Russia: Notable Policies and Documents

1467 - Pskov Charter (All Facts)

• Centralized the administration of Russia

Sudebnik (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the law codes

  • published by Grand Prince of Moscow Ivan III; and Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, via the Zemsky Sobor / Assembly of the Land (Russian Parliament)

  • which consisted of up to 100 articles

  • which dealt with court procedure and criminal laws

  • which prescribed capital punishment for everyone guilty of armed rebellion and/or conspiracy against the Tsar

1497 - Sudebnik (All Facts)

• Law Code of Russia promulgated by Grand Prince of Moscow Ivan III of Russia

1550 - Sudebnik (All Facts)

• Law Code of Russia promulgated by Tsar Ivan IV of Russia

1649 - Sobornoye Ulozheniye (All Facts)

• Law Code of Russia promulgated by Tsar Alexis of Russia,

  • it

    • essentially instituted serfdom, in which

      • peasants were legally attached to the land which they were cultivating as serfs

      • serfs lost virtually all rights and were counted as no more than items of property

      • serfs were completely subject to the absolute rule of the landowner

    • established the rights of merchants and the prerogatives of landowners

    • permitted nobles to bequeath their property

  • it

    • extended the principle of binding a peasant to land to include the whole family, including sons and nephews

      • This was worse than in the past, when the only person bound had been the head of the household

    • closed off the last legal means of escape for heavily taxed peasants living on the edge of bankruptcy, making life as a fugitive an attractive alternative

    • thus caused the creation of many robber bands of renegade serfs who survived by killing and theft in the Russian countryside following years of famine and plague

    • made it so that the time limits in which a lord could take legal proceedings to recover a fugitive peasant were abolished so that the right of recovery lasted for a peasant’s entire life

  • it

    • was a new and highly repressive civil code issued (following the worsening social unrest of the years prior to Tsar Alexis’s reign)

    • came down hard on those who challenged Tsar Alexis’s authority

1650s - 1700s - Yasak (All Facts)

• Turkic Term meaning “tribute” and used to refer to the tax payable in furs imposed onto Siberia

• This staple of local trading greatly augmented the Russian government’s coffers