The Advocacy of Mordovia in the Soviet Pre-war Period: Prerequisites and Problems of Organization, Role in Strengthening the Rule of Law

The purpose of the study. The purpose of this article is the authors' desire to analyze the prerequisites for the emergence of the institute of advocacy in Mordovia during the period of registration of the Mordovian national statehood, to consider the historical path of its formation and development in the Soviet pre-war period on the basis of All-Union and All-Russian normative legal acts, based on archival materials of the Bar Chamber of the Republic of Mordovia, showing the problems of the organization and activities of this institute in the period under review, as well as to determine the importance of the pre-war advocacy for strengthening the rule of law, including during the period of repression. Conclusions. In accordance with this goal, the authors of the article come to the conclusion that during the formation and activity of the Collegium and the Collective of defenders of Mordovia, there were many problems associated with the small number of defenders, their lack of sufficient professional knowledge, the need, in this regard, training and advanced training of lawyers, the presence of «underground advocacy», lack of material base, premises for work, legal literature. Despite the fact that state and party control over the Soviet advocacy was strengthened, advocates (including in Mordovia) sought their professional independence. The activity of the advocacy was an important guarantee of ensuring the rights of citizens and strengthening the rule of law in the state. Meanwhile, during the years of the Great Terror, many principled advocates were subjected to repression due to the fact that they did not obey the «party guidelines». In these cases, the number of Defense Boards was replenished by Communist lawyers who clearly followed the party line. All this had a very negative impact on the protection of human rights and legitimate interests, which turned out to be unsecured due to the lack of interest in this by the state itself.

Soviet advocacy, the advocacy of Mordovia, pre-war period, defender, college of defenders, team of defenders, guarantee, law enforcement, independence