The Constitutional Regulation of Citizens’ Rights and Freedoms in the Soviet State: Main Periods of Development

Abstract

The constitutional regulation has passed through a dramatic Soviet epoch where the chronological frameworks and the formation of the institute of rights and freedoms of citizens took place. The chronology of events of the given period can be divided into two stages: the first stage: from the 2nd Russian Congress of the Councils of Workmen’s and Soldier’s Deputies until January 1918, until the issue of the Constituent Assembly was solved. In this connection, almost all statutory acts were adopted by the Soviet authorities. The second stage: from the 3rd Russian Congress of the Councils of Workmen, Soldier’s and Peasant’ Deputies until the Constitution of RSFSR was adopted in 1918. At that moment, the Soviet state rejected the reservation about the temporality of power and confirmed its previous acts, started working out the first Constitution. Weakness of the Constitution of the USSR is in the certainty of rights and freedoms of citizens. The provision and operation of the Constitution were perceived by many citizens as attributes of the state, somebody noncommittal. However, that, in its turn, created the corresponding attitude of the officials, who went on looking at the issue of realization of rights and freedoms of citizens ‘down upon’. These phenomena should just be overcome in the modern Russian society.