Courts of Siberia in the conditions of the "great change"

In article are investigated the basic principles, tasks and the directions of construction of the Soviet court as most important institute of society, interaction of vessels with political system of the Soviet state, and also development of judicial system in the Siberian region. Especially careful analysis underwent position of judicial authorities in Siberia at critical stages of history: in days of the «great change», during grain procurement campaigns in the late twenties and the beginning of the forced collectivization of the peasantry in 1930s. The article details the practice of the courts of Siberia under Articles 61 and 107 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, the government used to put pressure on farmers in the grain procurement campaign late 1920s. During Stalin’s trip to Siberia in January 1928 the judiciary and other law enforcement agencies were subjected to sharp criticism. After derogatory criticism, none of judicial workers dared to oppose the overly broad interpretation of article 107. By mid-1928 only article 107 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR over 2 240 farmers in the Siberian region were sentenced to imprisonment with confiscation of property. At the same time, despite the declarations of the authorities of the punishment only for speculators and kulaks, the court fell under the middle and even poor farmers. Among the convicted under Art. 107, about 20 % of the farmers on the property shall apply to middle peasants, and about 1 % - for the poor. Contrary to the original purpose Article 61 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, it has also undergone a broad interpretation, which allowed farmers to judge for concealing grain stocks. As a result, in 193 districts of the Siberian region only during the period from April to mid-June 1929 about 300 criminal cases were brought under this article. As the defendants brought 40 % of the kulaks and middle peasants 60 %, indicating that the use of articles against the peasantry as a whole. At the beginning of December 1930, the number of farmers involved in the court under this Article has reached more than 15.300. More than 4.000 peasants were sentenced to imprisonment and confiscation of property, and the rest were subjected to other penalties. In general, research of history of creation and functioning of judicial authorities in Siberia allowed to show important aspects of formation of political and legal system of the Soviet state from the new point of view, to reveal features of activity of the courts in the conditions of a command-control system of society, to present the way of life and social and psychological lines of the personality, formed in the conditions of Stalin’s model of socialism.