The revolution that took place in Russia on 25 October (or, according to the new style, on 7  November) 1917 is believed to have been the most important political event of the 20th century  and to have had a great influence on all aspects of life both within the country and worldwide. This  article discusses the extent to which the Russian socialist revolution affected the relatively narrow,  although extremely important, area of the mechanism for the legal regulation of labor. For this  purpose, the authors compared the concept of socialism and the practice of its implementation in  Russia with the practice of the legal regulation of labor in the countries that did not experience a  socialist revolution and therefore were considered by socialists as “bourgeois” countries. At the  same time, the authors challenged the view of the majority of Russian researchers of the Soviet period, including the researchers of the history of the legal regulation of labor, that Soviet  economic history was a process of linear progressive development (when applied to the sphere of  labor). The article shows and analyzes the dissimilarity in the qualitative characteristics of the  history of the economy and the history of the legal regulation of labor in Soviet Russia. On this  basis, the conclusions are drawn as to the influence of the Soviet experience on other countries in the sphere of the legal regulation of social labor and the relevance of this experience for the current times.

The main approach to the relationship between mankind and the natural environment is  sustainable development which has increasingly found its way into the context of environmental  legislation. The efficacy and scope of Russian environmental legislation varied during different  periods throughout the history of the country and depended to a great extent on the state ideology which at the time shaped public opinion and environmental awareness. Russian environmental ideology has proven to be inconsistent and contradictory, because it is based on a dual historical  tradition: a pre-revolutionary and Soviet pattern. Environmental ideology in its historical  perspective has always remained on the periphery of scholarly attention in Russia. This paper is an  analysis of the basic domains of the state environmental ideology with the focus on changes that  happened in the periods of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the 1990s when the country  was transitioning to a new democratic state. The study of the historical peculiarities of the state  environmental ideology can contribute to assessing how much Russia has progressed in achieving efficient legal regulation of environmental use and protection. The hypothesis is that the  difficulties in the transition of the Russian Federation to sustainable development are caused by the failure of the state to form a holistic and efficient environmental ideology that can serve as an  adequate background for the development and implementation of legal norms.

This article analyzes the political and legal aspects of the first decrees of the Soviet government  from 1917 and the codified acts on marriage and family from 1918 and 1926 as large and small  “revolutions” in Russian and Soviet family law. These acts put Russia forward into progressive  positions in comparison with comparable European and American law of that time. The article  analyzes the repressive, “counterrevolutionary” decisions of 1930s and 1940s that pushed family  law, particularly in the sphere of marriage and the legal status of children born out of wedlock,  back to pre-revolutionary imperial standards. It also reviews the normative legal acts on marriage  and the family dating from the “Khrushchev thaw” period. The article identifies the contradictory  and conflicting approaches of legal scholars and legislators to the methodology of legal regulation  of family relations in different periods of political and social history, as well as in our times. The  quality of Russia’s current family legislation, which mainly evolved during the political, economic  and social reforms of the late 20th century, is also assessed. The article traces the influence of  Soviet family law on the content of similar legislation elsewhere in Eastern Europe and the  countries of the former Soviet Union, where there are various levels of legal sovereignty. Their independent legal positions, which are worth comparing with Russia’s family-law doctrine and  legislation, are revealed. The article investigates and evaluates both successful and partially  unsuccessful attempts of modern Russian legislators to adapt the current Family Code and other federal laws regulating family relations to new challenges in the sphere of marriage and family. It speculates on three tendencies of family law doctrine: a certain adherence to the revolutionary ideas of 1917, an orientation toward a return to traditional family values, and a relatively peaceful coexistence with Western doctrines.

Corporate social responsibility of business is becoming an increasingly relevant subject of research  in political science, sociology, economics and law. The social responsibility of business is becoming  the object of close attention of both governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and the  priority of its development is provided at the national, supranational and international levels. This  article considers the political and legal dimensions of the model of corporate social responsibility  implemented through the Global Compact as an unprecedented private initiative of the United  Nations. A study of the social consequences of the Global Compact offers the opportunity to  observe the development of an extremely important initiative: the dissemination of practices and  models of corporate social responsibility and the possible implications of this action for society, for  business and for the United Nations itself. Corporate social responsibility, having an internal and  external dimension, social and political content, goes far beyond the formal legal aspect. At the  same time, states, including the BRICS countries, interested in developing corporate social  responsibility practices, by legal means, in one way or another contribute to the development of  the most promising practices of the social responsibility of business from their point of view. The  United Nations pays special attention to the private sector as a promising tool for responding to new problems arising within the international environment. The principles formulated by the United Nations in the Global Compact are reflected and developed in the documents of other international  organizations, and then in the programs and regulatory documents of the participating countries,  and, of course, in the various codes of large and medium-sized corporations.

This paper considers issues of legal regulation of moral condemnation of municipal officials and the  impact of the recommendations of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) on the system of  legal regulation of counteraction to Russian corruption. It also examines the concept and principles of  anti-corruption, the grounds and procedure for bringing disciplinary proceedings against municipal  officials for violating of anticorruption duties as well as issues of compliance with the rules of the  Federal laws of the Russian Federation “On Combating Corruption” and “On Municipal Service in the  Russian Federation,” and the necessity to unify their content concerning the reasons for dismissal due  to the loss of confidence in municipal and state officials for corruption offenses. The Model Code of  Ethics and Official Conduct of Civil Servants of the Russian Federation and Municipal Officials is useful  to defining the legal status of moral condemnation, the shape of its issuance, scope, duration and legal implications of the use.