On the Draft Constitution of the USS.R.

Stalin’s report delivered at the 8th Extraordinary Congress of the Soviet Union on November 25, 1936, to review and approve the new constitution of the Soviet Union. The Chinese translation is included in the Vol. II of Selected Works of Stalin.

The work consists of six parts. In the first part, Stalin introduced the formation of the constitution commission and its tasks. Stalin pointed out that the reason why a 31-member constitutional commission should be established to amend the current Constitution which was adopted in 1924 was because, “fundamental progress towards socialism was made in the life of the USS.R. between 1924 and 1936”.

The second part included Stalin’s analysis of the changes in the life of the USS.R. in the period from 1924 to 1936. Compared with 1924, the Soviet Union’s industry in 1936 was already based on new, rich, modern technical equipment, with vigorously advanced heavy industry and ail even more developed machine building industry. In agriculture, the Soviet Union had achieved large-scale mechanized production, which was conducted on a scale larger than anywhere else in the world, with up-to-date modern technical equipment.

Accordingly, the social class structure of the Soviet Union was changed, and all the exploiting classes was eliminated. There remained only the working class, the peasant class, and the intelligentsia stratum. The working class had become an entirely new working class, which was completely emancipated from exploitation. The peasantry had become an entirely new peasantry which was emancipated from exploitation, and the overwhelming majority of it became the collective peasantry, engaged in collective farming. The intelligentsia of the current Soviet Union had become an entirely new intelligentsia, which by its very roots was bound up with the working class and the peasantry. All these laid the realistic foundation for the amendment of the 1924 constitution.

The third part summarizes the principal specific features of the draft constitution. First is the registration and legislative consolidation of what has already been achieved and won in actual fact. Second is that it gives legislative consolidation to the pillars of socialism. Third, the constitution is needed for the purpose of consolidating a social order desired by and beneficial to the workers and peasants. Fourth, it proceeds from the fact that all nations and races must enjoy equal rights in all spheres of the economic, social, political and cultural life of society. Fifth, its consistent and thoroughgoing democracy. Sixth, it does not confine itself to fixing the formal rights of citizens, but shifts the center of gravity to the guarantees of these rights.

The fourth part is Stalin’s response to the bourgeois criticism of the draft constitution. Stalin summed up the different critical attitudes of the Western bourgeois press towards the draft constitution, and explained them one by one: (1) Foreign bourgeois press expressed their criticism towards the draft constitution of the Soviet Union with the attitude of deception, but deception could not last for a long time. (2) The second group of critics admits that there really is such a thing as a Draft Constitution but considers it a scrap of paper, an empty promise, by performing a certain maneuver, to deceive the people. But the fact that the Soviet Union established the Soviet regime, which overthrew the bourgeoisie and established the dictatorship of the proletariat in accordance with socialist principles is not a promise but a fact. (3) The third group of critics are not averse to recognizing certain merits in the Draft Constitution, but they doubt very much whether a number of its principles can be put into practice, and the skeptics will fail as they did more than once in the past. (4) The fourth group of critics characterize the Draft Constitution as the abandonment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, but they have lost their way and confused right with left. (5) The fifth group of critics accuses the Draft Constitution of not changing anything in the present situation in the USS.R., of leaving the dictatorship of the working class intact, and of preserving the present leading position of the Communist Party which is a merit of the Draft Constitution.

The fifth part expresses Stalin’s views on the amendments and addenda to the Draft Constitution proposed by citizens during the nation-wide discussion of the draft. Stalin divided the amendments into three categories. The first category of amendments mainly do not deal with constitutional questions but with questions which come within the scope of the current legislative work of the future legislative bodies. The second type of amendments strive to introduce into the Constitution elements of historical references, or elements of declarations. Such opinions having no direct bearing on the Constitution and can be expressed in other ways and through other documents. The third type is the amendments and supplementary opinions which have direct bearing on the Draft Constitution. Stalin listed 13 opinions and explained them one by one.

The sixth part expounds the significance of the new constitution of the USS.R. Stalin said that the new constitution will be a document of historical significance. For the peoples of the Soviet Union, it is a summary of their victories in the struggle for human emancipation, and a programme of action for the peoples of capitalist countries.

“On the Draft Constitution of the USS.R.” comprehensively introduces the background, content and significance of the amendment of the constitution of the Soviet Union, and it is a document of great historical significance. Some guiding principles of socialist constitution put forward by Stalin in the literature have certain reference significance for the construction of socialist constitution.