Constitution – Basic law

The collection includes collections of the main acts of constitutional significance adopted by the highest bodies of state power and public administration of the Soviet socialist state in 1917–1957. These are resolutions and decrees of the Council of People's Commissars, speeches and articles by V. I. Lenin and J. V. Stalin, characterizing the process of preparation and adoption of the Constitutions of the USSR of 1924 and 1936, as well as changes and additions made to their text in 1940–1950's. 

The collection contains documents on the preparation for the adoption of the Basic Law - the Constitution of the USSR of 1924, the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1925, including transcripts, minutes and reports of meetings of the expanded Commission for the development of the Constitution of the USSR, minutes and reports of the commissions of the All-Russian and All-Union Congresses of Soviets, the Mandates Commission, Commissions of the Presidium and sessions of the USSR Central Executive Committee. The drafts and texts of the adopted Constitutions of the USSR and the republics of the Soviet Union of the 1920s are available. Fragments of newsreels of the Second All-Union Congress of Soviets are presented.

The collection contains documents on preparation for the adoption of a new Basic Law - the Constitution of the USSR of 1936, since in the 1920s–1930s. The country has undergone significant changes in social and economic life, in the sphere of nation-state building. The development of the draft “Stalinist” Constitution of the USSR is represented by materials from the Constitutional Commission and the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, articles by M. I. Kalinin, V. M. Molotov and other party leaders. The minutes and transcripts of the meetings of the commission for the development of the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1937, the texts of the Constitution of the USSR and the Constitution of all Soviet republics have been collected.

The collection contains documents covering the previously closed process of work on the draft Constitution of the USSR of 1964. In the early 1960s a new concept of state building emerged, which was enshrined in the Third Program of the CPSU, the concept of “Soviet state system” acquired a qualitatively new content, the question of the President of the USSR, the separation of powers and the allocation of a branch of the judiciary was raised for the first time.

The Constitution of the USSR of 1977 went down in the history of our country as the “Constitution of developed socialism”, in which the USSR was proclaimed a socialist state of the entire people, expressing the will of the working people of all nations and nationalities inhabiting its territories. The section includes the texts of the Constitution of the USSR of 1977, as well as the texts of the constitutions of the RSFSR and the Karelian ASSR, documents on the adoption of the Constitution of the USSR and the basic laws of the republics and materials about them (methodological recommendations, reference books, collections, bibliographic indexes, monographs, etc.). 

The official edition of the Constitution of the Russian Federation dating back to 1993 is available in the section and legislative acts on the amendments to the Constitution.

Original texts and editions of constitutions (charters) of constituent territories of the Russian Federation (in alphabetical order of geographical names of constituent territories) can be accessed in the section.

The section features materials on the Constitution of the Russian Federation.