ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the internal Party and state dialogue as various leaders proposed differing definitions of citizenship and citizenship rights in the drafts of the Constitution, where class, race and nationality, gender, and participation in electoral franchise helped to define citizenship. The party's central leadership had a very particular understanding of democracy and legality, which allowed for and even encouraged citizen participation. The drafting of the new Constitution highlights the state's attempt to create a new social contract with its citizens and what it expected from them in return. In order to appreciate what aspects of European constitutional theory the Soviet leadership incorporated into the 1936 Stalinist Constitution, it is imperative to understand what role Bolsheviks believed that a constitution should play in Soviet society. The first section of the draft Constitution demarcated the class make-up of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and clarified in which classes sovereignty was vested.
