The formation of the staff of the Soviet judicial system in October 1917 - May 1918; evidence on Yekaterinburg District of Perm Province

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of engaging magistrates of Yekaterinburg District of Perm Province at the initial stage of the development of the Soviet judicial system after the October Revolution during the period from October 1917 till May 1918. The article deals with particularities of the formation of the personal staff of the people's courts by using as an example a separate district of Perm Province. The exact localization of the cases at issue is caused by the use of the most recent micro-historical research approaches that allow us to see not only the peculiarities of the local procedures, but also the general context of the events. The article is based on archival documents. Using concrete historical materials, the author demonstrates that in Yekaterinburg District all magistrates had been excluded from the process of people's courts formation by the end of April 1918. By this time all positions of judges had been changed, although the division into judicial districts in general, preserved. Reluctance of the magistrates to cooperate with the new government that was qualified by the Bolshevik leaders as "sabotage", as well as accusation of some magistrates of being involved in counter-revolutionary activities are referred to as the causes of the phenomenon.