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The Russian Federation Constitution adopted
The Constitution of the Russian Federation is the fundamental document of the state and the main source for the national law system. It declares and guarantees the rights and liberties of man and citizen, determines the fundamentals of the social system, the form of government and territory system as well as the foundations for organization of central and local government bodies.
The first Constitution in the Russian history was the Constitution of RSFSR of 1918 that fixed the dictatorship of the proletariat in the country and the Councils of workers’, peasants’ and Red Army deputies as the main form of power. In 1925 a new Constitution of RSFSR was put in effect. It agreed with the regulations of the USSR Constitution adopted in 1924. In 1936 a new Constitution, a so-called the “Stalin Constitution” of the USSR was adopted. In the result the appropriate changes were also made in the Fundamental law of the RSFSR in 1937. The last Constitution of the Soviet Russia that had been in effect until the Soviet Union collapse, was the one adopted in 1978 based on the provisions of the “Brezhnev” Constitution of the USSR of 1977. In 1989-2002 a series of changes were made to it related to the political transformations in the society and the declaration of the Russian sovereignty. The collapse of the USSR required the creation of a principally different Fundamental law that would reflect the particularities of a new state – the Russian Federation.
On December 12, 1993 in the result of the national vote the Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted. 58% of the referendum participants had voted for it. The Constitution took effect on the day of its publication in the “Russian newspaper”, on December 25, 1993.
The Russian Constitution in force consists of a preamble and two sections. The preamble accentuates that the Constitution is adopted by the multinational people of Russian and names six basic purposes of the states: establishment of rights and liberties of man, establishment of civil peace and agreement in the Russian Federation, maintenance of the historically formed state unity, revival of the sovereign statehood of Russia, establishment of democratic fundamentals stability in the Russian state, providing the prosperity and wellbeing of Russia.
The first section of the Constitution includes nine chapters and consists of 137 articles fixing the fundamentals of political, social, legal, economical state systems, the fundamental rights and liberties of man, federative system of the country, the public power bodies’ status as well as the order of the Constitution revise and amendments.
The second section includes the final and transition provisions determining the order of the Constitution enacting, the extent of its norms distribution regarding the government bodies formed in the previous period of time on the basis of other legislative acts. It also fixes the continuity of constitutional principles of law.
Since the adoption of the Constitution of 1993, it has been amended in regards of the new names of the subjects of the Russian Federation, of the change of the term of office of the President of the Russian Federation and the State Duma, of the Russian Federation Supreme Court and the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation.
The inaugural copy of the Constitution of the Russian Federation is held in the library of the President in the Kremlin.
The day of the Russian Federation Constitution adoption – December 12, 1993 is the official national holiday in Russia.
Lit.: Авакьян С. А. Конституция России: природа, эволюция, современность. М., 2000; Конституция Российской Федерации. М., 2009; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://constitution.kremlin.ru/.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: