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Adoption of the cathedral code of 1649. Code of Alexei Mikhailovich. Sources and main provisions of the Council Code

The immediate reasons for the creation of the Council Code of 1649 were the uprising in 1648 in Moscow and the further aggravation of class and estate contradictions. The underlying reasons were the evolution of the social and political system of Russia in the 17th century, which was accompanied by a noticeable increase in legislative activity and the desire of the legislator to subject to legal regulation as many aspects and phenomena of social life as possible.

The Code of 1649 as a code of law largely reflected the trends in the further development of feudal society.

IN economics The Code consolidated the formation of a single form of feudal land ownership based on the merger of its two varieties - estates and estates.

IN social sphere The Code reflected the process of consolidation of the main classes-estates (peasants, serfs, townspeople and nobles), which led to a certain stability of feudal society and at the same time caused an aggravation of class contradictions and an intensification of class struggle, which, of course, was influenced by the establishment of the state serf system rights. It is not for nothing that the first peasant wars took place in the 17th century.

IN political sphere, the code of 1649 showed the main features of the initial stage of the transition from an estate-representative monarchy to absolutism.

IN field of court and law The Code is associated with a certain stage of centralization of the judicial-administrative apparatus, detailed development and consolidation of the court system, unification and universality of law based on the principle of right-privilege.

The Council Code has no precedents in the history of Russian legislation. In terms of volume it can only be compared with Stoglav, but in terms of the wealth of legal material it surpasses it many times over. Among the legal monuments of other peoples of our country, the Council Code can be compared with the Lithuanian Statute, from which, however, it differs favorably. The Code had no equal in contemporary European practice.

The Council Code of 1649 was a new stage in the development of legal technology and was the first printed monument of Russian law. This circumstance was of great importance in the history of Russian legislation, since before the Code, the usual form of informing the population about laws was the announcement of the most important of them in shopping areas and in churches. The only interpreters of the laws were governors and clerks, who often used their knowledge for selfish purposes. The advent of printed law largely excluded this possibility. The fact that the appearance of the printed Code was a major event is also indicated by the fact that in the 17th and early 18th centuries it was translated several times into foreign languages.

The Council Code is the first systematized law in the history of Russia. In the literature it is often called a code, which, however, is legally incorrect. The Council Code contains material relating not to one, but to all branches of law, which means that it is not a code, but rather a small set of laws. The level of systematization in individual chapters devoted to specific branches of law is not yet so high that one can talk about codification, however, the systematization of legal norms in the Council Code should be considered very perfect for its time.

The Council Code reflected the long process of intra-class struggle between large and small feudal lords, the clan nobility and the small serfs, as well as the fundamental problems of social life in the mid-17th century. It legislated and expanded the rights of the ruling class, in particular the right of the landowner to own land.

In the Council Code there are no special chapters characterizing the political system of Russia. However, the need for a monarch, a Boyar Duma, Zemsky Sobors, orders, local government bodies and their main features are quite well regulated by law.

The Code legislates the strengthening of tsarist power, characteristic of Russia during the transition period from an estate-representative monarchy to an absolute one. For the first time in Russian legislation, the Code allocates a special chapter devoted to the criminal legal protection of the personality of the monarch: detection of intent to commit a criminal act against the tsar already entails the death penalty.

The Code also pays sufficient attention to such an essential element of the political system of feudal society as the church. Crimes against her are highlighted in a special chapter that opens the Code.

The governing bodies - the Boyar Duma, orders - are endowed with judicial functions. It should be emphasized once again that the Code testifies to the development of all branches of law in the Russian state of that time. Entire chapters of the code of laws are devoted to administrative and financial law. Problems of civil law - property rights - are widely interpreted. Much attention is paid to criminal law and process. The general concept of a crime remains the same, but the concept of the crime is changing. The set of provisions and norms on crimes provided for by the Code for the first time acquires the character of a system. The most dangerous for feudal society are crimes against the church, state crimes, and especially dangerous acts against the order of government. The first chapters of the Code are dedicated to them. Subsequent chapters examine crimes against the person and property crimes (although a clear distinction between crimes by object, i.e., those directed against the state or private individuals, is not always clearly visible).

The Council Code legislatively tightens the system of punishments, which was due to the massive resistance of enslaved peasants, which resulted in peasant wars.

In procedural law, there is an increasing tendency to expand the scope of the search, although the court still ranks first in terms of jurisdiction. The Code thus consolidated the main features of the political system and law of Russia, which turned out to be quite stable for two hundred years. It opened in 1830 the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire and was largely used in the creation of the XV volume of the Code of Laws and the Criminal Code of 1845 - the Code of Punishments. The use of the Code of 1649 in the second half of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries meant that the conservative regimes of that time were looking for support in the Code to strengthen the autocratic system.

The development of the draft Council Code was entrusted to a special commission consisting of boyars, princes Odoevsky, Prozorovsky, Volkonsky and clerks Leontyev and Griboyedov. On July 28, 1648, letters were sent out convening elected people in Moscow by September 1 to discuss and approve the draft Code at the Council. At the same time, the tsar indicated: “... to convene elected officials to Moscow: from the stewards, solicitors, nobles and children of the boyars of large cities, two each, from the Novgorodians from Pyatina, three people each, from the guests, three people, from the cloth hundreds, two each, from the black hundreds, settlements and Posads one person at a time - kind and intelligent people, so that his state, the royal cause with those with all the elected people, would be approved..."

Discussion of the draft Code began on October 3, 1648 in two chambers. In one of them the tsar met with the Boyar Duma and the Consecrated Cathedral, in the other - the Responsive Chamber - elected people deliberated under the chairmanship of Prince Yu. A. Dolgoruky. The Council Code, which received the force of state law, was published in a separate book in the spring of 1649 and sent for guidance to all governors in the cities and to all Moscow orders.

The Council Code is a very voluminous legislative document: it contains a preamble, which states that the Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich ordered the synthesis of previous legislation and the filling of existing gaps, as well as 25 chapters; each chapter includes several articles (967 in total). The wording of the articles of the Code is clear and specific, which to a certain extent determined the very long period of its application. In the Code, the rules of law are systematized by subject and can be combined by types of law - state, military, legal status of certain categories of the population, local and patrimonial proceedings, civil offenses and criminal offenses.

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. Griboyedov.

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;

Alexei Mikhailovich (1629-1676) - Russian Tsar from 1645. He strengthened the power of the center, and serfdom took shape under him. In 1654 Ukraine reunited with Russia, then Smolensk and other Russian lands were returned. During his reign, a split occurred in the Russian Church. Alexei Mikhailovich was called the Quietest, but under him there were frequent riots and uprisings in the Russian state (including the Medny (July 25, 1662) and Solyanaya (1648) riots, the uprising of Stepan Razin).

From internal orders under Tsar Alexei: prohibition (in 1648) for Belomest residents (monasteries and persons in state, military or civil service) to own black, taxable lands and industrial, commercial establishments (shops, etc.) in the suburbs; the final attachment of the tax classes, peasants and townspeople, to their place of residence; the transition was prohibited in 1648 not only to the peasant owners, but also to their children, brothers and nephews. New central institutions were founded, orders: Secret Affairs (no later than 1658), Grain (no later than 1663), Reitarsky (from 1651), Accounting Affairs (mentioned from 1657), engaged in checking receipts and expenses and cash balances, Little Russian (mentioned since 1649), Lithuanian (1656-1667), Monastic (1648-1677).

In financial terms, several transformations were also made: in 1646 and the following years, a census of tax households was completed with their adult and minor male population, and the unsuccessful above-mentioned attempt was made to introduce a new salt duty; decree of April 30 1654 it was forbidden to collect small customs duties (myt, road duties and anniversary) or farm them out and it was ordered to be included in the ruble duties collected at customs; at the beginning of 1656 (no later than March 3), due to a lack of funds, copper money was issued. Soon (from 1658) the copper ruble began to be valued at 10, 12, and in the 60s even 20 and 25 times cheaper than the silver one; the resulting terrible high prices caused a popular revolt (Copper Riot) on July 25, 1662. The rebellion was pacified by the king's promise to punish the perpetrators and by the expulsion of the Streltsy army against the rebels.

In the field of legislation: the Code was drawn up and published (printed for the first time on May 7-20, 1649) and supplementing it in some respects: New Trade Charter of 1667, New Decree Articles on Robbery and Murder Cases of 1669, New Decree Articles on estates 1676

Under Tsar Alexei, the colonization movement into Siberia continued. Nerchinsk (1658), Irkutsk (1659), Selenginsk (1666) were founded.

Cathedral Code of 1649 .

The immediate reason for its adoption was the uprising of the Moscow townspeople that broke out in 1648. The townspeople turned to the tsar with petitions for improvement of their situation and protection from oppression. At the same time, the nobles presented their demands to the tsar, who believed that they were being infringed upon in many ways by the boyars. The tsar suppressed the uprising of the townspeople, but was still forced to postpone the collection of arrears and to alleviate the position of the townspeople to some extent. In July 1648 he ordered the development of a new draft law called “Code” to begin. In the Council Code of 1649. legal norms of various branches of law are reflected.

In civil law, according to the “Conciliar Code,” the previously established three main types of feudal land tenure received legal recognition.

The first type is the property of the state or directly of the king (palace lands, lands of black volosts).

The second type is patrimonial land ownership. Being conditional ownership of land, estates still had a different legal status than estates. They were passed down by inheritance. There were three types of them: generic, served (complained) and purchased.

Having abolished the fixed-term years, the Council Code thereby completed the enslavement of the peasants (its previous stages were: the introduction of St. George's Day according to the Code of Laws of 1497, the adoption of decrees on reserved (1581) and fixed-term years (1587), holding at the turn of the 80-90- 15th century All-Russian land census, the result of which was the compilation of scribe books).

Obligations from contracts (purchase and sale agreements, barter, loan, deposit, etc.) have become widespread. The Council Code of 1649, trying to alleviate the situation of debtors (especially nobles), prohibited the collection of interest on a loan, considering that it should be free of charge. The statute of limitations on the loan was set at 15 years; partial payment of the debt interrupted the statute of limitations. Despite the prohibitions, the collection of interest under the loan agreement actually continued. However, these penalties could no longer have legal protection in court. The legislation provided for the following procedure for concluding contracts. The largest transactions were formalized according to the serf order, in which the document certifying the transaction was drawn up by a local clerk with the obligatory participation of at least two witnesses. Smaller transactions could be completed at home. The law did not precisely define the range of transactions that had to be formalized under serfdom. Methods of ensuring the execution of contracts were provided - pledge and surety. The legislation also paid attention to obligations resulting from causing harm. Liability was established for damage caused by grasses in fields and meadows. The owner of livestock that poisoned the land was obliged to compensate the owner for losses. Cattle detained during poisoning were to be returned to the owner safe and sound. Inheritance was carried out, as before, by will and by law.

In general, this period is characterized by noticeable shifts in the social, territorial and state structure. Big changes are also taking place in the field of law. The Russian state is preparing to enter the highest and final stage of feudalism - absolutism.

1. Historical and economic prerequisites for creation

Cathedral Code of 1649.

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:

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 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 trustworthy 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”). 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.

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, then she was executed, and if a parent killed a child, then 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 marriageable age 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.