| 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union | |
| |
| Territorial extent |  Soviet Union |
| Enacted by | Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union |
| Signed by | Joseph Stalin |
| Effective | 5 December 1936; 88 years ago (1936-12-05) |
| Repealed | 7 October 1977; 48 years ago (1977-10-07) |
| Repeals | |
| 1924 Constitution of the Soviet Union | |
| Repealed by | |
| 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union | |
| Status:Repealed | |
The1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union, also known as theStalin Constitution, was thecommunist state constitution of the USSR adopted on 5 December 1936.
The 1936 Constitution was the secondconstitution of theSoviet Union and replaced the1924 Constitution, with 5 December being celebrated annually as Soviet Constitution Day from its adoption by theCongress of Soviets.[1] This date was considered the "second foundational moment" of the USSR, after the October Revolution in 1917.[2] The 1936 Constitution redesigned thegovernment of the Soviet Union, expanded all manner ofrights and freedoms, and spelled out a number ofdemocratic procedures. The Congress of Soviets replaced itself with theSupreme Soviet, which amended the 1936 Constitution in 1944.
The 1936 Constitution was the longest surviving constitution of the Soviet Union, and manyEastern Bloc countries later adopted constitutions that were closely modeled on it. It was replaced by the1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union ("Brezhnev Constitution") on 7 October 1977.
The 1936 Constitution repealed restrictions on voting, abolishing thelishentsy category of people, and addeduniversal direct suffrage and the right to work to rights guaranteed by the previous constitution. In addition, the 1936 Constitution recognized collective social and economic rights including therights to work, rest and leisure, health protection, care in old age and sickness, housing, education and cultural benefits. The 1936 Constitution also provided for thedirect election of all government bodies and their reorganization into a single, uniform system.
Article 122 states that "women in the U.S.S.R. are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life."[3] Specific measures on women included state protection of the interests of mother and child, prematernity and maternity leave with full pay, and the provision of maternity homes, nurseries, and kindergartens.[3]
Article 123 establishes equality of rights for all citizens "irrespective of their nationality or race, in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social, and political life."[3] Advocacy of racial or national exclusiveness, or hatred or contempt, or restrictions of rights and privileges on account of nationality, were to be punished by law.[3]
Article 124 of the constitution guaranteedfreedom of religion, including separation of (1) church and state, and (2) school from church.[3] The reasoning of the Article 124 is framed in terms of ensuring "to citizens freedom of conscience ... Freedom of religious worship and freedom of anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens."[3] Stalin included Article 124 in the face of stiff opposition, and it eventually led to rapprochement with theRussian Orthodox Church before and during World War 2. The new constitution re-enfranchised certain religious people who had been specifically disenfranchised under the previous constitution. The article resulted in members of the Russian Orthodox Church petitioning to reopen closed churches, gain access to jobs that had been closed to them as religious figures, and the attempt to run religious candidates in the1937 elections.[4]
Article 125 of the constitution guaranteedfreedom of speech of the press andfreedom of assembly.
The 1936 constitution specifically mentioned the role of the rulingAll-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) for the first time.[5]Article 126 stated that the Party was the "vanguard of the working people in their struggle to strengthen and develop thesocialist system and representing the leading core of all organizations of the working people, both public and state".[6] This provision was used to justify banning all other parties from functioning in the Soviet Union and legalizing theone-party state.[7]
The 1936 Constitution replaced theCongress of Soviets of the Soviet Union with theSupreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Unlike its unicameral predecessor, the Supreme Soviet contained two chambers: theSoviet of the Union and theSoviet of Nationalities.[8] The constitution empowered the Supreme Soviet to elect commissars, which performed most of the Supreme Soviet's work. TheCentral Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets was replaced by thePresidium of the Supreme Soviet which, much like its predecessor, exercised the full powers of the Supreme Soviet between sessions and had the right to interpret laws. TheChairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet became the titularhead of state of the Soviet Union. TheCouncil of People's Commissars, known after 1946 as theCouncil of Ministers, continued to act as theexecutive arm of the government.[9]
The 1936 Constitution changed the names of allUnion Republics, the constituent states of the Soviet Union, transposing the second word "socialist" and third word "soviet" (or equivalent e.g. "radianska" inUkrainian). Republics were named after the primary nationality and followed by "Soviet Socialist Republic" (SSR), except for theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR).
TheTranscaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, one of the four republics to sign theTreaty on the Creation of the USSR, was dissolved and its constituent republics, theGeorgian Soviet Socialist Republic,Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic andAzerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, were elevated to union republics individually.
The 1936 Constitution was written by a special commission of 31 members which General SecretaryJoseph Stalin chaired. Those who participated included (among others)Andrey Vyshinsky,Andrei Zhdanov,Maxim Litvinov,Kliment Voroshilov,Vyacheslav Molotov,Lazar Kaganovich,Nikolai Bukharin, andKarl Radek, though the latter two had less active input.[10]
The 1936 Constitution enumerated economic rights not included in constitutions in theWestern democracies. The constitution was presented as a personal triumph for Stalin, who on this occasion was described byPravda as "genius of the new world, the wisest man of the epoch, the great leader of communism".[11]
According toJ. Arch Getty, "Many who lauded Stalin's Soviet Union as the most democratic country on earth lived to regret their words. After all, the Soviet Constitution of 1936 was adopted on the eve of the Great Terror of the late 1930s; the"thoroughly democratic" elections to the first Supreme Soviet permitted only uncontested candidates and took place at the height of the savage violence in 1937. The civil rights, personal freedoms, and democratic forms promised in the Stalin constitution were trampled almost immediately and remained dead letters until long afterStalin's death."[12]
The 1944 amendments to the 1936 Constitution established separate branches of theRed Army for each Soviet Republic, and also established Republic-level commissariats forforeign affairs and defense, allowing them to be recognized assovereign states in international law. This allowed for two Soviet Republics,Ukraine andByelorussia, to join theUnited Nations General Assembly as founding members in 1945.[13][14][15]
Some historical figures have seen the constitution as apropaganda document.Leonard Schapiro, for example, wrote in 1971: "The decision to alter the electoral system from indirect to direct election, from a limited to a universal franchise, and from open to secret voting, was a measure of the confidence of the party in its ability to ensure the return of candidates of its own choice without the restrictions formerly considered necessary"; and that "a careful scrutiny of the draft of the new constitution showed that it left the party's supreme position unimpaired, and was therefore worthless as a guarantee of individual rights".[16]Isaac Deutscher called it "a veil of liberal phrases and premises over the guillotine in the background".Hannah Arendt observed that it was hailed as the ending of the Soviet Union's "revolutionary period", but was immediately followed by the country's most intense purges in its history,[17] theGreat Purge in which many of the constitution's organizers and draftees — such asYakov Yakovlev,Aleksei Stetskii, Boris Markovich Tal',[18]Vlas Chubar,Karl Radek,Nikolai Bukharin, andIvan Akulov[19] — were imprisoned or executed ascounterrevolutionaries shortly after their work was complete.
[...] with the exception of the 1924 Mongolian Constitution, all of the constitutions of the Eastern European and Asian Communist states were adopted after the second USSR Constitution of 1936 had been promulgated in which the first direct mention of the Communist Party can at last be found.
Статья 126. В соответствии с интересами трудящихся и в целях развития организационной самодеятельности и политической активности народных масс гражданам СССР обеспечивается право объединения в общественные организации: профессиональные союзы, кооперативные объединения, организации молодежи, спортивные и оборонные организации, культурные, технические и научные общества, а наиболее активные и сознательные граждане из рядов рабочего класса и других слоев трудящихся объединяются во Всесоюзную коммунистическую партию (большевиков), являющуюся передовым отрядом трудящихся в их борьбе за укрепление и развитие социалистического строя и представляющую руководящее ядро всех организаций трудящихся, как общественных, так и государственных.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. Country Studies.Federal Research Division. –Soviet Union