Law in the Era of Revolutions: Patterns of Evolution and Development. The 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution

The paper deals with the process of changing the pre-revolutionary system of legal relations and institutions to a new legal order, the main purpose of which was to consolidate the new state of power established in Russia after October 1917. The main research task is to identify the fundamental, basic laws of the development of law in the period of revolutions based on the Russian experience.

It is emphasized that at the initial stage of the revolution the old legal forms were mixed with the new ones, the old law continued to exist in legal practice. Even in the face of radical changes, it is impossible to carry out transformations simultaneously and everywhere. For some time, there is a force of inertia, when the old statelegal forms continue to operate.

A number of basic conceptual provisions are substantiated. First, the legislation at the first stage of the revolution reflects the primary political aspirations of the authorities to consolidate and legitimize political success, therefore, it is characterized by the transience of adoption, does not have a system and consistency, and is intended mainly for the emergency bodies that implement it. Second, legal norms are class-based, characterized by class-based rigor and revolutionary expediency, synonymous with revolutionary legitimacy. Third, revolutionary expediency leads fatally to the excessive role and importance of emergency organs, leading to their arbitrary actions and massive abuse of the right to repression. Fourthly, the Soviet model of justice in determining its tasks, principles of judicial system and functioning, implementation of punitive policy corresponded to the model of the Soviet state. Its defining function in this model was the function of the implementation of political doctrine by legal means and the protective function of the system.

All phenomena in the legal sphere of Russia are considered in the period from October 1917 to the end of 1920.

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