Russian court

“ Petersburg, sitting as a court of cassation, and the highest judicial tribunal of the empire in civil matters, has declined to execute a French judgment upon the grounds that, by the settled law of Russia, 'it is a principle in the Russian empire that only the decisions of the authorities to whom jurisdiction has been delegated by the sovereign power have legal value by themselves and of full right,' and that, 'in all questions of international law, reciprocity must be observed and maintained as a fundamental principle.' Adam v. ”

“ The prisoners were brought to Irkutsk, where a court-martial investigated the affair. A Russian court-martial does not differ materially from any other in the manner of its proceedings. It requires positive evidence for or against a person accused, and, like other courts, gives him the benefit of doubts. ”

“ When the question is of the running of the statute of limitations, it is enough that our courts have been open to suit on behalf of the Russian State in whom the right to sue upon the petitioner's present claim was vested, and that the political department of the government has accorded recognition to a government of that state, received its diplomatic representatives, and extended to them the privilege of maintaining suit in our courts in behalf of their state. ”

“ It is not consonant with the sturdy conduct of our foreign relations that the effect of Russian decrees upon Russian funds in this country should depend on such gossamer distinctions as those by which courts have determined that Russian branches survive the death of their Russian origin. When courts deal with such essentially political phenomena as the taking over of Russian businesses by the Russian government by resorting to the forms and phrases of conventional corporation law, they inevitably fall into a dialectic quagmire. ”

“ In the Peoples' Courts the so-called legal profession is not recognized. Attached to each Soviet having in its jurisdiction a Peoples' Court is a board of public prosecutors and defenders for criminal cases, and of representatives for civil cases. These officials are chosen by the executive committees of the Soviets in question. In all serious cases the accused is furnished without cost a defender selected by the judge; in minor cases the judge decides whether or not there shall be a defender used. ”

“ The Russian Court had been aware of his high pretensions by birth, and hoped by this promotion to satisfy the ambition which, in some degree, was acknowledged to be a reasonable passion for any man occupying his situation. ”

“ The treaty is undoubtedly obligatory upon both powers, and, if Congress should prescribe additional formalities than those required by the treaty, it might become the subject of complaint by the Russian government and of further negotiations. But notwithstanding such treaty, Congress has a perfect right to provide for the extradition of criminals in its own way, with or without a treaty to that effect, and to declare that foreign criminals shall be surrendered upon such proofs of criminality as it may judge sufficient. ”

“ We Russians look on the appalling condition of our once great country, we behold the famishing millions on the Volga and in the Ukraine, we count the fearful roll of the murdered, the imprisoned, the exiled, and we cry weakly that the Tsar was guilty, Rasputine was guilty, this man and that woman were guilty, but never do we admit that we were all guilty, guilty of blackest treason to our God, our Emperor, our country. Yet not until we cease to accuse others and repent our own sins will the white dawn of Go{157}d’s mercy rise over the starved and barren desert that was once mighty Russia. ”

“ May Russia become the tomb of the barbarous Hun—and may that day be not too long delayed. May the real Russia, the real great invincible Russia, though dumb at this moment, speak behind those high walls of the Kremlin, make herself heard, collect herself and understand her folly, and refuse to be any more the plaything and the prey of an enemy as detested as detestable, of an enemy who scoffs at her as it scoffed at her former sovereigns. ”

“ I have some Russian cousins living in Italy, where they have been for a great many years, and I hear that according to Lenin's laws they are considered as emigrants, consequently their property in Russia has been confiscated, and should they return they would be imprisoned. ”

“ The expropriation decrees of the U.S.S.R. gave rise to extensive litigation among various classes of claimants to funds belonging to Russian companies doing business or keeping accounts abroad. England and New York were the most active centers of this litigation. The opinions in the many cases before their courts constitute a sizeable library. They all derive from a single theme-the effect of the Russian expropriation decrees upon particular claims, in some cases before and in some cases after recognition of the U.S.S.R., either de jure or de facto. ”

“ One needs to be no expert in Russian law to know that the expropriation decrees intended to sweep the assets of Russian companies taken over by that government into Russia's control no matter where those assets were credited. Equally clear is it that the assignment by Russia meant to give the United States as part of the comprehensive settlement everything that Russia claimed under its laws against Russians. ”

“ If there be exaggeration and contradiction with regard to the numbers of the punished Communards, there is similar difficulty in fixing the numbers of our own culprits. Upon that point I am not going to insist. Even one death is often the cause of endless pain.
In England I have only once seen any mention of that Court of Appeal by which Russian political prisoners who repent of their ways may solicit the Imperial clemency.
The exact title of that institution is "The Court of Petitions addressed to the Emperor," or "The Court of Imperial Mercy." ”

“ Courts could hardly escape perplexities when citizens asserted claims to Russian funds within the control of the forum. But a totally different situation was presented when all claims of local creditors were satisfied and only the conflicting claims of Russia and of former Russian creditors were involved. In the particular circumstances of Russian insurance companies doing business in New York, the State Superintendent of Insurance took possession of the assets of the Russian branches in New York to conserve them for the benefit of those entitled to them. ”

“ The President of the Russian Federation shall have the right to suspend acts of the bodies of executive power of the subjects of the Russian Federation if these acts contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the federal laws or international commitments of the Russian Federation or violate the rights and freedoms of human and citizen until the issue is solved by a corresponding court. ”

“ Rasputine never lived in the palace, seldom visited it, saw the Emperor less frequently than the Empress, and had among the women of the Court more enemies than friends.
The English-speaking reader may doubt the completeness and the accuracy of police records, knowing that in his own country only criminals and people of the underworld are really watched by the police. To know what police surveillance can mean it is necessary to have known Russia before 1917. ”

“ I believe no “political” has been tried in open court before a jury since Vera Sassoulitch was acquitted for the attempted assassination of the elder Trepoff in 1878. No Russian jury can ever be trusted to condemn. But the Russian suspect has two advantages still—he may be thrown out of prison as unexpectedly as he was thrown in, and with as [234] little reason given. He may also call upon any one he pleases, not necessarily a barrister, to take up his defence, if he is brought before a tribunal. ”

“ Anyone at all familiar with rules of evidence will perceive how, with the best intentions, Judge Roudneff often offers opinion where facts alone are called for. A great many of his statements, if given in a court of justice, would in any civilized country be challenged and probably ruled out. However, the statement is valuable because it is the unique attempt of a justice-loving individual to escape from the mob mind of 1917 Russia and to present impartially the known facts about Rasputine. ”

“ To sustain this proposition it is necessary for the appellant to maintain: (1) That it has retained some form of legal interest in the 3 1/2 per cent. commission deducted by Meinel under the terms of its agency appointment of November, 1916; and (2) that the Russian ukase should be given an extraterritorial effect such as to render the acts of the appellant within the United States, which were otherwise lawful and proper according to the laws of the United States, unlawful and void, and thus prevent the Mutzenbecher firm from acquiring any interest in the segregated fund. ”

“ But oh, the victims, and the innocent blood yet to be shed! We fear that Baby’s other little friend from Mogiloff who was at M. has been killed, as his name was included among cadets killed at Moscow. Oh, God, save Russia! That is the cry of one’s soul, morning, noon and night. Only not that shameless peace. [13]
I hope you got yesterday’s letter through Mme. ——’s son-in-law. How nice that you have him in charge of your affairs. Today my mind is full of Novgorod and the awful 17th. [14] Russia must suffer for that murder too. ”

“ In Russia, the Court of Appeal to Mercy allows everybody to appeal to the mercy of the Emperor. It is not difficult to understand that there are great differences in the nature of such appeals, and, in Russia, as likewise in England, prisoners are not allowed to publish their grievances, and still less their appeals to the head of the State. However, by a very happy mistake, such an appeal from the political prisoners slipped, at the end of last year, into one of our best Petrograd papers. ”

“ Rep. 1031, in this connection was that depositions and other papers authenticated and certified as required by the act, were not admissible on the part of the accused. The introduction of the words 'as evidence' does not vitiate the certificate. We find it difficult to conceive any other purpose for which such depositions could be used except as evidence of criminality.
8. No evidence was required that the Russian consul had authority to make the complaint. All that is required by § 5270 [U.S.C.omp. Stat. 1901, p. 3591] , is that a complaint shall be made under oath. ”

“ If the court, having taken into consideration exceptional circumstances in the case and the character of the convicted person, deems it necessary to assign to him a penalty below the minimum level fixed by law for the crime in question, or to assign a different and less severe form of punishment, it may so mitigate the punishment. ”

“ If a person is found guilty of having committed two or more crimes specified in various articles of the Special Part of the present Code for none of which he had been convicted, the court, after having assigned punishment for each crime individually, makes its final determination of punishment on the basis of their totality by means of absorbing the less severe sentence by the more severe one, or by means of the full or partial compounding of the sentences within the limits established by the articles providing for a more severe penalty. ”

“ If the court does not consider it feasible to apply the period of limitation, the death penalty shall be replaced by deprivation of freedom.
Article 50. Exemption from criminal liability and punishment.
A person who has committed a crime may be exempted from criminal liability it is acknowledged that, by the time of the investigation or the trial, as a result of a change in the situation, the act committed by the guilty party has lost its character of being socially dangerous, or that the person has ceased to be socially dangerous. ”

“ If the court decides upon conditional conviction in the absence of the above-mentioned petitions, it may impose upon a particular collective of workers, or a person, with their permission, the responsibility for surveillance of the conditionally convicted person, and for doing education work with him.
At the request of the social organization or workers’ collective charged with surveillance of the conditionally convicted person, the court may reduce the probationary period fixed by the sentence. ”

“ In time of war the execution of a sentence involving deprivation of freedom pronounced with respect to a person in military service, or a person subject to mobilization or being called up for service, may be deferred by the court until the termination of hostilities, and the convicted person may be put on active service. ”

“ In the event of the commission of a crime by a person who abuses alcoholic beverages, and who as a result has placed his family in a difficult material position, the court, in addition to assigning punishment for the crime committed, when such punishment does not involve deprivation of freedom, shall have the right, at the petition of a social organisation, collective of workers, comrades' court, to establish surveillance over such person. ”

“ In several obstruction cases, the Court has imposed a nexus test that requires that the wrongful conduct targeted by the provision be sufficiently connected to an official proceeding to ensure the requisite culpability. ”

“ Among the friends of Rasputin must be mentioned Protopopoff, Minister of the Interior, and Boris Sturmer, who thanks to the former's intrigues had been appointed Prime Minister of Russia. Both were known to be pro-German.
The "monk's" empire at the Court became so great that through the intermediary of the Empress those who had been remiss to him in any particular lost important posts, and he also caused his unworthy "protégés" to be given the highest appointments. ”