Maksimova, O.D. Discussion on the legislative competence of the Soviet of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR

Abstract: The article clarifies the legal status of the higher legislative bodies of the Soviet Russia, their structure, principles of interaction in the legislative sphere, the procedure for the preparation, approval and publication of the legislative drafts in the period prior to the adoption of the Constitution of the RSFR of 1918. The author has analyzed the main moments in the discussion between the party of Bolsheviks and the Leftist Social Revolutionaries regarding the legislative competence of the Council of People’s Commissars, which appeared due to the fact that the legislative policy did not satisfy the party of the Leftist Social Revolutionaries, who joined the Soviet Government in December of 1917 as a result of complicated negotiations with the Bolsheviks. Based upon the study of sources – the Protocols of the Hearings of the bodies of the Soviet Government and their Decrees, the author analyzes and describes the problems of legislative competence of the SPC RSFR in 1917. In the process of discussion between the two parties of Bolsheviks and the Leftist Social Revolutionaries right after the October Revolution the issue of recognizing the legislative competence of the Soviet Government (SPC RSFRS). The Bolsheviks supported the right of the SPC to make laws, while the SRs considered that only the VTSiK and the Soviet Assembly have law-making competence. The victory of the Bolsheviks in the process of voting on this issue in the VTSiK led to the formation of the system of supreme bodies of the Soviet Governent – the all-Russian Soviet Assembly, the VTSiK and the SPC, each of these bodies having legislative competence. The legislative competence of these bodies was provided for in the first Soviet Constitution of 1918.

Keywords: