, as in the United States and England,
the highest legislative body, known as the Supreme
Soviet, has two chambers.
the highest legislative body, known as the Supreme
Soviet, has two chambers.
Soviet Union - 1952 - Soviet Civilization
org/access_use#pd-google
? - r~T~F
CHAPTER II THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION
1. Background of the Constitution
Of all the primary documents from original Soviet
sources most conducive to an understanding of the U. S.
S. R. the Soviet Constitution ranks first. Usually printed
in pamphlet form and totaling only about forty pages,
it is also the briefest single document I know that pre-
sents an over-all survey of Soviet institutions and aims.
For it goes beyond a description of the machinery of
government, with which most state constitutions are
primarily concerned, to define the fundamental eco-
nomic, social and political principles upon which the
Soviet commonwealth is based.
It was adopted late in 1936. Instead of going through
the cumbrous process of drastically amending and bring-
ing up to date the previous Constitution of 1924, the
Soviets followed the sensible procedure of drawing up
a new Constitution altogether. The first tentative draft
of it was published in June, 1936. This text was issued
in 60,000,000 pamphlet copies and printed repeatedly
in the Soviet press. During some six months of public
discussion of the proposed Constitution 527,000 meet-
ings were held with a total attendance of 36,500,000
people. Individuals, meetings or organizations sent into
the Constitutional Commission 154,000 amendments, of
which forty-three were finally accepted. The supreme
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
legislative body of the U. S. S. R. , corresponding to the
Congress of the United States, ratified the Constitution
on December 5, 1936, and decreed that December 5
should thereafter be a public holiday, "Constitution
Day. "
The rapid development of Soviet Russia between
1924 and 1936 necessitated the framing of a new Consti-
tution that would reflect the changed conditions. The
first two Five-Year Plans, particularly, had brought
about such progress in both industry and agriculture that
Stalin was able to say: "The complete victory of the
socialist system in all spheres of national economy is now
a fact. "1 Hence the 1936 document, advancing beyond
the Constitutions of 1918* and 1924, which had pro-
claimed socialism as an object of aspiration, formalized
the new situation by treating socialism in the Soviet
Union as an achieved actuality.
At the same time the 1936 Constitution sets up new
and specific goals of aspiration within the framework of
socialism, especially in the Chapter entitled "Funda-
mental Rights and Duties of Citizens. " There, for ex-
ample, the present Constitution makes provision for a
system of civil liberties which has obviously not yet been
put fully into effect. This fact has led critics to claim
that the Soviets have been trying to fool the world with
a mere paper constitution. Of course all state constitu-
tions are paper constitutions and their actualization is
seldom speedy or complete. For example, the Bill of
Rights has been part of the United States Constitution
for almost 160 years, but is still constantly, flagrantly and
widely violated by government officials as well as non-
* The 1918 Constitution applied only to the Russian Soviet Federated
Socialist Republic.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
governmental groups. We need not, then, accuse Soviet
Russia of hypocrisy simply because some of the ideals
written into its Constitution have not been fulfilled a
short sixteen years after the adoption of that document.
The truth, as we shall see, is that most of the Soviet Cons-
titution is in effect because it describes to such a large
extent the concrete functioning of the Soviet state.
2. The Structure of Soviet Society and State
In the introductory Chapter of the Soviet Constitu-
tion entitled "The Organization of Society," Article 1
reads: "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a
socialist state of workers and peasants. " First to be noted
in this opening statement is that, as throughout the Con-
stitution, the word socialist and not the word Communist
is used to describe Soviet society.
There are two fundamental stages, socialism and com-
munism, in the development of a Marxist society. Social-
ism is the initial stage in which the wage return is still
quite unequal and based on the principle, "From each
according to his ability, to each according to his work. "
Under socialism, also, the amount and quality of pro-
duction still falls considerably short of the ideal, and
political dictatorship may still be considered necessary.
Communism is the far-off eventual stage in which wages
become more nearly equal and are regulated on the prin-
ciple, "From each according to his ability, to each accord-
ing to his needs. " The actualization of this principle is
to be made possible by an overflowing economy of abun-
dance such as the world has never seen. Under commun-
ism, too, there is to be a complete abrogation of the dic-
tatorship.
It is essential to correct the common misunderstand-
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
ing that socialism and communism mean an absolute
equality in remuneration and living standards. Stalin
has taken pains to clarify this matter: "By equality, Marx-
ism means, not equalization of individual requirements
and individual life, but the abolition of classes, i. e. , (a)
the equal emancipation of all working people from ex-
ploitation after the capitalists have been overthrown and
expropriated; (b) the equal abolition for all of private
property in the means of production after they have
been converted into the property of the whole of society;
(c) the equal duty of all to work according to their
ability, and the equal right of all working people to re-
ceive remuneration according to the amount of work
performed (a socialist society); (d) the equal duty of
all to work according to their ability, and the equal
right of all working people to receive remuneration
according to their needs (a communist society).
"Furthermore, Marxism proceeds from the assump-
tion that people's tastes and requirements are not, and
cannot be, identical, equal, in quality or in quantity,
either in the period of socialism or in the period of com-
munism. That is the Marxian conception of equality.
Marxism has never recognized, nor does it recognize,
any other equality. To draw from this the conclusion
that socialism calls for equalization, for the leveling of
the requirements of the members of society, for the
leveling of their tastes and of their individual lives --
that according to the plans of the Marxists all should
wear the same clothes and eat the same dishes in the same
quantity -- is to deal in vulgarities and to slander Marx-
ism. "2
In any event real communism, as Marxism under-
stands it, has at no time existed in the Soviet Union,
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
either in an economic or political sense. The Soviet
system, however, is often called "communism" because
of its ultimate goals and because the Communist Party
is so extremely important in the life of the country. Actu-
ally, the Socialist Parties in various nations have much
the same economic aims as the Communist Parties, but
differ radically in the methods used to reach those ends,
particularly in their strict adherence to legal and demo-
cratic forms.
The second important point in Article 1 is the use
of the word Soviet, which means council in Russian
and therefore carries with it a democratic connotation.
The Soviet is the pervading governmental pattern in the
Soviet Republic, from the Supreme Soviet of the U. S. S. R.
at the top to the village Soviets at the other end of the
scale. Thus Article 3 asserts: "In the U. S. S. R. all power
belongs to the working people of town and country as
represented by the Soviets of Working People's Depu-
ties. "
Article 4 states: "The socialist system of economy and
the socialist ownership of the means and instruments
of production firmly established as a result of the aboli-
tion of the capitalist system of economy, the abrogation
of private ownership of the means and instruments of
production and the abolition of the exploitation of man
by man, constitute the economic foundation of the U. S.
S. R. " Article 5 defines socialist property as existing
"either in the form of state property (the possession of
the whole people), or in the form of cooperative and col-
lective-farm property (property of a collective farm or
property of a cooperative association). "
Yet not all property in the Soviet Union has been
1
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? THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION
nationalized or socialized, since, according to Article 9,
"the law permits the small private economy of individual
peasants and handicraftsmen based on their personal
labor and precluding the exploitation of the labor of
others. " Such exploitation occurs, in Marxist theory,
as soon as you hire someone else to work for you and
make a profit out of his services. Employing household
or domestic workers does not come under the heading
of exploitation.
Furthermore, as Article 10 makes clear: "The right
of citizens to personal ownership of their incomes from
work and of their savings, of their dwelling houses and
subsidiary household economy, their household furni-
ture and utensils and articles of personal use and con-
venience, as well as the right of inheritance of personal
property of citizens, is protected by law. " This state-
ment corrects the widespread misconception that collec-
tive ownership under socialism covers literally everything.
The chief economic goal of socialism is to keep on raising
the standard of living in terms of personal consumer
goods such as just described. Collective ownership is of
the main means of production and distribution like
mineral deposits, the land, forests, factories, railroads,
banks, communications and so on.
Individual property rights are further defined in
Article 7 regarding collective farms: "In addition to its
basic income from the public, collective-farm enterprise,
every household in a collective farm has for its personal
use a small plot of land attached to the dwelling and,
as its personal property, a subsidiary establishment on
the plot, a dwelling house, livestock, poultry and minor
agricultural implements. " This same Article tells us:
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
"Public enterprises in collective farms and cooperative
organizations, with their livestock and implements, the
products of the collective farms and cooperative organ-
izations, as well as their common buildings, constitute
the common, socialist property of the collective farms
and cooperative organizations. "
Not less than 60 percent of Soviet families own their
own homes today. Within city limits the size of the plot
permitted for a privately owned house is not more than
720 square yards; in the country it may be twice that
size. Persons building a house are entitled to a credit of
10,000 rubles to assist them in the venture. The credit
carries 2 percent interest and is to be paid back in seven
years. The owner-builder's personal investment must
not be less than 30 percent; but -- and this is a novel
feature -- it need not be in the form of cash, since the
labor put in by the builder and members of his family
is counted as part of his investment. Free timber is avail-
able for construction to war invalids and to ex-servicemen
and their families.
Article 11 gives the key, in my opinion, to the rapid
economic development of the Soviet Union and to its
general economic stability in war and peace: "The
economic life of the U. S. S. R. is determined and directed
by the state national economic plan with the aim of in-
creasing the public wealth, of steadily improving the
material conditions of the working people and raising
their cultural level, of consolidating the independence of
the U. S. S. R. and strengthening its defensive capacity. "
Country-wide social-economic planning in Soviet Russia,
upon the socialist foundations already outlined, is an
asset of inestimable value and definitely something new
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
undei the sun. I shall later include an entire section on
it. *
In article 12 we find the important statement: "In
the U. S. S. R. work is a duty and a matter of honor for
every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the prin-
ciple: 'He who does not work, neither shall he eat. '"
This same thought was enunciated in the Bible by St.
Paul in the second book of Thessalonians, third chapter,
tenth verse: "For even when we were with you, this we
commanded you, that if any would not work, neither
shall he eat. " In the Soviet Union the principle of per-
forming useful work amounts to gospel. It naturally
conduces, through ever-increasing production, to the
general welfare and also to individual happiness, since the
average Soviet citizen is absorbed in a socially significant
job that brings meaning into his life.
There is no place for idlers in Soviet Russia. The
new Soviet morality looks upon all forms of socially
useful labor as ethically worth while and praiseworthy.
To win the award of "Hero of Socialist Labor" in the
Soviet Republic is an honor of highest repute. At the
same time the Soviet system makes wide provisions for
economic assistance to workers in case of accident or
illness, and during old age, giving them throughout adult-
hood a sense of security that encourages psychological
stability and devoted public service.
Chapters II-IX of the Soviet Constitution provide
most of the essential information on how the Soviet
state is organized. I shall merely make a few general
remarks on the formal governmental set-up, which is not
difficult to grasp and has many similarities with demo-
* See p. 165.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
cratic institutions in the United States and Great Britain.
Like the U. S. A. , the U. S. S. R. is a federal republic. It
is made up of sixteen different Union or Soviet Socialist
Republics, organized on the basis of nationality and each
possessing a large degree of autonomy and "its own Con-
stitution, which takes account of the specific features of
the Republic and is drawn up in full conformity with
the Constitution of the U. S. S. R. " (Article 16). The
formal autonomy of the Union Republics goes further
than that of States in the U. S. A. in that they have "the
right freely to secede from the U. S. S. R. " (Article 17).
It is doubtful, however, whether in the last analysis any
of them would or could put this provision into effect.
In the U. S. S. R.
, as in the United States and England,
the highest legislative body, known as the Supreme
Soviet, has two chambers. These are the Soviet of the
Union, with 678 deputies (1950) who are elected on the
basis of one for every 300,000 of the population; and the
Soviet of Nationalities, with 638 representatives (1950)
elected according to nationality from the Union Repub-
lics and from the national divisions of lesser size within
them. * Unlike the comparable American and British
bodies, the two Soviet chambers have equal rights. The
Soviet of Nationalities, a unique institution in the
history of parliamentary development at the time it was
set up, reflects the multi-national character of the Soviet
commonwealth and the particular interests of the various
national groups. The Constitution gives special recog-
nition throughout to the many different ethnic minorities
of the U. S. S. R. This theme is of great importance and
I shall devote the next chapter to it.
* In the national elections of 1946 and 1950 both Soviets added several
extra members, elected by military units serving outside of the country. In
1950 the number of additional Deputies chosen for each chamber was seven.
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
The term of office for each house in the Supreme
Soviet is four years. The Supreme Soviet meets twice
annually. It names the Supreme Court of the U. S. S. R.
for a term of five years. It likewise elects a Presidium or
Executive Committee of thirty-three members to carry
on its functions when it is not in session. Foreign corres-
pondents often refer to the Chairman of the Presidium,
at present Nikolai M. Shvernik, former head of the trade
union movement, as the Soviet "President. " He repre-
sents the Soviet Government at many official functions,
his duties and powers conforming in considerable degree
to those of the President of France.
The Supreme Soviet also chooses the Council of Min-
isters of the U. S. S. R. , which has about sixty members.
This Council corresponds to the Cabinet in America and
England and constitutes the Government of the U. S. S. R.
Its Chairman, at present Joseph Stalin, is Premier of the
Soviet Union, and it has more than twelve Deputy Chair-
men. The Council of Ministers is responsible and ac-
countable to the Presidium, which has the power to annul
its decisions and orders "in case they do not conform
to law" (Article 49f). And the Presidium is in its turn
accountable to the Supreme Soviet.
Thus the Soviet Constitution follows the British pat-
tern, in form at least, in setting up direct parliamentary
responsibility for the central government instead of giv-
ing a chief executive the power, as does the American
Constitution, to continue his administration even after
the highest legislative body has repudiated him. Like-
wise it resembles the British model in doing without a
popularly elected chief executive. Again, the Soviet sys-
tem is like the British rather than the American in that
the Supreme Court does not have the power to declare
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
legislation unconstitutional. The final court of authority
on legislation in Soviet Russia is the Supreme Soviet.
Many constitutional experts believe that placing ulti-
mate power in the legislature is, other things being
equal, a more democratic arrangement than the Ameri-
can system of checks and balances.
The immense scope of a socialist government under
which there is public ownership and operation of the
main means of production and distribution becomes
clear in viewing the functions of the Council of Ministers.
Whereas the American Cabinet administers only nine
separate departments, the Soviet is responsible for fifty-
six. The Council of Ministers (Cabinet) includes the
heads of fifty-one Ministries* and the chairmen of five
special bodies of ministerial rank, namely, the Committee
on Arts, the State Planning Committee, the State Com-
mittee for Construction, the State Committee for Food
and Industrial Commodity Supplies and the State Com-
mittee for Material and Technical Supplies to the Na-
tional Economy.
The Cabinet also has direct charge of more than
twenty Chief Administrations, Administrations, Bureaus,
Commissions, Councils or Committees which do not have
ministerial status, but whose chairmen sit in the Cabinet
in a consultative capacity. Examples of such bodies are
the Central Statistical Administration, the Chief Adminis-
tration of Protective Afforestation, the Academy of Sci-
ences of the U. S. S. R. , the Committee on the Affairs of
Physical Culture and Sport, the Council on Affairs of the
Orthodox Church and the State Arbitration Bureau,
which has the duty of ironing out disagreements and dif-
? Until 1946 the official title of Soviet Ministries was People's Commis-
sariats and of Ministers, People's Commissars.
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
Acuities between the various Ministries and sub-Min-
istries.
Twenty-nine of the Ministries under the Soviet Cab-
inet are in the Ail-Union category with nation-wide scope
and function. They are as follows (Article 77):
Agricultural Machine-Building Industry
Agricultural Stocks
Armaments
Automobile and Tractor Industry
Aviation Industry
Chemical Industry
Coal Industry
Communications
Communications Equipment Industry
Construction and Road-Building Machinery
Construction of Heavy Industry Enterprises
Construction of Machine-Building Enterprises
Electrical Industry
Electric Power Stations
Ferrous Metallurgy
Foreign Trade
Geology
Heavy Machine-Building Industry
Labor Reserves
Machine-Tool Building Industry
Machine-Building and Instrument-Building
Merchant Marine
Navy
Non-Ferrous Metallurgy
Oil Industry
Railroads
River Fleet
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Ship-Building Industry
Transport Machine-Building Industry
The central Soviet Government also is in charge of
twenty-one Union-Republican Ministries which, "as a
rule, direct the branches of state administration entrusted
to them through the corresponding Ministries of the
Union Republics" (Article 76). These corresponding
Ministries of each of the sixteen constituent Republics
have a dual responsibility and accountability, being
"subordinate both to the Council of Ministers of the
Union Republic and to the corresponding Union-Repub-
lican Ministries of the U. S. S. R. " (Article 87). The
twenty-two Union-Republican Ministries are (Article
78):
Agriculture
Army
Building Materials Industry
Cinematography
Cotton Growing
Finance
Fishing Industry
Food Industry
Foreign Affairs
Forestry
Higher Education
Internal Affairs
Justice
Light Industry
Meat and Dairy Industry
Paper and Woodworking
Public Health
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? THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION
State Control
State Farms
State Security
Timber Industry-
Trade
The economic, cultural and political affairs assigned
to the Union-Republican Ministries are run jointly by
the federal and the Republican governments. The Union
Republics administer a few Republican Ministries which
are concerned with local affairs and have no opposite
numbers in the federal government. To summarize,
there are altogether four classes of Ministries in the
governments of the U. S. S. R. and the Union Repub-
lics: the exclusively Republican Ministries just men-
tioned, the Republics' Union-Republican Ministries, the
federal Union-Republican Ministries (bearing the same
names as the corresponding Republican departments),
and the All-Union Ministries which are the responsibility
of the federal administration alone.
The governmental structures of the Union Republics,
and of the subdivisions within them called Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republics, are somewhat less complicated
than those of the federal state, the most important dif-
ference being that their Supreme Soviets are unicameral
instead of bicameral. This means, of course, that they
do not have a separate Chamber of Nationalities. Repre-
sentation in the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics
varies, according to size of population, from one deputy
for every 5,000 inhabitants to one for every 150,000.
For the Supreme Soviets of the Autonomous Republics
the general rule is one representative for every 3,000 to
5,000 inhabitants.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE U. S. S. R.
PROCURATOR
OF THE U. S. S. R.
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
OF THE U. S. S. R.
STALIN, CHAIRMAN (PREMIER)
COMMITTEES
STATE
PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE U. S. S. R.
STATE COMMITTEE
FOR MATERIAL
AND TECHNICAL
SUPPLIES TO THE
NATIONAL
ECONOMY
and Others
ALL-UNION
MINISTRIES
Armsmentj
Automobile and
Tractor Industry
Coal Industry
Communications
Electric Power
Stations
Foreign Trade
Machine-Tool Build-
ing Industry
Merchant Marine
Oil Industry
Railroads
River Fleet
and Others
UNION-REPUBLICAN
MINISTRIES OF THE
U. S. S. R.
Agriculture
Army
Finance
Food Industry
Foreign Affairs
Higher Education
Justice
Light Industry
Public Health
State Security
Timber Industry
and Others
STATE BANK
SAVINGS
BANKS
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOJi
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE OF A UNION REPUBLIC
STATE PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE U. S. S. R.
PROCURATOR
OF THE U. S. S. R.
UNION-REPUBLICAN!
MINISTRIES
OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE
UNION REPUBLIC
PROCURATOR
OF THE
lUNION REPUBLIC
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
OF THE UNION REPUBLIC
STATE PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE
UNION REPUBLIC
COMMITTEE
ON CULTURAL
AND EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS
and Other Committees
VARYING FROM
REPUBLIC TO
REPUBLIC
REPUBLICAN MINISTRIES
EDUCATION
LOCAL INDUSTRY
MUNICIPAL ECONOMY
SOCIAL MAINTENANCE
and OTHERS VARYING
FROM REPUBLIC TO
REPUBLIC
UNION-REPUBLICAN
MINISTRIES OF THE
U. S. S. R.
AGRICULTURE
ARMY
FINANCE
FOOD INDUSTRY
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HIGHER EDUCATION
JUSTICE
LIGHT INDUSTRY
PUBLIC HEALTH
STATE SECURITY
TIMBER INDUSTRY
and OTHERS
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
In Chapter XI the 1936 Constitution outlines an
electoral system which contains five new provisions that
signify a real advance and that show, to my mind, a grad-
ual evolution toward full-fledged democracy in the Soviet
Union. In the first place, the Constitution renders the
ballot universal, giving the franchise to certain groups
and individuals formerly barred from voting because they
were considered too hostile to the Soviet state or too
unreliable. Article 135 reads: "Elections of deputies are
universal: all citizens of the U. S. S. R. who have reached
the age of eighteen, irrespective of race or nationality,
sex, religion, educational and residential qualifications,
social origin, property status or past activities, have the
right to vote in the election of deputies, with the excep-
tion of insane persons and persons who have been con-
victed by a court of law and whose sentences include
deprivation of electoral rights. "
In the second place, the 1936 Constitution asserts the
principle of equal suffrage for all and does not discrimi-
nate against any group or class. The 1924 Constitution
provided for unequal representation of workers and
peasants in the chief elective bodies, one deputy being
elected for every 25,000 city electors as compared with
one for every 125,000 people in the rural districts. The
reason for this disproportion was that the agricultural
population was at the time still predominantly illiterate
and wedded to individualistic methods of farming. Only
with the progress of education among the peasants and
the triumph of collective farming was it deemed wise for
the Socialist Republic to eliminate the weighting of the
ballot in favor of the progressive city workers. In the
United States today the ballot is still unequal in the
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
sense of being generally weighted against the urban
population.
In the third place, the 1936 Constitution establishes
secret voting in the election of all the different grades
of Soviet. Previously elections had been conducted by
a show of hands at open meetings, in the fashion of the
old New England town meeting. Again, in the earlier
years of the Soviet Republic there did not exist the cul-
tural prerequisites among the largely illiterate Soviet
people for carrying through efficiently the processes of
the secret ballot. The simple show of hands, however
subject to abuse, was the natural and intelligent pro-
cedure for a considerable period.
? - r~T~F
CHAPTER II THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION
1. Background of the Constitution
Of all the primary documents from original Soviet
sources most conducive to an understanding of the U. S.
S. R. the Soviet Constitution ranks first. Usually printed
in pamphlet form and totaling only about forty pages,
it is also the briefest single document I know that pre-
sents an over-all survey of Soviet institutions and aims.
For it goes beyond a description of the machinery of
government, with which most state constitutions are
primarily concerned, to define the fundamental eco-
nomic, social and political principles upon which the
Soviet commonwealth is based.
It was adopted late in 1936. Instead of going through
the cumbrous process of drastically amending and bring-
ing up to date the previous Constitution of 1924, the
Soviets followed the sensible procedure of drawing up
a new Constitution altogether. The first tentative draft
of it was published in June, 1936. This text was issued
in 60,000,000 pamphlet copies and printed repeatedly
in the Soviet press. During some six months of public
discussion of the proposed Constitution 527,000 meet-
ings were held with a total attendance of 36,500,000
people. Individuals, meetings or organizations sent into
the Constitutional Commission 154,000 amendments, of
which forty-three were finally accepted. The supreme
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
legislative body of the U. S. S. R. , corresponding to the
Congress of the United States, ratified the Constitution
on December 5, 1936, and decreed that December 5
should thereafter be a public holiday, "Constitution
Day. "
The rapid development of Soviet Russia between
1924 and 1936 necessitated the framing of a new Consti-
tution that would reflect the changed conditions. The
first two Five-Year Plans, particularly, had brought
about such progress in both industry and agriculture that
Stalin was able to say: "The complete victory of the
socialist system in all spheres of national economy is now
a fact. "1 Hence the 1936 document, advancing beyond
the Constitutions of 1918* and 1924, which had pro-
claimed socialism as an object of aspiration, formalized
the new situation by treating socialism in the Soviet
Union as an achieved actuality.
At the same time the 1936 Constitution sets up new
and specific goals of aspiration within the framework of
socialism, especially in the Chapter entitled "Funda-
mental Rights and Duties of Citizens. " There, for ex-
ample, the present Constitution makes provision for a
system of civil liberties which has obviously not yet been
put fully into effect. This fact has led critics to claim
that the Soviets have been trying to fool the world with
a mere paper constitution. Of course all state constitu-
tions are paper constitutions and their actualization is
seldom speedy or complete. For example, the Bill of
Rights has been part of the United States Constitution
for almost 160 years, but is still constantly, flagrantly and
widely violated by government officials as well as non-
* The 1918 Constitution applied only to the Russian Soviet Federated
Socialist Republic.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
governmental groups. We need not, then, accuse Soviet
Russia of hypocrisy simply because some of the ideals
written into its Constitution have not been fulfilled a
short sixteen years after the adoption of that document.
The truth, as we shall see, is that most of the Soviet Cons-
titution is in effect because it describes to such a large
extent the concrete functioning of the Soviet state.
2. The Structure of Soviet Society and State
In the introductory Chapter of the Soviet Constitu-
tion entitled "The Organization of Society," Article 1
reads: "The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a
socialist state of workers and peasants. " First to be noted
in this opening statement is that, as throughout the Con-
stitution, the word socialist and not the word Communist
is used to describe Soviet society.
There are two fundamental stages, socialism and com-
munism, in the development of a Marxist society. Social-
ism is the initial stage in which the wage return is still
quite unequal and based on the principle, "From each
according to his ability, to each according to his work. "
Under socialism, also, the amount and quality of pro-
duction still falls considerably short of the ideal, and
political dictatorship may still be considered necessary.
Communism is the far-off eventual stage in which wages
become more nearly equal and are regulated on the prin-
ciple, "From each according to his ability, to each accord-
ing to his needs. " The actualization of this principle is
to be made possible by an overflowing economy of abun-
dance such as the world has never seen. Under commun-
ism, too, there is to be a complete abrogation of the dic-
tatorship.
It is essential to correct the common misunderstand-
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
ing that socialism and communism mean an absolute
equality in remuneration and living standards. Stalin
has taken pains to clarify this matter: "By equality, Marx-
ism means, not equalization of individual requirements
and individual life, but the abolition of classes, i. e. , (a)
the equal emancipation of all working people from ex-
ploitation after the capitalists have been overthrown and
expropriated; (b) the equal abolition for all of private
property in the means of production after they have
been converted into the property of the whole of society;
(c) the equal duty of all to work according to their
ability, and the equal right of all working people to re-
ceive remuneration according to the amount of work
performed (a socialist society); (d) the equal duty of
all to work according to their ability, and the equal
right of all working people to receive remuneration
according to their needs (a communist society).
"Furthermore, Marxism proceeds from the assump-
tion that people's tastes and requirements are not, and
cannot be, identical, equal, in quality or in quantity,
either in the period of socialism or in the period of com-
munism. That is the Marxian conception of equality.
Marxism has never recognized, nor does it recognize,
any other equality. To draw from this the conclusion
that socialism calls for equalization, for the leveling of
the requirements of the members of society, for the
leveling of their tastes and of their individual lives --
that according to the plans of the Marxists all should
wear the same clothes and eat the same dishes in the same
quantity -- is to deal in vulgarities and to slander Marx-
ism. "2
In any event real communism, as Marxism under-
stands it, has at no time existed in the Soviet Union,
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
either in an economic or political sense. The Soviet
system, however, is often called "communism" because
of its ultimate goals and because the Communist Party
is so extremely important in the life of the country. Actu-
ally, the Socialist Parties in various nations have much
the same economic aims as the Communist Parties, but
differ radically in the methods used to reach those ends,
particularly in their strict adherence to legal and demo-
cratic forms.
The second important point in Article 1 is the use
of the word Soviet, which means council in Russian
and therefore carries with it a democratic connotation.
The Soviet is the pervading governmental pattern in the
Soviet Republic, from the Supreme Soviet of the U. S. S. R.
at the top to the village Soviets at the other end of the
scale. Thus Article 3 asserts: "In the U. S. S. R. all power
belongs to the working people of town and country as
represented by the Soviets of Working People's Depu-
ties. "
Article 4 states: "The socialist system of economy and
the socialist ownership of the means and instruments
of production firmly established as a result of the aboli-
tion of the capitalist system of economy, the abrogation
of private ownership of the means and instruments of
production and the abolition of the exploitation of man
by man, constitute the economic foundation of the U. S.
S. R. " Article 5 defines socialist property as existing
"either in the form of state property (the possession of
the whole people), or in the form of cooperative and col-
lective-farm property (property of a collective farm or
property of a cooperative association). "
Yet not all property in the Soviet Union has been
1
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? THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION
nationalized or socialized, since, according to Article 9,
"the law permits the small private economy of individual
peasants and handicraftsmen based on their personal
labor and precluding the exploitation of the labor of
others. " Such exploitation occurs, in Marxist theory,
as soon as you hire someone else to work for you and
make a profit out of his services. Employing household
or domestic workers does not come under the heading
of exploitation.
Furthermore, as Article 10 makes clear: "The right
of citizens to personal ownership of their incomes from
work and of their savings, of their dwelling houses and
subsidiary household economy, their household furni-
ture and utensils and articles of personal use and con-
venience, as well as the right of inheritance of personal
property of citizens, is protected by law. " This state-
ment corrects the widespread misconception that collec-
tive ownership under socialism covers literally everything.
The chief economic goal of socialism is to keep on raising
the standard of living in terms of personal consumer
goods such as just described. Collective ownership is of
the main means of production and distribution like
mineral deposits, the land, forests, factories, railroads,
banks, communications and so on.
Individual property rights are further defined in
Article 7 regarding collective farms: "In addition to its
basic income from the public, collective-farm enterprise,
every household in a collective farm has for its personal
use a small plot of land attached to the dwelling and,
as its personal property, a subsidiary establishment on
the plot, a dwelling house, livestock, poultry and minor
agricultural implements. " This same Article tells us:
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
"Public enterprises in collective farms and cooperative
organizations, with their livestock and implements, the
products of the collective farms and cooperative organ-
izations, as well as their common buildings, constitute
the common, socialist property of the collective farms
and cooperative organizations. "
Not less than 60 percent of Soviet families own their
own homes today. Within city limits the size of the plot
permitted for a privately owned house is not more than
720 square yards; in the country it may be twice that
size. Persons building a house are entitled to a credit of
10,000 rubles to assist them in the venture. The credit
carries 2 percent interest and is to be paid back in seven
years. The owner-builder's personal investment must
not be less than 30 percent; but -- and this is a novel
feature -- it need not be in the form of cash, since the
labor put in by the builder and members of his family
is counted as part of his investment. Free timber is avail-
able for construction to war invalids and to ex-servicemen
and their families.
Article 11 gives the key, in my opinion, to the rapid
economic development of the Soviet Union and to its
general economic stability in war and peace: "The
economic life of the U. S. S. R. is determined and directed
by the state national economic plan with the aim of in-
creasing the public wealth, of steadily improving the
material conditions of the working people and raising
their cultural level, of consolidating the independence of
the U. S. S. R. and strengthening its defensive capacity. "
Country-wide social-economic planning in Soviet Russia,
upon the socialist foundations already outlined, is an
asset of inestimable value and definitely something new
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
undei the sun. I shall later include an entire section on
it. *
In article 12 we find the important statement: "In
the U. S. S. R. work is a duty and a matter of honor for
every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the prin-
ciple: 'He who does not work, neither shall he eat. '"
This same thought was enunciated in the Bible by St.
Paul in the second book of Thessalonians, third chapter,
tenth verse: "For even when we were with you, this we
commanded you, that if any would not work, neither
shall he eat. " In the Soviet Union the principle of per-
forming useful work amounts to gospel. It naturally
conduces, through ever-increasing production, to the
general welfare and also to individual happiness, since the
average Soviet citizen is absorbed in a socially significant
job that brings meaning into his life.
There is no place for idlers in Soviet Russia. The
new Soviet morality looks upon all forms of socially
useful labor as ethically worth while and praiseworthy.
To win the award of "Hero of Socialist Labor" in the
Soviet Republic is an honor of highest repute. At the
same time the Soviet system makes wide provisions for
economic assistance to workers in case of accident or
illness, and during old age, giving them throughout adult-
hood a sense of security that encourages psychological
stability and devoted public service.
Chapters II-IX of the Soviet Constitution provide
most of the essential information on how the Soviet
state is organized. I shall merely make a few general
remarks on the formal governmental set-up, which is not
difficult to grasp and has many similarities with demo-
* See p. 165.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATIOH
cratic institutions in the United States and Great Britain.
Like the U. S. A. , the U. S. S. R. is a federal republic. It
is made up of sixteen different Union or Soviet Socialist
Republics, organized on the basis of nationality and each
possessing a large degree of autonomy and "its own Con-
stitution, which takes account of the specific features of
the Republic and is drawn up in full conformity with
the Constitution of the U. S. S. R. " (Article 16). The
formal autonomy of the Union Republics goes further
than that of States in the U. S. A. in that they have "the
right freely to secede from the U. S. S. R. " (Article 17).
It is doubtful, however, whether in the last analysis any
of them would or could put this provision into effect.
In the U. S. S. R.
, as in the United States and England,
the highest legislative body, known as the Supreme
Soviet, has two chambers. These are the Soviet of the
Union, with 678 deputies (1950) who are elected on the
basis of one for every 300,000 of the population; and the
Soviet of Nationalities, with 638 representatives (1950)
elected according to nationality from the Union Repub-
lics and from the national divisions of lesser size within
them. * Unlike the comparable American and British
bodies, the two Soviet chambers have equal rights. The
Soviet of Nationalities, a unique institution in the
history of parliamentary development at the time it was
set up, reflects the multi-national character of the Soviet
commonwealth and the particular interests of the various
national groups. The Constitution gives special recog-
nition throughout to the many different ethnic minorities
of the U. S. S. R. This theme is of great importance and
I shall devote the next chapter to it.
* In the national elections of 1946 and 1950 both Soviets added several
extra members, elected by military units serving outside of the country. In
1950 the number of additional Deputies chosen for each chamber was seven.
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
The term of office for each house in the Supreme
Soviet is four years. The Supreme Soviet meets twice
annually. It names the Supreme Court of the U. S. S. R.
for a term of five years. It likewise elects a Presidium or
Executive Committee of thirty-three members to carry
on its functions when it is not in session. Foreign corres-
pondents often refer to the Chairman of the Presidium,
at present Nikolai M. Shvernik, former head of the trade
union movement, as the Soviet "President. " He repre-
sents the Soviet Government at many official functions,
his duties and powers conforming in considerable degree
to those of the President of France.
The Supreme Soviet also chooses the Council of Min-
isters of the U. S. S. R. , which has about sixty members.
This Council corresponds to the Cabinet in America and
England and constitutes the Government of the U. S. S. R.
Its Chairman, at present Joseph Stalin, is Premier of the
Soviet Union, and it has more than twelve Deputy Chair-
men. The Council of Ministers is responsible and ac-
countable to the Presidium, which has the power to annul
its decisions and orders "in case they do not conform
to law" (Article 49f). And the Presidium is in its turn
accountable to the Supreme Soviet.
Thus the Soviet Constitution follows the British pat-
tern, in form at least, in setting up direct parliamentary
responsibility for the central government instead of giv-
ing a chief executive the power, as does the American
Constitution, to continue his administration even after
the highest legislative body has repudiated him. Like-
wise it resembles the British model in doing without a
popularly elected chief executive. Again, the Soviet sys-
tem is like the British rather than the American in that
the Supreme Court does not have the power to declare
59
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
legislation unconstitutional. The final court of authority
on legislation in Soviet Russia is the Supreme Soviet.
Many constitutional experts believe that placing ulti-
mate power in the legislature is, other things being
equal, a more democratic arrangement than the Ameri-
can system of checks and balances.
The immense scope of a socialist government under
which there is public ownership and operation of the
main means of production and distribution becomes
clear in viewing the functions of the Council of Ministers.
Whereas the American Cabinet administers only nine
separate departments, the Soviet is responsible for fifty-
six. The Council of Ministers (Cabinet) includes the
heads of fifty-one Ministries* and the chairmen of five
special bodies of ministerial rank, namely, the Committee
on Arts, the State Planning Committee, the State Com-
mittee for Construction, the State Committee for Food
and Industrial Commodity Supplies and the State Com-
mittee for Material and Technical Supplies to the Na-
tional Economy.
The Cabinet also has direct charge of more than
twenty Chief Administrations, Administrations, Bureaus,
Commissions, Councils or Committees which do not have
ministerial status, but whose chairmen sit in the Cabinet
in a consultative capacity. Examples of such bodies are
the Central Statistical Administration, the Chief Adminis-
tration of Protective Afforestation, the Academy of Sci-
ences of the U. S. S. R. , the Committee on the Affairs of
Physical Culture and Sport, the Council on Affairs of the
Orthodox Church and the State Arbitration Bureau,
which has the duty of ironing out disagreements and dif-
? Until 1946 the official title of Soviet Ministries was People's Commis-
sariats and of Ministers, People's Commissars.
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
Acuities between the various Ministries and sub-Min-
istries.
Twenty-nine of the Ministries under the Soviet Cab-
inet are in the Ail-Union category with nation-wide scope
and function. They are as follows (Article 77):
Agricultural Machine-Building Industry
Agricultural Stocks
Armaments
Automobile and Tractor Industry
Aviation Industry
Chemical Industry
Coal Industry
Communications
Communications Equipment Industry
Construction and Road-Building Machinery
Construction of Heavy Industry Enterprises
Construction of Machine-Building Enterprises
Electrical Industry
Electric Power Stations
Ferrous Metallurgy
Foreign Trade
Geology
Heavy Machine-Building Industry
Labor Reserves
Machine-Tool Building Industry
Machine-Building and Instrument-Building
Merchant Marine
Navy
Non-Ferrous Metallurgy
Oil Industry
Railroads
River Fleet
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
Ship-Building Industry
Transport Machine-Building Industry
The central Soviet Government also is in charge of
twenty-one Union-Republican Ministries which, "as a
rule, direct the branches of state administration entrusted
to them through the corresponding Ministries of the
Union Republics" (Article 76). These corresponding
Ministries of each of the sixteen constituent Republics
have a dual responsibility and accountability, being
"subordinate both to the Council of Ministers of the
Union Republic and to the corresponding Union-Repub-
lican Ministries of the U. S. S. R. " (Article 87). The
twenty-two Union-Republican Ministries are (Article
78):
Agriculture
Army
Building Materials Industry
Cinematography
Cotton Growing
Finance
Fishing Industry
Food Industry
Foreign Affairs
Forestry
Higher Education
Internal Affairs
Justice
Light Industry
Meat and Dairy Industry
Paper and Woodworking
Public Health
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? THE SOVIET CONSTITUTION
State Control
State Farms
State Security
Timber Industry-
Trade
The economic, cultural and political affairs assigned
to the Union-Republican Ministries are run jointly by
the federal and the Republican governments. The Union
Republics administer a few Republican Ministries which
are concerned with local affairs and have no opposite
numbers in the federal government. To summarize,
there are altogether four classes of Ministries in the
governments of the U. S. S. R. and the Union Repub-
lics: the exclusively Republican Ministries just men-
tioned, the Republics' Union-Republican Ministries, the
federal Union-Republican Ministries (bearing the same
names as the corresponding Republican departments),
and the All-Union Ministries which are the responsibility
of the federal administration alone.
The governmental structures of the Union Republics,
and of the subdivisions within them called Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republics, are somewhat less complicated
than those of the federal state, the most important dif-
ference being that their Supreme Soviets are unicameral
instead of bicameral. This means, of course, that they
do not have a separate Chamber of Nationalities. Repre-
sentation in the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics
varies, according to size of population, from one deputy
for every 5,000 inhabitants to one for every 150,000.
For the Supreme Soviets of the Autonomous Republics
the general rule is one representative for every 3,000 to
5,000 inhabitants.
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE U. S. S. R.
PROCURATOR
OF THE U. S. S. R.
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
OF THE U. S. S. R.
STALIN, CHAIRMAN (PREMIER)
COMMITTEES
STATE
PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE U. S. S. R.
STATE COMMITTEE
FOR MATERIAL
AND TECHNICAL
SUPPLIES TO THE
NATIONAL
ECONOMY
and Others
ALL-UNION
MINISTRIES
Armsmentj
Automobile and
Tractor Industry
Coal Industry
Communications
Electric Power
Stations
Foreign Trade
Machine-Tool Build-
ing Industry
Merchant Marine
Oil Industry
Railroads
River Fleet
and Others
UNION-REPUBLICAN
MINISTRIES OF THE
U. S. S. R.
Agriculture
Army
Finance
Food Industry
Foreign Affairs
Higher Education
Justice
Light Industry
Public Health
State Security
Timber Industry
and Others
STATE BANK
SAVINGS
BANKS
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOJi
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE OF A UNION REPUBLIC
STATE PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE U. S. S. R.
PROCURATOR
OF THE U. S. S. R.
UNION-REPUBLICAN!
MINISTRIES
OF THE U. S. S. R.
SUPREME COURT
OF THE
UNION REPUBLIC
PROCURATOR
OF THE
lUNION REPUBLIC
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
OF THE UNION REPUBLIC
STATE PLANNING
COMMITTEE
OF THE
UNION REPUBLIC
COMMITTEE
ON CULTURAL
AND EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS
and Other Committees
VARYING FROM
REPUBLIC TO
REPUBLIC
REPUBLICAN MINISTRIES
EDUCATION
LOCAL INDUSTRY
MUNICIPAL ECONOMY
SOCIAL MAINTENANCE
and OTHERS VARYING
FROM REPUBLIC TO
REPUBLIC
UNION-REPUBLICAN
MINISTRIES OF THE
U. S. S. R.
AGRICULTURE
ARMY
FINANCE
FOOD INDUSTRY
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HIGHER EDUCATION
JUSTICE
LIGHT INDUSTRY
PUBLIC HEALTH
STATE SECURITY
TIMBER INDUSTRY
and OTHERS
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? SOVIET CIVILIZATION
In Chapter XI the 1936 Constitution outlines an
electoral system which contains five new provisions that
signify a real advance and that show, to my mind, a grad-
ual evolution toward full-fledged democracy in the Soviet
Union. In the first place, the Constitution renders the
ballot universal, giving the franchise to certain groups
and individuals formerly barred from voting because they
were considered too hostile to the Soviet state or too
unreliable. Article 135 reads: "Elections of deputies are
universal: all citizens of the U. S. S. R. who have reached
the age of eighteen, irrespective of race or nationality,
sex, religion, educational and residential qualifications,
social origin, property status or past activities, have the
right to vote in the election of deputies, with the excep-
tion of insane persons and persons who have been con-
victed by a court of law and whose sentences include
deprivation of electoral rights. "
In the second place, the 1936 Constitution asserts the
principle of equal suffrage for all and does not discrimi-
nate against any group or class. The 1924 Constitution
provided for unequal representation of workers and
peasants in the chief elective bodies, one deputy being
elected for every 25,000 city electors as compared with
one for every 125,000 people in the rural districts. The
reason for this disproportion was that the agricultural
population was at the time still predominantly illiterate
and wedded to individualistic methods of farming. Only
with the progress of education among the peasants and
the triumph of collective farming was it deemed wise for
the Socialist Republic to eliminate the weighting of the
ballot in favor of the progressive city workers. In the
United States today the ballot is still unequal in the
66
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? THE SOVIET COHSTITUTIOH
sense of being generally weighted against the urban
population.
In the third place, the 1936 Constitution establishes
secret voting in the election of all the different grades
of Soviet. Previously elections had been conducted by
a show of hands at open meetings, in the fashion of the
old New England town meeting. Again, in the earlier
years of the Soviet Republic there did not exist the cul-
tural prerequisites among the largely illiterate Soviet
people for carrying through efficiently the processes of
the secret ballot. The simple show of hands, however
subject to abuse, was the natural and intelligent pro-
cedure for a considerable period.
