Putin's constitutional amendments go into effect today, in which connection a short thread on the Soviet Constitution of 1936, also known as "Stalin's Constitution." 👇🏿 
Stalin's Constitution was quite "progressive" for its times. Consider, for instance, the guarantee of individual freedoms (Art. 125), including the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and demonstrations.
Article 123 proclaimed everyone's equality before law, irrespective of one's nationality or race. Art. 122 contained provisions concerning gender equality. Other guaranteed rights included those to gainful employment, vacation, education, and social pension.
The most important power in the land was... no, not comrade Stalin - the Supreme Soviet. Courts were declared fully independent. Republics were given the right of secession from the Union.
Of course none of this actually mattered, and in fact the Soviet Union was a vile tyranny. It was a tyranny, where basic human rights were ignored, where people could be arrested and sentenced to death or forced labour for political crimes without a proper trial.
It was a hideous police state where everyone was spied on, where the government was completely unaccountable to the people. And it was run brutally and single-handedly not by some irrelevant Supreme Soviet but by an all-powerful dictator, Joseph Stalin.
All of this is well known. But I like comparing what exists on paper with what exists in reality. Putin's Constitution is actually not all that bad. It contains a bill of rights, and provides for some autonomy of the different government branches.
But the amended Constitution that goes into effect today is... well, a piece of paper. Like Stalin's Constitution of 1936 it has little semblance to actual Russian reality, and it merely serves as a fig leave for an extra-constitutional regime run on Putin's personal whim.
