Cumulation of Sentences

the imposition of two or more sentences on the same person.

Under Soviet criminal legislation, the cumulation of sentences is related to the conviction and sentencing of a person who commits a new crime while serving out a prior sentence. Since such criminal activity presents a grave social danger, the rules on assigning punishment by means of cumulating sentences are more severe than when assigning punishment for crimes of which a person has not yet been convicted.

Punishment by means of cumulating sentences is assigned according to the principle of full or partial aggregation of punishments. The term of punishment is subject to a limit established for the particular kind of punishment (not to the limit sanctioned in the article of the criminal code by which the person was convicted). When assigning punishment by means of cumulating sentences, the punishment for the last crime must first be determined by the sentence; to this punishment is then added, fully or partially, the unserved part of the punishment imposed by the previous sentence, in so doing taking account of the aforementioned limit. Both similar and dissimilar kinds of punishment can be cumulated. When cumulating punishments of deprivation of freedom and detention in a disciplinary battalion, one day of deprivation of freedom corresponds to one day of detention in a disciplinary battalion. When cumulating punishments of deprivation of freedom, exile, banishment, or correctional tasks, one day of deprivation of freedom corresponds to three days of exile, banishment, or correctional tasks. Judgments of deprivation of freedom plus a fine or of correctional tasks plus a fine cannot be cumulated but are executed independently.

The rules on assigning punishment by means of cumulating sentences also extend to conditionally convicted persons who have committed a new intentional crime during the term of probation and have been sentenced for such crime to deprivation of freedom.