THE PARADIGM OF LEGAL UNDERSTANDING IN THE EARLY YEARS OF SOVIET POWER

Introduction: The coming centenary of the October Revolution markedly stirred up the academic environment and gave impetus to a rethinking of old and emerging problems related to the revolutionary past. The study of issues related to revolutionary legality and revolution expediency in the context of the establishment of the Soviet legal system and the realization of law has a long tradition in national historiography. However, these studies are usually focused on either the problem of their theoretical comprehension or on the use of relevant legal norms in the repressive policies of the Soviet state. The actualization of the perception of these principles by the public mind at the present time has just begun. Materials and methods: From the standpoint of cognitive and historical-anthropological approaches, the author analyzes the factors of the paradigm shift of legal understanding in the course of the revolutionary events of the first decades of the 20th century. Based on a wide range of sources, diverse in origin and orientation, the vector of the development of a new legal understanding is established and the defects of legal consciousness determined by this process are revealed. Research results: The application of the system method to the study of the basic characteristics of transforming legal understanding allowed the author to conclude that the content and structure of the legal understanding and sense of justice of a significant part of «ordinary people» in the first years of Soviet power were diametrically opposed to that new legal ideology that was broadcast «From above», and the change in the basic constant of «law» to «violence» occurred quite slowly and was of a temporary nature. Discussion and conclusions: In the conditions of the Civil War, V.I. Lenin formed a new concept - a concept of proletarian (Soviet law) and revolutionary legality, in which the legal content of law was replaced by ideological content. Based on the class nature of law, it was viewed as a means of suppressing the minority by the «working majority». At the same time in the event of a real threat to the revolution the possibility of a temporary replacement of law with the so-called «revolutionary expediency» was provided for. The implementation of this concept in practice led to the abolition of many legal institutions and a significant restriction of the citizens’ rights in all spheres of life. Replacing traditional legal understanding with a new ideology based on the class approach, the opposition of legality and expediency, and the justification of violence by the interests of the revolution resulted in significant defects in legal consciousness. In turn the revolutionary practice of the «Red Terror» slowly but surely formed its new type.

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