The Soviet jurist who defended the sodomy law in 1935
In 1935 Bulatov wrote that Marxist morality had always opposed male homosexuality, answering the German jurist Maurach, who had criticised the new Soviet law.
Born in Morshansk in Tambov province, the son of a gymnasium teacher, Bulatov finished school with a gold medal in 1917, had his studies cut short by the Civil War and graduated in law from Moscow University in 1925. After postgraduate work at the RANION Institute of Soviet Law (1929) he joined the criminal-law research led by Krylenko and Pashukanis, helped draft the 1930 criminal code and criticised the older natural-scientific study of offenders. In 1935 he answered Maurach by defending the law against male homosexuality. In 1941 he moved to head the criminal-law chair at the Alma-Ata Law Institute; his 1948 doctoral thesis was passed but then annulled by the Higher Attestation Commission. From 1955 he led the criminal-law chair at Kazakh State University. He died in 1965.
Activities and affiliations
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1927–1965
Soviet Union state institutionsCriminal-law scholar and head of a criminal-law chairMain
Law and justice
Career Timeline
- 1917Graduated from the Morshansk gymnasium with a gold medal
- 1925Graduated in law from Moscow University
- 1927Joined the criminal law and procedure subsection of the Institute of Soviet Construction and Law
- 1929Completed postgraduate study at the RANION Institute of Soviet Law
- 1930Took part in drafting the Communist Academy’s criminal code under Krylenko
- 1935Defended the sodomy law in reply to Maurach
- 1941.04Head of the criminal-law chair, Alma-Ata Law Institute
- 1948Defended his doctoral thesis; the award was later annulled by the Higher Attestation Commission
- 1955–1965Head of the criminal-law chair, Kazakh State University
Related historical events
Criminology and criminal policy
Bulatov graduated from Moscow University in 1925 and completed postgraduate study in 1929. He attacked natural-scientific and anthropological approaches to criminals and helped draft a criminal code in 1930. His institute’s biography also describes his involvement in theories imposing responsibility for a person’s dangerous condition rather than a specific guilty act.
He moved to the Alma-Ata law institute in 1941 and headed criminal law at Kazakh State University from 1955. Approval of his 1948 doctoral thesis was subsequently revoked amid accusations of cosmopolitanism.
The reply to Maurach
In 1935 Bulatov defended the law by asserting that Marxist morality had always opposed male homosexuality, attributing the legislation to performers in Moscow and Leningrad who allegedly recruited young men. Roldugina notes his omission of their existing convictions under Article 58 and of the espionage allegations in Yagoda’s report, interpreting these gaps as evidence of inconsistent official explanations.