Objectives: the importance of legal education in state and public activities during the Soviet period of development of the domestic state is determined; the problem of the gap between the provisions declared in the Soviet society regarding the implementation of law enforcement activities and the mechanism for their implementation is investigated; the main forms and means of legal education are studied and the most effective of them capable of forming a high level of legal awareness are identified; the characteristic of the main subjects of the Soviet law-enforcement activity is given. Conclusions: in the Soviet society at the state level significant attention was paid to legal education; certain means of implementation of legal education were not effective enough; there were problems with the distribution of powers between subjects of legal education; it is necessary to take into account the past experience of the political and legal development of the state in order to build an effective mechanism of the law educational activity.