Those living under Bolshevik rule found themselves in a situation for which there was no historic precedent. There were courts for ordinary crimes and for crimes against the state, but no laws to guide them; citizens were sentenced by judges lacking in professional qualifications for crimes which were nowhere defined. The principles nullum crimen sine lege and nulla poena sine lege - no crime without a law and no punishment without a law – which had traditionally guided Western jurisprudence (and Russia since 1864), went overboard as so much useless ballast. The situation struck contemporaries as unusual in the extreme.
One observer noted in April 1918 that in the preceding five months no one had been sentenced for looting, robbery, or murder, except by execution squads and lynching mobs. He wondered where all the criminals had disappeared to, given that the old courts had had to work around the clock. The answer, of course, was that Russia had been turned into a lawless society. In April 1918, the novelist Leonid Andreev described what this meant for the average citizen:
We live in unusual conditions, still comprehensible to a biologist who studies the life of molds and fungi, but inadmissible for the psycho-sociologist. There is no law, there is no authority, the entire social order is defenseless… Who protects us? Why are we still alive, unrobbed, not evicted from our homes? The old authority is gone; a band of unknown Red Guards occupies the neighborhood railroad station, learns how to shoot… carries out searches for food and weapons, and issues “permits” for travel to the city. There is no telephone and no telegraph. Who protects us? What remains of reason? Chance that no one has noticed us… Finally, some general human cultural experiences, sometimes simple, unconscious habits: walking on the right side of the road, saying “good day” on meeting someone, tipping one’s own hat, not the other person’s.
The music has long stopped, and we, like dancers, continue rhythmically to shuffle our feet and sway to the inaudible melody of law.
Source:
Pipes, Richard. "The Red Terror." The Russian Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1990. 799. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
S. Varshavskii in NS, No. 4 (April 17, 1918), I.
SiM, No. 6 (1985), 65.
Further Reading:
большевики (Bolsheviks) / Bolshevists
Леони́д Никола́евич Андре́ев (Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev)
[Красная гвардия (Red Guards)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Guards_(Russia)
That was only 99 years ago. What a grim time.