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Throughout 1925, Soviet citizens opened their daily newspapers to find scholarly articles on the history of marriage, letters from peasants decrying divorce, columns of questions on sexual morality, and editorials on the exploitation of wom en. Peasants, wo rkers, jurists, sociologists, Party organ izers, women, and young people met in the towns and in the country, in conventions ranging from the Soviet Central Executive Committee (TsIK) to six thousand village meetings. to debate the very meaning and purpose of marriage. In the words of Dmitrii Kurskii, People's Commissar of Justice:" Articles, disputes, and books followed one after the other."! The debate was sparked by an issue affecting almost everyone: the proposed" Code of Laws on Marriage, the Family, and Guardianship." It was perhaps the last time that any state policy would be so broadly and freely discussed. Controversy surrounded the Code's proposal …