Procurator's Office of the USSR

according to Article 164 of the Constitution of the USSR, the state agency that exercises the highest supervision over the strict and uniform observance of laws by all state committees, ministries, and departments; enterprises, institutions, and organizations; executive and administrative bodies of local soviets of people’s deputies; kolkhozes, cooperatives, and other public organizations; and officials and citizens.

The Soviet Procurator’s Office (the state procurator’s office) was established by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on May 28, 1922. Its function was to supervise the observance of the laws and to assist in efficient crime prevention. Its organization and functions were based on principles advanced by V. I. Lenin, who noted that “law cannot be Kaluga law or Kazan law, but that it must be uniform all-Russia law, and even uniform for the entire federation of Soviet Republics” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 45, p. 198).

Until 1933 the Procurator’s Office was part of the system of people’s commissariats of justice in the republics. The development of the socialist state necessitated the centralization of the supervisory power of the Procurator’s Office, and as a result the Procurator’s Office of the USSR was established in 1933 (Collected Laws of the USSR, 1933, no. 40, art. 239).

The highest supervisory power of the Procurator’s Office of the USSR is aimed at strengthening socialist legality and protecting against any infringements of (1) the social and state system established by the Constitution of the USSR and the constitutions of the Union and autonomous republics, the socialist economic system, and socialist property, (2) the political, labor, housing, and other personal and property rights and the lawful interests of the citizens of the USSR, and (3) the rights and lawful interests of state institutions, enterprises, kolkhozes, and cooperative and other public organizations.

The Procurator’s Office of the USSR is headed by the procurator-general of the USSR, who is appointed by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The procurators of Union republics, autonomous republics, krais, oblasts and autonomous oblasts are appointed by the procurator-general of the USSR. The procurators of autonomous okrugs and district and city procurators are appointed by the procurators of Union republics, subject to confirmation by the procurator-general of the USSR. The term of office of the procurator-general of the USSR and all lower-ranking procurators shall be five years. The agencies of the Procurator’s Office of the USSR constitute a single centralized system with superior and subordinate procurators.

Military procurator’s offices are formed for military districts, fleets, garrisons, and divisions and larger units of the Soviet Army and Navy. The Main Military Procurator’s Office is under the jurisdiction of the Procurator’s Office of the USSR; it is supervised by the procurator-general of the USSR both directly and through the head military procurator.

The governing body (collegium) of the Procurator’s Office of the USSR has the procurator-general of the USSR as its chairman. Its membership also includes the principal workers of the Procurator’s Office. The procurator-general of the USSR, the procurators of the Union republics, and the head military procurator all have investigators for particularly important cases. The collegia are also part of the procurator’s offices of the Union republics.

The procurator-general of the USSR and his subordinate procurators supervise legality in the name of the state. They are obligated to take immediate steps to eliminate all violations of the law no matter who the instigator. According to Article 168 of the Constitution of the USSR, the agencies of the Procurator’s Office exercise their power independently of all local agencies and are subordinate only to the procurator-general of the USSR. The procurator-general of the USSR reports to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on issues that are subject to legislative resolution or that necessitate an interpretation of the existing law in the manner prescribed by the fifth point of Article 121 of the Constitution of the USSR.

Within the limits of their jurisdiction, the procurator-general of the USSR and his subordinate procurators supervise the precise conformity of the acts of all state agencies and institutions and of all cooperative and public organizations with the Constitution and laws of the USSR, the constitutions and laws of the Union and autonomous republics, and the decrees of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the councils of ministers of the Union and autonomous republics. They also supervise the strict observance of the laws by the officials and citizens of the USSR. In cases where orders, instructions, decisions, commands, decrees, or other acts conflict with the law, a protest is lodged with the agency that issued the specific act or with a superior agency.

Persons appointed procurators and investigators to agencies of the Procurator’s Office of the USSR have higher legal education. Workers of the agencies of the Procurator’s Office of the USSR are given the ranks of state councillor of justice and state councillor of justice classes I, II, and III (awarded by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR). Other ranks are conferred by order of the procurator-general of the USSR or the procurator of a Union republic. Investigators from the Procurator’s Office who have class ranks must wear uniforms with identifying insignia during the performance of their official duties.