The Soviet Union was a totalitarian state where members of the Communist Party held all key positions in the institutions of the state and other organizations. Civil and political rights were severely limited and the entire population was mobilized in support of the state ideology and policies. Independent political activities were not tolerated, including the involvement of people with free labour unions, private corporations, non-sanctioned churches or opposition political parties. The state's proclaimed adherence to Marxism-Leninism restricted any rights of citizens to private property. Yet this situation, as the Soviet human rights activists of the 1960s pointed out, was in direct contrast to the formal provisions of the 1936 Constitution, in operation until the late 1970s. This guaran