Research on Exile and Penal Servitude in Transbaikalia (late 19th — the beginning of 20th century) in the Context of Countering Modern Crime

The article considers the issues of criminal punishment in the form of exile and penal servitude in Siberia (Transbaikalia), its influence on the emergence and development of a prototype of organized crime in its modern understanding. In particular, we have analyzed the classification of criminal activity of vagrants escaping from penal servitude and exile in the context of their criminal specialization, described in detail by N. M. Yadrintsev, a renowned scholar of exile and penal servitude. Renowned researchers of the 19th and 20th centuries (writers, local historians, ethnographers, legal scholars, and others) have unwittingly given many ideas and facts through their writings to characterize modern organized crime, both in Russia and in the post-Soviet space, as well as the possibilities to combat it. In the study we have used historical, documentary, comparative methods, and content analysis. In conclusion, it is noted that the above-described cohort of mercenary criminals later served as a basis for the emergence of organized crime in Russia, and further development of the “thieves” movement in the country.