Legal and Political Reforms and Amendments to the Constitutions of the USSR and the RSFSR during the Perestroika (1985 – Early 1990s)

Abstract

The article introduces an analysis of legal and political reforms in the USSR and the RSFSR during the Perestroika. The research objective was to describe the implementation of political and legal reforms. The analysis was based on the systematic approach, which considers independent political and legal processes in their interaction and development. The research principles included various general scientific methods and the principle of historicism, as well as comparative legal and formal legal methods. The analysis of sources and scientific literature proved that the authorities pursued a spontaneous and sometimes arbitrary policy, especially in the reform of the political system and the legal reform. While the early Perestroika was associated with the theory of the socialist rule of law, legal theorists found no special principles and norms that would distinguish it from the concepts of Western liberal and bourgeois legal thought. The fact that the government rejected the postulates of socialism caused chaotic changes in the Constitutions of the USSR and the RSFSR. When the Union center lost its positions, the initiative moved to the republican and regional levels. As a result, the constitutional reform of the late 1980s – early 1990s increased the confrontation with the allied authorities and led to domestic political and legal conflicts.