March 25, 1917
On the tenth day of its existence, the Provisional Government abolished the Russian death penaltyAt the same time, by order of the army and navy, military field courts were abolished.
- In all cases in which the current civil, military and naval criminal laws establish the death penalty as a punishment for criminal acts, it shall be replaced by hard labor, fixed-term or indefinite. - The effect of this decree also extends to unexecuted court sentences issued prior to this publication.
This act of humanity was short-lived. By the summer, the death penalty was reinstated at the front—for military crimes, treason, murder, and robbery. One of the main lobbyists for its return was General Lavr Kornilov.
In the fall, the death penalty was abolished again—this time by the Soviet government. Almost immediately after the coup, on October 28, 1917:
The death penalty at the front is abolished. Complete freedom of agitation is restored at the front. All revolutionary soldiers and officers under arrest for so-called "political crimes" are released immediately.
The catch was that at that time in Russia there was a “revolutionary legality” in effect, which stood above legal laws.
The death penalty was reinstated as a law less than a year later. According to the Council of People's Commissars' decree "On the Red Terror" of September 5, 1918, those "connected" to White Guard organizations, rebellions, and conspiracies were subject to execution.
In January 1920, the death penalty was abolished again. In May, it was reinstated, with revolutionary military tribunals given the power to execute. Convicts were often denied the right to appeal, and the sentence was carried out immediately.
In 1922, the Criminal Code of the RSFSR included a list of crimes for which one could be sent to prison. It included, among other things, evading military service, embezzlement of state property, entering into unprofitable contracts, and so on.
The peak of the use of the death penalty under “counter-revolutionary” articles was the years of the Great Terror - in 1937-1938 alone, the NKVD carried out 681,692 death sentences.
