All-Russian Central Executive Committee

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The All-Russian Central Executive Committee ( Russian Всероссийский Центральный Исполнительный Комитет Wserossijskij Zentralny Ispolnitelny Komitet ; abbreviation: ВЦИК VTsIK ; as All-Russian Central Executive Committee (GZEK) translated) was from 1917 to 1937, the top legislature , arranging and controlling authority of state power in the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR).

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee was elected by the All-Russian Council Congress (Russian Всероссийский съезд Советов ) and was active in the years between these congresses.

history

The first GZEK was elected during the time of the Provisional Government at the 1st All-Russian Congress of Soviets from June 3 to 24, 1917 in Petrograd (chairman was the Georgian Menshevik Nikolos Cheidze ). However, it was only as a result of the October Revolution , during which the Bolsheviks took power in Russia at the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets , and the establishment of the RSFSR on November 7, 1917, that the GZEK became an official government organ and its chairman became head of state.

Until the establishment of the Soviet Union on December 30, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee also had members from the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic , who were elected by council congresses at the republic level.

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee, elected by the 9th All-Russian Council Congress, had representatives from the Transcaucasian SFSR in addition to representatives from Ukraine and Belarus . Between the meetings of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, its duties were performed by the Presidium, the executive body of the Executive Committee.

Lenin , the most important ideologue in the Executive Committee, characterized the peculiarity of the Executive Committee as follows:

"The Executive Committee allows the advantages of parliamentarism to be combined with the advantages of immediate and direct democracy, that is, it unites representatives elected by the people, as well as the legislative function and the implementation of the law."

During the period of the formation of the state apparatus in the RSFSR, there was no clear separation of competencies between different organs of state power. An important reason for this was that the theory of the Soviet state rejected the separation of powers according to the bourgeois model. Only for practical reasons was the need for a division of labor between the various state organs of Soviet power recognized.

The separation of competencies did not take place until the 8th All-Russian Council Congress with the regulation on the Soviet construction . In accordance with this regulation, the enactment of laws should be carried out by the following Soviet bodies:

  • All-Russian Council Congress,
  • All-Russian Central Executive Committee,
  • Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee,
  • Council of People's Commissars .

These diverse ways of legislation, which sometimes led to parallel functions, were due to the Russian civil war and foreign intervention. The time of the civil war required quick action and the quick adoption of laws, depending on the circumstances.

Although the Soviets had a number of legislative organs, contradicting laws did not arise as the RSFSR's 1918 Constitution clearly provided that the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was accountable to the All-Russian Council Congress. The Presidium of the All-Russian Council Congress was accountable to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee; the Council of People's Commissars was accountable to both the All-Russian Council Congress and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and its Presidium.

In May 1925, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee drew up the constitution of the RSFSR, which was then adopted in May 1925 by the 12th All-Russian Council Congress. The commission for drafting the constitution included:

The Constitution finally confirmed the system of the various central and local authorities and governing bodies:

  • the All-Russian Council Congress,
  • the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and its Presidium,
  • the Council of People's Commissars,
  • the People's Commissars.

From 1925 to 1937, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee had in addition to its various departments a secretariat and a consultation ("reception office"; Russian приемная Председателя ВЦИКа ) with the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

The members of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR (Russian: Верховный Суд РСФСР ) formed in 1922 were appointed by the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

After the establishment of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the RSFSR in 1933, the General Prosecutor of the RSFSR was subordinate to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, as well as to the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the People's Commissariat for Justice and the General Prosecutor of the Soviet Union.

According to the Constitution of the USSR of 1936, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR became the highest body of state power in the USSR.

Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee

  • Lev Kamenev , from October 27, 1917 (according to other information: November 9 - 21, 1917),
  • Jakow Swerdlow , from November 8, 1917 (according to other information: November 21, 1917 to March 16, 1919), died in office,
  • Mikhail Wladimirski (acting), March 16-30, 1919,
  • Michail Kalinin , from March 30, 1919 to July 15, 1938

Secretaries of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee

legislation

The All-Russian Central Executive Committee took an active part in the drafting of laws and passed a large number of laws. For example, the following laws, among others, have been enacted by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR:

  • Decree "On the Nationalization of Banks", October 14, 1917,
  • Decree "On civil marriage, on children and on keeping the family book" of December 18, 1917 (Note: "Civil marriage" means "civil marriage" - as opposed to church marriage),
  • Decree "On Divorce" of December 19, 1917,
  • Decree "On the recognition of counter-revolutionary activity for all attempts to appropriate functions of state power" of January 5, 1918,
  • Decree "On the dissolution of the constituent assembly" of January 6, 1918,
  • Decree "On the cancellation of national debt" of January 21, 1918,
  • Decree "On the Abolition of Inheritance" of April 27, 1918,
  • Decree "On the Judgment" (No. 2) of March 7, 1918,
  • Decree "On the abolition of the right to private property in urban real estate" of August 20, 1918,
  • Collection of laws (or statute book, Russian Кодекс) on civil status, marriage, family and guardianship law, from September 16, 1918,
  • Compilation of Labor Laws, November 9, 1922,
  • Code of Criminal Procedure of the USSR, of May 22, 1922,
  • Criminal Code of the USSR, dated June 1, 1922,
  • Criminal Code of the USSR, dated November 22, 1926,
  • Collection of laws on civil status, marriage, family and guardianship law, dated September 16, 1918,
  • Code of Labor Prisons of the USSR (Russian Исправительно-трудовой кодекс; ИТК РСФСР), of October 16, 1924
  • Code of Labor Prisons of the USSR, dated August 1, 1933.

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