History of the Soviet project: drama in five constitutions

The reviewed book covers the political, constitutional, and legal development of Russia and the USSR during the 20th century. The research goal is to create a retrospective reconstruction of the reasons and motives of the Russian Revolution and its mission, as well as the methods that were used. The original approach considers the Revolution as a process lasting several decades. The book does not consider the revolution to be a particular event that took place in 1917, but rather a long process that serves as a reaction to a specific social problem that it was supposed to solve. As a result of this approach, the considered period in the book extends from the beginning of the 20th century to the middle of the 1990s. The final act of this revolutionary century was the dispersal of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation in 1993 and the introduction of a new Constitution, which the book’s author connects to the events of 1917. The book provides a number of other fascinating interpretations. In particular, it regards the Communist Party as a part of the system of public authorities and as a quasi-theocratic organization. In spite of its formally historical nature, the study explains social patterns and thereby contributes to a better understanding and forecasting of current developments in Russia, thanks to its use of a combination of methods from different research areas, including political science and legal theory. However, the high level of scientific knowledge potential that is presumed by the author needs more substantiation.

About the author: Andrey Rumyantsev – Dr. jur. (Regensburg), Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Comparative constitutional review”, Moscow, Russia.

Citation: Rumyantsev A. (2017) Istoriya sovetskogo proekta: drama v pyati konstitutsiyakh: Retsenziya: Medushevsky A.N. Politicheskaya istoriya russkoy revolutsii: normy, instituty, formy sotsial’noy mobilizatsii v 20 veke, Moscow; Saint Petersburg: Tsentr gumanitarnykh initsiativ, 2017 [History of the Soviet project: drama in five constitutions: A book review: Medushevsky A.N. Political history of the Russian revolution: norms, institutes, forms of the social mobilization in the 20th century]. Sravnitel’noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 145–151. (In Russian).

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