Social-Legal Evolution of Banditism as Publicly Dangerous Phenomena in the Context of the Change in Russia Public-Economic Formation (Preformative Period 19th - First Half of 20th Century)

Abstract

Introduction: the process of the evolution of the actual manifestation and qualification of acts covered by the modern concept of banditry, as well as the peculiarities of the methods of fighting it by the state in a relatively long period of Russian history (the post-reform period of the 19th century - the first half of the 20th century) is considered. To this end, the author identifies the most significant features that characterize the growth of the public danger of this criminal act. Based on the method of system analysis, it is shown that, despite the change in the socio-economic system, the politicization of banditry, marked at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in the Russian Empire, received a logical and dramatic development after the revolution of 1917 in the Soviet state. Results: comparison of the peculiarities of gangsterism in Russia and a number of countries is given. It is shown that the actualization of the term “banditry” in Soviet Russia was associated with the enthusiasm of the Bolsheviks as external attributes of the era of the Great French Revolution of the 18th century, on the one hand, and a powerful wave of “political banditry” on the other. Conclusions: the special attention of the state to the political component of banditry allowed to suppress its most acute manifestations in the 1920s. The model created in this case proved to be highly effective and ensured a relatively rapid liquidation of a new wave of banditry that arose at the turn of the 1920s-1930s and associated with the campaign of collectivization.