ABSTRACT

The collapse of the Soviet state in late 1991 made the ratification of a new constitution most urgent for Russia. Since the USSR no longer existed as a legal entity, its laws technically no longer had legal force. To fill this void, President Yeltsin and the parliament concurred that the constitution and laws of the former RSFSR would continue to be observed until a new constitution and laws could be adopted. This was a necessary but unsatisfactory situation, since the 1977 Constitution of the Russian Federation and most of the laws were products of the Brezhnev era and reflected the values of the now-repudiated communist system.