The article examines the influence of the Soviet legal doctrine in the activities of the justice bodies of the Ukrainian SSR in the 20s-early 30s of the XX century. It is proved that there were noticeable changes in Marxist views on law, as well as in the entire system of Bolshevik ideology at the turn of the 1920s-1930s. It was at this time that the formation of a new state version of the Bolshevik ideology began, which naturally affected the development of law.
It is revealed that during the period of the 20s – early 30s of the XX century, Ukrainian SSR judicial bodies implemented a wide range of tasks. It is established that in addition to fighting criminal and other offences, since the end of the 1920s, they were increasingly faced with punitive and repressive functions. The main attention was paid to protecting the interests of the party-state Bolshevik power. It is proved that the organs of justice gradually turned into an appendage of the party-nomenclature apparatus, whose function was to implement the political will, programs and installations of the Bolshevik party, which fully corresponded to the Soviet legal doctrine, which was formed in the 20s.
It is proved that the criminal justice system in the period of the 20s-30s was formed under the influence of the growing role of this party in the state and public life of the country. The ideological basis for the formation of the criminal justice system was Marxism-Leninism, in particular, the doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which was understood as power over the law.
It was found that the main tasks of law enforcement agencies in fighting crime and protecting public order were ignored, or they were given minimal attention. It is proved that, after receiving quite significant powers, law enforcement officers, however, were not themselves protected from the policy of terror, and at any moment each of them could become a victim of repression.
It is revealed that the justice bodies of the Ukrainian SSR, as part of the General punitive and repressive mechanism of the existing state system, performed functions that were aimed at approving the totalitarian regime.
The thesis that the Soviet system of power at the stage of transition from authoritarianism to totalitarianism increasingly used non-legal methods of management is well-reasoned. The right was of a purely nominal nature, quite often it is a substitute ideology. It is concluded that in this way the state was formed with a blatantly anti-legal essence.
It is proved that state coercion largely replaced law and morality in the Soviet system. It is revealed that this trend, in general, determined the nature of the functioning of justice departments of the Ukrainian SSR during the period of the 20s – early 30s of the XX century, when the punitive and repressive mechanism ignored not only morality, but also a law.
Keywords: the Soviet legal doctrine, the Soviet system of power, the justice bodies of the Ukrainian SSR, State coercion, punitive and repressive mechanism.
They’re talking about penal abolition: The urgency of re-imagining different paths as alternatives to the criminal justice system
