Some Aspects Of Marriage And Divorce Laws In Soviet Russia
| Published date | 01 July 1949 |
| Date | 01 July 1949 |
| Author | M. M. Wolff |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1949.tb00126.x |
SOME ASPECTS
OF
MARRIAGE
AND
DIVORCE
LAWS
IN
SOVIET RIJSSIA
BEFORE
dealing with the marriage and divorce laws of Soviet Russia
it
is important for the better understanding
of
this legislation and
of its background to say a few words
on
Russian pre-revolutionary
laws on the same subjects.
The fundamental principle of these laws was that they were
based on the religious laws of the various inhabitants of Russia, of
which the Orthodox faith was the predominant, enjoying the
privileges of State religion.
The various conditions of capacity and of legality of marriages
were laid down in the civil laws but most
of
them were of canonical
origin and what is even more important only marriages solemnised
by the Church in accordance with the religious laws of the parties
were recognised by law and no form of civil marriage was known.
Several restrictions on marriages between persons belonging to
different religions were imposed.
The same canonical considerations were applied to divorce.
No
civil court had jurisdiction in divorce and
it
was the ecclesiastical
tribunals of various religions practised
on
the territory
of
Russia
which were entrusted with the power to dissolve marriages. There-
fore
the possibility of obtaining a divorce varied in accordance with
the religious beliefs
of
the parties.
The chief grounds for divorce
of
Orthodox marriages were
adultery and incapacity and also convictions for penal offences with
deprivation of civil rights, unknown absence for over five years
and the decision of the spouses to take holy orders and the veil.
Roman Catholic marriages could not be dissolved in Russia at all,
apart from cases of incapacity, when the marriage could be held
void and annulled. Marriages between Lutherans, Anglicans,
Calvinists, etc., could be dissolved on quite a number of grounds,
it suffices to say that in addition to adultery and incapacity, incur-
able diseases, insanity, sexual pervertion, malicious desertion, etc.,
served as such grounds, Divorces of Jews and Moslems were also
regulated by their religious laws and were granted for a variety
of reasons.
Property relations between husband and wife were based in
pre-revolutionary law on the principle of complete separation
of
property, each spouse keeping all his separate property rights and
being entirely independent from the other in his
or
her property
relations.
On November
7,
1917,
the Soviet Government came into power.
Its
advent was characterised by an immediate and radical alteration
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