Problems of the organization and activities of bodies of the Soviet justice in the national regions of the north of the Tyumen Region Tobol District in 1920-1927

Abstract

This article reveals the history of the formation of the early Soviet justice authorities in the northern regions of Western Siberia and the Urals in the 1920s using archival materials. The activities of the first judges, investigators, bailiffs, and prosecutors show the state policy in introducing the principles of Soviet law in an isolated region of Russia. This paper explains the role of the Soviet justice authorities in strengthening the new government in the isolated regions of the RSFSR. The information provided expands our knowledge about the process of establishing the law enforcement system in Russia. The purpose of the article is to identify the specifics of the activities of the Soviet justice authorities in the conditions of the North of Russia in the 1920s. Native justice authorities are not the subject of research in this article. The sources of the research include the documents of the bolshevik, Soviet, and law enforcement agencies stored in the archives of Tyumen, Tobolsk, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Khanty-Mansiysk, and Surgut. This article has used the system-structural and the comparative analysis methods. The territorial scope of the study includes two northern districts of the Tyumen Region and five northern areas of the Tobolsk District of the Ural region. The chronological framework is defined by the period in 1920-1927. The first date is the moment of the creation of the first Soviet judicial bodies in the Tyumen province. The second date is related to the beginning of the Cultural Revolution and the transfer of managerial powers to the district courts. This moment starts the rejection of the model of Soviet justice created in 1922. This study has revealed the inability of the Soviet state to establish a permanent system of repressive organs in the north of the Urals. The management structure, territorial structure, and staff changed with kaleidoscopic speed. Young communists, mobilized to serve in courts and as prosecutors, tried to pursue the Bolshevik policy. Yet the outrageous illiteracy and severe climatic conditions forced them to leave the North, and the party bodies could not stop this process.