The debate about capital punishment in “The Bet” reflects the Russian Empire’s complex history with the death penalty. Beginning in the 18th century, Russian monarchs attempted to balance a general perception of the death penalty as barbaric with maintaining their absolute rule. Empress Elizabeth, who reigned from 1741–1762, was the first to outlaw the death penalty. Her belief in the barbarism of capital punishment was part of her overall support of the tenets of the European Enlightenment, a movement in philosophy that celebrated humanism, scholarship, science, and the arts. She instead resorted to physical punishment by whipping or exile to Siberia in accordance with Russia’s colonial projects there. Her approach was praised by the Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria in his influential essay On Crimes and Punishments, which argued the hypocrisy and barbarism of the death penalty and deeply influenced modern penal thought in Europe. Catherine II (the Great, reign 1762–1796), the most famous monarch of the Russian Enlightenment, would again outlaw the death penalty. She believed it was largely unnecessary in a civilized state. However, she made a notable exception for anyone believed likely to cause public unrest even while imprisoned—that is, people symbolic of insurrection. She used this exception to order the execution of those plotting rebellions, thereby maintaining her absolute monarchy.

Throughout the 19th century, the death penalty remained relatively rare in the Empire, used only for treason against the state. After the Decembrist revolt of 1825, Tsar Nicholas I (reign 1825–1855) commuted the death sentences of thirty-one of the rebels to exile, executing only the five revolutionary leaders. His successor, Alexander II (reign 1855–1881), would have been the tsar at the time of the lawyer’s imprisonment in “The Bet.” Alexander II followed the tradition of the Enlightened despot modeled by Elizabeth and Catherine II, using his absolute power to reshape the government in accordance with more liberal principles. Most famously, his sweeping reforms included the emancipation of the serfs. He was firmly against the death penalty and even outlawed corporal punishment, instead exiling criminals to Siberia.

Alexander II’s efforts to enact both liberalizing reform and maintain absolute power placed him in a difficult position. For many progressive-minded students and intellectuals, Alexander II’s reforms fell far short of what they believed was necessary. At the same time, he was unpopular with the landed gentry whose wealth had depended on serf-labor. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander II changed to a more conservative course. While he did not reestablish the death penalty, the government held more trials against political dissidents in an attempt to dissuade further rebellion. The party in “The Bet” would have been held four years into this conservative backlash. Considering the relative rarity of the death penalty in Russia for anything other than political dissent, it makes sense that the partygoers would be having this sort of discussion during this period of political uncertainty. In 1881, eleven years into the lawyer’s captivity, Alexander II was assassinated in an explosion. The two succeeding tsars, Alexander III and Nicholas II continued the turn toward autocracy with more political executions, marking an end to liberal reforms in the Russian Empire.