FORMATION OF THE SOVIET ADVOCACY AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE CRIMINAL PROCEDURAL LEGISLATION OF THE UKRAINIAN SSR (1922–1939): A HISTORICAL AND LEGAL STUDY

Abstract

The article provides a historical and legal analysis of the formation of Soviet advocacy and the transformation of criminal procedural legislation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic during 1922–1939. The study examines the organizational and legal foundations of defense colleges established after the judicial reform of 1922, the peculiarities of legal regulation of advocacy under the Regulation on Advocacy of the Ukrainian SSR of 1922, and the evolution of procedural guarantees in the Criminal Procedural Codes of the Ukrainian SSR of 1922 and 1927. Special attention is paid to the contradiction between the formal recognition of the right to defense and the actual restriction of advocacy independence under the conditions of the formation of a totalitarian political system. The article analyzes the influence of state control, ideological transformation of the legal profession, elimination of private practice, introduction of collective forms of work, and administrative planning on the professional autonomy of defenders. The peculiarities of Soviet criminal proceedings are examined, including the strengthening of accusatory tendencies in the Criminal Procedural Code of the Ukrainian SSR of 1927, legalization of analogy of law, restriction of attorney-client privilege in counter-revolutionary cases, and functioning of extraordinary judicial procedures during mass political repressions of the 1930s. The author concludes that during 1922–1939 Soviet advocacy gradually transformed from a formally self-governing professional institution into a state-controlled element of the Soviet justice system. At the same time, the historical experience of this period remains important for the development of modern principles of advocacy independence, adversarial criminal proceedings, and effective protection of human rights.