Ideologization of Criminal Law in the Early Soviet Period: The Role of Legal Consciousness in Legislation and Law Enforcement

The article studies the establishment of Soviet criminal laws in the 1920s through the lens of the prevailing ideological concepts. The author analyzes how “revolutionary” and “socialist” legal consciousness performed the functions of the main regulator and source of norms in the conditions of a legal vacuum and rejection of the old law. Based on an analysis of Soviet criminal laws, it is shown that these concepts, deprived of a clear legal definition, served as a guide of Marxist-Leninist ideology and class-party interests. Special attention is focused on how the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1922, that formally codified provisions, retained reference to socialist legal consciousness in the imposition of punishment, which is characteristic of the period of a transition from “revolutionary expediency” to “socialist legality”.