BASIC VALUES OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE RSFSR OF 1918 IN A MYTHOLOGICAL CONTEXT

In: Socialʹno-političeskie nauki: mežvuzovskij naučnyj recenziruemyj žurnal, Band 11, Heft 1, S. 27-32

Abstract

The aim of the study is to analyze the deep, archetypal content of the values recorded in the first Soviet Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918. The subject is revolution, socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, Soviet power as the values of the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918. The method is the hermeneutical interpretation, which consists in the fact that the values of the Basic Law of 1918 plunge into the space of myth, revolution is interpreted through the myth of creation, socialism through the chiliastic myth, the dictatorship of the proletariat and Soviet power through the heroic myth. The novelty of the research lies in the departure from a formal legal reading of the 1918 Constitution and an attempt to prepare its value core in a wide socio-cultural context. The Basic Law of 1918 emphasizes the significance of the revolution as the beginning of a new era in the history of mankind, as an "act of creation" and lays the foundations for its positioning as the most important sacred value of Soviet society and the state. The revolution as a value cements Soviet reality, fills it with energy. Socialism is the thermal value of Soviet society, which embodied the chiliastic mythologeme. The significance of this value lies in the fact that the belief in the reality of building a more just and free society has made it possible to mobilize society for grandiose achievements and trials and to justify the costs of this process. The dictatorship of the proletariat and Soviet power are instrumental values through which social dichotomy and movement towards the thermal values of Soviet reality are realized. As a result, the ideas of Marxism, contained in the Constitution of 1918, in the process of their implementation were reduced into mythologemes, with the help of which the reduced idea of social reality as a confrontation of two principles was introduced into public consciousness. On the basis of this core of values, the political and legal sphere of Russia is degrading, acquiring archaic features.