Capital punishment in the Soviet Union

Capital punishment was a legal penalty in the Soviet Union for most of the country's existence. The legal justification of capital punishment was found in Article 22 of the Fundamental Principles of Criminal Legislation, which stated that the death penalty was permitted "as an exceptional measure of punishment, until its complete abolition".[1]

According to Western estimates, in the early 1980s Soviet courts passed around 2,000 death sentences every year, of which two-thirds were commuted to prison terms.[2] The death penalty was not applied to minors or pregnant women.[3]

History

The first person to be sentenced to death by a Soviet court was Alexey Schastny, Admiral of the Baltic Fleet, on 21 June 1918.[2] Conditional death sentences also occurred in the early 1920s.[3] Decrees issued in 1922, 1923 and 1933 provided police with the right to carry out summary executions, but they were repealed in 1959.[3] The death penalty was abolished on 26 May 1947, only to be reinstated in 1950.[4] Capital punishment was extended to cases of first-degree murder in 1954.[3]

Capital crimes

In addition to crimes such as high treason, espionage, terrorism and murder, the capital punishment was imposed for economic crimes, such as "the pilfering of state or public property in especially large amounts".[5] The hijacking of a plane became a capital crime in 1973.[6]

Economic crimes

Capital punishment for crimes against state and public property was reintroduced in 1961.[7] By 1987, over 6,000 people had been executed for economic crime.[7] The death penalty was generally applied if the crime involved sums exceeding about 150,000 rubles, though there was no fixed threshold.[7]

Several officials were executed for economic crimes as part of Yuri Andropov's anti-corruption campaign.[8] Vladimir I. Rytov, a deputy Minister of Fisheries, was executed in 1982 for smuggling millions of dollars worth of caviar to the West.[9] The director of Gastronom 1, one of Moscow's most prominent gourmet food stores, was executed in 1984 for corruption.[10] The chairman of Technopromexport was executed in 1984 for "systematically taking big bribes".[8] Bella Borodkina, head of the restaurants and canteens department in Gelendzhik, was sentenced to death for receiving $758,500 in bribes.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ioffe, O. Olimpiad Solomonovich; Janis, Mark Weston (1987). Soviet Law and Economy. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN 9024732654.
  2. 1 2 Schmemann, Serge (3 August 1983). "In Soviet, The Death Penalty Persists Without Any Debate". New York Times. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 van den Berg, Ger P. (April 1983). "The Soviet Union and the death penalty". Soviet Studies. 35 (2). doi:10.1080/09668138308411469.
  4. ↑ Magnusdottir, Rosa (2010). "Review of Hilger, Andreas, "Tod den Spionen!": Todesurteile sowjetischer Gerichte in der SBZ/DDR und in der Sowjetunion bis 1953". H-Net. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  5. ↑ Clark, William A. (2016). Crime and Punishment in Soviet Officialdom: Combating Corruption in the Soviet Elite, 1965-90: Combating Corruption in the Soviet Elite, 1965-90. Routledge. ISBN 9781315486635.
  6. ↑ "At Least Seven Die In Shootout After Hijacking Of A Soviet Plane". New York Times. 23 November 1983. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 Kline, George L. (May 1987). "Capital Punishment For Crimes Against State And Public Property In The Soviet Union Today" (PDF). National Council For Soviet And East European Research. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  8. 1 2 "2 High Soviet Officials Are Executed For Graft". New York Times. 14 January 1984. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  9. ↑ Chazanov, Mathis (27 April 1982). "Soviets reports execution in caviar scandal". UPI. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  10. ↑ Mydans, Seth (5 August 1984). "Soviet Millionaire's Path To The Firing Squad". New York Times. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  11. ↑ "Two soldiers and two civilian defense arms experts were..." UPI. 26 April 1984. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
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