About the Difference of Opinion of the Soviet Citizens in Connection with the Drafting of the Soviet Union’s Third Constitution

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the thoughts of the Soviet citizens about the structure of the state and society in the 1960s–1970s. This subject of research is considered in connection with the constitutional reform, e. g., the process of creating the third Constitution of the USSR, officially held in 1962–1977. The research revises the established approach in the historiography usually adopted by modern researchers of the late Soviet era, according to which, the Soviet society was homogeneous in its moods and views or shared some clear doctrinal, theoretical concepts. This article examines a number of sources: citizens’ letters to the Constitutional Commission considered by employees of the apparatus of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR; some certificates, reports, reviews of citizens’ letters sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU containing information on proposals to the draft of the Constitution. It argues that there were different opinions among the Soviet citizens: on the basis of the analysis of letters in connection with the draft of the Constitution of the USSR, the paper highlights different attitudes towards the authorities, not only purely critical or, on the contrary, trusting. The society was comprised of both those who spoke out “for” or “against” the ruling regime, and — no less — of those who, to a certain degree, supported the authorities in their transformations or were critical of them, but who cannot be attributed to the “Soviet” or “anti-Soviet” camp of society with an absolute certainty.