Soviet Criminal Justice Under Stalin

Introduction; Part I. The First Phase: 1. The design of an experiment; 2. Criminal justice under NEP; Part II. The Years of Collectivization: 3. Campaign justice; 4. The decline of legality; Part III. The Conservative Shift: 5. The return to tradition: Vyshinsky and legal order; 6. Stalin's criminal policy: from tradition to excess; 7. Criminal justice and the great terror; 8. The reconstruction of criminal justice; 9. Preparing for war: the criminalization of labour infractions; Part IV. The Stalinist Synthesis: 10. Moulding legal officials for careers; 11. The dynamics of Stalinist justice: bureaucratic and political pressures on legal officials; 12. The distortion and limits of criminal policy; Conclusion.

"A historical study examines Stalin's struggle to make criminal law in the U.S.S.R. a reliable instrument of rule. Data were obtained from recently declassified archives and from interviews and secondary sources." Criminal Justice Abstracts "This erudite, calmly reasoned book should be the starting point for all who want to understand how the Soviet Union was ruled, and why it failed." Jane Burbank, The Russian Review "Solomon does an excellent job of placing Soviet criminal policy in a comparative context. All Russian historians of the modern period, as well as scholars of law, legal history, revolutions, and comparative politics will find this book essential reading." J. Arch Getty, Slavic Review "This large work on criminal justice under Joseph Stalin is a first-rate book on a difficult subject. Yet Peter H. Solomon Jr.'s discussion of the Soviet use of criminal justice and its bureaucratization makes a fascinating read. ...demonstrates the complex and contradictory development of Stalinism well. The present book has to be read by anyone interested in Stalinism." Hiroaki Kuromiya, American Historical Review "...monumental... Solomon exploits an impressive array of sources, including the recently declassified holdings of several archives, central and local newspapers and journals, and approximately sixty interviews with former Soviet legal officials. This study will become required reading for specialists interested in the history of Soviet law, institutions, education, labour, and society,as well as for students of comparative legal system." Heather Coleman, Canadian Journal of History