 Google Scholar.

19 Krylenko, N. V., Sud i Pravo v SSSR, p. 93 Google Scholar.

20 Ibid., p. 94 Google Scholar.

21 Bjulleten'. 27/ Sessija Vserossijskogo Central'nogo Ispolnitel'nogo Komiteta, IX sozya; hereafter cited as Bjulleten', No. 1 (May 14, 1922), p. 1 Google Scholar.

22 Piljavskij, S., “K voprosu o rabote prokuratury po obshchemu nadzoru,“ Ezhe. Sov, Just., No. 11 March 13, (1924), p. 244 Google Scholar.

23 Bjulleten', No. 2 (May 15, 1922), pp. 22–23 Google Scholar.

24 Ibid., p. 25.

25 Arsen'ev, Sov. Gos. i Pravo, No. 5 (1947), p. 27 Google Scholar.

26 Bjulleten'', No. 3 (May 17, 1922), p. 1. Google Scholar

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid., p. 3.

29 Ibid., p. 4. His name is carried in the session records both as Koganovich and Koganovich.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., p. 5

31 Ibid., p. 10.

32 Ibid., pp. 11–12.

33 Ibid p. 13.

34 Ibid., p. 16.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid., p. 22.

37 Ibid., p. 23.

38 Ibid., pp. 26–27

39 Arsen'ev, p. 27.

40 Shub, David,Lenin (Garden City, 1948), pp. 375–76.Google Scholar

41 Lenin, V. I., Sochinenija (4th ed.;Moscow, 1950), XXXIII, 326–330. Google Scholar

42 Fainsod, Merle, How Russia is Ruled (Cambridge,1953). p. 92 Google Scholar.

43 Lenin, Sochinenija, XXXIII, 326 Google Scholar.

44 Ibid.

45 Ibid., p.327.

46 Ibid., p.328.

47 Ibid., p.329

48 Ibid

49 Ibid., p. 330. Photographs of the Lenin letter are contained in Vasil'eva-Juzhina, M. I., Lenin o revoljucionnoj zakonnosti i o zadachakh suda (Moscow, 1932), pp. ; 29–35. Google Scholar

50 Ioffe, O. S. ed., Sorok Let Sovetskogo Prava (Leningrad, 1957), I, 583. In April, 1959, Rudenko, the Procurator General of the USSR, disclosed that in the meeting of the Politburo which discussed the letter Kamenev, Rykov and Zinoviev opposed Lenin's proposition concerning the procuracy. After the majority of the Politburo had adopted Lenin's proposition, the “dissenters” continued to oppose the draft law in the communist fraction of the VCIK session. Lenin's letter was read in the meeting of the fraction, after which Kamenev “sharply objected” to Lenin's proposition. The point of view of the majority of the members of the Politburo was not adopted by the fraction, but the matter was again transferred to the Politburo which finally adopted Lenin's proposition. Google Scholar Rudenko, R., “Zadachi organov prokuratury v svete reshenij XXI S'ezda KPSS i novykh obshchesoyuznykh zakonov,” Soc. Zak., No. 4 (1959), p. 6.Google Scholar

51 Arsen'ev, p. 27.

52 Tadevosyan, V. S., Prokurorskij Nadzor v SSSR (Moscow, 1956), p. 48 Google Scholar.

53 Lebedinskij, V. G., Sovetskaya Prokuratura i ee Dejatel'nost’ v Oblasti Obshchego Nadzora (Moscow, 1954), p. 21 Google Scholar.

54 Berezovskaja, S. G., Prokurorskij Nadzor v Sovetskom Gosudarstvennom Upravlenii (Moscow, 1954), p. 33 Google Scholar.

55 aPravda, April 23, 1925, p. 1. The editor notes in a footnote that the letter had been given to Pravda by the Lenin Institute. It was probably released at this time in connection with a new emphasis on revolutionary legality; the Fourteenth Party Conference which met from April 27-29, 1925, issued a resolution “On Revolutionary Legality” which took note of Lenin's letter in calling for strengthening legality, especially in local governmental bodies. KPSS v Rezoljuciakh, II, 42.Google Scholar

56 Bjulleten', May 28, 1922, No. 12, pp. 1–4 Google Scholar.

57 SU RSFSR 1922, No. 36, item 424 Google Scholar.

58 SU RSFSR 1922, No. 44, item 539Google Scholar.

59 Ljublinskij, P. I., “Vosstanovlenie prokuratury,“ Pravo i Zhizn’ (June-July, 1922)Google Scholar.

60 Brandenburgskij, Ja., “Revoljucionnaja zakonnost', prokuratura i advokatura,“ Sovetskoe Pravo, No. 2 (1922), p. 10 Google Scholar.

61 Krylenko, Sud i Pravo v SSR, p. 98Google Scholar.

62 Tatarkin, D., “Projdennyj put,“ Soc. Zak., No.5 (May, 1947), p. 44 Google Scholar.