UCLA

Questions about the legal system in the Soviet Union during the first twenty years of Soviet power invariably evoke images of tribunals and show trials rigging cases to promote class warfare, persecute phantom enemies, and eliminate Joseph Stalin's political opponents. As sensationalized as they have been, show trials and political tribunals were not the norm and the notion that Soviet justice was inherently corrupt has been overstated. The overwhelming majority of Soviet citizens who were accused of crimes during the 1920s were not hauled before tribunals or publicly denigrated in orchestrated show trials. Instead, they were presented with a tiered court system reliant on minutely worded criminal codes, judicial officials expected to follow procedural norms, and the legacies of Tsarist and French legal practices and institutions.

It is this system of justice which most Soviet citizens accused of crimes encountered, and it is this system of justice which is the focus of this dissertation. Unlike previous scholarly work dealing with the Soviet judiciary during the period of the NEP, this dissertation employs an analytical framework based on close readings of criminal case records. From an institutional standpoint, case files of criminal appeals are examined to determine how different seats of power within the judiciary exerted their influences against each other in disputes over verdicts, and how different institutions challenged the judiciary over questions of jurisdiction and the application of sentences. From a legal standpoint, judicial decisions at both the court of initial instance and appellant instances are cross-referenced with legal codes and legislation to determine how well Soviet judges understood the wording and intent of codified law. From the standpoint of the criminals themselves, the wording of appeals is analyzed to determine how convicts understood the law, their place in Soviet society, and what they thought they needed to say to gain redemption. Ultimately, this dissertation shows how judges, procurators, investigators, and individuals brought before courts understood how Soviet power and justice functioned in the realm of criminal appeals during the infancy of the Soviet Union.