To study the political system of a state one should start with the fundamentals of its state law. This book sets out the Soviet view of the subject-matter of state law, and the problems it deals with; it throws light on the elaboration and development of the Soviet Constitution, its principles and content; on the essence, forms and mechanism of power in the Soviet Union, and how the CPSU, the Soviets, the trade unions and other working people's organizations fit into the picture. It gives an idea of the legal status of the individual in the Soviet state and law, and contains a detailed exposition of the structure of the Soviet multinational federation, its constituent republics, and the principles governing the political activity of the more than one hundred peoples inhabiting the Soviet Union, as well as the structure of the Soviet state apparatus. This book is,in short, a guide to the socio-political system of the USSR. Levon Grioryan (born 1929), Candidate of Juridical Sciences, assistant professor, is the author of more than a hundred works, among them The Soviets as Organs of State Power and Popular Self-Administration (1965), Soviet Society (1968), Democracy and Economic Reform (1968), and Soviet Socialist Democracy (1970). Yuri Dolgopolov (born 1923), Candidate of Juridical Sciences, assistant professor, one of the authors of Scientific Principles of State Administration in the USSR, has written a number of articles, including some items for the Greater Soviet Encyclopedia.