M. Yuridicheskaya literatura [Legal literature]. 1983. 192 p.
Among the fundamental problems of the history of the Soviet state, there are some that seem to concentrate the main defining features of the socialist system, which ensures a combination of real rights and freedoms of citizens with their duties and responsibilities to society. The problem of human rights and freedoms, which are an integral part of the system of socialist democracy, is actively addressed by legal scholars and historians, most often in connection with the study of the current stage of development of socialist society, the history of Soviet constitutional legislation. 1
A special study on the history of the development of individual rights and freedoms in the USSR has not yet been conducted. With the publication of the book by Professor V. M. Kuritsyn, Doctor of Law, this gap is largely filled. His monograph shows the great scientific and political relevance of studying the historical experience and stages in the development of individual rights and freedoms in the USSR, both for revealing the internal laws of the progressive movement of socialist society, identifying current trends and directions in the development of a wide range of human rights in the context of mature socialism, and in connection with the ideological struggle And one more essential aspect determines the relevance of the book. It is necessary and useful for our contemporaries, especially young people, to know how the multi-faceted rights and freedoms that the citizens of the USSR now enjoy and are rightfully proud of were created, strengthened, provided for by the socialist state, and filled with broader content.
V. M. Kuritsyn considers this problem based on the provisions of the Marxist-Leninist theory on the determining role of objective conditions, the development of the economic basis and social basis of socialism, and at the same time on the enormous creative significance of the subjective factor-the activities of the Communist Party and the Soviet State to create and develop a socialist concept of individual rights and freedoms not only legal, but also actual equality, political, socio-economic and personal rights of citizens.
The author has chosen a historical approach to the problem analysis. Based on extensive factual material, he reveals the direct connection between the development of the system of rights and freedoms of Soviet citizens and the main stages of the construction of socialism. V. M. Kuritsyn convincingly shows that at each of them the development of the institution of citizens ' rights had its own characteristics, that the real scope of rights and freedoms depended on the degree of maturity of socialist relations, the material capabilities of society, the balance of class forces, the severity and forms of class struggle.
The author pays most attention to the transition period from capitalism to socialism, the first years of Soviet power, when a new, socialist system of rights and freedoms was being formed, since this period is least reflected in the literature. In the conditions of acute class struggle, the specific forms of socialist democracy, the exercise of the rights and freedoms of citizens and their legal guarantees were determined by the proletarian state in order to ensure maximum democracy and guarantee the protection of the interests of the working majority of the population, and at the same time to prevent possible abuses of Soviet democracy by class-hostile elements,.
1 Voevodin L. D. Gosudarstvo i lichnosti v SSSR [State and personality in the USSR]. Legal aspects of mutual relations M. 1972; Grigoryan L. A. Soviet state and personality. M. 1978; Kuchinsky V. A. Personality, freedom, law. M. 1978; Chkhikvadze V. M. Soviet state and personality. M. 1978; Maslennikov V. A. Constitutional rights and duties of citizens of the USSR. M. 1979; Constitution of developed socialism: historical prerequisites and prospects. significance. M. 1981; Movchan A. P. Human rights and international relations. M. 1982; et al.
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V. I. Lenin saw the most important task of the Soviet government in shifting the center of gravity from the formal equality proclaimed in bourgeois states to ensuring the masses of working people actual access to state administration and the enjoyment of civil rights .2 The book reveals in detail the duration and complexity of this process, its consistent focus on ensuring the interests of workers: its reflection in the first decrees of the Soviet government, in the constitutions and codes of the 1920s, the process of creating legal documents, the struggle against erroneous and hostile points of view and positions in the formation of the right status of citizens, including in with the formulation of these questions in the draft of the first Soviet Constitution of 1918, drafts of labor, civil and other codes, in discussions with ultra-left opportunism about the expansion of political rights of citizens in the early 1920s, with national deviators during the preparation of the draft Constitution of the USSR of 1924, etc. (pp. 17-18, 73 - 75, 94-95).
The author draws attention to the difficulties of involving the peoples of the national outskirts of the country in the construction of a new life, to the diversity and flexibility of forms and methods of work of local state bodies - features of judicial proceedings, a combination of elements of new and old self-government institutions, the creation of nomadic and tribal Councils, which have become one of the
The book extensively covers a number of little-studied historical subjects related to ensuring true freedom of conscience (at the same time, it convincingly exposes the fabrications about the" persecution " of the Soviet government against the church and believers), the emergence of the institution of personal property of citizens, their property rights, the work of the courts, the police, the prosecutor's office, the Cheka, and the protection socialist law and order, protection of the interests of the working people. The author does not ignore the facts of the use of emergency measures (in particular, in matters of freedom of the press, inviolability of the person and home) in order to suppress counter-revolution and protect revolutionary gains (pp. 40-46).
In some cases, V. M. Kuritsyn does not agree with the positions stated earlier in the literature. For example, the question of expanding the legal guarantees of citizens ' property in the first years of the NEP, which is often considered only in relation to private property elements, he interprets more broadly, linking this problem not only with the need to restrict and oust the private owner, but also primarily with the protection of democratic rights and freedoms of workers in conditions when capitalist elements were temporarily allowed (p. 106).
The factual material of the book reveals the main directions of the development of the system of mutually conditioned rights, freedoms and duties of citizens in the conditions of socialism - the consolidation of the principle of universal equality of citizens in the Constitution of the USSR of 1936, the deepening of all types of real guarantees of rights and freedoms, especially in the socio-economic and cultural spheres, in accordance with the new opportunities and needs of society. As a result, the qualitative changes in the system of citizens ' rights and freedoms in the conditions of developed socialism appear as a continuation of the process that took place at various stages of the Soviet state's life, as prepared by its entire previous history.
The significance of the reviewed work consists not only in the fact that it consistently reveals the historical aspect of the problem, but also in the fact that the author raises new questions, outlines directions for further development of the system of rights and freedoms. For example, he considers the proposals made in the legal literature on further improvement of the electoral system (p. 166); considers it urgent to prepare the basis of legislation on social security (p.174), laws on freedom of conscience, on the family (p. 187), which continue the policy of expanding the legal framework of the socialist state.
The book is intended for a wide range of readers. It is written in a good literary language, contains a convincing concrete, factual argumentation of the propositions put forward.V. M. Kuritsyn strives for a combination of scientific content and popularity. Of course, it is useful to draw on extensive material that reveals the situation of workers and the formal nature of human rights in the capitalist world.
2 See Lenin V. I. PSS vol. 36, p. 73; vol. 38, p. 94.
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This supports the author's conclusions and helps to reveal the background of bourgeois falsifications of the position of the individual in the USSR.
As noted above, the author pays primary attention to the initial period of the history of the Soviet state. Apparently, this deprived him of the opportunity to cover in more detail the whole range of rights and freedoms enshrined in the 1977 Constitution of the USSR. Particularly cursory and fragmentary references are made to rights in the field of culture (for example, the right to use cultural achievements, freedom of scientific, technical and artistic creativity). The realization of the right of participation of citizens of the USSR, including young people, in the management of state and public affairs, the interrelated and coordinated actions of all parts of the political system, the fact that the 1977 Constitution of the USSR established a broader system of citizens ' duties, the increasing unity of the entire system of rights and duties of Soviet people, and the features of communist morality, i.e. those aspects that characterize the increasingly close connection of the interests of the citizen and the state. When considering the political rights of citizens at the stage of early socialism, such important links of the political system as the Komsomol, workers 'and peasants' inspection bodies, and women's organizations, through which the right of workers to participate in the management of state and public affairs was realized, were practically not reflected in the book. There are also some discrepancies and inaccuracies in the book. 44, 60, 98, 158, 170).
In general, the factual material presented and analyzed in historical sequence and skillfully summarized by the author once again confirms the indisputable truth that human rights and freedoms are filled with real content only in the conditions of socialism.
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