Troops of the NKVD of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War as a subject of historical-legal studies by S. G. Lysenkov

Introduction. Many different works, including scientific ones, are devoted to the Great Patriotic War during 80 years after its end. Nevertheless, there are still blanks in the scientific description of military history – understudied processes, events, facts, not subjected to scientific analysis due to various circumstances. It is used to rewrite the national history in order to deprive our country of historical legitimacy, integrity, to dehumanise and demonise Russia. The participation of NKVD troops in fighting and public security provision during the war years is a special page of the Great Patriotic War history. But the contribution of NKVD troops to the victory over the German-fascist invaders in the Great Patriotic War has not yet received its judgment and evaluation. Criticism of NKVD troops focuses mostly on their punitive function (especially the activities of barrage detachments), minimising their role in eliminating threats to internal and external security. An important role in the reconstruction and analysis of military legal activities of the state and its organs – participants of the Great Patriotic War is played by Doctor of law, Professor S. G. Lysenkov. Under his supervision, a scientific school was formed in Saint Petersburg focusing its scientific research on retrospective analysis of the organisation and activities of the NKVD troops in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. S. G. Lysenkov is a peer of the victory in the Great Patriotic War. In the Year of the motherland defender, the year of his anniversary S. G. Lysenkov – the professor of the department of state-legal disciplines of the research center of the Military Academy by Zhukov’s Order of the national guard troops of the Russian Federation makes a major contribution to the historical and legal studies organisation, targeted at obtaining systematic objective knowledge about the specificities of providing public security by NKVD troops in the years of the Great Patriotic War, about the military personnel status and its implementation in wartime conditions. The article is devoted to the scientific achievements of the Professor S. G. Lysenkov, a prominent historian of the modern Russian law. Methods. Dialectics as a common methodology of scientific cognition, methodological principles of theory and practice cohesion, objectivity, complexity made it possible to perform analysis of the scientific works of S. G. Lysenkov, and formed the methodological basis of the study. The main methodological approaches were defined as systemic and biographical, and as the research methods – various general scientific and special legal research methods, including the method of problematic theoretical reconstruction which played an important role. Results. The research depth of historical and legal problems by professor S. G. Lysenkov contributed to the formation of a scientific school under his supervision, within which his followers implement researches, aimed at revealing patterns of effective legal regulation of the military organisation of our state. Despite the existence of many studies on the history of NKVD troops in modern humanitarian science, the works of Professor S. G. Lysenkov devoted to the NKVD troops organisation and functioning during the Great Patriotic War hold an important position in the history of the state and law of Russia, make a notable contribution to the study of the law enforcement system of the national state and the development of theoretical and historical sciences in modern Russia.