RSFSR People’s Commissariat for Justice and its activity on the courts management (1941-1945)

The article, based on documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF), evaluates the role of the RSFSR People’s Commissariat for Justice (PCJ) in the courts management and comprehensively presents the mechanism of this management by the republican justice administration bodies in the period 1941-45. The author analyzes the main tools of the mechanism in extraordinary war conditions. The conclusion is about the combination of two trends in the activities of justice administration bodies. On the one hand, these authorities sought to achieve uniformity in the courts functioning and the correctness of their application of legislation, but, on the other one, carried out direct illegal pressure on them. The justice administration by the republican PCJ led to large-scale repressions, but at the same time caused the relative stability of the system and its ability to function in the war situation.

courts management, soviet justice, justice administration bodies, RSFSR People's Commissariat for Justice, directives, inspections, disciplinary sanctions, repressions, RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic), Great Patriotic War