NCJ Number
126240
Journal
International Journal of the Sociology of Law Volume: 18 Issue: 3 Dated: (August 1990) Pages: 343-359
Date Published
1990
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article explores the relationship between forms of law and the State in the Soviet Union in the post-revolutionary period and analyzes the current developments in the Gorbachev strategy.
Abstract
It explains that the contradiction between relations and forces of production are the basis for the development of the forms of law and the State in the Soviet Union. A historical perspective of this theory is presented beginning with the achievements of the socialist revolution through war communism to the Stalinist period. The New Economic Policy of the 1920s and Bukharin's focus on the peasantry is described together with the development of collectivization and industrialization policies during Stalinism. Throughout this discussion, the contradiction in Soviet society is featured, particularly relations between city and country and between socialist and bourgeois. The paper emphasizes that despite the liberalization of Stalin's regime in the 1950s, the fundamental structure of the Soviet State remains unchanged. Thus Soviet social relations are confined to the Communist Party organization which constricts further industrial, political, and moral development.