By the mid 30s. in all spheres of life of the USSR significant changes occurred. The social composition of the population has changed, the private sector was destroyed in industry and agriculture, qualitative changes took place in the system of state institutions and in the sphere of nation-building. It was officially proclaimed the construction of the foundations of socialism in the USSR.

In early 1935, the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) decided to amend the USSR Constitution, which were to reflect the changes that had occurred in the country. On February 7, 1935, a Constitutional Commission of 31 people was formed, headed by J. V. Stalin. In the process, the commission concluded that a new constitution was needed. According to Stalin, it was supposed to become "the registration and legislative consolidation of these conquests, which have already been mined and secured."

By the summer of 1936, a draft Constitution was prepared, published for national discussion, and on December 5, 1936, the Eighth Extraordinary Congress of Soviets adopted a new Constitution. The Soviet political foundation proclaimed the Soviets of Working People's Deputies (formerly workers and peasants), the economic basis the socialist economy and socialist ownership of the means of production. According to the USSR Constitution, the Soviet state was a federation of 11 socialist republics (RSFSR, Ukraine, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan). The rights of the federal government have been significantly expanded.

The system of state institutions has undergone a significant change. According to the Constitution, oblast, republican congresses of Soviets were abolished, and district, city, oblast, republican Soviets took their place - right up to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The Supreme Council was composed of two chambers, the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities, as was the Council of the CEC of the Soviets. In the period between sessions of the USSR Supreme Council, its functions were: assigned to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which could even dissolve the USSR Supreme Soviet. After the elections of new authorities, held in 1937, M. I. Kalinin (1938-1946) was elected the President of the Presidium.

SNK was deprived of legislative rights, being now a purely executive authority. In the Constitution of 1936, an article appeared for the first time fixing the special position of the Communist Party in the system of state institutions of the USSR. According to Article 126 of the Constitution, the most active citizens from among the working class and other sections of the working people were united in the VKP (b), the leading core of all the organizations of the working people, both public and state. Subsequently, the Charter of the Party, adopted by the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b) in 1939, granted the right to control the activities of the administrations to the party committees of enterprises, MTS, collective farms and government institutions.

The changes also touched upon the electoral law, where the refusal from the multi-penguin elections was proclaimed and universal, direct, equal suffrage was established with a secret ballot. The list of rights and freedoms of citizens was significantly expanded, where the inviolability of the person, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, press, meetings and rallies, confidentiality of copying, limited personal property rights, etc. were enshrined in law. for work, rest, education, material security in old age or in case of disability due to illness or accident. At the same time, the constitutional rights came into conflict with the realities of Stalinist socialism and did not apply to the entire Soviet people, for example, to collective farmers. Article 127 of the Constitution of the USSR on the non-implication of the individual, which stated that "no one can be arrested otherwise than by a court order or with the sanction of the prosecutor," was violated everywhere.

Without the sanction of the prosecutor, Marshal Tukhachevsky was arrested, and the sanction for the arrest of the candidate member of the Politburo and Agriculture Commissar Eiche was “framed” a few months after his arrest. Article 128, which stated that "the inviolability of the dwelling of citizens and the privacy of their correspondence are protected by law," was also not respected. The Constitution was only the gratifying facade of the Stalinist regime. The fate of the members of the constitutional commission also testified to this: 17 out of 31 people were repressed (including A. S. Bubnov, N. I. Bukh-rin, N. V. Krylenko, K. B. Radek), one committed suicide and two others were soon forced to withdraw from participation in the public life of the country.