Soviet Criminal Justice Under Stalin is the first comprehensive account of Stalin's struggle to make criminal law in the USSR a reliable instrument of rule, emphasizing the initial weakness of the Soviet state and the limits of Stalin's capacity to rule. Peter Solomon also offers new perspectives on collectivization, the Great Terror, the politics of abortion, and the disciplining of the labor force. This book should appeal to anyone interested in the political, social, or legal history of the USSR, judicial reform in post-Soviet states, law in authoritarian regimes, or comparative legal...

It is hardly a revelation to say that in the Soviet Union, law served not as the foundation of government but as an instrument of rule, or that the judiciary in that country was highly dependent upon political authority. Yet, experience shows that effective democracies and market economies alike require courts that are independent and trusted. In Courts and Transition in Russia, Solomon and Foglesong analyze the state and operation of the courts in Russia and the in some ways remarkable progress of their reform since the end of Soviet power. Particular attention is paid to the...

Measuring Russian legal reform in relation to the rule-of-law ideal, this study also examines the legal institutions, culture and reform goals that have actually prevailed in Russia. Judgements about future prospects are measured, adding new dimensions to our understanding of the Soviet legacy.