Capital punishment in the Soviet Union (original) (raw)

Capital punishment was a legal penalty in the Soviet Union for most of the country's existence. "Disrupting the planned economy" was a capital offense. Known as economic crimes, in 1964 The New York Times noted that "60 per cent of the 160 persons executed for economic crimes since 1961 were Jews." The claimed legal basis for capital punishment was Article 22 of the Fundamental Principles of Criminal Legislation, which stated that the death penalty was permitted "as an exceptional measure of punishment, until its complete abolition".