Transformation of the institution of the prosecutor’s office during the October Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War of 1918–1922 in Russia
The article considers the problem of developing the institution of prosecutor’s office and prosecutorial-supervisory law during the October Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War in 1918 in the territories of the anti-bolshevik right-wing socialist regime (the activities of a committee of members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly). The aim of the work is to study the process of transformation of the prosecutor’s institution. As the main private legal method the comparative legal method was used, which made it possible to compare the views of the right-wing socialist leaders with the legal position of supporters of the Soviet government on the development of the prosecutor’s institution. Also in the work the method of legal hermeneutics was used, which allowed to interpret the meaning of legal texts (legislation of the Russian Empire, regulatory legal acts of Soviet Russia, the Committee of members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly) and comprehend them as sources reflecting a specific ideology. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that a certain period of the formation of modern prosecutorial and supervisory law, which was not previously addressed in the theoretical and legal research, is considered. As a result of the study we came to the conclusion that prosecutor’s supervision acts as a necessary institution for ensuring the rule of law, restores it in case of violation as well as suppresses attempts at unlawful deprivation of liberty regardless of the socio-political situation in the country (revolutionary situation, war). The development of prosecutorial and supervisory law should guarantee the continuous improvement of existing and the emergence of new mechanisms for protecting individual rights and freedoms. The author found that in the midst of deep social changes of the 1917-1922 the institution of the prosecutor’s institute was not able to properly carry out the transformation from the accusatory-supervisory to the supervisory-accusatory type.
Keywords: prosecutor’s office; prosecutor supervision; prosecution law; Interim government; October Revolution of 1917; Civil War of 1917–1922
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