The Influence of the Revolutionary Changes on Crime and Punishment in Russia
This article discusses the punitive policy of the Russian Tsarist government in the early 20th century as a result of the confrontation between the authorities and the revolutionary forces. Following Michel Foucault’s argument, the starting point of this study is that the prison reflects the society and the changes within it. Authoritarianism in late imperial society was not left unchallenged. In the course of the Great Reforms of Alexander II, the prison reform played an important role. The reduction of the number of prisoners and the gradual improvement in the conditions of their detention was interrupted by events that began during the First Russian Revolution of 1905. Under its shadow, the revolutionary movement awoke and activated all kind of crime. The result was a large increase in the number of inmates in Russian prisons. However, a series of unfortunate circumstances, such as an epidemic, the First World War and the last two of the revolutions finally undermined the Russian penitentiary system that was still in the making. The paper applies a holistic approach to the Russian penitentiary system. It utilizes a broad range of sources ranging from legislator memorandums and reports of officials of the Tsarist prison administration to expert opinions published in special journals. It also uses statistical data for quantitative analysis to contextualize separate features in the prison system. Analysis of not only historical and political development in the late Imperial Russia but also of philosophical and legal concepts makes this research a multidisciplinary study.