REGULATIONS on the Procurator’s Office of the USSR

General Privsions

1. Strengthening of the socialist justice and protection of the public property from the anti-socity elements on the whole territory of the USSR is the principal task of the Procurator’s Office of the USSR.

2. The Procurator of the USSR, appointed by the Central Executive Committee of the USSR shall lead the Procurator’s Office of the Union of SSR.

II.  The function of the Procurator’s Office of the USSR and the rules for its implementation.

4. The Procurator’s Office of the USSR shall:

d) exercise the general guiding of the Procurator’s Offices of Union Republics.

5. If the decisions and instructions issued by certain bodies of the USSR and Union Republics contradict the Constitution of the USSR and the decrees and orders of the government of the USSR, the Procurator’s Office of the USSR shall file the protest against such acts to the relevant superior organs.

The Procurator of the USSR file the protest against unlawful acts to the authorities of the union republics or local agencies, as a rule through the Procurators of the Union Republics.

6. In order to exercise the supervision over the strict and uniform observance of laws by all judicial organs (Article 4, section “b”), the Procurator of the USSR is authorized: to request the case being at any stage of the proceedings or investigation for reviewing, as well as the completed cases; to file the protest to the superior judicial bodies against the verdicts and terminated the execution of judgement; to ask for the reviewing the verdicts and decisions; to issue the necessary instructions to the investigative agencies.

The Procurator of the USSR, as a rule, shall exercise the functions with regard of judicial and investigative organs of the Union Republics through the Procurators of the Union Republics.

7.  The Procurator’s Office of the USSR shall launch the criminal prosecution and support the indictment:

b) on the cases being under the proceedings at the judicial institutions of the Union Republics personally, as well as through the Procurators of Union Republics.

10.  The Procurator of the USSR, for the purposes of good governance, is authorized: to issue the instructions to the Procurators of Union Republics relating to their activities; to carry out inquiry  and examination of the activity of the organs of Procurator’s offices of Union Republics; to receive the reports on the activity of the Procurator’s offices of Union Republics. 

With the procurators of autonomous republics, regions, oblasts and districts the Procurator of the USSR, as a rule, shall communicate through the Procurators of Union Republics, and in urgent cases – personally with further notification of Procurator of the relevant republic.

The instructions and orders by the Procurator of the USSR are compulsory for all of the offices of procurators.

11. The procurators of Union Republics shall be appointed an recalled by the Procurator of the USSR upon the consent of the central executive committee of the Union Republic.

12. The procurators of the Regions, autonomous republics, districts and oblasts, as well as the procurators on the supervision of operative sectors of the OGPU shall be appointed by the Procurator of the USSR.

17 December 1933

(The Constitution and Constitutional Acts of the USSR (1922-1936). The Collection of Documents. Moscow, 1940, p. 145-146/in Russian)