Sowjetisches Ehe- und Familienrecht von den Ersten Dekreten 1917 bis zum letzten Gesetzbuch 1968: vom Standpunkt der Lettischen Sozialistischen Sowjetrepublik

The Soviet law, which was created at the beginning of the 20th century in Soviet Russia, had evolved on the basis of the legal tradition of Continental Europe; it was a legal system based on the Marxist law theory as understood in Soviet Russia and later in the USSR and the countries that came under its influence. Marxism-Leninism maintained actual equality in society, including gender equality, which determined Soviet state policy in the sphere of marriage and family law. In the territories occupied by the USSR in 1940 – Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania – the previously existing national systems of law were replaced by Soviet law. As a result of the Soviet marriage and family regulations being put in place, the following was established in the territory of Latvia: civil marriage as the only valid form of marriage, equality of spouses, and the equality in the rights of all children regardless of whether they were born in or outside of marriage.