Nikolai Krylenko - Theorist of The Soviet Justice System

Theorist of The Soviet Justice System

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s Krylenko wrote dozens of books and articles in support of the theory that, under the system of "socialist legality", political considerations and not criminal ones should play the decisive role in deciding questions of guilt, innocence and punishment. He theorized that confession was the ultimate proof of the defendant's guilt and that material evidence, precise definitions of crime, and exact sentences (the so-called "dosage" system) were not needed under socialism.

Mikhail Yakubovich, a defendant in one of the show trials, described meeting with Krylenko after weeks of torture by the OGPU to discuss his upcoming trial:

Offering me a seat, Krylenko said: "I have no doubt that you personally are not guilty of anything. We are both performing our duty to the Party—I have considered and consider you a Communist. I will be the prosecutor at the trial; you will confirm the testimony given during the investigation. This is our duty to the Party, yours and mine. Unforeseen complications may arise at the trial. I will count on you. If the need should arise, I will ask the presiding judge to call on you. And you will find the right words."

Krylenko promoted his views on socialist legality during the work on two drafts of the Soviet Penal Code, one in 1930 and one in 1934. Krylenko's views were opposed by some Soviet theoreticians, including the Soviet Prosecutor General Andrey Vyshinsky, who argued that Krylenko's imprecise definition of crimes and his refusal to define terms of punishment introduced legal instability and arbitrariness and were, therefore, against the interests of the Soviet state. The debate continued throughout 1935 and was inconclusive.

With the start of the Great Purge after Sergei Kirov's assassination on December 1, 1934, Krylenko's star began to fade and he was gradually eclipsed by Vyshinsky. Notably, it was Vyshinsky and not Krylenko who prosecuted the first two high profile Moscow show trials of Old Bolsheviks in August 1936 and January 1937. Krylenko's ally, the Marxist theoretician Eugen Pashukanis, was subjected to severe criticism in late 1936 and arrested in January 1937 (he was shot in September). Soon after Eugen Pashukanis' arrest, Krylenko had to "admit his mistakes" and publicly concede that Vyshinsky and his other critics had been right all along.

In 1936 Krylenko justified the inclusion of a law against male homosexuality in the 1934 Soviet penal code as a measure directed against subversive activities:

So who are the bulk of our clients in these sorts of cases? Is it the working class? No! It's classless hoodlums. Classless hoodlums, either from the dregs of the society, or from the remains of the exploiters' class. They have no place to go. So they take to -- pederasty. Together with them, next to them, under this excuse, in stinky secretive bordellos another kind of activity takes place as well -- counter-revolutionary work.