PROCURACY

Russian Prokuratura, in the former Soviet legal system, a government bureau concerned with ensuring administrative legality. The Soviet constitution invested the procurator general (Russian: generalny prokuror) with the responsibility of supervising the observance of the law by all government ministries and institutions subordinate to them, as well as by individual officials and citizens. The procurator was not the president of a court or a tribunal but rather purportedly was a watchdog of legality charged with ensuring the strict observance of the constitution and laws by all government officials and citizens. In fact, in alliance with such agencies as the KGB, the procurator's organization was intent upon enforcing the dictates of the communist regime