ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ ТОВАРИЩЕСКИХ СУДОВ БАШКИРИИ В КОНЦЕ 1950-Х - 1980-Е ГГ.

Abstract

The article examines the activities of the Bashkir ASSR friendly courts in the late 1950s - the first half of the 1980s. A brief analysis of historiography shows that the problem is insufficiently studied. The main sources were unpublished documents of the funds of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic and the Bashkir Regional Council of Trade Unions - bodies that control the work of friendly courts, as well as materials of the periodical press. The growth in the number of friendly courts was characterized by instability, then increased, then decreased. The same applies to members of friendly courts. The friendly courts considered minor civil cases, including in the family and household sphere. Interference in the private life of citizens was especially characteristic of the 1950s and 1960s, after which it weakened. In the 1970s, the friendly courts considered absenteeism, violations of public order, labor discipline (appearance in a drunken state at work), petty theft and others at their meetings. The most common measures of influence used by friendly courts were public apology, warning, public censure and reprimand. However, in the 1970s the importance of fines and applications for transfer to a lower-paid job is increasing. There were many shortcomings in the work of the friendly courts: some of them were inactive for years, others exceeded their powers. In the 1970s and 1980s, friendly courts dealt with only 10 to 20 percent of offenses, which testified to the insufficient effectiveness of the institute of friendly courts. Most minor offenses went unpunished. The activities of the friendly courts were formally under the control of the party, Soviet, judicial and trade union bodies. However, this control was often insufficient, especially in the late 1950s - early 1960s. The author distinguishes two periods in the activities of friendly courts: 1) the end of the 1950s - the first half of the 1960s, marked by their greatest activity; 2) the second half of the 1960s - the mid-1980s, when the courts were increasingly "carried away" by administrative measures of influence.