The truth as the main purpose of the criminal justice in Russia

The truth is one of the main concepts of the criminal justice. The Soviet Criminal Procedure Code considered the truth as the objective of the entire criminal proceeding. The modern Criminal Procedure Code does not mention this concept and implies that the purpose of the criminal proceedings is only identification of the guilty and acquittal of illegally convicted. The legislator lets us to guess about the main purpose of the criminal justice. The originators of the modern Criminal Code doubt the possibility of achieving the truth and thereby disembarrass themselves of the responsibility to reconstruct the full picture of a crime. The main ideologist of the need for the truth in the criminal justice was M.S. Strogovich. The Soviet criminal procedure on the basis of his works and the works of other lawyers of the Soviet era had no doubt of the need to find the truth. The current Russian criminal proceeding, following the lead of the Anglo-American system of criminal justice, does not aim at the achievement of the objective truth. Most Russian lawyers say that the main purpose of the criminal proceedings is the procedural truth. All officers involved in the criminal process must adhere to the idea that the objective truth is attainable and its absence means the negligent work of the preliminary investigation bodies and the court. It is a must for all to be guided by not only the Criminal Procedure Code, but also the conscience and beliefs in the pursuit of truth.