The Reform of Criminal Justice and Evolution of Judicial Dependence in Late Soviet Russia

Criminal justice in late. Soviet Russia underwent radical change. During the 1980s, the state first curtailed and then stopped altogether prosecuting citizens for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” and “defamation of the Soviet state,” the two crimes with which most dissidents were charged. ¹ Over the course of the decade, the number of persons punished for vagrancy, begging, and other forms of social “parasitism” was cut virtually in half. The ability of citizens to defend themselves in court for such offenses as “justifiable homicide” and engaging in “entrepreneurial risk” was greatly improved, and people who spat or cursed in public for the first time were no longer subjected to criminal penalties. While some ofthese changes were prosaic, others were profound, and all constitute parts of a radical liberalization in the administration of justice. ²