Legal propaganda as a direction of activities of the USSR prosecutor’s office in the years of perestroika (on the example of Pskov region)

The article is devoted to the consideration and analysis of the peculiarities of legal propaganda as a direction of activity of the Soviet Prosecutor’s Office bodies at the regional level in the second half of the 1980s during the period of the Perestroika of the Soviet State. This work has been written on the basis of documents and materials of the State Archive of the Pskov Region, which contain reports on the activities of the Pskov Region Prosecutor’s Office on the legal propaganda of Soviet legislation and the legal education of residents of the region. The main attention in the article is drawn to the most effective tools and technologies of legal education and upbringing of residents of the Pskov region during the years of the Perestroika. Among these tools and technologies, the author of this publication primarily distinguishes: reading thematic lectures, participating in the work of public universities of legal knowledge, publishing special materials in the print media, speaking on radio and television, etc. The work focuses on the fact that Soviet citizens did not always voluntarily participate in the activities of the prosecution authorities related to legal propaganda (especially when they took place after work hours, which means they “took” from people the time allotted for rest and communication with family or any other entertainment). Often people were simply forced to attend these kinds of events (lectures, thematic evenings, reader conferences, etc.), as well as studying at public universities and legal knowledge faculties, as this was required by the party and higher authorities. The author of this article also notes that for the Prosecutor’s Office in the second half of the 1980s it was necessary to strengthen the work on legal education of citizens of the Soviet State, including through closer business interdepartmental interaction with other law enforcement agencies. The study concluded that during the Perestroika, employees of the prosecution authorities of the Pskov region propagated and analyzed new laws, talked about their work to protect the rule of law, helped to educate the population in the spirit of an active citizenship, intolerance of any, even insignificant, offense. At the same time, on the one hand, this activity of the prosecution authorities contributed to the transformation of Soviet man into an individual open to external control by the Soviet State and the party, and on the other hand, had a significant impact on the decriminalization of Soviet society in the second half of the 1980s. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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