The rule of law as conceived in Western democracies has no place in a Marxist state. In the Soviet Union, however, the idea of law evolved from Lenin's use of it as a temporary expedient, through Stalin's notion that it was needed to confer a semblance of order and legality on repression, to Brezhnev's current view of law as an essential instrument of social and economic progress. It is premature to extrapolate this policy and speculate on its possible liberalizing and democratizing effects on the Soviet regime but the forces at work in today's relatively stable Soviet society point to an increasingly important role for law and the legal professions. Obstacles in the path of this hopeful development are, however, the inherent incompatibility between Marxist orthodoxy and the concept of law as an absolute and transcendent ideal, in addition to the Russian people's traditionally cynical attitude toward all members of the justice establishment, whose venality and insensitivity they take for granted. They revere Pravda, i.e., justice-truth, as an abstract ideal beyond human reach. An in-depth study of Soviet legal institutions, law education, legal research, the legal professions (e.g., attorneys and solicitors), the justice delivery system, especially judges and magistrates, legal consultants and arbitrators, and their place in the Soviet economy, reveals that law as a career is not highly regarded in the Soviet Union. The lack of status and financial rewards attached to the legal professions is reflected in the small number of students (approximately 15,000) graduating each year from Soviet law schools. Brilliant students prefer science and technology to the study of law. Comprehensive footnotes containing legal and bibliographic citations are included in the text, as well as appended to each chapter and subdivision of the book. An appendix gives detailed statistics on women in the legal professions. A supplementary, multilingual subject bibliography lists approximately 150 additional works, with Russian titles both transliterated and translated into French.