Pēteris Stučka

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Pēteris Stučka
Chairman of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR
In office 1923–1932
Premier	Vladimir Lenin (until 1924) Alexey Rykov (until 1930) Vyacheslav Molotov
Preceded by	None—position established
Succeeded by
Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic
In office 17 December 1918 – 13 January 1920
Preceded by	None—position established
Succeeded by	None—position dissolved
People's Commissar for Justice of the RSFSR
In office 29 November – 22 December 1917
Premier	Vladimir Lenin
Preceded by	Georgy Oppokov
Succeeded by	Isaac Steinberg
In office 18 March – 14 September 1918
Premier	Vladimir Lenin
Preceded by	Isaac Steinberg
Succeeded by	Dmitry Kursky
Personal details
Born	July 26 [O.S. July 14] 1865 Koknese, Livonia, Russian Empire (now Koknese, Latvia)
Died	January 25, 1932(1932-01-25) (aged 66) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Moscow, Russia)
Nationality	Soviet
Political party	All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks)
Spouse(s)	Dora Pliekšāne
Alma mater	St. Petersburg University
Profession	Lawyer

Pēteris Stučka, sometimes spelt Pyotr Ivanovich Stuchka (Russian: Пётр Ива́нович Сту́чка, German: Peter Stutschka (in contemporary writings); b. July 26 [O.S. July 14] 1865 – 25 January 1932), was a Latvian jurist and communist politician who served as the leader of Bolshevik government in Latvian SSR during the Latvian War of Independence and later a statesman in the Soviet Union.

Born in to the family of wealthy farmer and singing teacher, Stučka was one of the leaders of the New Current movement in the late 19th century, a prolific writer and translator, an editor of major Latvian and Russian socialist and communist newspapers and periodicals, a prominent jurist and educator, and the first president of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. Stučka's wife, Dora Pliekšāne (1870–1950), was the sister of the Latvian poet Rainis (Jānis Pliekšāns), with whom Stučka shared a room during their law studies at St. Petersburg University.^{[citation needed]}

Stučka was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and of the founders of the Social Democracy of the Latvian Territory. The Latvian socialists split at the turn of the twentieth century. Stučka, a member of Lenin's inner circle, believed that the goals of global communism were more important than cultural identity.^{[citation needed]}. Rainis, Stučka's brother-in-law, supported socialism, but stressed that national culture was also important. Although Rainis initially supported a free Latvia within a free Russia, he would later support an independent Latvian nation. During Latvia's War of Independence, 1918-1920, Stučka and his army of Latvian and Russian soldiers was defeated by the Latvian provisional government. Despite having the initial support of many Latvians, he lost this by breaking his promise to provide land to individuals, supporting collective farms.^{[citation needed]}

In the USSR during the 1920s, Stučka was one of the main Soviet legal theoreticians who promoted the "revolutionary" or "proletarian" model of socialist legality.^{[citation needed]}

After his death in 1932, Stučka's remains were interred amongst those of other Communist dignitaries in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, near Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square.

Places and organizations named in honour of Stučka[]

• During the Soviet period, from 1958 to 1990, the University of Latvia was officially known as Pēteris Stučka Latvian State University (Latvian: Pētera Stučkas Latvijas Valsts universitāte).
• The town of Aizkraukle was named Stučka, after Pēteris Stučka, from the time when it was established in 1960s until the fall of Communism in 1991, when it was renamed Aizkraukle.
• In the GDR, Polytechnic Secondary School No. 55 (German: 55. Polytechnische Oberschule) in Rostock was named "Peter Stucka" in honour of the Latvian Communist.

Works[]

A comprehensive bibliography of the works by and about Stučka, with explanatory material in both Latvian and Russian, is:

• Olmane, P.; Pūce, O. (1988). Pēteris Stučka: Biobibliogrāfiskais rādītājs / Петр Стучка: Биобиблиографический указатель (in Latvian and Russian). Riga: Viļa Lāča Latvijas PSR Valsts bibliotēka. OCLC 22544777.

Further reading[]

• Stuchka, P.I. (1988). Selected Writings on Soviet Law and Marxism. Robert Sharlet, Peter B. Maggs, and Piers Beirne (eds.). Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-87332-473-0. OCLC 17353762.

External links[]

• Memorial to Pēteris Stučka in Riga at sites-of-memory.de