Penal law policy of the 1917 Russian Provisional Government

Abstract

The results of the proceedings of the Commission on Revision and Implementation of the New Penal Code set in 1917 by the Russian Provisional Government are discussed. The various legal sources of penal law employed by Russian law-makers between February and October, 1917 are specified. Changes made by the Provisional Government in the fields of Penal Law, Penal Executive Law and, in part, Penal Procedural Law as well as Administrative Law, are analyzed. Novelties introduced into the penal legislation included a temporary abolition of the death penalty and decriminalization of at least some manifestations of the freedom of speech. Some of the most obsolete repressive regulations of Imperial law were suitably nullified. The author concludes that right after the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, the new Russian revolutionary authorities, consisting largely of well-trained legal professionals, tried to liberalize the existing penal legislation; yet as political crisis in the country deepened they reversed their policy toward a more repressive pattern.