Mutilation

in Soviet criminal law, a type of crime committed for the purpose of evading a regular call to active military service (Criminal Code of the RSFSR, art. 80, part 2). In addition, it may be committed by a person subject to military service in order to evade training courses or military registration (Criminal Code of the RSFSR, art. 198–1, part 2), and it may be committed by a person in military service in order to evade the performance of military duties (Criminal Code of the RSFSR, art. 249).

Mutilation is accomplished by the infliction of bodily injury. The guilty person intentionally damages his own health—either by deliberately causing himself some physical injury (for example, by amputating an extremity or harming the organs of sight or hearing) or by unnaturally complicating an existing condition (for example, by irritating a wound). Another form of the crime is requesting or agreeing to the infliction of an injury by someone else; in such cases, those who inflict the harm are held to be accomplices.

The law equates other methods of evading military service with mutilation. Such methods include malingering, exaggerating the seriousness of a condition, forging documents or using other means of deception, and refusing to bear the obligations of military service.

Evasion of service by military personnel through mutilation or any other means carries the severe penalty of deprivation of freedom for a term of three to seven years. The same act committed in wartime or under combat conditions is punishable by death or deprivation of freedom for five to ten years. Mutilation for the purpose of evading a call to active service carries a sentence of deprivation of freedom for one to five years (Criminal Code of the RSFSR, art. 80, part 2). Mutilation in order to evade military training or registration is punishable by deprivation of freedom for a term of up to three years (Criminal Code of the RSFSR, art. 198–1, part 2).