Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g5fl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T07:58:03.673Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Law and The Constitution of Soviet Society: The Case of Comrade Lenin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Piers Beirne  and
Alan Hunt
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper we investigate a largely unrecognized but nevertheless important chapter in the legal and political history of Soviet Marxism: the simultaneously coherent and contradictory theoretical tendencies in Lenin's pronouncements about law, legality, and delegalization (“the withering away of law”) during the socialist transition. We identify and discuss these tendencies as they unfold against the historical background of the Russian Revolution. We argue that Lenin's political and theoretical objections to legal formalism greatly contributed to the tragic neglect of constitutional mechanisms needed to secure the radical democratic motives of the revolutionary process.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , 1988 , pp. 575 - 615
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 by The Law and Society Association

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.)

Footnotes

For their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper the authors wish to thank Eugene Huskey, Robert Kidder, and an anonymous reviewer of this journal. Generous assistance with referencing was provided by Martha Lippa.

References

References

Works by Lenin, V. I. (from Lenin: Collected Works [LCWJ, 45 vols. [Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1969–1970]).Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1895) “The Economic Content of Narodnism and the Criticism of It in Mr. Struve's Book,” LCW, Vol. 1, pp. 333–507.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1899) “The New Factory Law,” LCW, Vol. 2, pp. 267–315.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1901) “Beat—But Not to Death,” LCW, Vol. 4, pp. 383–402.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1901a) “The Drafting of 183 Students into the Army,” LCW, Vol. 4, pp. 414–419.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1901b) “Penal Servitude Regulations and Penal Servitude Sentences,” LCW, Vol. 5, pp. 243–249.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1901c) “Review of Home Affairs,” LCW, Vol. 5, pp. 251–301.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1901d) “The Serf-Owners at Work,” LCW, Vol. 5, pp. 95–100.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1901e) “Objective Statistics,” LCW, Vol. 4, pp. 408–413.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1902) “The Draft of a New Law on Strikes,” LCW, Vol. 6, 217–226.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1902a) “What Is to Be Done?” LCW, Vol. 5, pp. 349–529.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1903) “The Autocracy Is Wavering . . .,” LCW, Vol. 6, pp. 348–353.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1903a) “To the Rural Poor,” LCW, Vol. 6, pp. 361–432.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1903b) “An Era of Reforms,” LCW, Vol. 6, 510–517.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1906) “The Victory of the Cadets and the Tasks of the Workers' Party,” LCW, Vol. 10, pp. 199–276.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1908) “The Handicraft Census of 1894–95 in Perm Gubernia and General Problems of ‘Handicraft’ Industry,” LCW, Vol. 2, pp. 355–458.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1908a) The Development of Capitalism in Russia, LCW, Vol. 3, pp. 21–607.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1908b) “The Agrarian Programme of Social-Democracy in the First Russian Revolution, 1905–1907,” LCW, Vol. 13, pp. 217–431.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1909) “Explanatory Note on the Draft of the Main Grounds of the Bill on the Eight-Hour Working Day,” LCW, Vol. 16, pp. 110–116.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1910) “Two Worlds,” LCW, Vol. 16, pp. 305–313.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1913) “An Increasing Discrepancy,” LCW, Vol. 18, pp. 562–579.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1914) “Constitutional Crisis in Britain,” LCW, Vol. 20, pp. 226–229.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1916) “The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination,” LCW, Vol. 22, pp. 143–156.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1916a) “A Caricature of Marxism and Imperialist Economism,” LCW, Vol. 23, pp. 28–76.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1917) “Materials Relating to the Revision of the Party Programme,” LCW, Vol. 24, pp. 455–479.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1917a) “A Contradictory Stand,” LCW, Vol. 25, pp. 88–90.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1917b) “The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It,” LCW, Vol. 25, pp. 319–365.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1917c) The State and Revolution, LCW, Vol. 25, pp. 381–492.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1917d) “The Russian Revolution and Civil War,” LCW, Vol. 26, pp. 28–42.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1917e) “Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power?,” LCW, Vol. 26, pp. 87–136.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1917f) “Meeting of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies,” LCW, Vol. 26, pp. 239–241.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1917g) “Speech at a Joint Meeting of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and Delegates from the Front, November 4 (17), 1917,” LCW, Vol. 26, pp. 293–298.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1917h) “The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution [The April Theses]” LCW, Vol. 24, pp. 19–26.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918) “Meeting of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee, November 4, 1917,” LCW, Vol. 26, pp. 284–292.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918a) “How to Organise Competition?,” LCW, Vol. 26, pp. 404–415.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918b) “Third All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies,” LCW, Vol. 26, pp. 453–482.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918c) “The Socialist Fatherland Is in Danger!,” LCW, Vol. 27, pp. 30–33.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918d) “Extraordinary Seventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B.),” LCW, Vol. 27, pp. 85–158.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918e) “Original Version of the Article ”The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government,'” LCW, Vol. 27, pp. 203–218.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918f) “The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government,” LCW, Vol. 27, pp. 235–277.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918g) “Fifth All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers', Peasants', Soldiers' and Red Army Deputies,” LCWt Vol. 27, pp. 505–532.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918h) The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, LCW, Vol. 28, pp. 227–325.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918i) “To G. Y. Zinoviev,” LCW, Vol. 35, p. 336.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918j) “To G. Y. Zinoviev,” LCW, Vol. 35, p. 487.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1918k) “The Democratism and Socialist Nature of Soviet Power,” LCW, Vol. 42, pp. 100–101.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1919) “Draft Programme of the R.C.P.(B.),” LCW, Vol. 29, pp. 97–140.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1919a) Eighth Congress of the R.CR(B.), LCW, Vol. 29, pp. 141–225.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1919b) “First All-Russia Congress on Adult Education,” LCW, Vol. 29, pp. 333–376.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1919c) “Foreword to the Published Speech ‘Deception of the People with Slogans of Freedom and Equality,‘” LCW, Vol. 29, pp. 377–381.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1919d) The State, LCW, Vol. 29, pp. 470–488.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1919e) “Letter to the Workers and Peasants Apropos of the Victory over Kolchak,” LCW, Vol. 29, pp. 552–560.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1919f) “The Tasks of the Working Women's Movement in the Soviet Republic,” LCW, Vol. 30, pp. 40–46.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1919g) “Soviet Power and the Status of Women,” LCW, Vol. 30, pp. 120–123.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1919h) “Report on Subbotniks Delivered to a Moscow City Conference of the R.C.P.(B.),” LCW, Vol. 30, pp. 283–288.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1920) “Remarks on and Addenda to Drafts for ‘Rules for the Workers’ and Peasants' Inspection,'” LCW, Vol.30, pp. 300–301.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1920a) “Left-Wing” Communism—An Infantile Disorder, LCW, Vol. 31, pp. 17–118.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1920b) “Our Foreign and Domestic Position and the Tasks of the Party,” LCW, Vol. 31, pp. 408–426.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1920c) “Speech at the Fourth Conference of Gubernia Extraordinary Commissions, February 6, 1920,” LCW, Vol. 42, pp. 166–174.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1921) “The Trade Unions, the Present Situation and Trotsky's Mistakes,” LCW, Vol. 32, pp. 19–42.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1921a) “The Tax in Kind,” LCW, Vol. 32, pp. 329–365.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1921b) “Tenth All-Russia Conference of the R.C.P.(B.),” LCW, Vol. 32, pp. 399–437.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1921c) “The New Economic Policy and the Tasks of the Political Education Departments,” LCW, Vol. 33, pp. 60–79.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1921d) “Ninth All-Russia Congress of Soviets,” LCW, Vol. 33, pp. 141–181.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1922) “The Role and Functions of the Trade Unions Under the New Economic Policy,” LCW, Vol. 33, pp. 184–196.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1922a) “Eleventh Congress of the R.C.P.(B.),” LCW, Vol. 33, pp. 259–326.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1922b) “‘Dual’ Subordination and Legality,” LCW, Vol. 33, pp. 363–367.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1922c) “Speech at the Fourth Session of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee, Ninth Convocation, October 31, 1922,” LCW, Vol. 33, pp. 390–395.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1922d) “On the Tasks of the People's Commissariat for Justice Under the New Economic Policy,” LCW, Vol. 36, pp. 560–565.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1922e) “To I. S. Unschlicht and V. V. Fomin,” LCW, Vol. 45, pp. 432–433.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1922f) “Notes for a Speech on March 27, 1922,” LCW, Vol. 36, pp. 571–575.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1923) “How We Should Reorganise the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection,” LCW, Vol. 33, pp. 481–486.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1923a) “Better Fewer, but Better,” LCW, Vol. 33, pp. 487–502.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1923b) “Pages from a Diary,” Vol. 33, pp. 462–466.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1923c) “On Co–operation,” Vol. 33, pp. 467–475.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1923d) “Our Revolution,” Vol. 33, pp, 476–486.Google Scholar

Other Works

ABEL, Richard L. (ed.) (1982) The Politics of Informal Justice, 2 Vols. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
BEIRNE, Piers, and Richard, QUINNEY (eds.) (1982) Marxism and Law. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
BERMAN, Harold J. (1963) Justice in the U.S.S.R. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BRATOUS, S. N. (1970) “Lenin's Ideas on Soviet Law and Socialist Legality,” 1 Review of Contemporary Law 21.Google Scholar
BUCHANAN, Allen (1982) Marx and Justice. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
BUKHARIN, N.I. (1920) Ekonomika perekhodnogo perioda. (The Economics of the Transitional Period) Moscow.Google Scholar
BUKHARIN, N.I., and E., PREOBRAZHENSKY (1919 [1969]) The ABC of Communism. London: Pelican Books.Google Scholar
CAIN, Maureen (1985) “Beyond Informal Justice,” 9 Contemporary Crises 335.Google Scholar
CAMPBELL, Tom (1983) The Left and Rights. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
CARR, E.H. (1966) The Bolshevik Revolution, 3 Vols. London: Pelican.Google Scholar
COHEN, G. A. (1978) Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defense. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
COHEN, Stephen F. (1974) Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888-1938. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
COLLINS, Hugh (1982) Marxism and Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
DEUTSCHER, Isaac (1961) Stalin: A Political Biography. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
DEWAR, M. (1956) Labour Policy in the U.S.S.R., 1917-1928. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs.Google Scholar
ENGELS, Friedrich (1880 [1969]) “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific,” in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Selected Works, Vol. 3. Moscow: Progress Publishers.Google Scholar
FELDBRUGGE, F. J. (1964) Soviet Criminal Law: General Part, No. 9, Law in Eastern Europe. Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff.Google Scholar
FINE, Bob (1984) Democracy and the Rule of Law. London: Pluto.Google Scholar
FRYER, Bob, HUNT, Alan, McBARNETT, Doreen, and Bert, MOORHOUSE (1981) Law, State and Society. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
GERAS, Norman (1985) “The Controversy About Marx and Justice,” 150 New Left Review 47.Google Scholar
GIDDENS, Anthony (1984) The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
HAZARD, John N. (1960) Settling Disputes in Soviet Society: The Formative Years of Legal Institutions. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HIRST, Paul (1986) Law, Socialism and Democracy. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
HIRST, Paul (1979) On Law and Ideology. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HUNT, Alan (1985) “The Future of Rights and Justice,” 9 Contemporary Crises 309.Google Scholar
HUNT, Alan (1983) “Marx—The Missing Dimension: The Rise of Representative Democracy,” in Matthews, B. (ed.), Marx: A Hundred Years on. London: Lawrence & Wishart.Google Scholar
KRYLENKO, N. V. (1934) Lenin o Sude (Lenin and the Courts). Moscow.Google Scholar
LEA, John, and Jock, YOUNG (1984) What Is to Be Done About Law and Order? London: Penguin.Google Scholar
LEWIN, Moshe (1969) Lenin's Last Struggle. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
LIEBMAN, Marcel (1975) Leninism Under Lenin, trans. Pearce, Brian. London: Merlin.Google Scholar
LUNACHARSKY, A. (1917) “Revoliutsiia i Sud (Revolution and the Court),” Pravda (December 1).Google Scholar
MAKEPIECE, R. W. (1980) Marxist Ideology and Soviet Criminal Law. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
MARX, Karl (1871 [1969]) “The Civil War in France,” in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Selected Works, Vol. 2. Moscow: Progress Publishers.Google Scholar
MARX, Karl (1867 [1975]) Capital, 3 Vols. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
MEDVEDEV, Roy (1981) Leninism and Western Socialism. London: Verso and New Left Books.Google Scholar
NOVE, Alec (1976) An Economic History of the U.S.S.R. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
PASHUKANIS, E. B. (1980) Selected Writings on Marxism and Law, ed. Beirne, Piers and Sharlet, Robert and trans. Maggs, Peter B.. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
RIGBY, T. H. (1979) Lenin's Government: Sovnarkom 1917-1922. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SHARLET, Robert, and Piers, BEIRNE (1984) “In Search of Vyshinsky: The Paradox of Law and Terror,” 12 International Journal of the Sociology of Law 153.Google Scholar
SHARLET, Robert, Peter, MAGGS, and Piers, BEIRNE (eds.) (in press) “Editors' Introduction,” in Stuchka, Selected Writings on Soviet Law and Marxism. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
SOBRANIE UZAKONENII (1921) Sobranie uzakonenii. RSFSR. Moscow.Google Scholar
SOLOMON, Peter H. (1985) “Local Political Power and Soviet Criminal Justice, 1922–41,” 37 Soviet Studies 305.Google Scholar
STUCHKA, P. I. (1925) “Lenin i revoliutsionny dekret (Lenin and the Revolutionary Decree),” 1 Revoliutsiia prava: Sbornik 33.Google Scholar
STUCHKA, P. I. (1921 [1951]) The Revolutionary Part Played by Law and the State—A General Doctrine of Law, in Hazard, John N. (ed.), Soviet Legal Philosophy, trans. Hugh W. Babb. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
THOMPSON, E. P. (1980) Writing by Candlelight. London: Merlin.Google Scholar
THOMPSON, E. P. (1975) Whigs and Hunters. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
TROTSKY, Leon (1975) My Life. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
ZILE, Zigurds L. (1971) “Lenin's Contribution to Law: The Case of Protection and Preservation of the Natural Environment,” in Eissenstat, B. W. (ed.), Lenin and Leninism. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.Google Scholar