Darya Andreevna Mamontova,
Postgraduate Student, Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Representation of the Idea of Labor Re-Education of the Ccriminals in the Soviet Periodicals (Magazine “Ezhenedelnik Sovetskoy Yustitsii” and Paper “Sovetskaya Sibir’”) in 1922 and 1928
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-1-9
The paper is devoted to the study of the practice of the representation of the idea of prisoners’ labor as a mean of their re-education in the Soviet periodicals of the 1920s. This concept was crucial for the Soviet penal policy that was reflected in legislative acts. Until 1924 it was regulated by the decree of VTsIK, dated 17 May 1919, “On the forced labor camps” and the decree of the RSFSR People’s Commissariat for Justice, dated 15 November 1920, “The Regulations on general detention places”. In 1924 the Corrective-Labor Code of 1924 became the fundamental document in this sphere. In addition to the legislative support of the Soviet penal policy and its labor concept the process of their ideological justification occurred. Based on the materials of two periodicals which are magazine “Ezhenedelnik sovetskoy yustitsii” (Eng. The Weekly of Soviet Justice) and paper “Sovetskaya Sibir’” (Eng. The Soviet Siberia) the author analyzes the process of the representation of the crucial idea of the Soviet penal policy among the actors within justice and the general population in the beginning and at the end of the 1920s. Study shows that the difference of the target audience of the chosen periodicals didn’t influence the way of the representation of the idea of labor re-education. In 1922, when the general framework of Soviet legislation including the penitentiary was developed this concept was promoted as an advantage of Soviet penal system in comparison with pre-revolutionary and foreigns’. That allowed presenting it in a positive context even though there were some problems with its implementation (dismal resource base of the prisons, inability to provide work to all prisoners, competition with people who had no previous convictions). By the end of the 1920s these problems weren’t solved that led to the appearance of the critical discourse representation of this concept in the Soviet periodicals. In comparison with the way how it was represented among the general population which was less critical the representation among the actors within justice was much more realistic.
Publishing: 28/02/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 05.11.2022
How to cite: Mamontova D.A. Representation of the Idea of Labor Re-Education of the Ccriminals in the Soviet Periodicals (Magazine “Ezhenedelnik Sovetskoy Yustitsii” and Paper “Sovetskaya Sibir’”) in 1922 and 1928 // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 1 (27), pp. 116–128. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-1-09.pdf]
Links: Issue 1 2023
Keywords: sphere of labor; forced labor; penal policy; periodicals; Ezhenedelnik sovetskoy yustitsii (The Weekly of Soviet Justice); Sovetskaya Sibir’ (The Soviet Siberia)