V.V. Makeev’s Trial: Legislative Regulation and Features of Conducting

Introduction. The relevance of the research lies in the introduction into the academic discourse of the new historical and legal sources that elucidate formation of the juridical approaches of the Soviet government in relation to “former people”. It is envisaged to investigate the existing scientific problem of the history of development of the judicial and legal system in the Don region in the 1920s on the example of a definite case of V.V. Makeev. In the context of contemporary research, studying the possibility of Class Theory influence on the Soviet justice is important. Political bias in the Soviet court proceedings of the 1920s remains an issue that needs further research. The aim of the present study is to analyse the unpublished archival documents and identify the specific features of conducting the political trial over V.V. Makeev, which took place in Rostov-on-Don on December 28 – 31, 1925.
Materials and Methods. The research sources included the archival documents stored at the Center for Documentation of Contemporary History of the Rostov Region (ЦДНИРО/TsDNIRO), and various legal acts governing the criminal procedural relationships in the USSR in the 1920s. General scientific and specific scientific methods were used in the research, including comparative historical, historical legal, legalistic (dogmatic legal), and content analysis methods.
Results. The article has conceptualised implementation of Class Theory in law. The influence of the Marxist ideas on the criminal court proceedings of the studied period has been revealed. The trial over V.V. Makeev, which took place in Rostov-on-Don on December 28 – 31, 1925, has been analysed and assessed with regard to the acting legal regulation of that time, and the influence of political ideology on the judicial system. It has been established that the trial over V.V. Makeev was dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the armed insurrection of workers of December 1905 in Rostovon-Don, and was political in nature. The prosecutor and the social accuser treated Makeev as a class enemy, therefore were guided not by the legal norms when demanding the death penalty for the accused. It was only due to the efforts of the lawyer M.A. Ashman that the court eventually sentenced the accused to five years of imprisonment.
Discussion and Conclusion. The present study is important for the Russian juridical science, as it expands an understanding of the USSR history of state and law through introduction into the academic discourse of the new cases. It focuses on the features of the trial conducted in the 1920s. The results obtained can serve a starting point for the research into the attitude of the Soviet justice towards “former people”. The present study provides an opportunity to investigate the execution of the presumption of guilt in the frame of application of Class Theory approach to court proceedings.

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