Crimes committed by the Red Army servicemen during the Second World War (on the territory of the USSR).

<p>The main purpose of this work is an attempt to systematize and analyze the phenomenon of military crimes in the Red Army as well as to assess the functioning of the judicial system during the Second World War. Consequently, it analyzes two parts of one and the same process, namely, crime and punishment. The concrete goals include the analysis of different types of crimes committed by the military personnel, causes of these crimes, and the functioning and decision-making process of the judicial authorities in the war years, and their effectiveness in combating crime.<p>Most studies regarded crime during the war as a process associated with extreme war conditions of life. But almost nobody drew comparison between war-time crime and the criminality in the pre-war period. No less important is the study of the social component of the conflict and the conditions in which criminality emerged in large population groups such as the military.<p>This study is based on various archival materials (statistical reports, memoranda, reports, letters), publications dealing with ​​criminal procedure, criminal law, criminology theory, operational and investigative activities. From the point of view of methodology, this study uses general scientific methods such as analysis, comparison, classification, and special research methods such as historical comparison, historical analysis, historical and legal, systemic, legal, system analysis and results of the studied phenomena.<p>I have come to a number of conclusions regarding the nature of crime in the military environment.<p>First of all, there were three categories of crime in the military: crimes caused by ideological factors; purely military crimes; and other crimes that could be committed not only by the military but also by the civilians.Reasons for committing crimes could be objective and subjective. The objective reasons included: extreme living conditions, situation in the army not trained for a defensive war, as well as combination of different factors. Subjective factors included the process of identity formation of a fighter, his social background, education, conditions of one’s nervous system.<p>Repressive legal practices of the pre-war years continued into the wartime. Criminal justice in wartime was punitive-repressive. In the early years of war (1941-1942) criminal legislation became more repressive. At the same time, toward the end of the war the situation changed dramatically. In order not to weaken the fighting force of the army, punishments became less severe. Also, in the legal system two opposing trends were observed: while fighting with real crimes, the legal system also processes numerous fabricated crimes (the notorious Article 58).