Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Russia

Abstract

This is a magisterial account of the day-to-day practice of Russian criminal justice in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Nancy Kollmann contrasts Russian written law with its pragmatic application by local judges, arguing that this combination of formal law and legal institutions with informal, flexible practice contributed to the country's social and political stability. She also places Russian developments in the broader context of early modern European state-building strategies of governance and legal practice. She compares Russia's rituals of execution to the 'spectacles of suffering' of contemporary European capital punishment and uncovers the dramatic ways in which even the tsar himself, complying with Moscow's ideologies of legitimacy, bent to the moral economy of the crowd in moments of uprising. Throughout, the book assesses how criminal legal practice used violence strategically, administering horrific punishments in some cases and in others accommodating with local communities and popular concepts of justice.

Denunciation and Social Control

“…A denounced individual could stay in jail up to a month, which was the general duration of a trial. Jails tended to be unhealthy, and prisoners sometimes died from hunger and "bad air" (Kollmann 2012).…”

The State and the Church in Russia in the Early New Age: Custom and Law

“…While this process was going on, the church continued to play a significant role in the political life of the state and society. On the one hand, as noted by the same N. Kollmann, "in post-Reformation Europemovements in Catholicism and Protestant denominations to define the faith and discipline memberscomplemented states' efforts to consolidate society around state and church" (Kollmann, 2012. Brewer, 1989).…”

Савченко Д.А. Правовое Обеспечение Политической Безопасности: Опыт Московского Государства XVII В.

“…Как видим, с целью отграничить наказуемое смертью злоумышление от «непри-гожих речей» и иных проявлений неуважения к царю, не влекущих смертной казни, описа-ние преступления было дополнено признаком желания конкретного «дела». Из этих слов Г.Г.Тельберг даже сделал вывод о том, что речь в статье шла о наказании не «голого умысла», а умысла, осложненного какими-либо пригото-вительными действиями 11 .…”