7/26/23, 2:00 PM 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia

1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union

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The 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union, also known as

1936 Constitution of the
the Stalin Constitution, was the constitution of the Soviet
Union adopted on 5 December 1936. Soviet Union

The 1936 Constitution was the second constitution of the Soviet

Union and replaced the 1924 Constitution, with 5 December
being celebrated annually as Soviet Constitution Day from its
adoption by the Congress of Soviets.[1] This date was considered
the "second foundational moment" of the USSR, after the October
Congress of Soviets of the Soviet
Revolution in 1917.[2] The 1936 Constitution redesigned the
Union
government of the Soviet Union, nominally granted all manner of
rights and freedoms, and spelled out a number of democratic Long title [hide]
procedures. The Congress of Soviets replaced itself with the 1936 Constitution of the Union of
Supreme Soviet, which amended the 1936 Constitution in 1944. Soviet Socialist Republics

The 1936 Constitution was the longest surviving constitution of Territorial Soviet Union
the Soviet Union, and many Eastern Bloc countries later adopted extent
constitutions that were closely modeled on it. It was replaced by Enacted by Congress of Soviets
the 1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union ("Brezhnev
of the Soviet Union
Constitution") on 7 October 1977.
Signed by Joseph Stalin

Basic provisions Effective 5 December 1936

Repealed 7 October 1977
The 1936 Constitution repealed restrictions on voting, abolishing Status: Repealed
the lishentsy category of people, and added universal direct
suffrage and the right to work to rights guaranteed by the previous
constitution. In addition, the 1936 Constitution recognized
collective social and economic rights including the rights to work,
rest and leisure, health protection, care in old age and sickness,
housing, education and cultural benefits. The 1936 Constitution
also provided for the direct election of all government bodies and
their reorganization into a single, uniform system.

Article 122 states that "women in the U.S.S.R. are accorded equal
rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social 1952 postage stamp marking the
and political life."[3] Specific measures on women included state 15th anniversary of the Soviet
protection of the interests of mother and child, prematernity and Constitution, illustrating the right to
maternity leave with full pay, and the provision of maternity recreation
homes, nurseries, and kindergartens.[3]

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Article 123 establishes equality of rights for all citizens "irrespective of their nationality or race, in all
spheres of economic, state, cultural, social, and political life."[3] Advocacy of racial or national
exclusiveness, or hatred or contempt, or restrictions of rights and privileges on account of nationality,
were to be punished by law.[3]

Freedom of religion and speech

Article 124 of the constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, including separation of (1) church and
state, and (2) school from church.[3] The reasoning of the Article 124 is framed in terms of ensuring
"to citizens freedom of conscience ... Freedom of religious worship and freedom of anti-religious
propaganda is recognized for all citizens."[3] Stalin included Article 124 in the face of stiff opposition,
and it eventually led to rapprochement with the Russian Orthodox Church before and during World
War 2. The new constitution re-enfranchised certain religious people who had been specifically
disenfranchised under the previous constitution. The article resulted in members of the Russian
Orthodox Church petitioning to reopen closed churches, gain access to jobs that had been closed to
them as religious figures, and the attempt to run religious candidates in the 1937 elections.[4]

Article 125 of the constitution guaranteed freedom of speech of the press and freedom of assembly.[5]
In order to prevent subversion and propaganda by capitalist elements, Soviet law prescribed, "Before
these freedoms can be exercised, any proposed writing or assembly must be approved by a censor or a
licensing bureau, in order that the censorship bodies shall be able to exercise "ideological
leadership.""[6]

Leading role of Communist Party

The 1936 constitution specifically mentioned the role of the ruling All-Union Communist Party (b) for
the first time.[7] Article 126 stated that the Party was the "vanguard of the working people in their
struggle to strengthen and develop the socialist system and representing the leading core of all
organizations of the working people, both public and state".[8] This provision was used to justify
banning all other parties from functioning in the Soviet Union and legalizing the one-party state.[9]

Nomenclature changes
The 1936 Constitution replaced the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union with the Supreme Soviet
of the Soviet Union. Unlike its unicameral predecessor, the Supreme Soviet contained two chambers:
the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities.[10] The constitution empowered the Supreme
Soviet to elect commissions, which performed most of the Supreme Soviet's work. The Central
Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets was replaced by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
which, much like its predecessor, exercised the full powers of the Supreme Soviet between sessions
and had the right to interpret laws. The Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet became the
titular head of state of the Soviet Union. The Council of People's Commissars, known after 1946 as the
Council of Ministers, continued to act as the executive arm of the government.[11]

The 1936 Constitution changed the names of all Union Republics, the constituent states of the Soviet
Union, transposing the second word "socialist" and third word "soviet" (or equivalent e.g. "radianska"
in Ukrainian). Republics were named after the primary nationality and followed by "Soviet Socialist
Republic" (SSR), except for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR).

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The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, one of the four republics to sign the Treaty
on the Creation of the USSR, was dissolved and its constituent republics, the Georgian Soviet Socialist
Republic, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, were elevated
to union republics individually.

Drafting
The 1936 Constitution was written by a special commission of 31 members which General Secretary
Joseph Stalin chaired. Those who participated included (among others) Andrey Vyshinsky, Andrei
Zhdanov, Maxim Litvinov, Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Nikolai
Bukharin, and Karl Radek, though the latter two had less active input.[12]

Soviet portrayal and criticism

The 1936 Constitution enumerated economic rights not included in constitutions in the Western
democracies. The constitution was presented as a personal triumph for Stalin, who on this occasion
was described by Pravda as "genius of the new world, the wisest man of the epoch, the great leader of
communism".[13] Some historical figures have seen the constitution as a propaganda document.
Leonard Schapiro, for example, writes: "The decision to alter the electoral system from indirect to
direct election, from a limited to a universal franchise, and from open to secret voting, was a measure
of the confidence of the party in its ability to ensure the return of candidates of its own choice without
the restrictions formerly considered necessary"; and that "a careful scrutiny of the draft of the new
constitution showed that it left the party's supreme position unimpaired, and was therefore worthless
as a guarantee of individual rights".[14] Isaac Deutscher called it "a veil of liberal phrases and premises
over the guillotine in the background". Hannah Arendt observed that it was hailed as the ending of the
Soviet Union's "revolutionary period", but was immediately followed by the country's most intense
purges in its history,[15] the Great Purge in which many of the constitution's organizers and draftees —
such as Yakov Yakovlev, Aleksei Stetskii, Boris Markovich Tal',[16] Vlas Chubar, Karl Radek, Nikolai
Bukharin, and Ivan Akulov[17] — were imprisoned or executed as counterrevolutionaries shortly after
their work was complete.

According to J. Arch Getty, "Many who lauded Stalin's Soviet Union as the most democratic country
on earth lived to regret their words. After all, the Soviet Constitution of 1936 was adopted on the eve
of the Great Terror of the late 1930s; the "thoroughly democratic" elections to the first Supreme Soviet
permitted only uncontested candidates and took place at the height of the savage violence in 1937.
The civil rights, personal freedoms, and democratic forms promised in the Stalin constitution were
trampled almost immediately and remained dead letters until long after Stalin's death."[18]

1944 amendments

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The 1944 amendments to the 1936 Constitution established separate branches of the Red Army for
each Soviet Republic, and also established Republic-level commissariats for foreign affairs and
defense, allowing them to be recognized as sovereign states in international law. This allowed for two
Soviet Republics, Ukraine and Byelorussia, to join the United Nations General Assembly as founding
members in 1945.[19][20][21]

See also
Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union § Government

References
1. Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Russian (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXz2okCSfq8C&dq
=Soviet+Constitution+day+5+december+since&pg=PA250) (2007). Routledge. p. 250.
ISBN 0415320941.
2. Kriza, Elisa (2016). "From Utopia to Dystopia: Bukharin and the Soviet Constitution of 1936". In
Simonsen, Karen-Margrethe (ed.). Discursive Framings of Human Rights. London: Routledge.
p. 81. ISBN 9781138944503.
3. Boer, Roland (2017). Stalin : from theology to the philosophy of socialism in power (https://www.w
orldcat.org/oclc/1007090474). Singapore: Springer. p. 166. ISBN 978-981-10-6367-1.
OCLC 1007090474 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1007090474).
4. Fitzpatrick, Sheila (1999). Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia
in the 1930s. New York. Oxford University Press. p. 179.
5. Beard, Robert (1996). "1936 Constitution of the USSR, Part IV" (http://www.departments.bucknell.
edu/russian/const/36cons04.html#chap10). Bucknell University. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
6. Towe, Thomas (1967). "Fundamental Rights in the Soviet Union: A Comparative Approach" (http
s://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/penn_law_review/vol115/iss8/2/). University of Pennsylvania Law
Review. 115 (8): 1267. doi:10.2307/3310959 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3310959).
JSTOR 3310959 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3310959). Retrieved 30 August 2018. citing Hazard,
John N. (1947). "The Soviet Union and a World Bill of Rights" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/111788
6). Columbia Law Review. 47 (7): 1109. doi:10.2307/1117886 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F111788
6). JSTOR 1117886 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1117886). Retrieved 28 February 2021. and
Statute on GLAVLIT, R.S.F.S.R. Laws 1931, text 273, § 1, text 347, quoted in Gsovski, Vladimir
(1959). Government, Law, and Courts in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. F. A. Praeger.
p. 29.
7. Loeber, Dietrich André, ed. (1986). Ruling Communist Parties and Their Status Under Law (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=69woVmAqZfgC). Law in Eastern Europe. Vol. 31. Dordrecht:
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 438. ISBN 9789024732098. Retrieved 19 December 2015. "[...]
with the exception of the 1924 Mongolian Constitution, all of the constitutions of the Eastern
European and Asian Communist states were adopted after the second USSR Constitution of 1936
had been promulgated in which the first direct mention of the Communist Party can at last be
found".

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8. "Конституция (Основной закон) Союза Советских Социалистических Республик (утверждена

постановлением Чрезвычайного VIII Съезда Советов Союза Советских Социалистических
Республик от 5 декабря 1936 г.). Глава Х: Основные права и обязанности граждан" (http://con
stitution.garant.ru/history/ussr-rsfsr/1936/red_1936/3958676/chapter/10/) [Constitution (Basic
Law) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (confirmed by the decision of the Extraordinary 8th
Session of the Soviets of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of 5 December 1936). Chapter
10: Basic rights and duties of citizens]. Sait Konstitutsii Rossiiskoi Federatsii (in Russian). НПП
"Гарант-Сервис". Retrieved 19 December 2015. "Статья 126. В соответствии с интересами
трудящихся и в целях развития организационной самодеятельности и политической
активности народных масс гражданам СССР обеспечивается право объединения в
общественные организации: профессиональные союзы, кооперативные объединения,
организации молодежи, спортивные и оборонные организации, культурные, технические и
научные общества, а наиболее активные и сознательные граждане из рядов рабочего
класса и других слоев трудящихся объединяются во Всесоюзную коммунистическую партию
(большевиков), являющуюся передовым отрядом трудящихся в их борьбе за укрепление и
развитие социалистического строя и представляющую руководящее ядро всех организаций
трудящихся, как общественных, так и государственных".
9. Tamara O. Kuznetsova, Inna A. Rakitskaya and Elena A. Kremyanskaya (2014). Russian
Constitutional Law (https://books.google.com/books?id=rj5QBwAAQBAJ&dq=This+provision+was
+used+to+justify+banning+all+other+parties+from+functioning+in+the+Soviet+Union.&pg=PA8).
10. Waller, Sally (2015). Tsarist and Communist Russia 1855–1964. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
p. 142. ISBN 978-0-19-835467-3.
11. Law, David A. (1975). Russian civilization (https://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C).
Ardent Media. p. 185. ISBN 0-8422-0529-2.
12. J. Arch Getty (Spring 1991). "State and Society Under Stalin: Constitutions and Elections in the
1930s". Slavic Review. Vol. 50. No. 1. p. 19, 22.
13. Pravda (25 November 1936).
14. Leonard Schapiro (1971). The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (2nd ed.). Random House.
New York. pp. 410–411.
15. Arendt, Hannah (1976). The Origins of Totalitarianism (https://archive.org/details/originsoftotali100
aren/page/394). Harcourt (1976); Mariner Books (2001). pp. 394–395 (https://archive.org/details/o
riginsoftotali100aren/page/394). ISBN 978-0156701532.
16. Lomb, Samantha (March 2014). "A Fundamental Conflict of Vision: Stalin's Constitution and
Popular Rejection" (https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/60487/CSEES_MWSC_2014_Lomb
_paper.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y) (PDF). Ohio State University. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
17. Lomb, Samantha (2017). Stalin's Constitution: Soviet Participatory Politics and the Discussion of
the 1936 Draft Constitution (https://books.google.com/books?id=v789DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT35).
Routledge. ISBN 978-1138721845.
18. J. Arch Getty (1991) "State and Society Under Stalin: Constitutions and Elections in the 1930s" (ht
tps://www.jstor.org/stable/2500596). Slavic Review. Vol. 50. No. 1. pp. 18—35.
19. "Walter Duranty Explains Changes In Soviet Constitution" (https://news.google.com/newspapers?i
d=NAQtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mdMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3477,829499&hl=en) Archived (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20150904015513/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NAQtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mdM
FAAAAIBAJ&pg=3477,829499&hl=en) 2015-09-04 at the Wayback Machine. Miami News. 6
February 1944.
20. "League of Nations Timeline – Chronology 1944" (http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1944.htm).
21. "United Nations – Founding Members" (https://www.un.org/depts/dhl/unms/founders.shtml).

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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies (ht
tps://www.loc.gov/collections/country-studies/about-this-collection/). Federal Research Division. –
Soviet Union (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sutoc.html)

External links
"Stalin Constitution directly from Stalin Works Official Compilation" (https://michaelharrison.org.uk/
wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Works-Vol-14-1934-1940.pdf). (full text and all subsequent laws
amending the 1936 Constitution) (in English).
"Конституция С.С.С.Р. 1936 г." (http://constitution.garant.ru/DOC_8003.htm). (full text and all
subsequent laws amending the 1936 Constitution) (in Russian).
"1936 Constitution of the U.S.S.R." (http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/1936toc.h
tml). (full text and all subsequent laws amending the 1936 Constitution) (in English).
Peter Petroff (July 1936). "New Constitution of the U.S.S.R." (https://www.marxists.org/archive/pet
roff/1936/soviet-constitution.htm).
"Stalin's Soviet Constitution with Updated Amendments" (https://www.marxists.org/reference/archi
ve/stalin/works/1936/12/05.htm). (Full text and all subsequent laws amending the 1936 Soviet
Constitution) (in English).
"Stalin's Constitution with all its Amendments, different source" (https://michaelharrison.org.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2018/07/Works-Vol-14-1934-1940.pdf) (In page 201, the authentic constitution
with all the official amendments.) (in English).

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