LEGAL REGULATION OF LOCAL POPULATION BEHAVIOUR IN THE RESPONSIBILITY AREA OF THE PROVISIONAL MILITARY ADMINISTRATION AND REICH COMMISSARIAT “UKRAINE” (THE SUMMER OF 1941 – WINTER OF 1942)

Abstract

 The purpose of the research – to analyze the normative and legal influence of the Provisional Military Administration (hereinafter – the PMA) and the leadership of the Reich Commissariat “Ukraine” (hereinafter – the RCU), which was aimed at the observance of a lawful behaviour by the local population of occupied Ukraine. The methodology of the research is based on the application of the principles of systematicity, scientificity and historicism, as well as such methods of scientific knowledge as analysis, synthesis and comparison. The scientific novelty consists in the analysis of the normative measures of the occupation administrations to ensure the lawful behaviour of the local population. The Conclusions. After the successful occupation of the part of the Ukrainian lands by the German troops in 1941, the occupation administration faced the problem of regulating the observance of a lawful behaviour by the local population. Therefore, an important element of the work of the occupation administrations of the RCU and PMA was the creation of a full-fledged legal framework on the basis of which the influence on the lawful behaviour of the occupied society was exerted. During the first period of the occupation, before the emergence of a stable regulatory framework, the German administration applied the principle of combining and sometimes "imposing" two legal systems – the Soviet and Hitler's. Exceptions were the laws, which denied the occupation, as well as the cases, in which the German regulations directly repealed certain Soviet legal norms. Almost similar appeals were repeated by the administration of the RCU, which took the place of the PMA. In fact, the normative acts of the PMA and the RCU abolished the Soviet legislation in terms of the state system, political regime and electoral system, but certain provisions of substantive law continued to be applied. Faced with the problems of lack of legal framework for the regulation of legal relations at the occupied territory, the administrators of the PMA and the RCU started applying the part of the regulatory framework, which functioned in the Third Reich. In the middle of 1942, the RCU administration created a separate normative act that regulated the criminal penalties of those members of the local population, who committed petty crimes and offenses. At the same time, the order was issued in the RCU regulating family and partly civil legal relations of the local population. In the PMA area, these transformations were never carried out. The heads of each of the field military commandant's offices issued their own regulations, without codifying or reconciling them.

Key words: occupation regime, Reich Commissariat "Ukraine", provisional military administration, local population, lawful behaviour.