Personnel Issues in the Activities of the Judicial Bodies of Krasnoyarsk Krai in the Post-War Period (1945–1952): Difficulties and Ways to Overcome

Abstract

Based on the documents from the state archive of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, the article examines the features of the personnel structure of the judicial authority of the Krasnoyarsk Krai in the post-war period (1945–1952). The research methodology is based on the main fundamental principles of historical science, objectivity and historicism using the method of quantitative data analysis. Analysis of sources shows that people’s judges in the second half of the 1940s did not have a high level of education. The lower judicial instances were characterized by staff turnover. Many judicial employees lost their positions for family or other compromising circumstances. Law school graduates, lawyers and former staff members of the were appointed to judicial instances. The problem of the people’s courts was also the lack of the suitable rooms for their activities. The members of the regional court were more prepared and competent, although there were no employees with higher legal education in the main court of the region until April 1949. In the early 1950s, the situation improved, and the number of judges with higher professional education increased in the province. The ideological level of Soviet judges was also no less important than professional training, so many judicial workers were trained in Soviet-party schools and the University of Marxism-Leninism. A new factor in the personnel policy of the postwar period was the involvement of demobilized front-line soldiers in the judiciary. Therefore, the main value of the judicial bodies at the turn of the 1940s-1950s was a well-educated, experienced employee and the main goal of the personnel policy was to select and consolidate them. Members of the regional court also changed frequently. It is concluded that the main criterion for selecting candidates for judicial positions was the political reliability of future judges.

Keywords

• krasnoyarsk krai
• judicial authorities
• personnel
• post-war period