Iliya Nikolaevich Strekalov,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, free researcher, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Book Review: Voytikov S.S. Behind the Facade of the Stalin Constitution. The Soviet Parliament from Kalinin to Gromyko. M., Veche, 2021. 464 p.
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-6-20
A review of the book by S.S. Voytikov on the history of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR is presented in the following text. The book describes the historical age from the time of the formation of this state body, the first years of Soviet power, until the mid-1980s. The book provides information about the work of the structural units of the highest legislative body of a power in the Soviet Union. Biographical characteristics of its leaders, from M.I. Kalinin to A.A. Gromyko, are presented too; their personal role in the work of this institution is revealed. The author comes to the conclusion that the Supreme Soviet of the USSR turned out to be an unviable institution of power in the conditions of the dominance of the party rules in the country. Such a conclusion is quite traditional for historiography, although it is based on the introduction of some previously unpublished sources. The position expressed by the author makes it possible to continue the discussion about the real intentions and capabilities of the USSR leadership to “revive” the work of the country’s highest authority.
Publishing: 28/12/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 28/07/2022
How to cite: Strekalov I.N. Book Review: Voytikov S.S. Behind the Facade of the Stalin Constitution. The Soviet Parliament from Kalinin to Gromyko. M., Veche, 2021. 464 p. // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 6 (26), pp. 286–291. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-6-20.pdf]
The article was prepared as part of the RFBR grant project No. 20-09-00218 “Practices of Interaction Between Government and Society in the Late Soviet Period (1956–1985)”.
Links: Issue 6 2022
Keywords: constitution; the Soviet Union; politics; legislature; the Supreme Soviet