Transport and automobile crimes in the Soviet state: regulation of criminal liability

The article examines the development trends of the institution of criminal liability for socially dangerous acts related to violation of traffic rules in the Soviet state. It analyzes the norms of legal acts that defined the elements of the relevant crimes, primarily the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, decisions of the plenums of the Supreme Court of the USSR, departmental (Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR) acts, as well as scientific works that address this issue. It is noted that in the Soviet state, criminal liability for violations of road (land) traffic rules was not introduced immediately, which was largely explained by the fact that for a certain period of time, the intensity of relatively new for the beginning of the 20th century automobile transport was not recognized by the legislator as posing serious risks of causing harm to the health of road users and other negative consequences, in connection with which criminal liability occurred by analogy with other compositions of the criminal law. This approach caused objections from the scientific community in the field of criminal law. And only with the adoption of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR in 1960, liability for violations of traffic rules was introduced. Subsequently, the regulation of this liability was adjusted, and in the 1980s it acquired a generally stable form, really reflecting the corresponding social relations.