Legal regulation of pawnshops in pre-revolutionary and Soviet civil legislation
The article examines the process of the origin and development of pawnshop activity in the Russian state in the pre-revolutionary and Soviet periods. Special attention is paid to improving the conditions for granting loans to the population secured by property. The authors investigated the normative legal acts regulating the activities of pawnshops. It is noted that the creation of pawnshops was due to the need to rid the population of usurious oppression and the search for new sources of replenishment of the state treasury. The analysis of the sources of legal regulation shows that in the pre-revolutionary period there was a gradual transfer of the work of pawnshops from the public sphere to the private – the organisational and legal forms of pawnshops were improved, the system of control over their activities changed. The chronological framework of the study also includes the Soviet stage of the formation of pawnshop activity, which is poorly studied. After the temporary cessation of pawnshops, the process of its revival began within the framework of a new economic policy in order to improve consumer services for the population. The authors reveal the contribution of pawnshops to the preservation of citizens' property during the Axis-Soviet War. The analysis of the history of pawnshop activity allowed us to conclude about the social role of pawnshops and their importance for maintaining the financial situation of the population, which indicates the need for the development of pawnshop activity at the present stage.