Role of Councils of Ministers of ASSR in the «nationwide discussion» of the Draft Constitution of the USSR of 1977 (on the materials of the Mari, Mordovian and Chuvash Republics)

Abstract

The article raises certain aspects of organizing the nationwide discussion of the Draft Soviet Constitution of Developed Socialism of 1977 at the regional level. Using as example of the Councils of Ministers of three autonomous republics of the Volga region the Mari, Mordovian and Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, the actions of the regional governments to implement the directives of higher authorities and take into register critical applications, appeals and complaints of Soviet citizens. For this purpose, unpublished documents from the State Archive of the Republic of Mari El, the State Historical Archive of the Chuvash Republic, and the Central State Archive of the Republic of Mordovia were used as the main source of scientific work. These included resolutions of the Councils of Ministers of the Autonomous Republics, certificates and reports of the organizational and instructor departments of the Councils of Ministers on consideration of citizens appeals, correspondence with authorities, etc. When processing these materials, the method of content analysis, historical-systemic, comparative-historical methods were used. Based on the conducted research, the author comes to the conclusion that despite the formalized nature of the nationwide discussion, it carried not only a purely ideological function, but also solved a rather significant practical task of establishing a feedback between the authorities and society. The Councils of Ministers of the ASSR collected and analyzed information on citizens critical appeals received by subordinate agencies, and then took measures to solve many economic, domestic and social problems that worried the Soviet people