Summary: | The article is devoted to the analysis of the state of constitutionalism during the
years of developed socialism in the Soviet Union. His concept was defined as the result
of the collective efforts of the CPSU and fraternal communist and workers parties.
The characteristic of the basic indicators of the creation of developed socialism
in the USSR is given: the emergence of a new social community – the Soviet
people; the development of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat into a nation-
wide socialist state. The basic law of a developed socialist society, a nationwide
state, the foundation of constitutionalism of this period was the “Brezhnev”
Constitution of the USSR adopted in 1977. First of all, it is pointed out that the fact
that it introduced the concept of “people” for the first time as a subject to which all
power belongs to was very democratic and promising. In the same way, one can interpret
the provisions on nationwide discussion, referendum, on the status of public
organizations, the labor collective. For the first time, the leading role of the Communist
Party is directly fixed. With the practical denial of a multi-party system,
ideological diversity, this did not correspond to the democratic essence, the nature of
constitutionalism. Particular attention is focused on the provisions relating to the
status of the individual, his rights and freedoms. They were the most evidence of
the reality to a certain extent of the progress of Soviet practical constitutionalism.
The position of the Soviet leadership, ideologists, scientists of that time on the future
of domestic constitutionalism is also shown. In conclusion, a generalized conclusion
is presented that constitutionalism of the period of developed socialism in the USSR
as a whole should be characterized as fictitious. This is primarily based on the fact
that many of the provisions of the 1977 Constitution of the USSR, which were
apparently of a democratic nature in principle, were absent in reality. They actually
performed the role of covering up the state, the dictatorship of the ruling communist
party. First of all, three main research methods were used – dogmatic, historicallegal,
comparative-legal.
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