Retrospective analysis of criminal liability for terrorist offenses
https://doi.org/10.30729/2541-8823-2025-10-1-34-45
Abstract
The article is devoted to the retrospective analysis of terrorism as a social phenomenon and criminal-legal norms establishing responsibility for various forms of its manifestation in the sources of law of medieval Russia, the Russian Empire and the USSR. In the period of formation of the legal system of Tsarist Russia, the norms on criminal responsibility for committing crimes of terrorist orientation were not singled out from the general normative material, were dissolved in crimes against the state; this provision was retained in the legislation of the Russian Empire. The social processes of XIX gave rise to a wave of political crime, the Decembrists and, later, the member of Narodnaya Volya, expressing their protest against serfdom and tsarism, committed a number of high-profile assassination attempts against prominent state officials. The legislator responded to the growth of crime by expanding the range of offenses establishing liability. The Code of Criminal and Corrective Penalties of Russia 1845 contained chapters “On crimes against the sacred person of the sovereign emperor and members of the imperial house”, “On rebellion against the supreme power and treason”. During the establishment of the USSR, terror was considered by the Bolsheviks as a permissible means of class struggle. In domestic criminal legislation, the category of “terrorist act” first appeared in the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1960, where it was understood as the murder of a state official for political reasons.
About the Authors
Arsen Balafendiev
Kazan Federal University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Arsen Balafendiev — Candidate of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Law,
18, Kremlevskaya St., Kazan, 420008.
Elmir Namazov
Kazan Federal University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Elmir Namazov — Third-year Candidate Student of the Department of Criminal Law,
18, Kremlevskaya St., Kazan, 420008.
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Review
For citations:
Balafendiev A., Namazov E. Retrospective analysis of criminal liability for terrorist offenses. Kazan University Law Review. 2025;10(1):34-45. https://doi.org/10.30729/2541-8823-2025-10-1-34-45
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