The death penalty as a phenomenon in the history of Russia has developed along a roller-coaster trajectory: from widespread practice as a method of blood revenge to fading and flaming turns.
Now passengers of this type of "attractions" are not allowed to such a "holiday of life".
WHY DO NOT START?
Because this is what our valiant Constitutional Court considered in 2009. The formal ground for such a decision was fueled by Russia's accession to the Council of Europe and the signing in 1997 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. In it, in particular, a clause on the prohibition of the death penalty was spelled out. The consequence of the act of chanting humanity was the following: the courts can pass death sentences, but they will be implemented only in the form of life imprisonment. A humane move, isn't it? Nevertheless, the public opinion in Russia finds such a decision controversial.
And in the USSR?
And in the USSR, the Criminal Code introduced in 1960 was in force. It contains 33 points, which were the basis for the implementation of the act of parting of a person with the World. Peace Peace, and most of the points related to military crimes. Reliance on the Criminal Code has led to a rich harvest of executions: of the 24,422 death sentences passed, only 2,355 were spared.
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However, even greater shock can be caused by earlier years, when an unenviable fate could have awaited even a minor (since 1935). And during the Great Terror (1837-1838), more than 680,000 death sentences were passed.
At the dawn of the formation of Soviet power, the death penalty began to be practiced in the summer of 1918, when Rear Admiral Aleksey Shchastny, who was in charge of the Ice campaign, was accused of counter-revolutionary activities. Since 1919, the successful initiative in this type of punishment has been continued in terms of criminal offenses.
And under the "CROWN"?
The period of the Russian Empire can be declared a relatively quiet and calm time: 10-50 executions per year. An exception is the years of the Revolution, when the government introduced the institution of military courts.
From the 1850s to 1905, the death penalty was implemented only for serious crimes (against the state, military, atrocious cases of murder, beatings and rape). In other cases, the case was limited to hard labor, as a maximum. And fledgling youths and old people in general could calmly breathe the air free from hints of execution. Approximately the same philosophy was adhered to until the 1850s.
And the blood follower of Peter I, Elizaveta Petrovna, decided on a step rare for those times: she introduced a moratorium on the death penalty. Formally, her decision contrasted with her father's line of thought. The fact is that although at the legislative level, Peter I introduced the penalty for committing disciplinary acts (to stimulate obedience), in reality it was rarely implemented.
RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIAN STATE
Under Ivan the Terrible and Alexei Mikhailovich, the traditions of execution were laid, and the forms of its implementation found a considerable number of incarnations. Under the first of these rulers, execution was accompanied by torture and was public, and under the second, the sentence could be carried out in the form of burying in the ground, burning alive, beheading, quartering, hanging, wheeling and pouring molten metal into the throat.
Until the beginning of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the death penalty was practiced in exceptional cases. And in the period from the formation of the Russian state to 1398, deprivation of life, as a relic of blood feud of the times of Russia, was supplanted by "Vira", a property fine.
LENEV ALEXEY