The 1936 Constitution, Nationalities Policy, and Cultural Control

The new Soviet Constitution was approved on 5 December 1936, formally proclaiming civil rights including freedom of expression, assembly, worship, and the press, and nominally recognizing universal, direct, and secret suffrage. It established the Supreme Soviet as the formal legislative organ of the state and formally recognized the right of Soviet republics to secede, a right never applied in practice. There was an absolute contrast between the constitutional guarantees proclaimed on paper and the reality of the Great Terror unfolding simultaneously; the document was used as an instrument of international propaganda promoting the image of "Soviet democracy," even as the Communist Party's political monopoly remained fully intact. Bukharin played a role in drafting the constitution shortly before his own fall and execution, the 1937 elections to the Supreme Soviet were held under single-candidate lists with no real competition, and the text remained formally in force until it was replaced by the 1977 Constitution.