ABSTRACT
In pre-revolutionary Russia, both lawyers and historians studied Roman law intensively. In accordance with their colleagues in Continental Europe, Russian lawyers considered Roman private law to be the foundation of civil law doctrine in the modern legal system. This chapter focuses on the study of the history of Roman law in general by Soviet historians. The new direction of research of ancient history in the Stalinist USSR is especially eminent in the studies concentrating on the 'slave revolts' of the Roman world. In addition to the pre-existing university departments of ancient history in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk and Sverdlovsk, departments devoted to the study of ancient history and the history of the Middle Ages were established in the universities of all major cities of the USSR. In addition, the domestic governments in the socialist bloc tried to imitate the way in which the USSR dealt with its scientific community and sphere of higher education.
