Penal Codes of 1845 and 1885

codifications of criminal law in prerevolutionary Russia. The penal codes served as a weapon for suppressing the revolutionary movement, protecting the privileges of the ruling classes, and defending property held by landowners and capitalists. Nine of the 12 sections in the Penal Code of 1845 were devoted to protection of the social and political order and one section contained articles on general criminal law. All criminal violations were subdivided into crimes and minor offenses.

The penal system was noted for its severity. Punishments were divided into two principal categories: criminal and correctional. Criminal punishments were associated with the deprivation of rights of status and included capital punishment, exile, and exile at hard labor; correctional punishments included service in a penal battalion and imprisonment. Punishments were further subdivided into 11 types and 35 degrees. Punishments for persons belonging to estates exempt from corporal punishment, such as members of the dvorianstvo (nobility or gentry) and merchants of the first and second guilds, were provided for separately, as were those for all other persons subject to birching and whipping. The articles on crimes against the state (section 3) stipulated punishments in the form of deprivation of all rights of status, capital punishment, and exile at hard labor for life or for a period of 20 years.

After the reforms of the 1860’s, the Penal Code was rewritten in order to adapt the obsolete feudal serf code to the new conditions. The 1885 version was in effect until the Great October Socialist Revolution.