Swiss‐Army Knife of Social Control: Administrative Exile in Late Imperial Russia

Abstract

Punitive exile was imposed more extensively in late imperial Russia than in any other major contemporaneous country. Roughly one‐half of exiles were convicted by courts for heinous nonpolitical crimes, for which the penalty would be death in European countries. The other half of exiles were sent largely by peasant communities wishing to dispose of unproductive and otherwise unwanted members. Most exiles were transported to Siberia, but significant proportions ended up in remote areas of European Russia. Although both penal and administrative exile were often more humane than imprisonment, which imposed greater restrictions on prisoners, the practice met with staunch criticism, both in public and within the corridors of officialdom. Its use, consequently, was in decline before the revolution of 1905. Suppressing social and political unrest involved an intensive application of exile, both penal and administrative. The fact that its use ebbed again in the years before World War I confirms senior officials' ongoing commitment to the rule of law. That the Russian government continued to rely on exile, however, can best be explained by the inadequacy of personnel, training, professional discipline, and investigative practices of most Russia policemen and the authoritarian and paternalistic attitudes and fear of disorder among officials.