CONSTITUTIONS AND AMENDMENTS

The 5^th December seems to have been a day for constitutional changes.  

The 1936 Soviet Constitution, adopted on 5^th December  1936, and also known as the "Stalin" constitution, redesigned the government of the Soviet Union.

The constitution repealed restrictions on voting and added universal direct suffrage and the right to work to rights guaranteed by the previous constitution. In addition, the Constitution recognized collective social and economic rights including the rights to work, rest and leisure, health protection, care in old age and sickness, housing, education, and cultural benefits. The constitution also provided for the direct election of all government bodies and their reorganization into a single, uniform system. It was written by a special commission of 31 members of which Joseph Stalin chaired. Those who participated included (among others) Andrei Vyshinsky, Andrei Zhdanov, Maksim Litvinov, Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Nikolai Bukharin and Karl Badek, though the latter two had less active input.

Stalin

Vyshinsky

Zhdanov

Litvinov

             

Bukharin

Badek,

Voroshilov

Molotov

Kaganovich

Quite a collection of old Soviets. The most prominent of the group that I remember, as an infant growing up, are Stalin and Molotov.  They appeared in newsreels wherever one went. As to Vyshinsky,  Litvinov, and Bukharin, these were names I'd heard throughout my childhood during the course of endless debates.  

Vyshinsky has a very checkered career in that he was the Russian Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, but was also Stalin's Prosecutor at the Moscow Trials, or rather Stalin's purges during the 1930's which paved the way for Stalin's Constitution. He has a lot to answer for. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs for a short period between Molotov's two terms. He died in office in 1953, a year before Stalin.

In 1930, Stalin had appointed Litvinov as People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs. A firm believer in collective security, Litvinov worked very hard to form a closer relationship with France and Britain. In 1933 he successfully persuaded the United States to officially recognize the Soviet government. Franklin Roosevelt sent comedian Harpo-Marx to the Soviet Union as a good-will ambassador, and Litvinov and Marx became friends and even performed a routine on stage together. Is there no film record of this anywhere? Litvinov also actively facilitated the acceptance of the USSR into the League of Nations where he represented his country in 1934—1938. He was replaced as Foreign Secretary by Molotov in 1939. As to Bukharin, he was a victim of the purges in 1938.

The 1936 constitution replaced the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union and its Central Executive Committee by the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Like its predecessor, the Supreme Soviet contained two chambers: the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities. The constitution empowered the Supreme Soviet to elect commissions, which performed most of the Supreme Soviet's work. As under the former constitution, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet exercised the full powers of the Supreme Soviet between sessions and had the right to interpret laws. The Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet became the titular head of state. The Sovnarkom (after 1946 known as the Council of Ministers) continued to act as the executive arm of the government.

Of the four Soviet constitutions, the 1936 constitution survived longest. It was amended in 1944 but replaced in 1977. 

Article 124 of the constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, the inclusion of which was opposed by large segments of the Communist Party. The article resulted in members of the Russian Orthodox Church petitioning to reopen closed churches, gain access to jobs that had been closed to them as religious figures, and the attempt to run religious candidates in the 1937 elections.

Clearly, so far as any 'democracy' was concerned, this constitution had little going for it, and freedom of religion and universal suffrage were just words on paper. Non-performing text you might say.

The Twenty-first Amendment (Amendment XXI) to the United States Constitution repealed the 18^th Amendment (not before time), which had mandated nationwide Prohibition. It was ratified on the 5^th December 1933.

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission here of to the States by the Congress.

The Eighteenth Amendment (Amendment XVIII) of the United States Constitution established Prohinition in the United States. The separate Volstead Act set down methods of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition (for example, for medical and religious purposes). Its ratification was certified on January 16, 1919.

It should be noted that the 21st amendment did not completely remove nationwide prohibition. It left the matter up to the legislative bodies of each individual state. That little phrase 'in violation of the laws thereof'. The states legislatures have left it up to individual counties, which means there are certain areas of the United States which prohibit the sale of alcohol in any variety. Some communities are 'dry'.

Demand for liquor continued, and the law resulted in the criminalization of producers, suppliers, transporters and consumers. The police, courts and prisons were overwhelmed with new cases; organized crime increased in power, and corruption extended among law enforcement officials. The amendment was repealed in 1933 by ratification of the Twenty First Amendment, the only instance in United States history of repeal of a constitutional amendment.

Unfortunately I cannot post any You Tube video of Harpo Marx and Maxim Litvinov, but here's the mirror scene from Duck Soup and a little extra.