Criminal Code of

the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic (1960)

The Chronicle frequently refers to specific articles of Soviet law. Those mentioned most often are found in the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, “Russia” for short.

(Their equivalents in the Criminal Codes of the other 14 Union Republics, cf. Article 70, usually had a different numeration.)

Article Number

Summary of subject (example from Chronicle)

15 – Responsibility for preparing, and attempting, to commit a crime (e.g. 17.6).

17 – Complicity in a crime (e.g.20.1)

38 – Extenuating circumstances. (e.g. 14.7).

39 – Aggravating circumstances (e.g. crime committed as part of a group) (e.g. 14.7).

40 – (e.g. 16.5)

43  – Imposition of a penalty less severe than that prescribed by law.

58 – Court approval for enforced medical (psychiatric) treatment// (e.g. 15.1)

*

64 – Betrayal of the Motherland [Treason]

• 64 (a) … actions deliberately committed by a citizen of the USSR to the detriment of its national independence, territorial integrity and military might… (e.g. 17.6).
• 64 (?//) “flight abroad or refusal to return to the USSR from abroad” (e.g. 4.4).

68 – Sabotage or subversive activity.

70 – Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.

72 – Organisational activity directed towards the committing of especially dangerous State crimes, and equally membership of an anti-Soviet organisation (e.g. 13.3).

83 – Illegally leaving or entering the USSR (e.g. 4.4).

88 – Violation of the laws governing currency transactions (e.g. 58.3).

93-1 – Theft of State or public property on an especially large scale (e.g. 17.6).

102 – Premeditated murder (e.g. 16.5).

108 – Infringement of “passport” (i.e. identity card) regulations (e.g. 8.9).

130 (pt. 2) – Libel in a printed work or a work duplicated by some other means, and equally slander committed by a person previously convicted of slander (e.g. 4.6).

142 – Violation of the laws governing the separation of Church from State, and school from Church.

143 – Incitement to violate the laws governing the separation of Church from State and school from Church (e.g. 15.5).

154 – Speculation (e.g. 58.3).

162 – Engaging in a forbidden means of livelihood (e.g. 16.7).

173 – Accepting a bribe.

180 (pt. 2) – Giving deliberately false information about the commission of an especially dangerous State crime or other serious crime, or involving the fabrication of evidence, or for mercenary reasons.

182 — Refusal to testify (CCE 29.11)

189 — Concealing a crime (e.g. 20.1).

190 (introduced in 1966)

• Article 190-1 – Spreading of deliberate fabrications, verbal or otherwise, slandering the Soviet political and social system.
• Article 190-2 – Violation of the State Emblem or Flag.
• Article 190-3  – Group activities disturbing public order (e.g. 4.1). Subject of 22 January 1967 demonstration in Moscow on Pushkin Square

191-1 (pt. 2) — Resistance to a police officer or people’s vigilante in the performance of his duties, involving violence or the threat of violence.

196, pt.1 – Forgery of documents (e.g. 1.1).

198-1 – Evasion of a summons for training or medical examination, or of military registration, by a person liable for military service (CCE 26.3)

198-2  – Breaking the rules of surveillance (e.g. 35.2).

206 (pt. 2) – Malicious hooliganism (e.g. 14.6).

209 (pt. 1) – Leading a parasitic way of life for a prolonged period (e.g. 51.8-5)

218 (pt. 1) – The unauthorised bearing, possession, manufacture or sale of fire-arms, ammunition or explosives.

247 – Desertion from a military unit.

♦

Expanded from a list published by AI editors and translators in Chronicle No 18. See H.J. Berman (ed.), Soviet Criminal Law and Procedure, Oxford, 1966, for full texts.

Articles 70 and 72 …