Cathedral Code of 1649 changes. The Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was adopted

The Council Code of 1649 is a set of laws of the Russian state, a monument of Russian law of the 17th century, the first legal act in Russian history that covered all existing legal norms, including the so-called “newly ordered” articles.

The Council Code was adopted at the Zemsky Sobor in 1649.

The adoption of the Code was also prompted by the Salt Riot that broke out in Moscow in 1648; One of the demands of the rebels was the convening of the Zemsky Sobor and the development of a new code. The revolt gradually subsided, but as one of the concessions to the rebels, the tsar convened the Zemsky Sobor, which continued its work until the adoption of the Council Code in 1649.

The Code was the first printed code in Russia; its text was sent to all orders and localities. The sources of the Council Code were Sudebniks, decree books of the Local, Zemsky, Robber and other orders, royal decrees, Duma sentences, decisions of Zemsky Sobors, Stoglav, Lithuanian and Byzantine legislation. In total, the Code had 25 chapters and 967 articles. It systematized and updated all Russian legislation. It developed issues of state, administrative, civil, criminal law and legal proceedings. In the SU for the first time the status of the head of state was designated, i.e. the Tsar as an autocratic and hereditary monarch. In a number of chapters, norms were enshrined that ensured the protection of the tsar, the church, and nobles from protests by the masses. In ch. II and III, the concept of a state crime was developed, which meant, first of all, actions directed against the personality of the monarch, the authorities and its representatives. Actions “en masse and conspiracy” against the tsar, boyars, governors and officials were punishable by “death without any mercy.” Ch. I was dedicated to protecting the interests of the church from “church rebels.” The Council Code of 1649 protected nobles for the murder of slaves and peasants (chapters XX-XXII). The difference in fines for “dishonor” is evidence of sharp social differentiation and the state’s protection of the interests of the “tops”: for a peasant - 2 rubles, for a walking person - 1 ruble, and for persons of the privileged classes - up to 70-100 rubles. Those. The text of the Code openly secured the privileges of the dominant class and recorded the unequal position of the dependent classes. The Council Code of 1649 is a significant step forward compared to previous legislation. It regulated not individual groups of social relations, but all aspects of socio-political life of that time. The adoption of the Council Code of 1649 was an important milestone in the development of autocracy and the

eposth system; it served the interests of the noble class. This explains its durability. It remained the basic law in Russia until the first half of the 19th century. (until 1832).

19. Criminal law according to the Code of 1649

The Council Code (SU) considers acts dangerous to feudal society to be a crime (C). P, as in Code of Laws, are called dashing deeds. The class essence of P is more clearly manifested: for the same P, different punishments were assigned depending on the criminal’s membership in a particular social group.

By subjects, the PSU distinguishes both an individual person and a group of persons.

Based on their roles, subjects are divided into main and secondary and those involved in committing P, which indicates the development of the institution of complicity.

On the subjective side, the SU divides all P into intentional, careless and accidental. The punishment for careless and intentional P is the same, since punishment follows not for the motive of P, but for its result.

On the objective side, the SU distinguishes mitigating (state of intoxication, affect) and aggravating circumstances (recurrence, amount of harm, totality).

SU distinguishes the stages of P: intent, attempt and commission of P.

The concept of relapse, extreme necessity, necessary defense appears.

The objects of PSU are the church, the state, the family, the individual, property and morality.

In order of importance, the P system was built as follows:

P against religion (blasphemy); state P (treason, attack on the life and health of the king, rebellion);

P against the order of management (forgery of seals, false accusation);

P against the person (murder, beatings, insult to honor);

official P (bribe, falsification of official documents, military P);

property P (theft, robbery, fraud);

P is against morality (children disrespecting their parents).

The purposes of punishment were deterrence and retribution. Punishment is characterized by: individualization, the class principle, the principle of uncertainty in the method, measure and duration of punishment, the use of several types of punishment for one P.

The types of punishment were:

death penalty (qualified (quartering, burning) and simple (hanging, beheading));

self-mutilation (truncating a hand, cutting off a nose, ear);

painful punishments (lashing);

prison (term of imprisonment from 3 days to indefinite);

The upper classes were punished by deprivation of honor and rights (turned into serfs, declared “disgraced,” deprivation of a position, deprivation of the right to file a lawsuit in court). Property punishments included fines and confiscation of property. There were church punishments (exile to a monastery, penance).

In the 17th century Russia continued, as noted earlier, to develop within the framework of medieval civilization and gradually entered modern civilization. The overlap of civilizational processes determined the essential features of the state and legal development of the country. This period was characterized by a very intensive development of law. The tsar adopted legislative acts together with the Zemsky Sobor (estate-representative monarchy), but the number of so-called “nominal” royal decrees, adopted by the tsar individually (absolute monarchy), gradually increased.

Especially after the end of the Time of Troubles, the government of the new dynasty began active legislative activity. Traditionally, new laws were issued at the request of one or another order, their appearance was due to very specific circumstances, and after their adoption and approval, the law was submitted to the corresponding order for execution.

The new law was included (attributed) to the normative body of the Sudebnik, in the order it was recorded in the index book.

Thus, the rule-making activity of orders on issues under their jurisdiction grew. For example, in 1616, the development of a new Charter Book of the Robbery Order began. It included many provisions of the Charter Book of 1555-1556. and new decrees containing rules of criminal and procedural law. Changes in the nature of patrimonial and local land ownership were attested in the Decree Book of the Local Order. It reflected legislation from 1626 to 1648. In addition to individual decrees, it contained a special Code on Patrimonies and Estates of 1636. Of particular interest is the Decree Book of the Zemsky Prikaz (1622-1648), a judicial and police institution in Moscow, which was also in charge of collecting taxes from the townspeople of the capital.

At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. An attempt was made to carry out a general systematization of legislation by compiling so-called codes of legal codes. But this work was not properly completed; the codes of legal codes were not officially approved.

The most important monument of law in the 17th century. became the Council Code of 1649 . (Code), which largely determined the legal system of the Russian state for many subsequent decades.

The emergence of the Council Code had a number of reasons. Firstly, this is the need to bring legislation into line with the tasks of new times. Problems that arose at the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. and associated with Russia’s entry into modern civilization determined the need for qualitative improvement of legislation. Thus, the casual nature of legal acts, characteristic of all previous legislation, became ineffective in the new conditions. Of course, the preparation and adoption of the Council Code were caused by the need to streamline and strengthen centralized state power. The state sought to interest the nobility in the service. Therefore, it expands the rights of nobles to estate lands and enslaves the peasants. To strengthen the tax base for the modernization of state power, it was necessary to eliminate the tax privileges of the “white” settlements.

Secondly, the need for systematization was also caused by the desire to streamline legislation, collect it into a single document, and eliminate contradictions in the laws.

Direct reason What accelerated legislative work was the uprising that broke out in Moscow in 1648. In this difficult situation, the Zemsky Sobor was convened, which decided to draw up new legislation. A special commission drew up a draft Code, which members of the Zemsky Sobor discussed class by class in whole and in parts. For the first time, an attempt was made to create a set of all existing legal norms, including judicial codes and newly-decreed articles.

In 1649, at the next meeting of the Zemsky Sobor, the famous Council Code was adopted, the largest legislative act, the likes of which until that time Russia had not known. The Code was approved by the Council and the Tsar. The Council Code was the first law reproduced by printing. The printed text was sent to orders and localities. More than a thousand copies of the Code were put on sale, and the circulation quickly sold out. The Council Code was a set of all existing legal norms, a kind of set of laws of the Russian state of that time.

The Code included 25 chapters and 967 articles. The articles of the law were compiled according to a certain, although not always consistent, system. The Conciliar Code, in contrast to previous legislation, had an extensive preamble, which declared the conformity of law with the decree of the “Holy Apostles” and affirmed equality before the court for all ranks (of course, in accordance with the understanding of that time, taking into account class status). This was the last collection of law in which the theoretical basis was still formed by the religious, Orthodox understanding of legal norms. The language of the Code was accessible and understandable to most segments of Russian society. The Code outlined a division of norms into institutions and branches of law, although the causality in the presentation of legal norms was not overcome.

Sources of the Council Code there were judicial codes preceding him, decree books of orders, tsarist legislation, Duma sentences, decisions of Zemsky Sobors. Petitions from nobles and townspeople had a great influence on the content of the Code. Articles of Stoglav, the Lithuanian Statute were used, and there was some borrowing from Byzantine laws.

After the adoption of the Council Code, the legislator included in it the so-called new decree articles. For example, about “robberies and murder” (1669), about estates and estates (1677), about trade (1653 - Trade Charter and 1667 - New Trade Charter). Note that the New Trade Charter (adopted on the initiative of “guests” and Moscow merchants) protected domestic trade from foreign competition. Its drafters proposed organizing a special order that dealt exclusively with trade matters.

When drawing up the Code, it was intended to collect and summarize the entire existing stock of legal acts, coordinating them with the current legislation. However, the Council Code included amendments and additions, which were submitted to the Duma in the form of zemstvo petitions. The Duma, or jointly the sovereign and the Duma, gave them a legislative character and included them in the Code. So, on the basis of petitions from servicemen and townspeople, the chapter of the Code “On Townsmen People” was compiled. Or, for example, a provision prohibiting the alienation of estates in favor of the church, provisions on the abolition of fixed-term years, the establishment of a tax on the ransom of prisoners, etc.

The cathedral code contained significant elements of state law. The law determined the status of the head of state - the king, autocratic and hereditary monarch. Moreover, the election of the autocrat at the Zemsky Sobor did not destroy the established principles; on the contrary, it justified and legitimized them. The Code contained a system of norms that regulated the most important branches of public administration, which, with a certain degree of convention, can be attributed to administrative law. For example, the chapter “The Court of Peasants” contained norms that attached peasants to the land; a special chapter regulated the content of the township reform and stated changes in the status of the “white settlements”; two chapters contained articles on the change in the position of the patrimony and estate; one of the chapters regulated the work of local governments, etc. The concept of a state crime appeared in the law for the first time.

The Code paid great attention to procedural law. This is confirmed by the fact that the largest chapter of the Council Code is “On Judgment.” Judicial law in the Code constituted a set of rules regulating the organization of the court and process. The division into two forms of process is reflected: “trial” and “search”. Moreover, the search form is clearly aimed at protecting state interests.

Thus, The Council Code of 1649 summarized the main trends in the development of domestic legislation. It established new legal institutions characteristic of the peculiarities of the civilizational development of Russia in the new era. In the Code, for the first time, an attempt was made to systematize domestic legislation, the way was opened for the creation of a new, rational modern legal system.

The Council Code of 1649, having summarized and absorbed the previous experience of creating legal norms, had its own sources . Sources of the Code are:

Legal experts;

Directive books of orders;

Royal decrees;

Duma verdicts;

Decisions of Zemsky Sobors (most of the articles were compiled based on petitions from council members);

- “Stoglav”;

Lithuanian and Byzantine legislation;

New decree articles on “robbery and murder” (1669), on estates and estates (1677), on trade (1653 and 1677), which were included in the body of legal norms of the Code after 1649.

The Council Code defines head of state status- Tsar, autocratic and hereditary monarch. The provision on the approval (election) of the tsar at the Zemsky Assembly did not at all shake the established principles, but, on the contrary, justified them. Even criminal intent (not to mention actions) directed against the person of the monarch was severely punished.

The Code contained a set of norms that regulated the most important industries government controlled. These norms can be conditionally classified as administrative. Attaching peasants to the land (Chapter 11 “The Trial of the Peasants”); the townsman reform, which changed the position of the “white settlements” (chap. 14); change in the status of patrimony and estate (chap. 16 and 17); regulation of the work of local government bodies (Chapter 21); entry and exit regime (Article 6) - all these measures formed the basis of administrative and police reforms.

Important transformations with the adoption of the Council Code took place in the region judicial rights. The Code constituted a whole set of norms regulating the organization of the court and process. Compared to the Code of Laws, there is an even greater differentiation of the process into two forms: “trial” and “search”.

Chapter 10 of the Code describes in detail the various procedures of the court: it was divided into two processes - the “trial” itself and the “decision”, i.e. rendering a sentence, a decision. The trial began with the “initiation”, the filing of a petition. The defendant was summoned to court by a bailiff, he could present guarantors, and also fail to appear in court twice if there were good reasons for this. The court accepted and used various proof: witness testimony (at least ten witnesses), written evidence (the most confidential of them are officially certified documents), kissing the cross (for disputes over an amount not exceeding one ruble), drawing lots. To obtain evidence, “general” (a survey of the population about the fact of a crime) and “general” (about a specific person suspected of a crime) search were used. A unique procedural action in court was the so-called “pravezh”. The defendant (most often an insolvent debtor) was regularly subjected to corporal punishment by the court (beating with a rod on his bare calves). The number of such procedures should have been equivalent to the amount of debt. So, for example, for a debt of one hundred rubles they flogged for a month). “Pravezh was not just a punishment - it was also a measure to encourage the defendant to fulfill the obligation (himself or through guarantors). The settlement was oral, but recorded in a “judicial list”; each stage was formalized in a special document.

The search or “detective” was used in the most serious criminal cases. Special place and attention was given to crimes about which it was stated: “the word and deed of the sovereign,” i.e. in which the state interest was affected. The case in the search process could begin with a statement from the victim, with the discovery of a crime, or with an ordinary slander.

In Chapter 21 of the Council Code of 1649, such a procedural procedure as torture was regulated for the first time. The basis for its use could be the results of a “search”, when the testimony was divided: part in favor of the suspect, part against him. The use of torture was regulated as follows: firstly, it could be used no more than three times, with a certain break; secondly, the testimony given during torture (“slander”) had to be cross-checked using other procedural measures (interrogation, oath, search).

In area criminal law The following changes have been made. First of all, the circle of subjects of the crime is determined: they can be either individuals or a group of persons. The law divides the subjects of a crime into main and secondary, understanding the latter as accomplices. In turn, complicity can be physical (assistance, practical assistance, committing the same actions as the main subject of the crime) and intellectual (for example, incitement to murder in Chapter 22). In connection with this, even a slave who committed a crime at the direction of his master began to be recognized as a subject of a crime. At the same time, it should be noted that the law distinguished from secondary subjects of a crime (accomplices) persons who were only involved in the commission of a crime: accomplices (persons who created the conditions for the commission of a crime), connivers (persons obliged to prevent the crime and did not do so), non-informers ( persons who did not report the preparation and commission of a crime), concealers (persons who hid the criminal and traces of the crime). The Code, among other things, knows the division of crimes into intentional, careless and accidental. For a careless crime, the perpetrator is punished in the same way as for an intentional criminal act (punishment follows not for the motive of the crime, but for its result). The law also distinguishes mitigating and aggravating circumstances. Mitigating circumstances include intoxication; uncontrollability of actions caused by insult or threat (affect); and to aggravating ones - repetition of the crime, the amount of harm, the special status of the object and subject of the crime, the combination of several crimes.

The law distinguishes separate stages of a criminal act: intent (which in itself can be punishable), attempted crime and commission of a crime. The law also knows the concept of relapse, which in the Council Code coincides with the concept of a “dashing person,” and the concept of extreme necessity, which is not punishable only if the proportionality of its real danger on the part of the criminal is observed. Violation of proportionality meant exceeding the limits of necessary defense and was punished.

The objects of crime according to the Council Code of 1649 were: church, state, family, person, property and morality. Crimes against the church were considered the most dangerous and that is why they were put in first place, which was done for the first time in the history of Russian secular codifications. This change had a double meaning. On the one hand, the church occupied a special place in public life, and on the other, the adoption of the church under the protection of state institutions and laws indicated their priority in the political system.

The Council Code of 1649 brought great changes to the region real, obligatory and inheritance law. The scope of civil law relations was defined quite clearly. The legislator was encouraged to do this by the development of commodity-money relations, the formation of new types and forms of ownership, and the quantitative growth of civil transactions.

The subjects of civil law relations were both private (individuals) and collective persons. In the 17th century, the legal rights of a private individual gradually expanded due to concessions from a collective entity. Legal thinking of this era was characterized by the consideration of established relations as eternal relations. Legal relations that arose on the basis of norms regulating the sphere of property relations were characterized by the instability of the status of the subject of rights and obligations. First of all, this was expressed in the division of several powers associated with one subject and one right (for example, conditional land ownership gave the subject the rights of possession and use, but not disposal of the subject). With this, difficulty arose in determining the true full-fledged subject. Subjects of civil law had to satisfy certain requirements, such as gender (there was a significant increase in the legal capacity of women compared to the previous stage), age (the qualification of 15-20 years made it possible to independently accept an estate, enslaving obligations, etc.), social and property status.

According to the Council Code, things were the subject of a number of powers, relations and obligations. The main methods of acquiring property were seizure, prescription, discovery, grant, and direct acquisition in exchange or purchase.

In the Code of 1649, regulation is acquired land grant. It was a complex set of legal actions, including the issuance of a letter of complaint; drawing up a certificate (i.e. recording in the order book certain information about the person assigned); taking possession, which consisted in the public measurement of land. The distribution of land, along with the Local Order, was carried out by other bodies - the Rank Order, the Order of the Grand Palace, the Little Russian, Novgorod, Siberian and other orders. In the 17th century, contract remained the main method of acquiring ownership of property, and in particular land. In a contract, ritual rituals lose their significance, formalized actions (participation of witnesses in concluding a contract) are replaced by written acts (“assault” of witnesses without their personal participation).

For the first time in the Council Code of 1649 it was regulated easement institute(legal restriction of the property rights of one person in the interests of the right of use of another or other persons). The legislator knew personal easements (restrictions in favor of certain persons specifically specified in the law), for example, the weeding of meadows by warriors in service. Easements in rem (limitation of property rights in the interests of an indefinite number of entities) included: the right of the mill owner to flood the underlying meadow owned by another person for production purposes; the ability to build a stove near the wall of a neighbor’s house or build a house on the boundary of someone else’s property (Chapter 10). Along with this, the right of ownership was limited either by a direct prescription of the law, or by the establishment of a legal regime that did not guarantee “eternal ownership.”

On January 29 (February 8), 1649, the Zemsky Sobor adopted a new set of laws of the Russian state - the Council Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

The appearance of this document at the very beginning of the reign of the second tsar of the Romanov family was associated with a serious socio-political and socio-economic crisis, as a result of which a wave of popular uprisings swept across the country. The legal system that existed in Russia did not suit not only the peasants, townspeople and ordinary archers, but also the nobility, who sought to expand and legislate their rights and privileges.

In June 1648, Moscow nobles and the upper ranks of the posad turned to the tsar with a request to convene a Zemsky Sobor to discuss the accumulated problems. Based on the joint decision of the tsar, the highest clergy and the Boyar Duma, a commission of 5 people was organized under the leadership of Prince N.I. Odoevsky, which included boyar S.V. Prozorovsky, okolnichy prince F. F. Volkonsky and clerks G. Leontiev and F. A. Griboedov.

The commission had to harmonize with each other all existing regulations and, supplementing them with new regulations, combine them into one code. The Code was based on decree books of orders, Moscow codes of law, boyar sentences, collective petitions, extracts from the Lithuanian statute of 1588, the Kormchaya Book, which contained the codes and laws of the Greek kings, decrees of ecumenical and local church councils.

The text of the Code was submitted for discussion and approval to the Zemsky Sobor, specially convened for this purpose, which began work on 1(11) September 1648 The Tsar, the Boyar Duma and the Consecrated Cathedral met separately from the elected representatives of the estates, led by Prince Yu. A. Dolgoruky. During the discussion, the draft document underwent significant revision, resulting in 82 new articles appearing in the final version.

Divided into 25 chapters, the 967 articles of the new code of laws, in contrast to similar documents of the previous period, contained norms not only of procedural law, but also of state, civil, administrative and criminal law. The Code for the first time determined the status of the head of state, the procedure for civil service, and the types of state and criminal crimes. The greatest attention was paid to issues of legal proceedings.

The Code finally established serfdom in the country, abolishing the “fixed summer” and declaring the search for fugitive peasants indefinite. The eternal hereditary dependence of the peasant was established, and his property was recognized as the property of the landowner.

The entire posad population was attached to the posads and transferred to the category of tax-paying estates, but received as a privilege the exclusive right to engage in commercial and industrial activities.

The Code seriously limited the rights of the clergy, who, with the exception of the patriarch and his employees, were henceforth subject to trial on a general basis and could not acquire estates. To manage the former estates of monasteries and clergy, a Monastic Order was established.

In the interests of the serving nobility, the document equalized estates and estates, allowing landowners to own and dispose of land allocated for service.

The adoption of the Code was one of the main achievements of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. It remained the fundamental law of the Russian state until 1830.

Lit.: Maslov K. A. Cathedral Code: materials for a seminar on the history of state and law of Russia [Electronic resource] // Website of students and graduates of the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University. 2001-2011. URL: http://www .law -students .net /modules .php ?name =Content &pa =showpage &pid =333 ; Cathedral Code of 1649. L., 1987;

Cathedral Code of 1649

The prerequisites for the creation of the Council Code of 1649 were determined long before its creation. The war with Sweden and Poland significantly weakened the Russian state:

a) in 1617, after signing a peace treaty with Sweden, Russia lost part of its territories - the coast of the Gulf of Finland, the Karelian Isthmus, the Neva River and the city of Yam, Ivan-gorod, Korela and Oreshek, Russia lost access to the Baltic Sea;
b) after the campaign against Moscow in 1617-1618 by the Polish-Lithuanian army and the signing of a truce, the Smolensk land and most of Northern Ukraine went to Poland;
c) the consequences of the war, which resulted in the decline and ruin of the country’s economy, required urgent measures to restore it. This task fell mainly on the inhabitants of villages and cities. The government widely distributes land to the nobles, which leads to the continuous growth of serfdom. At first, given the devastation of the village, the government slightly reduced direct taxes, but various types of emergency levies increased ("fifth money", "tenth money", "Cossack money", "streltsy money", etc.), most of which were introduced almost continuously meeting Zemsky Sobors. The entire burden of taxes fell mainly on black-sown peasants and townspeople;
d) after some strengthening of the village and city, all types of taxes increase again. The government begins to deprive the archers, gunners, city Cossacks and minor officials of their salaries, and introduces a ruinous tax on salt. Many townspeople begin to move to “white places” (the lands of large feudal lords and monasteries, exempt from state taxes), while the exploitation of the rest of the population increases: those remaining in the town had to pay the same amount of taxes, and each payer received an even larger share.

In such a situation, it was impossible to avoid major social conflicts and contradictions. All this during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645 - 1676) resulted in a series of large urban uprisings. On June 1, 1648, an uprising broke out in Moscow (the so-called “salt riot”). For several days the city was virtually in the hands of the people. The rebels destroyed the houses of many boyars and merchants. On June 10, 1648, the nobles and large merchants of Moscow demanded the expulsion of the tsar's favorite B.I. Morozov and the convening of the Zemsky Sobor. Following Moscow in the summer of 1648, the struggle of townspeople and small service people unfolded in Kozlov, Kursk, Solvychegodsk, Veliky Ustyug, Voronezh, Narym, Tomsk and other cities of the country. In this situation, on September 1, 1648, the Zemsky Sobor opened in Moscow. His work continued for quite a long time and at the beginning of 1649 the cathedral adopted a new set of laws - the Council Code. A special commission was involved in drawing up the project, and it was discussed in whole and in parts by members of the Zemsky Sobor (“in chambers”), class by class. The printed text was sent to orders and localities. With the adoption of the Council Code of 1649, for the first time in the history of Russian statehood, an attempt was made to create a set of all existing legal norms, including Codes of Law and New Decree Articles. As a result of codification, the material was compiled into 25 chapters and 967 articles. Already now a division of norms by industry and institution is emerging, although the causality in the presentation remains.

Reasons and prerequisites for the creation of the Council Code of 1649

It was this system that received the name of the All-Russian market;

Fair trade is developing, fairs of all-Russian importance emerge - Makarevskaya (near Nizhny Novgorod), Irbitskaya (in the Urals), Svenskaya (near Bryansk), Arkhangelskaya, centers specialized in the trade of certain goods (grain - Vologda, Ustyug Veliky, leather - Kazan, Vologda, Yaroslavl, flax - Novgorod, Pskov, etc.);

The first manufactories appeared (no more than 30 by the end of the 17th century) - relatively large enterprises where there was a division of labor, although labor remained manual. The largest manufactories are focused on military needs and the needs of the courtyard - Khamovny Dvor and Cannon Dvor in Moscow, a rope factory in Arkhangelsk, an ironworks in Tula, etc.;

The state is taking measures to protect Russian production from foreign competitors (the New Trade Charter of 1667 prohibited overseas merchants from conducting retail trade in Russia). The significance of new phenomena in the socio-economic field is assessed differently. Some historians associate with them the beginning of the formation of a capitalist economy in Russia. Most researchers, however, are convinced that economic changes did not disrupt the main trend. It consisted in the final establishment of the serfdom system in the country: the Council Code of 1649 prohibited the transfer of peasants and introduced an indefinite search for fugitives. Serfdom, “a cry of despair emitted by the state,” received legal formalization on an all-Russian scale. In manufactories, it was not civilian labor that was used, but the labor of serfs assigned to the enterprises. The new was intricately combined with the old, and the predominance of the old was almost unconditional. This circumstance is an important feature of what began in the 17th century. Russia's transition to a new time.
Many new things have also appeared in the political field. The meaning of the changes was the gradual formation of absolutism, the transition from an estate-representative monarchy to an absolute one:

The official title of the tsar is changed: “By the grace of God, the great sovereign, tsar and grand prince of all Great and Small and White Rus', autocrat.” Noteworthy is the emphasis placed on the unlimited, autocratic nature of the monarch’s power. The understanding of the tsar-autocrat as the embodiment of state sovereignty, its sole bearer, is ideologically consolidated;

The importance of Zemsky Sobors decreased, which after 1653 ceased to meet at all;

The composition and role of the Boyar Duma is changing. The overwhelming majority of the tsar’s decrees are now adopted without the “sentence” of the boyars, and there are fewer and fewer well-born boyars in the Duma, their place is taken by mongrel nobles and clerks; - orders flourish - bodies of the central executive power, in which a special layer of people performing managerial functions is formed - the prototype of the future bureaucracy;

A Secret Order is established, which is under the personal control of the Tsar and stands above all orders, the Boyar Duma and other authorities;
- steps are being taken towards the creation of a regular army (regiments of the “new order”).
Noting new phenomena in the political sphere, it should be noted that the formation of absolutism in Russia had its own characteristics. It was based not on the successes of new social strata - the bourgeoisie in the first place, but on factors specific to our country: autocratic-despotic traditions dating back to the times of the Mongol-Tatar yoke and the era of the struggle for the unity of Russian lands; the need to keep a vast territory under control; rivalry between the boyar aristocracy and the nobility, etc.

The meaning of the Council Code of 1649 is great, since this act is not only a set of laws, but also a reform that gave an extremely conscientious response to the needs and demands of that time.

Cathedral Code of 1649 is one of the most important legal acts adopted at a joint meeting of the Boyar Duma, the Consecrated Council and elected representatives of the population. This source of legislation is a scroll 230 m long, consisting of 25 chapters, divided into 959 handwritten columns, printed in the spring of 1649 in a huge circulation for its time - 2400 copies.

Conventionally, all chapters can be combined into 5 groups (or sections) corresponding to the main branches of law: Ch. 1–9 contain state law; Ch. 10–15 – statute of legal proceedings and judicial system; Ch. 16–20 – property right; Ch. 21–22 – criminal Code; Ch. 22–25 – additional articles about archers, about Cossacks, about taverns.

The sources for drawing up the Code were :

1) “Rules of the Holy Apostles” and “Rules of the Holy Fathers”;

2) Byzantine legislation (as far as it was known in Rus' from helmsmen and other church-civil legal collections);

3) old codes of law and statutes of former Russian sovereigns;

4) Stoglav;

5) legitimization of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich;

6) boyar sentences;

7) Lithuanian Statute of 1588

Cathedral Code of 1649 for the first time determines the status of the head of state- autocratic and hereditary king. The attachment of peasants to the land, the township reform, which changed the position of the “white settlements”, the change in the status of patrimony and estate in the new conditions, the regulation of the work of local governments, the regime of entry and exit - formed the basis of administrative and police reforms.

In addition to the concept of “dashing deed” in the meaning of “crime”, the Council Code of 1649 introduces such concepts as “theft” (accordingly, the criminal was called a “thief”), “guilt”. Guilt was understood as a certain attitude of the criminal towards the crime.

The following criminal law elements were distinguished in the system of crimes:: crimes against the church; state crimes; crimes against the order of government; crimes against decency; malfeasance; crimes against the person; property crimes; crimes against morality; war crimes.

Church schism.

Having become patriarch (1652), Nikon took up the task of correcting the church according to Greek models. Books, icons, and the order of worship had to correspond to the Greek canons. Prostrations to the ground were abolished, and from now on one should be baptized not with two, but with three fingers. Nikon acted decisively, harshly, mercilessly, rudely.
Defenders of the old rituals (Old Believers) in 1656. were excommunicated from the church. They did not submit; a special church organization was created that remained faithful to the old rituals - the Old Believer Church. This is how a split occurred. The schismatic movement became a form of social protest. Church innovations in the minds of people were closely connected with innovations that worsened their situation: the formalization of serfdom, the indefinite search for fugitives, the increase in taxes and duties, red tape and bribes. It is believed that more than a quarter of the population did not accept Nikon’s reform. Commitment to antiquity, hatred of everything foreign turned out to be too strong.
The Old Believers, who held on to the “ancient faith” and rejected the “Latin charm,” resisted desperately and stubbornly. In 1668, an uprising broke out in the Solovetsky Monastery. It took eight years to suppress the monks' protest. People followed the schism teachers, abandoned their homes, went beyond the Urals, to the North, beyond the Volga, founded their own settlements - monasteries, and committed mass self-immolations. Persecution helped little. Archpriest Avvakum, burned at the stake in 1682, became for the Old Believers a symbol of perseverance, spiritual purity, and courage.
As for Nikon, his fate was also tragic. An ambitious man, he taught that spiritual power is higher than secular power. Just as the Moon shines in the rays of the Sun, so royal power reflects the brilliance of spiritual power. A conflict with the tsar became inevitable; in 1658 Nikon voluntarily renounced the patriarchate, and in 1666 a church council removed the patriarchal rank from him and sent him to imprisonment in the Ferapontov monastery.

1. The history of the creation of the Cathedral Code of 1649. a) in 1617, after the signing of a peace treaty with Sweden, Russia lost part of its territories - it lost access to the Baltic Sea, b) after the campaign against Moscow in 1617-1618, the Smolensk land and most of Northern Ukraine went to Poland, c) the consequences of the war, the ruin of the country's economy, demanded urgent measures to restore it). The government begins to deprive the archers and petty bureaucrats of their salaries, and introduces a ruinous tax on salt.

All this during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645 - 1676) resulted in a series of large urban uprisings. On June 1, 1648, an uprising broke out in Moscow (the so-called “salt riot”).

Establishment of serfdom (enslavement of peasants)

On June 10, 1648, the nobles and large merchants of Moscow demanded the expulsion of the tsar's favorite B.I. Morozov and the convening of the Zemsky Sobor. In this situation, on September 1, 1648, the Zemsky Sobor opened in Moscow. His work continued for quite a long time, and at the beginning of 1649 the cathedral adopted a new set of laws - the Council Code. A special commission was involved in drawing up the project; it was discussed in its entirety and in parts by members of the Zemsky Sobor (“in chambers”), class by class. The printed text was sent to orders and localities. An attempt was made for the first time to create a set of all existing legal norms, including Codes of Law and New Decree Articles. The material was compiled into 25 chapters and 967 articles. A division of norms by industry and institution is outlined, although the causality in the presentation remains. For the first time in Russia, legislation was printed.

2. General provisions of the Council Code of 1649.

The sources of the Code were: legal codes, decree books of orders, tsarist decrees, Duma sentences, decisions of Zemsky Sobors (most of the articles were compiled based on petitions from council councils), "Stoglav", Lithuanian and Byzantine legislation.

The Council Code defines the status of the head of state - the tsar, autocratic and hereditary monarch. His approval (election) at the Zemsky Sobor did not shake the established principles, but, on the contrary, justified them. Even criminal intent (not to mention actions) directed against the person of the monarch was severely punished.

Important changes have taken place in the field of judicial law. The Code constituted a whole set of norms regulating the organization of the court and process. The process is differentiated into two forms: “trial” and “search”. The process itself is actually “judgment” and “decision”, i.e. rendering a sentence, a decision.

In the field of criminal law, the subjects of crime were defined: individuals and groups of individuals. The law divides them into main and secondary, understanding the latter as accomplices

The Code knows the division of crimes into intentional, careless and accidental.

The law distinguishes separate stages of a criminal act: intent (which in itself can be punishable), attempted crime and commission of a crime.

The law knows the concept of relapse (coinciding in the Code with the concept of “dashing person”).

The objects of crime according to the Council Code were: church, state, family, person, property and morality.

The Council Code of 1649 brought great changes to the field of property, obligation and inheritance law.

In the Code, land grants are regulated, but agriculture remains conditional.

3. System of crimes.

a) crimes against the church: blasphemy,

b) state crimes: actions against the sovereign and his family

c) crimes against administrative order: failure to appear in court,

d) crimes against decency: maintaining brothels,

e) malfeasance: extortion (bribery),

c) crimes against the person

g) property crimes: theft (theft), robbery and robbery

h) crimes against morality "fornication" of the wife (but not the husband).

4. Punishment system.

a) Individualization of punishment. The wife and children of the criminal were not responsible for the act he committed.

b) Class nature of punishment.

c) Uncertainty in establishing punishment. "as the sovereign directs."

For the same crime, several punishments could be established at once - whipping, cutting of the tongue, exile, confiscation of property

The Council Code provided for the death penalty in almost sixty cases (even smoking tobacco was punishable by death).

Imprisonment, as a special type of punishment, could be established for a period of three days to four years or for an indefinite period

Property sanctions were widely used. The highest sanction of this type was the complete confiscation of the criminal's property.

Finally, the system of sanctions included church punishments (repentance, excommunication, exile to a monastery, confinement in a solitary cell, etc.)

Cathedral Code of 1649

Every openly expressed thought, no matter how false, every clearly conveyed fantasy, no matter how absurd, cannot fail to find sympathy in some soul

Lev Tolstoy

In this article we will briefly consider the Council Code of 1649, as one of the first documents that systematized the legislation of Rus'. In 1649, for the first time in the history of Russia, the codification of state law was carried out: the Zemsky Sobor developed the Council Code. For the first time, this regulatory document not only collected the basic laws of the state, they were classified by industry. This significantly simplified the system of Russian legislation and ensured its stability. This article describes the main reasons for the adoption of the Council Code of 1649, its main meaning and brief description, and also analyzes the main consequences of the adoption of the law on the development of Russian statehood.

Reasons for the adoption of the Council Code of 1649

Between 1550 and 1648, about 800 decrees, laws and other regulations were issued. Especially many of them came out during the Time of Troubles. Working with them required not only great knowledge, but also a lot of processing time. In addition, there were cases when some provisions of one decree could conflict with others, which caused great damage to the legislative system of the Russian kingdom. These problems forced us to think about codifying existing laws, that is, processing them and compiling them into a single and integral set of laws. In 1648, the Salt Riot took place in Moscow; one of the demands of the rebels was a call for the convening of a Zemsky Sobor to create an agreed and unified law.

Another reason pushing Alexei Mikhailovich to create the Council Code of 1649 was the state’s tendency towards an absolute monarchy, which required clear enshrinement in laws. The tsar from the young Romanov dynasty actually concentrated all power in his hands, limiting the influence of the Zemsky Sobor; however, the new political system required enshrinement in laws. Also, new class relations, and especially the status of the nobility and peasantry (the tendency towards the formation of serfdom) also needed legal revision. This whole set of reasons led to the fact that at the end of 1648, Alexei Mikhailovich convened the Zemsky Sobor, giving him the task of forming a single set of laws, which went down in history as the Council Code.

Sources of the Code and work on its creation

To create a code of laws, a special commission was created, consisting of those close to the tsar, headed by Prince Nikita Odoevsky. In addition to him, the commission included the hero of the Smolensk War, Prince Fyodor Volkonsky, as well as clerk Fyodor Griboyedov. Tsar Alexei personally took part in the work of the commission. The basis for writing the Council Code of 1649, in short, was the following legal sources:

Law codes of 1497 and 1550. The basis of the Russian legal system of the 16th century.
Decree books of orders, where the basic laws and orders issued in the late 16th - first half of the 17th centuries were collected.
Lithuanian Statute of 1588. The Basic Law of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of this period served as a model of legal technique. From here legal formulations, phrases, rubrics, as well as ideas about the situation of the peasantry were taken.
Petitions submitted to government bodies from the boyars for consideration. They indicated the main requests and wishes regarding the existing legal system. Also, during the work of the commission, petitions were sent to its participants from various regions of the country.
The helmsman's book (Nomocanon). These are collections of laws that related to church affairs. This tradition came from Byzantium. The helm book is used in the management of the church, as well as in the organization of church courts.

Characteristics of Codes by industry

In 1649, the Council Code was completely completed. It is interesting that this was not only the first collection of Russian laws, formed according to headings that were determined by areas of law. This was the first set of laws of Russia that was in printed form. In total, the Council Code consisted of 25 chapters, which contained 967 articles. Historians of Russian law identify the following legal branches, which were disclosed in the Council Code of 1649:

State law

The law completely determined the legal status of the monarch in Russia, as well as the mechanisms of inheritance of power. Articles from this branch of law addressed questions from the point of view of the legality of the Romanov dynasty on the throne. In addition, these articles consolidated the process of establishing an absolute monarchy in Russia.

Criminal law

Firstly, the types of crimes were classified here. Secondly, all possible types of punishment are described. The following types of crimes were identified:

Crimes against the state. This type of crime first appeared in the Russian legal system. Insults and other illegal actions against the monarch, his family, as well as conspiracy and treason were considered a crime against the state. By the way, in cases where the relatives of the criminal knew about the crime against the Russian state, then they bore the same responsibility.
Crimes against government. This category included: counterfeiting coins, unauthorized crossing of the state border, giving false evidence and accusations (recorded in the law with the term “sneaking”).
Crimes against "decency". These crimes meant sheltering fugitives and criminals, selling stolen goods and maintaining brothels.
Official crimes: bribery, waste of public money, injustice, as well as war crimes (primarily looting).
Crimes against the Church. This included blasphemy, conversion to another faith, interruption of church services, etc.
Crimes against the person: murder, mutilation, beatings, insult. By the way, killing a thief at the scene of a crime was not considered a violation of the law.
Property crimes: theft, robbery, fraud, horse theft, etc.
Crimes against morality. In this category there was a wife’s betrayal of her husband, “fornication” with a slave, and disrespect for parents.

As for punishments for crimes, the Council Code of 1649 identified several main types:

Death penalty by hanging, quartering, beheading, burning. For counterfeiting, the criminal had molten iron poured down his throat.
Corporal punishment, such as branding or whipping.
Terme conclusion. The term was from three days to life imprisonment. By the way, the prison inmates were supposed to be supported by the relatives of the prisoners.
Link. Initially it was used for senior officials who fell out of favor (“disgrace”) with the king.
Dishonorable punishments. Also applied to the upper classes, it consisted of deprivation of rights and privileges through demotion in rank.
Fines and confiscation of property.

Civil law

For the first time in the history of Russia, attempts were made to describe the institution of private property, as well as to highlight the legal capacity of subjects. Thus, a young man of 15 years old could be given an estate. The types of contracts for the transfer of property rights were also described: oral and written. The Council Code defined the concept of “acquisitive prescription” - the right to receive a thing into private ownership after using it for a certain time. In 1649 this period was 40 years.

Adoption of the Council Code: reasons, date

The basis of the civil sector of the new set of laws was the consolidation of the class character of Russian society. All classes of Russia were regulated, the nobility became the main support of the absolute monarchy.

In addition, the Council Code of 1649 briefly but finally completed the enslavement of the peasants: the landowner had the right to look for runaway peasants any time after the escape. Thus, the peasants were finally “attached” to the land, becoming the property of the landowner.

Family law

The Council Code did not directly concern family law, since it was within the competence of the church court. However, certain articles of the code of laws concerned family life, describing the basic principles of family relations. So, parents had great power over their children, for example, if a daughter killed one of the parents, she was executed, and if a parent killed a child, he received a year in prison. Parents had the right to beat their children, but they were forbidden to complain about their parents.

As for married couples, the husband had actual ownership over his wife. The age of marriage for a man was 15 years, and for a woman - 12. Divorce was strictly regulated and was allowed only in certain cases (entry to a monastery, the wife’s inability to give birth to children, etc.).

In addition to the above provisions, the Council Code dealt with the procedural component of law. Thus, the following procedures were established, the purpose of which was to obtain evidence:

"Search". Inspection of things, as well as communication with possible witnesses.
"Pravezh". Caning of an insolvent debtor for a specified period of time, in exchange for a fine. If the debtor had money before the end of the “right” period, then the beating stopped.
"Wanted." The use of various means to search for a criminal, as well as to conduct interrogations to obtain the necessary information. The Code described the right to use torture (no more than two or three times, using breaks).

Additions to the law in the 17th century

During the second half of the 17th century, additional laws were adopted that introduced changes or additions to the Code. For example, in 1669 a law was passed to increase penalties for criminals. It was associated with the increase in crime in Russia during this period. In 1675-1677, additions were adopted on the status of the estate. This was due to an increase in disputes regarding land rights. In 1667, the “New Trade Charter” was adopted, which was designed to support Russian manufacturers in the fight against foreign goods.

Historical meaning

Thus, the Council Code of 1649 has several meanings in the history of the development of the Russian state and law:

This was the first set of laws to be printed.
The Council Code eliminated most of the contradictions that existed in the laws of the late 16th and first half of the 17th centuries. At the same time, the Code took into account the previous achievements of the Russian legislative system, as well as the best practices of neighboring states in the field of lawmaking and codification.
It formed the main features of the future absolute monarchy, the support of which was the nobility.
Serfdom finally formed in Russia.

The Council Code of 1649 was in force until 1832, when Speransky developed the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire.

The Cathedral Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich of 1649 as a monument of law

Home page —> Answers to tickets — history of the Russian state and law —> Cathedral Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich of 1649 as a monument of law

Main sources of all-Russian law in the XV-XVII centuries. There were: great princely (royal) legislation (complaints, decree, spiritual charters and decrees), “sentences” of the Boyar Duma, resolutions of Zemsky Sobors, sectoral orders of orders.

New complex ones are being created forms of legislation - all-Russian codes (Code of Laws, Sobornoe Code), decrees (statutory), which systematized norms that were not included in the main text of the book of Sudebnikov. The Cathedral Code of 1649 is a set of laws of the Moscow state, a monument of Russian law of the 17th century, the first normative law in Russian history. a legal act that covered all existing legal norms, including the so-called “newly decree” articles (see the section “Development of the Code”).

The most significant measure of the government was the new codification of laws - edition of the Code of 1649, which replaced the outdated Code of Laws of Ivan the Terrible from 1550. The Council Code was adopted at the Zemsky Sobor in 1649 and was in force until 1832, when, as part of the work to codify the laws of the Russian Empire, carried out under the leadership of M. M. Speransky, the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire was developed.

The Council Code consists of 25 chapters regulating various areas of life.

The Council Code determined head of state status- tsar, autocratic and hereditary monarch. Royal power is the power of God's anointed one.

Crime system according to the Council Code:

1. For the first time the concept of state crime was defined: all acts directed against the power, health, honor of the king and his family, criticism of the government. The death penalty was imposed for everything: even stealing the royal goods, catching fish in the royal pond. Only for actions that inadvertently caused damage to the royal authority, for example, for mistakes in the title or name of the sovereign, could they be whipped, beaten, or exiled to eternal life in Siberia. Responsibility was borne not only by the persons who committed them, but also by their relatives and friends.

Even criminal intent directed against the person of the monarch was severely punished.

Every resident of the Moscow state, having learned about plans against the tsar, was obliged to report. To do this, it was enough to shout “The Sovereign's word and deed!” on the street.

2 . crimes against the church : blasphemy, seducing an Orthodox Christian into another faith, interrupting the course of the liturgy in a church (for the latter they were subjected to trade execution, flogged in a trade.)

3. crimes vs control order: malicious failure of the defendant to appear in court and resistance to the bailiff, production of false letters, acts and seals, unauthorized travel abroad, counterfeiting, running drinking establishments without permission and moonshine, taking a false oath in court, giving false testimony, "sneaking" or false accusation (in the latter case, the punishment that would have been applied to a person falsely accused by him was applied to the "sneak");

4. crimes against deanery: maintenance of brothels, harboring fugitives, illegal sale of property, unauthorized entry into mortgage (to a boyar, to a monastery, to a landowner), imposition of duties on persons exempt from them

5 . officials crimes: extortion (bribery, extortion), injustice (deliberately unfair decision of a case due to self-interest or personal hostility), forgery in service, military crimes (looting, escape from a unit);

6. crimes against personalities: murder, divided into simple and qualified (murder of parents by children, murder of a master by a slave), mutilation, beatings, insult to honor (in the form of insult or slander, spreading of defamatory rumors). The killing of a traitor or thief at the scene of the crime was not punished at all.

7. property crimes: simple and qualified theft (church, in the service, horse theft committed in the sovereign's courtyard), robbery and robbery, ordinary or qualified (committed by service people or children against parents), fraud (theft associated with deception, but without violence), arson (the caught arsonist was thrown into the fire), forcible seizure of someone else's property, its damage;

8. crimes against morality: children’s disrespect for their parents, refusal to support elderly parents, pimping, “fornication” of the wife (but not the husband),

Purposes of punishment According to the Council Code there was intimidation and retribution.

The punishment system was characterized by the following features:

A) Individualization of punishment(the relatives of the criminal were not responsible for what he did) Class nature of punishment(for example, for a similar act, a boyar was punished with deprivation of honor, and a commoner with a whip). V) Uncertainty in establishing punishment. (the sentence contained unclear wording; the same crime could entail different types of punishment)

Types of punishment

1) the death penalty : qualified (cutting, quartering, burning, pouring metal into the throat, burying alive in the ground) and simple (cutting off the head, hanging).

2) self-harm punishments : cutting off an arm, leg, cutting off a nose, ear, tearing out nostrils.

3) whipping or whipping in a public place(at the auction).

4) imprisonment for a period from three days to four years or for an indefinite period, link (to remote monasteries, forts, fortresses or boyar estates).

5) for the privileged classes - deprivation of honor and rights from becoming a slave to declaring “disgrace” (sovereign disfavor). (relatively speaking, this resembled a partial outlawry).

6) property sanctions (gradation of fines “for dishonor” depending on the social status of the victim). The highest sanction of this type was the complete confiscation of the criminal's property.

7) church punishments (repentance, penance, excommunication, exile to a monastery, confinement in a solitary cell, etc.).

Judicial law in the Code constituted a special set of rules regulating the organization of the court and process. There was a difference between the trial and the search. Search or "detective" was used in the most serious criminal cases.

For the first time, the use of torture was regulated. Often the defendant was subjected to legal punishment (i.e. corporal punishment)

Administrative and political transformations.

The Code contained a set of norms that regulated the most important branches of public administration. The attachment of peasants to the land, the township reform, which changed the position of the “white settlements”, the change in the status of patrimony and estate in the new conditions, the regulation of the work of local governments, the regime of entry and exit - all these measures formed the basis of administrative and police reforms.

Code of 1649 allowed the owners to search for peasants forever, without a time limit, and return them to the estates. Fighting the flight of the townspeople, the Code forever attached the townspeople to the settlement. The law of 1658 required the death penalty for escaping from a posad.

Many articles regulated relations between the population and local authorities. Disobedience of ordinary people was punished, but punishments were also imposed on governors and other officials for extortion, bribes and other abuses.

Sphere civil law relationships.

The rules governing civil legal relations were unclear: the same legal source could give several decisions on the same issue.

Subjects civil legal relations included both private (individuals) and collective entities.

Cathedral Code of 1649

Subjects of civil law had to meet certain requirements, such as gender, age (15-20 years), social and property status.

The Code considered the procedure for acquiring and inheriting property and patrimonial lands. Land grant in the estate (the act of transferring property by the state to the landowner) did not change the subject of ownership - it remained the state. The landowner was granted only the right of lifelong ownership.

In area family law the principles of house-building continued to apply - the supremacy of the husband over his wife and children, the actual community of property, etc. They were also disclosed in legislative provisions.

In general, the Code summed up the development of Russia in the mid-17th century. In addition, it provided the basis for the further development of Russian legislation.

1. Historical and economic prerequisites for creation

Cathedral Code of 1649.

2. Sources and main provisions of the Council Code

3. System of crimes.

4. System of punishments.

5. The significance of the Council Code of 1649 in the socio-political life of Russia.

1. Historical and economic prerequisites for the creation

Cathedral Code of 1649.

The beginning of the 17th century is characterized by the political and economic decline of Russia. This was largely facilitated by the wars with Sweden and Poland, which ended in the defeat of Russia in 1617.

After signing a peace treaty with Sweden in 1617, Russia lost part of its territories - the coast of the Gulf of Finland, the Karelian Isthmus, the course of the Neva and the cities on its coast. Russia's access to the Baltic Sea was closed.

In addition, after the campaign against Moscow in 1617-1618 by the Polish-Lithuanian army and the signing of a truce, the Smolensk land and most of Northern Ukraine were ceded to Poland.

The consequences of the war, which resulted in the decline and ruin of the country's economy, required urgent measures to restore it, but the whole burden fell mainly on the black-sown peasants and townspeople. The government widely distributes land to the nobles, which leads to the continuous growth of serfdom. At first, given the devastation of the village, the government slightly reduced direct taxes, but various types of emergency levies increased (“fifth money”, “tenth money”, “Cossack money”, “streltsy money”, etc.), most of which were introduced almost continuously meeting Zemsky Sobors.

However, the treasury remains empty and the government begins to deprive the archers, gunners, city Cossacks and minor officials of their salaries, and introduces a ruinous tax on salt. Many townspeople begin to move to “white places” (the lands of large feudal lords and monasteries, exempt from state taxes), while the exploitation of the rest of the population increases.

In such a situation, it was impossible to avoid major social conflicts and contradictions.

On June 1, 1648, an uprising broke out in Moscow (the so-called “salt riot”). The rebels held the city in their hands for several days and destroyed the houses of the boyars and merchants.

Following Moscow, in the summer of 1648, a struggle between townspeople and small service people unfolded in Kozlov, Kursk, Solvychegodsk, Veliky Ustyug, Voronezh, Narym, Tomsk and other cities of the country.

Practically, throughout the entire reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676), the country was gripped by small and large uprisings of the urban population. It was necessary to strengthen the legislative power of the country, and on September 1, 1648, the Zemsky Sobor opened in Moscow, the work of which ended with the adoption at the beginning of 1649 of a new set of laws - the Cathedral Code. The project was drawn up by a special commission, and it was discussed in whole and in parts by members of the Zemsky Sobor (“in chambers”). The printed text was sent to orders and localities.

2. Sources and main provisions of the Council Code

1649.

The Council Code of 1649, having summarized and absorbed the previous experience of creating legal norms, was based on:

- forensic officers;

— decree books of orders;

- royal decrees;

- Duma verdicts;

- decisions of the Zemsky Sobors (most of the articles were compiled based on petitions from the Council councils);

- “Stoglav”;

— Lithuanian and Byzantine legislation;

— new decree articles on “robbery and murder” (1669), on estates and estates (1677), on trade (1653 and 1677), which were included in the Code after 1649.

In the Council Code, the head of state, the tsar, was defined as an autocratic and hereditary monarch. The provision on the approval (election) of the tsar at the Zemsky Assembly substantiated these principles. Any actions directed against the person of the monarch were considered criminal and subject to punishment.

The Code contained a set of norms that regulated the most important branches of public administration. These norms can be conditionally classified as administrative. Attaching peasants to the land (Chapter 11 “The Trial of the Peasants”); the townsman reform, which changed the position of the “white settlements” (chap. 14); change in the status of patrimony and estate (chap. 16 and 17); regulation of the work of local government bodies (Chapter 21); entry and exit regime (Article 6) - all these measures formed the basis of administrative and police reforms.

With the adoption of the Council Code, changes occurred in the field of judicial law. A number of norms concerning the organization and work of the court were developed. Compared to the Code of Laws, there is an even greater division into two forms: “trial” and “search”.

The court procedure is described in Chapter 10 of the Code. The court was based on two processes - the “trial” itself and the “decision”, i.e. rendering a sentence, a decision. The trial began with the “initiation”, the filing of a petition. The defendant was summoned to court by a bailiff, he could present guarantors, and also fail to appear in court twice if there were good reasons for this. The court accepted and used various evidence: testimony (at least ten witnesses), written evidence (the most trusted of them are officially certified documents), kissing the cross (in disputes over an amount not exceeding one ruble), and drawing lots. To obtain evidence, a “general” search was used - a survey of the population about the fact of a crime committed, and a “general” search - about a specific person suspected of a crime. The so-called “pravezh” was introduced into court practice, when the defendant (most often an insolvent debtor) was regularly subjected to corporal punishment (beating with rods) by the court. The number of such procedures should have been equivalent to the amount of debt. So, for example, for a debt of one hundred rubles, they flogged for a month. Pravezh was not just a punishment - it was also a measure that encouraged the defendant to fulfill the obligation (himself or through guarantors). The settlement was oral, but was recorded in the “judicial list” and each stage was formalized in a special letter.

The search or “detective” was used only in the most serious criminal cases, and a special place and attention in the search was given to crimes in which the state interest was affected (“the word and deed of the sovereign”).

Prerequisites for the creation of the Council Code of 1649

The case in the search process could begin with a statement from the victim, with the discovery of a crime, or with an ordinary slander.

In Chapter 21 of the Council Code of 1649, such a procedural procedure as torture was established for the first time. The basis for its use could be the results of a “search”, when the testimony was divided: part in favor of the suspect, part against him. The use of torture was regulated: it could be used no more than three times, with a certain break; and the testimony given during torture (“slander”) had to be cross-checked using other procedural measures (interrogation, oath, search).

The following changes were also made in the field of criminal law - the circle of subjects of the crime was determined: they could be either individuals or a group of persons. The law divided the subjects of the crime into main and secondary, understanding the latter as accomplices. In turn, complicity could be physical (assistance, practical assistance, committing the same actions as the main subject of the crime) and intellectual (for example, incitement to murder in Chapter 22). In this regard, even a slave who committed a crime at the direction of his master began to be recognized as a subject of a crime. At the same time, it should be noted that the law distinguished from secondary subjects of the crime (accomplices) persons who were only involved in the commission of the crime: accomplices (persons who created the conditions for the commission of the crime), connivers (persons obliged to prevent the crime and did not do so), non-informers (persons who did not report the preparation and commission of a crime), concealers (persons who hid the criminal and traces of the crime). The Code also divided crimes into intentional, careless and accidental. For a careless crime, the perpetrator was punished in the same way as for a deliberate criminal act (the punishment followed not for the motive of the crime, but for its result). But the law also identified mitigating and aggravating circumstances. Mitigating circumstances included: state of intoxication; uncontrollability of actions caused by insult or threat (affect); and to aggravating ones - repetition of the crime, the amount of harm, the special status of the object and subject of the crime, the combination of several crimes.

The law identified three stages of a criminal act: intent (which in itself can be punishable), attempted crime and commission of a crime, as well as the concept of recidivism, which in the Council Code coincides with the concept of “dashing person”, and the concept of extreme necessity, which is not punishable only if the proportionality of its real danger from the criminal is observed. Violation of proportionality meant exceeding the limits of necessary defense and was punished.

The objects of crime according to the Council Code of 1649 were defined as: church, state, family, person, property and morality. Crimes against the church were considered the most dangerous and for the first time they were placed in first place. This is explained by the fact that the church occupied a special place in public life, but the main thing is that it was taken under the protection of state institutions and laws.

Major changes in the Council Code of 1649 concerned the area of property, obligation and inheritance law. The scope of civil law relations was defined quite clearly. This was encouraged by the development of commodity-money relations, the formation of new types and forms of ownership, and the quantitative growth of civil transactions.

The subjects of civil law relations were both private (individuals) and collective persons, and the legal rights of a private person were gradually expanded due to concessions from the collective person. Legal relations that arose on the basis of norms regulating the sphere of property relations were characterized by the instability of the status of the subject of rights and obligations. First of all, this was expressed in the division of several powers associated with one subject and one right (for example, conditional land tenure gave the subject the right to own and use, but not to dispose of the subject). With this, difficulty arose in determining the true full-fledged subject. Subjects of civil law had to satisfy certain requirements, such as gender (there was a significant increase in the legal capacity of women compared to the previous stage), age (the qualification of 15-20 years made it possible to independently accept an estate, enslaving obligations, etc.), social and property status.