Pēteris Stučka
Member of the 2nd State Duma of the Russian Empire
In office February 1907 – July 1907
Monarch	Nicholas II
Constituency	Cēsis District
People's Commissar for Justice, Russian SFSR
In office 1918-06-16 – 1918
Prime Minister	Lenin
Preceded by	Isaak Z. Shteinberg
Succeeded by	Dmitrii I. Kurskii
Prime Minister of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic
In office 1918-12-17 – 1920-01-13
Deputy People's Commissar for Justice, RSFSR
In office 1921 – 1923
Prime Minister	Lenin
President of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR
In office 1923 – 1932
Born	July 26 [O.S. July 14] 1865 Koknese parish, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire
Died	1932-01-25 Moscow, USSR
Nationality	Soviet Latvian
Political party	Communist Party of Latvia
Spouse(s)	Dora Pliekšāne
Alma mater	St. Petersburg University
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Atheist

Pēteris Stučka, sometimes spelt Pyotr Ivanovich Stuchka (Russian: Пётр Ива́нович Сту́чка, German: Peter Stutschka (in contemporary writings); b. July 26 [O.S. July 14] 1865 in Koknese parish, Governorate of Livonia — d. January 25, 1932 in Moscow) was the head of the Bolshevik government in Latvia during the Latvian War of Independence, one of the leaders of the New Current movement in the late 19th century, a prolific writer and translator, an editor of major Latvian and Russian socialist and communist newspapers and periodicals, a prominent jurist and educator, and the first president of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. Stučka's wife, Dora Pliekšāne (1870–1950), was the sister of the Latvian poet Rainis (Jānis Pliekšāns), with whom Stučka shared a room during their law studies at St. Petersburg University.

In the USSR during the 1920s, Stučka was one of the main Soviet legal theoreticians who promoted the "revolutionary" or "proletarian" model of socialist legality.

After his death in 1932, Stučka's remains were interred amongst those of other Communist dignitaries in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, near Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square.

[edit] Places and organizations named in honour of Stučka

• During the Soviet period, from 1958 to 1990, the University of Latvia was officially known as Pēteris Stučka Latvian State University (Latvian: Pētera Stučkas Latvijas Valsts universitāte).
• The town of Aizkraukle was named Stučka, after Pēteris Stučka, from the time when it was established in 1960s until the fall of Communism in 1991, when it was renamed Aizkraukle.
• In the GDR, Polytechnical Secondary School No. 55 (German: 55. Polytechnische Oberschule) in Rostock was named "Peter Stucka" in honour of the Latvian Communist.

[edit] Works

A comprehensive bibliography of the works by and about Stučka, with explanatory material in both Latvian and Russian, is:

• Olmane, P.; Pūce, O. (1988) (in Latvian and Russian). Pēteris Stučka: Biobibliogrāfiskais rādītājs / Петр Стучка: Биобиблиографический указатель. Riga: Viļa Lāča Latvijas PSR Valsts bibliotēka. OCLC 22544777. 

[edit] Further reading

• Stuchka, P.I. (1988). Selected Writings on Soviet Law and Marxism. Robert Sharlet, Peter B. Maggs, and Piers Beirne (eds.). Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-87332-473-0. OCLC 17353762. 

[edit] External links

• Memorial to Pēteris Stučka in Riga at sites-of-memory.de