Page:The Marriage Laws of Soviet Russia (1921).pdf/17

 the property of their parents, nor parents to the property of their children" (Section 160).

The right of inheritance, either by law or by will, was abolished by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of April 27, 1918. The provision within the present code for the distribution of a maintenance allowance out of the estate of the deceased to needy relatives who are incapable of work follows a similar provision in that decree and in no wise contravenes the revolutionary principle of the abolition of inheritance. The process of this provision is merely that of an allocation to the needy relatives of a certain amount out of the estate of the deceased, the whole of which reverts to the government. This is an arrangement of convenience in the period of transition before the complete realization of the social obligation for the support of those incapable of their own maintenance. Similarly the earlier decree provided that small properties not exceeding 10,000 rubles should pass to the spouse and relatives of the deceased. Here again there was no recognition of any inalienable right to succession, but merely a convenient method by which the government relieved itself of the trouble of assuming the control and disposition of a great number of small properties. Another provision of the earlier decree is repeated in this code; namely, the recognition of the prior claim of needy spouse or relatives to contribution out of the estate of the deceased in preference to the claim of any creditor.

Although these clauses obviously fall within the category of provisions which will become superfluous and inoperative with the more complete