What does the expression “places not so distant” mean?
This expression appeared in the Russian language thanks to officials.
In 1845, the ‘Code of Punishments’ was issued – a kind of regulation on the punishment of criminals. For deliberate murders, convicts were flogged 20-30 times and sent into exile to “места отдаленные” (“mesta otdalennie” or “remote places”). That is, beyond the Urals, to Siberia, to Sakhalin Island, as far as possible from the center of the country.
For less serious crimes, they received just 10-20 lashes and exile to “места не столь отдаленные” (“mesta ne stol otdalennie” or “places not so distant”) from the center. Namely, to places like the Karelia, Vologda and Arkhangelsk provinces.
Unexpectedly, this expression began to be used not only to denote exile. People began to use it when talking about prisons, in general. The idiom turned out to be so tenacious that it is still used to this day.
