“Khrushchev Constitution”: The path of a new constitutionalism

Introduction. Scientific research on the process of preparing and developing the draft Constitution of the USSR in 1964 began to appear only in the post-Soviet period. In Soviet times, this topic was banned, and the project itself, being in the archive, was not available for research. The study of the “Khrushchev Constitution” only started in the post-Soviet period. Since the constitutional reforms carried out in the last decade (2008, 2014, 2020) caused a heated discussion in the scientific community, the study of the draft Constitution of the USSR in 1964 is gaining new relevance, allowing us to look at the process of development of domestic constitutionalism more comprehensively. Theoretical analysis. The study on the development of Russian constitutionalism results in new theoretical material that can be used in Russian state building. The purpose of the publication is to summarize the experience of constitutional design of the Khrushchev Thaw period. The tasks of the research: finding the reasons for the emergence of a new need to develop the Basic Law; defining the attitude of Soviet society to the institution of the presidency; analyzing the content of the draft Constitution of the USSR in 1964. Еmpirical analysis. The end of the era of Stalinism and the beginning of the Khrushchev Thaw period required a conceptual revision of the foundations of the constitutional order in the Soviet state. During the reign of N. S. Khrushchev, there were clear trends towards decentralizing economic management and public administration, and a return to the idea of “socialist legality” became relevant. To solve these problems, the creation of an appropriate legislative base was required, which was supposed to proceed from the Basic Law of the country. However, the existing Constitution of the USSR in 1936 could not provide support for a broad liberalization of the state-party system. As a result of the challenges of the new era, the idea of adopting a new Basic law, called the “Khrushchev Constitution”, arose. Results. This article examines the development of Soviet constitutionalism during the reign of N. S. Khrushchev and concludes that the draft Constitution of the USSR of 1964 made a significant contribution to the formation of the constitutional image of the Soviet state until its collapse. In addition, the content of the “Khrushchev Constitution” allows us to emphasize its much greater democratic potential, in contrast to the USSR Constitutions of 1936 and 1977.