The Rise of Criminal Justice

Abstract

The chapter deals with the professionalization campaign of Soviet justice system and its consequences for the procuracy in late Stalinism. It shows how within half a decade the procuracy became one of the best educated and equipped branches of the Soviet government, gaining the trust of the political leadership and thereby evolving as an instrument of rule. The chapter examines this evolution by exemplifying the procuracy’s prominent role during the campaign against theft. It shows how (juvenile) offenders received more specialized attention, and how procurators’ ties to the local Party networks grew stronger; how local and regional prosecutors took a stance against police brutality and arbitrary actions. Simultaneously, the procuracy increased pressure on the Gulag administration for mismanaging the camp system. The procuracy’s demands for legal authority over the police to solve these problems were not met but the antagonism between the procuracy and the police grew even deeper.