¹⁶People’s assessors—instead of a jury, Soviet courts of law have so-called people’s assessors, usually three in number. They are elected by a universal vote for two years, but the elections are usually fictitious. The candidates are approved by the appropriate Party organization. Although these assessors have equal rights with the judge in passing a verdict, in reality they are nothing but mute witnesses to the court procedures. The kolhosp court, although not a regular court of law, had at that time two people’s assessors.