Fate in My Hands - The Death Penalty in the Soviet Union

A striking examination of the death penalty in the Soviet Union that documents in heart-rending detail how its citizens, hopeful for a new life post-Stalin, lost faith that their transgressions could be forgiven.

From 1954 to 1991 in the Soviet Union, nearly 40,000 citizens were executed after the death penalty was reinstated as a punishment for homicide. Fate in My Hands introduces readers to the many citizens in this period--women and men of all ages and backgrounds--who found themselves on death row and tried to escape it in the only way available to them: asking for forgiveness.

Examining the letters and objects the dead left behind, Skorobogatov recovers their voices and allows them to speak anew. She offers a striking portrait of life in the Soviet Union and the citizens who dreamed of new possibilities even as they faced their tragic end. Using a corpus of never-before-accessed criminal court records, Fate in My Hands brings readers not just into the police interrogation rooms, courthouses, and cells where the condemned awaited their fates, but into the homes, workplaces, and psychiatric hospitals where families and friends alike came together to pursue an elusive, bitter justice in the wake of violent tragedy.

About the author

Yana Skorobogatov is the Gladys and Roland Harriman Assistant Professor of Russian and Soviet history at Columbia University.

Product details

• Authors: Yana Skorobogatov, Yana Skorobogatov
• Publisher: University Presses
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 30.04.2026
• EAN: 9780226837314
• ISBN: 978-0-226-83731-4
• No. of pages: 288
• Weight: 454 g
• Illustrations: 17 halftones, 1 tables
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, European History, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology, 20th Century, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Crime and criminology, Crime & criminology, Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe), USSR, Soviet Union, The Cold War, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period), c 1945 to c 1990 (the Cold War period), Cold wars and proxy conflicts, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / Cold War, HISTORY / Russia / Soviet Era