Under Tsarist rule homosexuals were commonly persecuted and arrested. Official Tsarist policy in a country dominated heavily by conservative religion, was that homosexuality was a moral sin and was to be punished. Some center-left people, including Marxists and socialists, spoke for decriminalization. Many socialists however, followed mainstream sentiment on the issue. Nevertheless, laws criminalizing consensual homosexual relations came to an end after the Russian Revolution of 1917.