petition

The petition in Maslova's case was the legal instrument through which Prince Dmitri Ivanovitch Nekhludoff hoped to overturn what he believed to be a gross miscarriage of justice. Drafted by the celebrated advocate Fanarin, it was grounded in four specific procedural errors committed during the trial, and its rejection by the Senate forced Nekhludoff to abandon any hope of a legal remedy and to commit himself instead to following Maslova into Siberian exile.

Drafting and Legal Grounds

After the trial, Nekhludoff consulted Fanarin, who had already read the case and pronounced it "conducted abominably." Fanarin identified four points for appeal: first, that the president had interrupted the reading of the medical report at the very beginning, though it was the prosecution that had demanded the reading; second, that Maslova's advocate had been interrupted when trying to characterize her personality and the causes of her fall; third, that the president's summing-up had omitted to inform the jury that they could find Maslova guilty of carelessness rather than intentional murder; and fourth, that the jury's verdict contained an evident contradiction—they acquitted her of intent to rob but did not add the proviso "without intent to cause death," which would have negated the murder charge. Fanarin noted that the president should have explained this omission to the jury under Article 816 of the criminal code, but had failed to do so. Despite these arguments, Fanarin was frank: he had "little hope of success," though everything depended on which senators would hear the case.

Nekhludoff's Role and the Signing

Nekhludoff took the petition to the prison himself, glad of the opportunity to see Maslova before the appointed visiting day. In the prison office, with the inspector present, he placed the folded paper on the table and showed her where to sign. Maslova, who said she "could at one time" write, sat down, arranged her sleeves, took the pen with her small, energetic hand, and glanced at Nekhludoff with a laugh before carefully writing her name. She then asked if that was all, and when Nekhludoff said he had a few words to tell her, the inspector obligingly left the room, allowing Nekhludoff to speak to her alone. It was during this interview that Nekhludoff, for the first time, told her he had decided to marry her—a declaration she met with anger and refusal.

The Senate Hearing and Rejection

The petition was heard by the Senate on the same day as a libel case. The senators—Nikitin, Wolf, Skovorodnikoff, and Bay—were divided. Wolf, who had a letter from Nekhludoff's uncle, reported the appeal with evident bias in favor of repeal. Fanarin, in his speech, proved point by point how the court had strayed from the exact meaning of the law, and even touched on the "crying injustice" of the sentence. But Selenin, the public prosecutor and an old friend of Nekhludoff's, briefly and clearly expressed himself in favor of leaving the decision unaltered, finding the reasons for appeal inadequate. In the debating room, Wolf argued for repeal; Bay, after understanding the case, took the same side with fervor; Nikitin, always on the side of severity, opposed; and Skovorodnikoff, a materialist and Darwinian who was repelled by Nekhludoff's moral determination to marry the woman, voted to reject the appeal. The sentence was thus confirmed, and Maslova remained condemned to four years' penal servitude in Siberia.

Aftermath and the Appeal to the Emperor

After the Senate's rejection, Nekhludoff felt that "the grossest injustice has been confirmed by the highest court." Fanarin immediately offered to write a petition to the Emperor, and Nekhludoff took this new document to Maslova in the prison hospital. She signed it without hesitation, and Nekhludoff later received a copy of the commutation order from Selenin: the Emperor had mitigated her sentence from hard labor to exile in the less distant districts of Siberia. The original document was sent to the place where she had been imprisoned before trial, and from there to the principal government office in Siberia. Though the petition to the Senate had failed, the appeal to the Emperor succeeded, transforming Maslova's fate from penal servitude to exile—a change that also altered the terms of Nekhludoff's own commitment to her.