The Russian Revolution/Chapter 16
XVI.
REVOLUTIONARY COURTS AND JUSTICE.
As with everything else in Russia, the system of measuring out justice has been revolutionized from top to bottom. The Russian people, with very good cause, bitterly hated the Czarist courts, and no sooner was the old regime overturned than they began to radically reform them. The changes started under the Kerensky Government, when, as a first stroke, the old-time judges were removed and judicial committees, usually consisting of a workman and a soldier for each court, were put in their places. This was a step in the right direction, but much remained yet to be done. Many of the new judges were illiterate, and the reactionary lawyers, who were still allowed to practice, were able to twist them around their fingers and to degenerate the courts into hotbeds of counter-revolution.
Only with the October, or Bolshevik, revolution was the situation seriously taken in hand. Almost at a blow, the Communists wiped out every remnant of the old system: military, marine, civil, and criminal courts, penal code, lawyers, and all. Then, with many complications and gradual evolutionary advances, they proceeded to build up a new system of courts and justice to take the place of the old one. The new revolutionary system divides itself into three general sections; viz, the Extraordinary Commission, the Revolutionary Tribunals, and the Peoples' Courts. The whole organization finds a central point in the national Department of Justice.
The Extraordinary Commission and the Revolutionary Tribunals are special, temporary bodies designed to ease the revolution over its early, critical stages. Eventually they will be abolished and the entire business of administering justice handed over to the Peoples' Courts.
The Extraordinary Commission, popularly known as the "Tsche ka" specializes in the more serious political offenses, such as counter-revolutionary attempts, speculation in life necessities, attacks upon Soviet officials, etc. It is a national organization, with branches in all the principal cities and towns. It has a large staff of investigators and special detachments of soldiers to carry on its work. With its semi-secret method of operation and its militant defense of the revolution, the Extraordinary Commission is the terror of the counter-revolutionists. During the heated period of the revolution, when the Soviet Government was besieged by a swarm of internal foes, it was very active; but now that these foes are about crushed it functions less and less.
The Revolutionary Tribunals stand next to the Extraordinary Commission in precedence and authority. They deal with political crimes of lesser importance, such as sabotage, stealing from Soviet industries, etc. They, too, are a national organization, with local sections in the chief centers. They are still active, but are slated to disappear when the revolutionary crisis is over.
The Peoples' Courts are the future judicial system of Soviet Russia. At present they occupy themselves mainly with equity and criminal cases of minor importance: but eventually, when the new regime is fully established, they are to take over the administration of justice in all its branches. They will be the sole court system in Russia.
The Peoples' Courts consist of one judge each, and from one to six jurors, according to the type of the case being tried. The judges, who are often women, are elected directly by the local Soviets from selected lists of candidates submitted by the executive committees of these Soviets. They are subject to recall at all times. They have a penal code to go by, but when this does not fit the case in hand the judges are, in the language of the law, "to be guided by their socialistic sense of justice." References by them to the principles and precedents of the laws of the overthrown autocracy are strictly forbidden. The jury lists are made up by the labor unions and the lesser Soviets, and are confirmed by the executive committees of the district or municipal Soviets.
In the Peoples' Courts the so-called legal profession is not recognized. Attached to each Soviet having in its jurisdiction a Peoples' Court is a board of public prosecutors and defenders for criminal cases, and of representatives for civil cases. These officials are chosen by the executive committees of the Soviets in question. In all serious cases the accused is furnished without cost a defender selected by the judge; in minor cases the judge decides whether or not there shall be a defender used. In any case, however, where a prosecutor is employed there must also be a defender assigned to the person on trial. Counsel in civil suits is delegated or refused directly by the board of prosecutors, defenders and representatives itself. Besides the members of these boards, there may also appear in court as attorneys, near relatives of the litigants, and representatives of Soviet institutions who have been authorized to so act by the management of such institutions. Professional private lawyers are expressly banned.
In Russian court practice "the law's delay" is virtually eliminated. The verdicts and decisions of the Peoples' Judges go into effect almost immediately. Only a short respite is allowed in which to file appeals. Such appeals may be made to the Councils of Peoples' Judges, one of which exists in each district. Their action is final. All the judges belong to the Councils in their respective districts, and, turn by turn, sit on the presiding boards which carry on most of the Councils' activities. The members of these presiding boards may be recalled at any time by action of the corresponding district Soviets.
In all great social upheavals severe measures are found necessary to hold in check the forces making for chaos, and the Russian revolution has proved no exception to the general rule. It. too, has had to vigorously fight that ever-present predacious element which seeks to take advantage of the temporarily crippled society by preying upon it in a criminal manner. To begin with the Communists, with a naive conception of the Brotherhood of Man, handled their court cases with extreme mildness. But the folly of this soon became apparent. The anti-social elements mistook this mildness for weakness and entered upon an orgy of criminality. Disorder ran riot. Plots against the Government were hatched on every side, lawlessness became the order of the day; robberies and murders multiplied themselves with startling rapidity. Many people were killed by bandits, among them a number of well-known men. Lenin himself had a number of adventures. Once he was stopped on the street and robbed of the automobile in which he was riding, and another time he was shot through the neck by a counter-revolutionist. The situation rapidly went from bad to worse.
Then the Communists took the matter seriously in charge. They instituted the Extraordinary Commission and the Revolutionary Tribunals and began dealing out justice with a stern hand. Counter-revolutionists were summarily dealt with, and ordinary criminals shot at the scenes of their crimes. Along with these harsh measures went an extensive educational campaign showing the danger outlawry brought to the revolution. Soon the anti-social forces were vanquished: the counter-revolutionists transferred their open activities to countries outside Russia, and the common bandits found that their trade was one that did not pay. Today Russian cities are as orderly and free from crime as any in the world. Holdups and burglaries are practically unknown. Although the streets of Moscow and Petrograd are almost entirely unlighted at night one may walk about them at any hour in perfect safety.
A great deal of outside criticism has been directed against these special revolutionary courts, before all the Extraordinary Commission, which has been painted as a darksome monster that holds the whole country in shivering terror. The Russian revolutionists a!so lament the necessity for such bodies, but they had no choice in the matter. It was either fight the reaction with its own weapons, or see the revolution collapse. And the Russians also know full well that most of the "terror" of the Extraordinary Commission is pure enemy propaganda. The whole thing has been grossly exaggerated. The few thousand reactionaries that met death at the hands of that organization are numerically insignificant when compared wi the millions of workers and peasants slaughtered by these same reactionaries in the horrible world war. The special revolutionary courts were products of the great revolutionarycrisis and they are disappearing as that crisis wears itself out.
The essential mildness of the revolutionary justice system, and the true spirit of the workers' new society is to be found in the Peoples' Courts. There crime, at least as far as it is committed by workers, is considered primarily a product of ignorance. The prevailing conception is that offenders should be educated, not punished. Many remarkable and curious "sentences" are continually being delivered in the Peoples' Courts. For example, not long ago, a worker guilty of a serious offense was ordered by the judge, with the alternative of a jail sentence, to study the scientific explanation of why such crimes as his are committed, and then to deliver a lecture to the Court six months hence on the subject. The judge outlined a course of reading for him. Another recent case was that of a worker who was caught practicing sabotage and ordered to deliver a series of lectures to workers in various Moscow factories, explaining to them the virtues of working faithfully for the Soviet Republic, and exhorting them to avoid such crimes as his. The story goes that he derived as much good from his experience as his hearers did. for he developed into an active militant. Social parasites, however, do not come off with the light sentences that usually are given to actual workers. The "education" they get is always more drastic and less sympathetic. They are considered and treated as enemies of the new social order.