89 years ago today, on December 5, 1936 (October 22, 1936 in the lunar calendar), the new constitution of the Soviet Union of 1936 was adopted. In 1935, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), after studying the new changes in the political, economic and social class composition of the Soviet Union, considered that the Union Constitution formulated in 1924 was no longer compatible with the reality of the Soviet Union, and proposed to formulate a new constitution. In February 1935, the 7th Congress of Soviets established a constitution drafting committee headed by Stalin. On November 25, 1936, the 8th Extraordinary Congress of the All-Soviet Soviets opened in Moscow. Stalin made a report on the draft constitution of the Soviet Union. The final text of the constitution was approved by the Congress on December 5. The new constitution contains 13 chapters and 146 articles. It declared the USSR to be a socialist state of workers and peasants, with the political basis of the Soviets of Workers' Deputies and the economic basis of socialist ownership of the means of production, and the principle of "each according to his ability, according to his work." The new Constitution stipulated that the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was the highest organ of state power, composed of the Council of the Union and the House of Nationalities. The new Constitution affirmed that all Soviet citizens, regardless of ethnicity or gender, were equal and enjoyed freedom of speech, publication, assembly, association, labor, and rest.