October 30 1653 in Russia issued a decree on the abolition of the death penalty for thieves and robbers
October 30 1653 in the Russian state issued a decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on the abolition of the death penalty for thieves and robbers. This decree amended the laws in force since the days of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich (Law Code 1550 of the year and additional decrees to it), and on the Council Code of the year 1649.
All the robbers and thieves awaiting the death penalty were freed from it, they were told to give a stomach. The highest measure was replaced by punishment with a whip, cutting off the finger of the left hand and a link to the Volga, Ukrainian cities or to Siberia. The death penalty has remained in force only for repeat offenders. However, this decree did not last long. Soon the punishment was again tightened. Already in the 1659 year, a decree was issued that restored the hanging for the robbers detained in low-rise cities (Middle and Lower Volga). In 1663, a decree was issued in Russia, which established that robbers and thieves, "who will be sentenced to death," are supposed to chop off both legs and left arms.
The death penalty in Russia. From Ancient Russia to the end of the Civil War in Soviet Russia
In ancient Russia there was no death penalty, but there was an ancient custom of blood revenge, which was expressed in the principle of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." The community had to punish the criminal. Then not to punish the criminal, not to restore justice, not to revenge was considered a shame, disgrace for the victim, his family and clan. True, the penalty could be replaced by exile, which was a very heavy punishment, the “outcast” was not protected by a clan, a tribe, in fact was without rights. With the development of state institutions, the repressive functions are gradually moving to a special state apparatus. The death penalty becomes public and receives the status of a criminal punishment executed on behalf of the state.
Sources report attempts by Byzantine bishops to introduce the death penalty for robbery in Russia. Separate cases of this measure are known, but as a general practice, the death penalty did not take hold then. Russkaya Pravda (a collection of Russian legal norms that appeared during the time of Yaroslav) did not provide for the death penalty. Vira (fined) was punished, the highest measure, including murder in robbery, was “flow and plunder” - confiscation of property and extradition of the criminal (with his family) “head”, that is, into slavery. True, traces of traditional law were preserved in Russian Pravda - blood feud was preserved, but the range of possible avengers was limited. “Kill husband of husband, revenge on brother of brother, or sons of father, any father's son, or brother, love of sister's sons; If there is no revenge, then 40 hryvnia for the head. ” The final abolition of vendetta took place already in the editorial office of Russian Pravda with the sons of Yaroslav (Pravda Yaroslavichi Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod, from 1072). Blood feud was finally replaced by a fine. The death penalty in Russia was henceforth applied only for special crimes, during extraordinary events - for treason, revolt, and crimes against the Church.
The Russian law historian N.P. Zagoskin noted that the death penalty was alien to "the legal outlook of the Russian people, as a harsh attitude toward the criminal in general is alien to him." The Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh said: "Do not kill and do not command to kill, even if someone will be guilty of someone's death." The most cruel and harsh measures came to us from the West, after the adoption of Christianity. Indeed, only after the adoption of Christianity by the supreme power and its gradual spreading to the population (the process was not simultaneous and bloodless, and took not one century), after long recommendations and pressure from the Greek bishops, the Russian state adopted the Roman penal system (including the killing of a criminal ). In the future, the institution of the death penalty in Russia began to expand.
For the first time, the death penalty was legally enshrined in the Charter of the Dino 1397 charter of the year. She was allowed to use against malicious recidivists - for theft, committed for the third time. The Pskov Judicial Charter of 1467 of the Year further expanded the list of crimes for which the death penalty was due. The highest measure began to be applied for treason (“transfer”), theft in the church, theft of church property, stealing, arson (a terrible crime in conditions where most of the buildings in the settlement are wooden), theft committed for the third time, robbery. The trend towards increasing the use of the death penalty was continued in the 1497 Code of Law of the Year. This code of laws of the Russian state provided for the death penalty for: adultery, other state crimes, religious crimes (in particular, blasphemy), slander, for killing his lord and other types of murder, robbery and repeated theft.
According to the Code of Laws, 1550 was already executed for the first theft and repeated fraud. They could have executed almost any “dashing affair”. At the same time, it should be noted that in peacetime the crime rate in Russia was low. So, for all the long time of the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich, about 4 thousand were executed. In medieval England, France, Spain, and other Western European countries, they were executed more often and for more minor transgressions.
In the 17 century, the death penalty began to apply to tobacco smokers. A new step to expand punitive measures was made in the Council Code 1649. The death penalty has become the main type of criminal punishment, which punished from 54 to 60 crimes. Various types of death penalty were approved: simple - hanging and qualified - decapitation, quartering, burning (for religious affairs and against arsonists), as well as pouring red-hot metal into the throat for counterfeiting. The application of the death penalty reached its peak during the reign of Tsar Peter I. Thus, the Military Charter of 1716 set the death penalty in the 122 cases. In particular, only during the investigation of the Streletsky riot of 1698, about 2 thousand people were executed. True, in most cases the death penalty was replaced by other punishments.
After the epoch of Peter the punitive wave began to decline, and various attempts of reform began to abolish or limit the death penalty. As a result, under Elizabeth Petrovna, a radical change occurs in this area: in 1744, the order of the Empress was issued, which suspended the execution of capital punishment sentences; decree 1754, the "natural death penalty" was replaced by the "political" death and a reference to hard labor in Siberia. Previously, the perpetrator could be subjected to corporal punishment - beaten with a whip, pulled out his nostrils or put a stigma. All cases in which the death penalty could be applied were subject to transfer to the Senate and were considered by the empress herself. This order was preserved under the subsequent rulers, an exception was made only during the suppression of riots, insurrections, when the field courts acted, and because of individual cases of grave crimes, special state circumstances. For example, the exceptions were in 1771 year - the execution of the murderers of Archbishop Ambrose, in 1775 year - Yemelyan Pugachev and his associates, in 1826 year - five "Decembrists". In general, death sentences were already rarely passed, as in the reign of Alexander I, 84 was executed.
Suspended by the decrees of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the death penalty was restored by the 19 legislation of the century: 1812 Field Code, 20 law of October 1832 on quarantine crimes and the Code of the Russian Empire 1832, the Code defined the death penalty for: 1). crimes, but only if the perpetrators are brought to the Supreme Criminal Court; 2) some quarantine crimes (that is, crimes that were committed during epidemics and were related to the commission of violence against quarantine guards or quarantine institutions); 3) war crimes. The same species restricted the use of the death penalty under the Penal Code of 1845 (it was provided for approval of the sentence only after its highest consideration). Usually, under mitigating circumstances, the death penalty was replaced with indefinite hard labor or hard labor for a period of 15-20 years.
According to the laws of the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century, in addition to military and quarantine crimes, people who committed the most important state crimes were subject to the death penalty: 1) malicious attacks on the sovereign rights, life, health, honor and freedom of the sovereign and members of the imperial family; 2) rebellion and 3) are grave treason. The law of 17 of April 1863 of the year permits in some cases to apply the death penalty for murder, robbery, assault with weapons on defenseless people, arson and violence against a woman. The provision on enhanced security 4 September 1881 of the year transferred to the jurisdiction of the military court for condemnation under the laws of wartime cases of armed resistance to the authorities and attack on officials, if these crimes were aggravated by murder, attempted murder, infliction of wounds, injuries, severe beatings, arson . The main types of death penalty were shooting and hanging.
In addition, there were special cases. So, since 1893, it was allowed to use the death penalty on the military courts for the murder of railway employees and train passengers who were committed by "natives in the Caucasus region and the Stavropol province". In general, the use of the death penalty in the 19 century was a rarity, an exception.
The situation has changed with the growth of the wave of revolutionary terror in the early 20th century. To bring down the revolutionary wave of 1905-1907. field courts began to operate throughout the country, not only professional revolutionaries were executed, but also marauders and other "troublemakers" (it was then that the expression "Stolypin's tie" appeared). Death penalty could be applied by the decision of the governors.
19 June 1906, during a meeting of the First State Duma, a draft law on the abolition of the death penalty in Russia was discussed. All cases of the death penalty were planned to be replaced by the next most severe punishment. But the bill was not supported by the State Council. The same bill on the abolition of the death penalty was raised and approved by the Second State Duma, but the State Council again did not support it. At the beginning of the 20 century, the Russian public, prominent criminologists and scientists more than once raised the issue of the complete abolition of the death penalty.
After the February revolution of 1917, on the wave of democratic transformations, the Provisional Government approved a number of populist legislative projects in the very first days of its existence, and among them was a government decree on the abolition of the death penalty from 12 in March of 1917. However, it soon became clear that such a law did not correspond to the real situation in the country that the unrest had embraced, the conditions of wartime. 12 July 1917, the Provisional Government reinstated the death penalty in the army for treason, murder, robbery, escape to the enemy, voluntary surrender, leaving the battlefield and for other military crimes.
After the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, the Bolsheviks followed the lead of the Provisional Government. In their campaign, they were supporters of the abolition of the death penalty and during the Second All-Russian Congress of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies 25 — 27 of October (7 - 9 of November) 1917, the death penalty was abolished. It was a completely populist step, since it was not possible to realize it at that time. Already 25 in November 1917 in the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars "To the whole population about the fight against the counter-revolutionary uprising of Kaledin and Dutov" spoke of the need to "sweep away the criminal enemies of the people." “Counterrevolutionary conspirators, Cossack generals, their Cadet inspirers” were recorded as “enemies of the people”. However, in the first legislative acts that gave a list of criminal offenses: Instructions of the NCJU from 18 December 1917 of the Year “On the Revolutionary Tribunal and Press” and Instructions to the revolutionary tribunals from 19 December 1917, the death penalty was still absent.
7 (20) December 1917. The Council of People's Commissars, at a meeting chaired by Vladimir Lenin, established the All-Russian Emergency Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (VChK SNK RSFSR). 21 February The 1918 of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a decree “The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!” This document proclaimed the transition to emergency measures in Russia and allowed the possibility of execution on the spot. The highest measure could be applied to the following categories: enemy agents, German spies, counter-revolutionary agitators, speculators, thugs and hooligans. The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission received the right to extra-judicial repression of the enemies of the socialist revolution, right up to the shooting of “enemies” on the spot. 5 September 1918 The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a decree “On Red Terror”, which reported that all persons involved in the White Guard movement, conspiracies and insurrections were to be shot.
The first case of the death penalty in Soviet Russia was marked by 26 in February of 1918. On this day, the self-styled Prince Eboli and his accomplice Britt, known for his adventures and gangster raids, was shot.
On June 16, 1918, the People’s Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR adopted a decree that the tribunals in choosing measures to combat counter-revolutionary sabotage and other crimes are not bound by any restrictions (except for special cases when the law defines a measure in expressions: “not less than such a punishment "). The revolutionary tribunals received the right to pronounce executions. The first such sentence was carried out on the night of June 21-22, 1918, the former commander of the Baltic was shot fleet Rear Admiral Alexei Schastny. The admiral was known for relocating the ships of the fleet, located in Reval, to Helsingfors, and then to Kronstadt - the famous Ice Camp, which saved them from being captured by German troops. Shchastny was arrested on the personal order of the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of Trotsky "for crimes of office and counter-revolutionary actions."
In June 1919, the rights of the All-Russian Emergency Commission were expanded. The decree of the Central Executive Committee of 20 June 1919, the bodies of the Cheka, retained the right of direct reprisals, including the possibility of execution in areas in which they declared martial law. The death penalty could be applied to state traitors, spies, counter-revolutionaries, conspirators, counterfeiters, harbingers of traitors and spies, saboteurs, gangsters, robbers, drug dealers, etc. In 1919, the death penalty was enshrined in law in the Guidelines on Criminal Law of the RSFR
By the end of 1919 - the beginning of 1920, the Soviet power was strengthened, the armies of Yudenich, Denikin and Kolchak were defeated. This made it possible to soften the repressive policy. 17 January 1920, by decrees of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars (“On the abolition of the use of capital punishment (execution)”), the death penalty was abolished a second time. The decree concerned the Cheka and its local authorities, city, provincial and Supreme Tribunals. However, already in May, 1920, after the decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of Labor and Defense "On declaring some provinces in a state of war", was granted the right to the revolutionary military tribunals to the provincial tribunals.
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