neighbours or the Church. Novgorod and Pskov, economically
the strongest fiefdoms in the years of the feudal particularism, conducted
animated trade with the West, and concluded treaties with the Hansa, Sweden and
the Livonian Knights. As Moscow grew in power, also grew the circle of its
political interests; then started the grand politics, and correspondence and
pacting was endless. Domestic affairs were dominated by the correspondence
related to the National Assembly (Zemsky
Sobor), for first time summoned in 1550, materials concerning state
offices, and especially the establishment of the Legislative Assembly (Boyar Duma), as well as rulers' decrees. As early as in the 11th century was created one of the oldest and most
important monuments of the Russian and Slavic law, the famous Russian Truth, a priceless source of
information about the social constitution, legal relations, courts and
punishments, as well as the system of heritage. The Russian Truth for the first time sorted,
codified and enforced previously very different habits, having simultaneously
bound them with the basic predicaments of the princely power. The Russian Truth like a mirror reflects the whole
character of the contemporary relations, and more and more growing role of
exploitation of the dependent peasant folk.
The Russian Truth has survived in
several versions, short and long, which had been copied as early as since the
13th century. The first of them was discovered in 1738, and its first printed
issue was published in 1767. Individual versions may have their own
subdivisions; experts have been studying them and analysing them for more than
200 years now, and as of today a rich literature concerning this subject is
available.
The Russian Truth has left a great
influence on the Russian law, especially the laws of Pskov and Novgorod, and
later also on the Law Code (Sudebnik) of
Ivan III and the whole Muscovite legal system beginning from 1497. Consolidation
of the strong centralized state and the autocratic system brought numerous
changes and the necessity of legal reforms. This way it came to the emergence of
the Law Code (Tsarsky Sudebnik) of Ivan
IV in 1550, and the Legal Code, so-called Sobornoye Ulozheniye, of czar Alexei in 1649.
It was not until 1830, namely almost two hundred years later, that Russia saw a
legal reform of such dimensions again. Within that period there was issued a
multitude of legal acts concerning all the spheres of the human activities,
including army, education, civil law and criminal law. It is also proper to
mention separately the monuments of the ecclesiastic laws, and especially the
canon acts of the councils.
|
First decrees of the ecclesiastic law came to Rus from Byzantium, where as
early as at the end of the 6th century there were issued so-called nomokanons -
collections of ecclesiastic rules, often reflecting decisions of the secular,
imperial, administration concerning the Church constitution. So, in the nomokanons one can find texts of resolutions
|
 |
|
of
all the universal councils, sometimes also diocesan and
provincial councils - so-called apostolic letters - as well as,
historically very vague, patriarchal ecclesiastical decrees. In Rus nomokanons, known as kormchiye knigi,
followed the Greek pattern. A great number of nomokanons has survived,
especially ones going back to the period before and including the 16th century,
partly as translations of the Greek, Bulgarian or Serbian nomokanons with
numerous own amendments, as well as with fragments of the texts taken from
secular documents, for example from the aforementioned Russian Truth.
|
Among other secular documents of specific legal or political importance it is
worth to mention wills of the rulers and electoral documents - twice in the
history of Russia, in 1598 and 1613, czars were elected to the throne by the Zemsky Sobor. Parallel to the formation
of the centralized Russian state developed administrative and economical
documentation, bigger and bigger, and concerning of ever broader range of new
issues regarding lands, social classes and spheres of human activities. Since
the 15th century the circulation of the documentation was controlled by central
offices, so-called prikazy. Their
written documents reflect the long process of enslavement of the free
population. As the bureaucracy grew, both central and provincial, also grew the
importance of the class of what nowadays would be called state officials. They
had a lot of work, especially with endless censuses and inventories, which were
needed for taxation or military purposes, not to mention other important
reasons. Therefore, it is easy to understand how important to the state
administration were their ledgers, or so-called pistsovyie knigi, which had been dated since
the end of the 15th century. Those ledgers contain incredibly detailed
inventories of provinces and cities, villages and even smallest hamlets, arable
lands, meadows, pastures, forests, dwellings, facilities, markets, workshops,
and even... temples. No lesser is the importance of the army ledgers, or
so-called razryadnyie knigi, dated since
the 16th century. They contain not only statistical data concerning the size of
the army and its weapons, but also shed the light on some questions of the
military organization, art of war, and foreign policy. And when it comes to the
foreign policy, it is worth to mention ever bigger documentation accompanying
animation of the diplomatic contacts with the outer world. Envoys were receiving
instructions and compiling reports, while political events were reflected in
appropriate protocols.
|
