Mityukov, M.A. The Constitutional Assembly of 1993: the middle of the way (from the diary of a constitutional lawyer)

Abstract: Based on his diaries, notes and other materials the author, who was a participant of the Constitutional Assembly, studies the specific features on adaptation of the «Presidential» draft of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, he touches upon some aspects of political and legal discussions regarding the draft after the first plenary hearing of the Constitutional Assembly, provides the positions of lawyers, scientists and politicians on many issues regarding the contents of the draft Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993. He discusses the position of R.I. Khasbulatov, who on June 9, 1993 announced the conditions for the participation of the Supreme Soviet in the Constitutional Assembly — for the President to leave off the thesis on incompatibility of the Soviets and democracy, full-scale participation of the Parliament and the Constitutional Commission in the hearing, evaluation of all of the drafts of the Constitution, advisory character of the Assembly, constitutional procedure for the adoption of the Basic Law, provided by the current Constitution and decided upon by the Supreme Soviet, and the Congress of Peoples’ Deputies. The author quotes S.S. Alekseev, one of the drafters of the Presidential version of the Constitution on the native defect of the «parliamentary» constitutional draft, unlike the draft amended by the Constitutional Assembly. «While the position on a number of issue sis the same, the «parliamentary» draft had in principle preserved the fundamental elements of the Soviet system, first of all, in the role of the Supreme Soviet as a supreme «almighty» governing body, and similar roles of the local Soviets. However attractive the Soviets may have seemed in that draft, in the opinion of S.S. Alekseev, they could not cross out the primary characteristic features of the Soviets, which were incompatible with the true parliamentarism and municipal self-government.

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