ABSTRACT
On 24 November 1917, the Bolsheviks published their vision for a new justice system. The concept of legal culture is a contested one among scholars, but it originated from a desire to move the understanding of law away from a narrow focus on 'the set of rules or norms, written or unwritten, about right and wrong behaviour, duties and rights' to a broader 'social study' of law that incorporated the social and legal forces that make law, the structures and rules of law itself, and the impact of law on wider behaviour. Accordingly, Bolshevik legal theorists paid little attention initially to formal laws and punishments. Revolutionary justice attempted an uneasy balancing act between the new and the existing from the start with respect to statutory (or written) law. Revolutionary justice was not solely about the content and practice of law; equally important was how individuals engaged with and understood the legal system.
