Modern Community Service: an Analogue of Soviet Labor Punishment or an Alternative to Imprisonment?

Abstract

The contemporary Russian community service is a criminal punishment of a very contradictory nature. Therefore, its legal regulation requires special scientific attention in the historical context. This research featured a theoretical and legal understanding of the essence of modern community service through the prism of its Soviet prototypes. It involved comparative-legal, historical, and dialectical methods. The author performed a comparative analysis of community service, corrective labor, and probation in the USSR. The article gives a detailed description of criminal law regulation and a statistical analysis of community service at different stages of the Soviet Union. The Soviet legal reality appeared to have shaped the regulation, content, and procedure of community service in the USSR. The author proved the effect of the Soviet economic needs on this type of punishment. However, the contemporary Russian community service is rather unique and hardly inherited any features of its Soviet prototypes. The obtained conclusions can serve as foundation for further research on the theoretical concepts of community service.