ABSTRACT
Criminal justice under Stalin is best known for severity, shortcuts, and politicization. All of these features did characterize the administration of justice in the 1930s and 1940s at various times and to varying degrees. There was, however, another dimension to the work of the procuracy and the courts under Stalin that not only shaped their work to a remarkable degree but also remained a strong force in criminal justice right up to the collapse of the USSR. This was the bureaucratization of the management of the justice agencies, their personnel, and the administration of justice itself. The bureaucratization of justice under Stalin developed to a degree unusual in the history of criminal justice worldwide and assumed distinctive features that need explaining.
