On the issue of a distinctive feature of the Soviet concept of criminal procedure

The article states that an extremely negative attitude to all the manifestations of formal logic including presumption is considered to be a distinctive feature of the Soviet concept of criminal procedure. Various presumptions inevitably bring the element of formality into the court procedure; they make the court take the path of least resistance instead of overcoming the difficulties when examining this or that question. It has been noted that some legal writers identify the concept of Soviet criminal procedure with bitter legacy of the past in the form of anachronistic thinking of law enforcers. Such an evaluation of Soviet heritage in the criminal procedural sphere can be explained by some liberal convictions rather than by the essence of the problem itself since the methodological concept of the Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation (CPC of RF) rests on the postulates of a liberal legal doctrine. The postulates refer (both directly and indirectly) to the system of values belonging to one of the segments of the Western European civilization. The above system of values influences the thinking of representatives of the Western civilization. Thus, introduction of the above postulates into the CPC of the RF means that its creators did not take into account the peculiarities of its functioning in the given environment. The work on the Draft CPC of the RF was done under the control of the U.S.Department of Justice which is famous for the lack of respect and sympathy towards the fundamental values of the Russian people; that is why some ideological postulates based on the liberal legal concept of criminal procedure were introduced into our Code. The fundamental values of the Russian society being set at naught, our law enforcers don't perceive the provisions of the CPC of the RF. Unlike Soviet values in the criminal procedural sphere, the postulates of liberal ideology have been discredited by the reality of the present day. The author comes to the conclusion that in fact the CPC of the RF is intended not to protect the legal interests of those involved in the criminal procedural activity but to ensure the interests of those whose activity is of the utmost danger for the normal functioning of the Russian community.

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