1922 · Civil codes

Soviet Civil Code (RSFSR, 1922)

Soviet Russia

The first Soviet civil code, adopted when the state allowed some private trade (the New Economic Policy). It put the state's economic control above private rights.

Why it matters

It shows how a socialist state took the technique of a civil code from capitalist countries and gave it a different purpose.

Built on

1896 (in force 1900)

German Civil Code (BGB)

Germany

took the structure and many concepts from the German code

1907 (in force 1912)

Swiss Civil Code (and Code of Obligations)

Switzerland

also used the Swiss Code of Obligations

Went on to shape

No later text on this timeline is recorded as built on it.

Countries in the Legal Families Atlas

Russia

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TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.