В article deals with the main changes in criminal law introduced by the Criminal Law on May 13, 1863. After the amendments, the Criminal Code began to combine two systems: on the one hand, there is a system of mitigating circumstances, and the right of the court to lower the sentence limited; on the other hand, there is a system of circumstances that do not imply any restrictions. In the first case we are talking about crimes, in the second case — misdemeanours. The article analyses the changes made from the point of view of strengthening criminal repression, as the courts of the correctional police were ultimately they are restricted in the right of arbitrary sentencing.