concept
Katorga (penal servitude)
katorga
also: каторга, каторжная работа, hard labor
The harshest tier of Imperial Russian criminal punishment, penal servitude at hard labor reserved for the gravest crimes; convicts had half their heads shaved and were kept in leg fetters, especially en route and in the early years of a sentence.
Reading notes
- Dreams §27 с бритой головой ходил и кандалы носил
Katorga, penal servitude at hard labor, was the harshest tier of the Imperial Russian criminal justice system, reserved for the gravest crimes; convicts had half their heads shaved (as a visible mark distinguishing them from ordinary prisoners) and were kept in leg fetters, especially en route and in the early years of a sentence.
- The Commission §33 каторжные работы на десять лет
Katorga, penal servitude at hard labor, was Imperial Russia's harshest ordinary criminal sentence short of execution; a ten-year term for the axe murder is period-plausible and gives Pavel Sergeich's invented courtroom drama a veneer of legal realism.