Slesarev S.M. The policy of the Soviet government towards the traditional legislation of Kyrgyzstan in 1917–1924

Abstract: The article examines the main lines of the Soviet government’s policy towards the Bey courts of Adat regulations in Kyrgyzstan during the first years of Soviet rule, which can be divided into two stages. At the first stage, during the years of the fiercest struggle with the Basmachis in 1918–1920, local Soviet agencies went in the direction of the complete prohibition of Bey and Qadi courts. At the beginning of 1921 on the territory controlled by the Bolsheviks, the operation of Qadi and Bey courts was discontinued and a secular judicial system was set in place with two branches – the Revolutionary tribunal and the People’s court. At the same time, naturally, in the regions controlled by the Basmachis legislation was carried out on the basis of Sharia and Adat. With the transition to NEP, however, conditions changed and legislation according to the norms of Adat was restored. The resulting situation contained two parallel-existing systems – Soviet and traditional. Concurrently with this started a rapid process of limiting the jurisprudence of Bey courts, which ultimately brought their termination at the turn of the 1920s–1930s. The scientific novelty of this research is set in the first place by the use of archival documents, not used previously in the study of this topic. This led to a series of new and original conclusion.

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