The history of the creation of a mass professional legal service in the USSR

Relevance . The establishment of a professional legal service in the USSR underwent a complex trajectory, progressing from the total repudiation of pre-revolutionary legal institutions to the deployment of an extensive, nationwide framework for the legal support of the national economy. Its golden age occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, a period marked by the creation of a unique state-legal mechanism to ensure compliance with the law across the national economy. It was during this era that a harmonious model of legal service was forged, balancing the interests of the state, its economic system, and the protection of Soviet citizens' rights within the social sphere. Examining how a mass legal service was established outside the law enforcement sector in a relatively short timeframe—while simultaneously overcoming acute personnel shortages and rendering legal aid accessible—allows for a deeper comprehension of historical continuity and the institutional roots of the modern legal system. The purpose of this study is to reconstruct the process of the formation of a mass professional legal service in the USSR. The objectives are to establish the specific features of the emergence of a mass legal service; to determine the key areas of activity of Soviet legal advisers in the planned economy; and to identify the characteristics of the mass legal service in the USSR. Methodology . The specific nature of this study, positioned at the intersection of legal and historical sciences, necessitated the utilization of several philosophical and general scientific methods. In particular, the principles of historicism and objectivity were applied, enabling the Soviet legal service to be examined dynamically and within its specific historical context. Results . The economic transformations of the late 1960s – early 1970s predetermined the transformations that occurred in the sphere of justice. One of the fundamental shifts of the period under consideration was the institutionalization of legal work in the economic sector. Conclusions . The institutionalization of the legal service work and the reform of the justice system that was carried out, as well as the vesting of the legal counsel with the right of veto over unlawful orders, brought law into the plane of national economic management and laid the scientific and methodological foundations for the development of economic law.