ABSTRACT
Russian penal policy continued to use exile to hard labour or to settlement, in Siberia or elsewhere, during the reign of Catherine. This sketch of the Russian penal system would not be complete without reference to two other features: the first is the institution of the procuracy. The second feature is court procedure, and the means of procuring evidence. Catherine herself had shown considerable interest in the modernization of prisons to which article 166 of the Nakaz refers. Catherine's hope that the Legislative Commission of 1767 would lead to the drafting of a new code of laws foundered on a number of obstacles. However, Catherine's new approach to legislation led her to promulgate a number of major laws which codified areas of social and economic activity and public order. For the time being the study of the actual operation of the criminal law in eighteenth-century Russia is in its infancy.
