DOI: 10.7256/2409-868X.2016.4.20187

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the activity of the national security authorities of USSR aimed at information awareness of the leadership of the country during the pre-election campaign and elections of the 1937-1938. The author analyzes the normative legal acts of the described period, as well as the archive materials (including the introduced into the scientific discourse for the first time) for the purpose of determination of the main legal moments in the activity of the employees of the law enforcement agencies on implementation of the aforementioned direction of activity. The article raises questions with regards to the correspondence of the certain methods of criminal repressions to the realities of the described period, as well as the increase of the efficiency of law enforcement activity of the government authorities in the 1930’s. The scientific novelty is defined by the introduction into the scientific circulation of the new archive materials, as well as the conducted comparative legal analysis of the normative legal acts, which regulated one of the directions of the national security branches of USSR on protection of the constitutional structure in the 1930’s, and the achieved results.  The author attempted to comprehensively examine large volume of historical and legal sources, be as ideologically unbiased in analyzing these phenomena and processes as possible, and based on that substantiate the conclusions.

DOI: 10.7256/2409-868X.2015.1.13879

Abstract: This article is devoted to the activity of law enforcing authorities of the USSR before the war and their measures aimed at protection and promotion of socialist property. The author of the article analyzes the legal acts and rules of that period as well as archive materials (including the materials that have been first introduced by the author) in order to describe the main legal provisions forming the legal basis for the activity of NKVD of the USSR, Prosecution Office and the court. In this research the author raises questions whether particular methods of political repressions actually answered the realities of that period and whether the law enforcement activity grew more efficient in the 1930s. The methodological basis of the research involves the main principles of research, i.e. historicism and objectivity. The author tries to analyze as many historical and legal sources as possible and make particular conclusions based on that analysis as well as to stay away from his own ideological preferences and beliefs when analyzing the phenomena and processes under study. The scientific novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author reveals a number of archive materials that have never been studied before and conducts a comparative legal analysis of legal acts and standards regulating one of the main directions of the activity of state security bodies, NKVD of the USSR, in the 1930s.