concept
Ulozhenie o nakazaniyakh (Code of Criminal and Correctional Punishments)
the Penal Code
also: Уложение о наказаниях, Уложение о наказаниях уголовных и исправительных
Imperial Russia's principal criminal statute, first enacted in 1845 and periodically revised thereafter. This sketch adopts the dry, numbered-article form of a genuine legislative amendment bill to it, applying the machinery of criminal law to trivial social nuisances as its central parodic device.
Reading notes
- Something Serious §1 Penal Code
The Ulozhenie o nakazaniyakh ugolovnykh i ispravitelnykh (Code of Criminal and Correctional Punishments), Imperial Russia's principal criminal statute, first enacted 1845 and periodically revised. Chekhov's sketch adopts the dry, numbered-article form of a genuine legislative amendment bill -- the deadpan bureaucratic register is the whole joke, applying the machinery of criminal law to trivial social nuisances like bad amateur singers and vain schoolboys.