[5] Soviet criminology was significantly influenced by the works of Stalinist prosecutor Andrey Vyshinsky who introduced a number of measures into the penal code and investigatory practice that were unusual in other legal systems.
Law was to be perceived not as a means of determining individual guilt but dialectically and as part of broader class struggle.
[citation needed] Apart from this judicial practice, the penal code of USSR contained a number of very specific crimes generally classified as "counter-revolutionary", such as contacts with foreigners or any other kind of opposition or criticism of the communist party.
[7] Article 190-1 punished dissemination, "in verbal form", of "knowingly false" statements, defaming USSR or its social structure.
[8] Speculation, defined as any form of private trade with intent to make profit, was also a crime per article 154 of the Penal Code of USSR.
Some Marxist theorists contended that the most immediate reasons for crime in the Soviet Union were mental retardation, poor upbringing, and capitalist influence.
The death penalty, carried out by shooting, was applied in the Soviet Union only in cases of treason, espionage, terrorism, sabotage, certain types of murder, and large-scale theft of state property by officials.
Parole was permitted in some cases after completion of half of the sentence, and periodic amnesties sometimes also resulted in early release.