1. Introduction

The institution of capital punishment is one of most debated in modern jurisprudence. Over the centuries, the attitude of the state and society to the deprivation of life of a criminal as a measure of punishment has undergone significant changes [1]. As a present time, despite the existence of a moratorium, this time of sanction is not legally excluded from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which creates legal uncertainty and gives rise to disputes about the possibility of its return to judicial practice [2].

2. Material and methods

Capital punishment – is the highest measure of punishment for a person for a crime they have committed, carried out by a court sentence that has entered into force or by a decision of other state bodies [5]. Nowadays, capital punishment as a penalty is used very rarely. In some countries, a moratorium has been introduced. However, there are situations where the only just decision would be capital punishment – these are especially serious crimes encroaching on human life. Since a person’s life, rights and freedoms are highest value not only for the person themselves but also for the state, one who has encroaching on this value must be punished proportionally [10].

Capital punishment as a type of penalty for a crime appeared back in Ancient Rus. For the first time, it was established in legislation in 1397 in the Dvina Charter, as a punishment for theft committed for the third time. Over the years, the list of crimes punishable by execution increased, and already in the Pskov Charter of 1467, such punishment followed for: horse theft, murder, arson, high treason, church theft, and others. In 1497, the list expanded, and crimes such as robbery, slander, and sacrilege were added [4]. In the era of Ivan the Terrible, capital punishment acquired the character of a public ceremony aimed at intimidation. Both simple types of execution, such as hanging or drowning, and mutilating types – quartering or burning – were practiced, intended to get up the punitive effect of justice.

However, in the 18^th century, some monarchs, upon ascending the throne, began to declare amnesties for convicts and sent them to hard labor instead of execution. Elizaveta Petrovna, by her decrees, replaced executions with punishment by the knout or eternal exile to hard labor. Catherine II believed that the application of the highest measure of punishment was justified only for those criminals who, even while imprisoned, continued to pose a threat to legal order [1].

The application of capital punishment in the Russian Empire of the 19^th – early 20^th centuries was characterized by cyclical fluctuations: from isolated cases (under Alexander – 24 executions and 40 under Nicholas II), to a complete rejection of the practice (in the era of the reforms of Alexander II). After 1905, a series of repressions followed: until 1911, about 2,800 people were executed by military courts. The Provisional Government after the February Revolution first abolished, but then returned the death penalty at the front [4].

In Soviet period, the cyclical nature of the application of capital punishment continued. The Decree of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of October 28, 1917, formally abolished the highest measure of punishment, but already during the period of the «Red Terror» in 1918, the practice of extrajudicial executions already restored it [6].

Later, the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1926 provided for execution for a wide range of state and official crimes. The highest point in the use of the death penalty was the period 1937-1938, when more than 680 thousand death sentences were passed by decisions of the bodies of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs.

In the post-war period, there was a liberalization – by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 26, 1947, capital punishment was replaced by imprisonment in a correctional labor camp for 25 years. However, in 1950 for traitors of the Motherland and saboteurs, and then in 1954 for premeditated murder, the highest measure was restored.

Since the 1960s, the scope of capital punishment expanded to include serious economic crimes. In the period 1962-1989, courts passed about 25 thousand death sentences [1].

By the early 1990s, the RSFSR Criminal Code contained more than 30 articles that provided for execution, including treason, premeditated murder under aggravating circumstances, theft of state property, and military crimes occurring in wartime.

So, in domestic judicial practice, there are precedents where capital punishment was the penalty. Until the decree of Boris Yeltsin of May 16, 1996, No. 724 «On the gradual reduction of the application of capital punishment in connection with Russia’s entry into the Council of Europe», these were mainly crimes concerning: premeditated murders with aggravating circumstances, state crimes, theft of state property on an especially large scale, rape of a minor, and others. A moratorium and complete abolition of the death penalty are in effect in more than 100 countries, but in the Russian Federation, the death penalty is not completely abolished; the legislative position remains shaky. According to Part 1 of Art. 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the «exceptional measure of punishment» can still be imposed for especially grave crimes [14].

The conducted analysis of the historical background allows us to draw the following conclusions: Russian legislation has always been characterized by cyclical patterns in matters of applying the death penalty, meaning periods of complete ban alternated with periods of mass executions, indicating the absence of stable legal traditions in this area [3]. Also, the application of capital punishment in Russian history was rarely determined solely by an increase in the crime rate in a particular period; more often, it served as an instrument of political struggle and intimidation. Public opinion on this issue tended to view the death penalty historically as just retribution for especially grave crimes, which creates tension between the norms of international law, which require the abolition of executions, and the development of public legal consciousness [11].

History knows many examples where the death penalty became not just a legal norm but a resonant public event. Let us examine several similar precedents.

One of the most notorious cases in Russian history is case of the serial killer Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo. He operated in the period 1978-1990 in the Rostov region and other regions of the USSR and was found guilty of 52 premeditated murders with particular cruelty. The trial took place in the Rostov Regional Court in 1992 and was characterized by unprecedented security measures and public attention. In 1994, he was executed. This case occurred already in post-Soviet Russia and was actively used by supporters of retaining the death penalty as an argument in favor of the impossibility of rehabilitating certain categories of criminals [7].

However, the highest measure of punishment was applied not only for murders but also for crimes against property. So, the director of the grocery store No. 1 «Eliseevsky» in Moscow, Yuri Sokolov, together with accomplices, organized a large-scale system of the theft and corruption. The criminal group was engaged in the production of unaccounted products at controlled enterprises and their sale through the retail network, appropriating multi-millions ruble incomes. Sokolov was sentenced by the Moscow City Court to death for theft of state property on an especially large scale and bribery. The sentence was carried out in 1984. It can be concluded that the approach of Soviet justice, which equated serious property crimes to attacks on life in terms of their degree of social danger, serves as the basis for disputes about proportionality of punishment in different historical periods [8].

The case of Sergei Alexandrovich Golovkin («Fisher») holds a special place in domestic judicial practice, as Golovkin is considered the last criminal whose death sentence was carried out. In the period 1986-1992 in the Moscow region, he committed a series of murders of 11 boys and youth, involving sexual acts, torture, and particular cruelty. A forensic psychiatric examination found him sane. The Moscow City Court sentenced him to death. The sentence was carried out in 1996 in the Butyrka pre-trial detention center, after the signing of the decree on the gradual reduction of the application of capital punishment, but before the introduction of a complete moratorium, which allows us to view this case as a boundary between two eras of Russian justice [9].

3. Results and discussions

During the study:

— the evolution of the institution of the death penalty in the history of the Russian state and law has been considered:

— the concept of the death penalty, its legal nature and social role have been analysed;

— the historical cyclical nature of the use of the death penalty has been studied;

— the current state of the moratorium has been traced;

— prospects for the existence of this punishment in the legal system of the Russian Federation have been proposed.

4. Conclusion

The conducted research indicates that capital punishment in domestic judicial procedure has come a long way from public intimidation to a moratorium. Currently, the Russian Federation, following its commitments to the Council of Europe, maintains a moratorium on the application of capital punishment. However, the formal presence of this measure in the Criminal Code leaves a chance for its return. The discussion about the return of the death penalty in Russia periodically resumes in connection with the increase in grave crimes and terrorist acts.

However, it should be remembered that a return to the death penalty could become a «step backward» from the standpoint of the evolution of legal consciousness, which is moving away from the principle of «a life for a life» in favor of civilized forms of protecting and ensuring the security of society.