Russian Law & Politics

Politics and the law in Russia and the other NISE nations are undergoing rapid development since the second revolution in 1991. For that reason it is essential to have up-to-the minute information on the changes which are taking place. This page contains links with web sites which are providing that sort of information. You are likely to find more political and legal information at the major Russian studies web sites listed on the Other Russian Studies Sites page.

Flower Law Flower

The History of the Russian Law Codes

Not only has Russia had some of the best constitutions in its history, it has had a lot of them. The earliest law code we know of is the Russkaya Pravda, written under Yaroslav the Wise in the 11th century. In 1497 Ivan III compiled all the laws into the Sudebnik, Russia's next unified legal code. It was followed by the Sobornoe Ulozhenie, completed in 1649 under Alexis Mikhailovich. The full Russian text of the Ulozhenie is available from the Istfak at MGU. In anticipation of the reforms of 1864, Alexander II established a commissioin which produced The Basic Principles Concerning the Reform of the Judicial Administration of Russia in 1862. Cheri Wilson has written an introduction to her translation. The emperors found it possible to get along without constitutions until the Fundamental Law of 1906 but once the tsars were removed, the Soviets compensated for the years without a consitution with three. Here they are along with the new Russian constitution.

For more information on Russian laws, try the Russian Legal Server.

Law Reform in Late Imperial Russia by H. McCoubrey

The author is Senior Lecturer in Law and the Director of the University of Nottingham Centre for International Defence Law Studies. The article draws parallels between the weaknesses of the law before the 1917 Revolution and presently.

The Russian Civil Code of 1994 (General Section)

This is the first part of the new Russian Civil Code in Russian. You will need KOI8 fonts (and an understanding of Russian) to read it. Maintained by the Russian legal server of Friends and Partners. The August 4, 1997 tax bill is also available in Russian as two MS Word documents.

Russian Trademark Legislation

This site contains the latest legislation relating to trademarks in Russia (plus the internation code). Future plans are to include trademark legislation of other NISE nations.

CIS Law Notes

With the cooperation of a number of prominent legal practitioners in the former Soviet Union, Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler publishes CIS Law Notes on a quarterly schedule. This publication covers legal developments in the former Soviet Union, with a focus on commercial law developments in Central Asia, the Russian Federation, and the Transcaucasus.

Russian Laws

The Russian civil codes plus regional codes and those of major cities may be found in the Nizhni-Novogorod server INFORIS. Now they are in English as well as Russian. Other sources of Russian laws are also available from INFORIS. Some access is free, most is by subscription.

The Russian Legal Server

This server carries a few Russian laws, including the general section of the 1994 Civil Code. It also includes legal, financial and business news and information of various sorts. Maintained by Friends and Partners.

Flower Government Flower

The Russian Government (in Russian)

This site contains short descriptions of all the parts of the new Russian political system along with the names of all those currently holding political offices in it. It is maintained by the Russian News Service, which also provides twice daily news updates, so browse around while you are there. A very rich source of information.

Official Russian Government Web Pages
The President The Federal Government
The Administration The Federal Assembly
Regional Administrations The Security Council of Russia
The Administration The Federal Assembly
Judicial System Legislative Activities of Russian Federation
Unofficial Government Web Pages
The President The Federal Government
The Federal Assembly The Federal Courts
The Central Election Committee Political Parties and Social Organizations

The Internet Parliament

Sergei Kirienko, former Prime Minister of Russia, has opened a website featuring focussed discussionf of all aspects of Russian politics, especially that of the Duma. The Russian version is much more elaborate.

Yeltsin's Homepage

The president of Russia now has his own homepage. There you can get Yeltsin's personal perspective on recent Russian history.

1991-1993 Election Results

The referendum and presidential election results from 1991-1993 are provided on Gopher by the University of California, Berkeley Library web. This site includes the official numbers of voter turn-out as well as the way the votes were cast.

1995 Russian Election Information

Various types of background information on the Russian electoral process and current elections. The campaigns for the presidency, both houses of the Federal Assembly, and local elections are covered. In Russian (KOI8 fonts). Ekskursii site also has a review of the Duma and presidential elections.

1996 Presidential Elections

Dmitri Gusev maintains this presidential site featuring the popularity ratings of the leading contenders and a map of their political leanings.


Flower Political News Flower

Polit.ru

New! The latest political news as it breaks. This site presents a news ribbon, dated by the hour of all the political news in Russia. You will also find a description of the Russian government here, along with banking and financial news.


Flower Sociopolitics Flower

Russian Federation Social-Economic Regions

This site contains basic data on population and size of all the 89 administrative districts of Russia plus time zones, weather reports, and real-time satellite views of the areas. There is also a schedule of the Trans-Siberian Railway with information about the towns along the route.

The Center for Post-Soviet Studies

The center provides political, ecnomic, and with Russian and the NIS. It also contains links with other similar sites. A good source of information on the developing situation in the FSU.

Inside Russia

The Heritage Foundation's Moscow office now maintains an office in Moscow which follows the Russian political scene. A good source for conservative views of the political reforms currently under way in Russia.

The Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey

The survey is an on-going endeavor, providing comparative data about the well-being of families of all nationalities in Russia. RLMS is team of economists, statisticians, sociologists, nutritionists, and public health scholars from the United States and Russia who are studying the impact of Russian economic reforms on the nutritional and economic well-being of the Russian population.

Biographies of Contemporary Russians (in Russian)

From Albakin to Yakhin and including Yeltsin, Yavlinsky, Gorbachev Provided by the National News Service.

Anatoly Chubais--1996 Russian Man of the Year!

Anatoly Chubais is named 1996 Man of the Year by The Russian Link of the Day as someone who made the most difference in the course of events in Russia. Not a bad choice, given the TIME Magazine criteria for Man of the Year. During the year, there were five high moments in the Russian political drama when Mr. Chubias played the pivotal role. Visit here to see what they were.

Gorbachev Foundation of North America

The Gorbachev Foundation/North America is a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation created by Gorbachev in 1992, to articulate and address the challenges of the post Cold War world by revising global priorities. It is in the process of moving to new headquarters at Northeastern University. We will list it when its new homepage comes on line. In the meantime, you may read his TIME magazine Man-of-the-Year article and his speech at Loyola University. Gorbachev's homepage has recently reappeared and the Gorbachev Gateway, also provices a righ link farm of information on the man. Here are a few articles and reviews of the Foundation.

Iskra Publishing

This MIT site contains up-to-date books and articles on current political and econonic developments in Russia and the CIS. There are also titles on recent developments in capitalism such as the relationship of the media and O. J. Simpson.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty now offers its news stories and analyses on-line. The news pertains not only to Russia and the NISE but to Eastern and Central Europe in general. RFE/RL also provides RealAudio Russian-language radio news headlines of Russia twice a day and 6 hours of other broadcasts. This site also offers news, news analyses, and special reports on important events.

Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt (NUPI)

This is an important site of background resources, news archives, chronologies, and biographies of Russian leaders. It also contains a catalog of all the Russian political parties, including biographies of the major figures in them. Although the site is Norwegian, most of the information is in English.

Who is * Evgenii Primakov?

Here are two background reports on Evgenii Primakov, Prime Minister briefly in 1998.

Top of the page
Two-headed iggle The Russian Studies homepage Back to the Materials page Two-headed iggle
This page was last up-dated:
Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837
© 1996 Robert Beard