Formation of a system of revolutionary tribunals in the Middle Volga region in 1917 - 1923

The article is devoted to the first measures of the Bolsheviks government aimed to combat crime and ensure the defense of the proletarian regime, the formation of the extraordinary judicial bodies, i.e., revolutionary tribunals, which marked the beginning of the establishment of the Soviet legal system. The relevance of the article is due to the need for an objective analysis of the historical experience of creating the system of revolutionary tribunals, and to the presence of «blank spots» in the historiography of the formation of the system of extraordinary bodies of the Middle Volga region during the Civil War. Comprehensive analysis of the formation of revolutionary tribunals on the territory of the Middle Volga region in 1917 - 1923 is based on the previously unknown materials from the State Archive of the Ulyanovsk region, the State Archive of Contemporary history of the Ulyanovsk region, the State Archive of the Saratov region, the State Archive of the Penza region and the Central State Archive of the Samara region. The authors examine the formation and legal status of extraordinary judicial bodies, as well as their permanent reorganization, and come to the conclusion that the process of formation of the system of revolutionary tribunals was implemented by local party structures. Under the conditions of socio-economic and political crisis, the revolutionary tribunals quickly turned into effective judicial bodies and functioned until the end of the Civil War, when they were reorganized into People’s courts.