The article is dedicated to the analysis of the Third Department’s documentation regarding the cases of complaints about immoral acts (beznravstvennye postupki). The archival data provides the information on what actions fell into this vague category, how investigation in these cases was conducted and what their outcome was. It is shown how “immoral acts” complemented the imperfection of the legal system and, at the same time, created conditions for arbitrariness and hasty extrajudicial sentencing. Predominantly the “immoral acts” corresponded to a criminal offense, nevertheless it was possible that the imposition of punishment could occur without violation of the law, since all decisions were finally approved by the emperor himself. Once labeled as “immoral”, a person was essentially considered guilty and had little chance to defend himself or herself afterwards.
Alexander Leontiev (Wed,) studied this question.