A kibitka (Russian: кибитка, from the Arabic kubbat, 'dome') is a pastoralist yurt of late-19th-century Kyrgyz and Kazakh nomads.[1] The word also refers to a Russian type of carriage[2] or sleigh.
The kibitka uses the same equipage as the troika but, unlike the troika, is larger and usually closed. In Russian literature and in Russian folklore the term kibitka is used mainly[quantify] to refer to Gypsy wagons. The use in the Russian Empire of kibitki to transport disgraced noblemen into exile inspired the German-language term Kibitkenjustiz[3][4] and the equivalent English-language concept of "kibitka justice".[5]
Unter Kibitkenjustiz versteht man die Gewohnheit Missliebige auf dem 'Verwaltungswege' in das Land am Ural zu befördern, was bei 'Standespersonen' in früherer Zeit per Kibitke geschah.
Russian law did not guarantee free choice of a dwelling place, but gave officials the right to assign a residence to the tsar's subjects in any part of the Empire, even in Siberia. Russian officials could seize and transport to Siberia by administrative means persons of forbidden opinions, sometimes even those who on accusation had been tried and acquitted. Transportation was usually effected by Kibitka, springless vans, - whence arose the popular expression 'Kibitka justice,' - and the family of a suspect often knew not even where he had been taken.