The genocide of the Soviet people: from history to law, no statute of limitations

Occupation: Director of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Affiliation: Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow

Journal name

Gosudarstvo i pravo

Edition

Issue 9

Pages

7-30

Abstract

Based on the analysis of a significant array of historical facts, normative legal acts and legal positions of domestic and foreign scientists, the article presents a legal assessment of the recognition of genocide as a crime committed against the peoples of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. The legal bases of countering attempts to re-evaluate events and revise the results of the Second World War are investigated. Special attention is paid to the importance of the Russian constitutional guarantees provided by the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 2020 for the protection of historical truth. The confirmation by the Russian courts of the fact that the German-fascist invaders committed war crimes and crimes of genocide, the investigation by the Investigative Committee of Russia of criminal cases about these crimes, is considered in the context of the inevitability of responsibility as one of the central principles of law. The article substantiates Russia’s strict commitment to the results of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal in the legal consolidation of the facts of genocide against Soviet citizens and notes the need to implement the constitutional obligation of the Russian state to honor the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland, to ensure the historical sovereignty of the country by legal means, not to allow the significance of the feat of the Soviet people in the defense of the Motherland to be diminished.

Keywords

genocide, the Nuremberg Principles, World War II, the Great Patriotic War, the Constitution of the Russian Federation, all-Russian identity, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, war crimes, legal fact, International Law, historical sovereignty

Received

13.09.2021

Publication date

29.09.2021

Number of characters

101529

Cite

GOST	Savenkov A. The genocide of the Soviet people: from history to law, no statute of limitations // Gosudarstvo i pravo – 2021. – Issue 9 C. 7-30 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://gospravo-journal.ru/S102694520016884-3-1 (circulation date: 04.10.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S102694520016884-3
MLA	Savenkov, Alexander N "The genocide of the Soviet people: from history to law, no statute of limitations." Gosudarstvo i pravo 9 (2021):7-30. DOI: 10.31857/S102694520016884-3
APA	Savenkov A. (2021). The genocide of the Soviet people: from history to law, no statute of limitations. Gosudarstvo i pravo (9), pp.7-30 DOI: 10.31857/S102694520016884-3

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