Execution for debt in the volost courts of Barnaul districts of Tomsk governorate: origin and incidence in the judicial practice (late XIX – early XX centuries)

Abstract

The subject of this research is the judicial practice of the volost courts of Barnaul district of the Tomsk governorate in the late XIX — early XX centuries. Minute books of the volost courts, which contained records on the claims, testimony of the parties and witnesses, and court decision, served as the main source for this research. Fine and comprehensive record management made allowed applying historical-systemic method, which revealed the mechanism of functionality of the volost courts. The use of content analysis allowed determining the priority of the questions under review, classifying debt enforcement by the types of undischarged obligations, reconstructing the level of legal consciousness of peasants, and assessing the effectiveness of the peasant self-governance. It is established that litigations on obligations default held second place among all cases in the volost courts, which indicates wide applicability of the practice of “seeking truth” not in the rural society, but the official institutions. Based on introduction of new sources into the scientific discourse, the author concludes the spread of debt enforcement is related not only to increase of currency circulation in everyday life of peasants, consolidation of the practice of estimation of things, and getting paid for work, but also with the crisis of trust-based relations within the rural community.