On the question of improving modern criminal penalties in the context of discussions on the further use or canceling of the institute of links and catorga in the Russian empire

At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, heated debates resumed in the Russian Empire about the need to abandon or finally abolish the institution of exile and hard labor as a form of punishment. The heated discussions attracted the attention of not only lawyers, but also the advanced part of society (the intelligentsia), including the famous Russian writers A.P. Chekhov, F.M. Dostoevsky, V.M. Doroshevich, S.V. Maksimova and others. In their works, the authors voluntarily or involuntarily reflected the influence of the existence of exile and hard labor on the state of Russian society, both in the country as a whole and in specific outlying territories (Siberia, Transbaikalia, Sakhalin). The arguments for and against the institution under consideration clearly show the desire of the opposing parties to make an attempt to modernize the existing system of criminal punishments, and in general to influence the change in the state's penitentiary policy. To solve modern problems in the field of improving criminal penalties, the existing historical experience should be used more widely, both in national and international practice. For this, there is a rich historical experience in solving problems in the Russian Empire