Legal foundations of the soviet model of standardization and ensuring the safety of goods, works and services in 1917–1991

Abstract

Purpose. This study provides a comprehensive historical and legal analysis of the normative foundations of the Soviet model of standardization and ensuring the safety of goods, works, and services during the period 1917–1991. The research aims to identify stages in the formation of the state standards system, institutional mechanisms for their implementation, and legal means of ensuring product quality and safety under the planned economy.Methods. The study employs historical-legal, formal-legal, and comparative-legal methods. The source base includes normative legal acts of the Soviet state (decrees, resolutions of the Council of People's Commissars and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, departmental acts of Gosstandart), archival materials, and scholarly literature on the history of standardization and quality management. A chronological approach was applied, identifying four main periods of Soviet standardization development.Results. It was established that the Soviet standardization system evolved from individual decrees on the metric system (1918) and export goods standardization (1923) to the creation of a comprehensive State Standardization System (GSS, 1968) covering all sectors of the national economy. A unique feature of the Soviet model was identified: the absence of a parliamentary law on standardization throughout the entire existence of the USSR, while simultaneously granting state standards the force of law. Legal mechanisms for ensuring product safety were analyzed, including criminal liability for the release of substandard goods, the state supervision system, and the Gospriemka experiment (1986–1990).Conclusions. The Soviet standardization model represented a unique legal construction based on the total mandatory nature of standards and criminal sanctions for their violation. Despite significant technical achievements, the system could not overcome the systemic contradiction between the planned character of the economy and quality assurance objectives. The USSR Law 'On Consumer Rights Protection' (1991), which for the first time established mandatory product certification, never entered into force due to the dissolution of the USSR, but served as the basis for subsequent Russian legislation.