Military article of 1715: general description

In May 1715, Peter I for the first time in the Russian Empire issued a military procedural and criminal code and he called the Military article of 1715.

What it is

This article was designed by the emperor to create and manage a regular army. It consisted of 24 chapters, which were divided into 209 articles, or, as they were called, articles. Each article was supplemented by interpretations and explanations. They were included in the second part of the statute of the Russian warrior.

In fact, the article of military in 1715 - the criminal law, the code of laws that provide for punishment for a criminal offense.

This document was in force until the reign of Nicholas I, who created his laws for military regulation. They were called the Code of Laws.

The main principles of the document

Let us examine in more detail the military article of 1715. His description briefly shows that the main principles in the content of this code of laws are: criminal responsibility, the purposes of punishment, concepts of atrocities, military crimes and their list, and the establishment of penalties for them. This list included many concepts:

• Who is a criminal and what is a crime;
• The definition of necessary and extreme defense, as well as provisions for punishment for their use;
• List of aggravating and mitigating circumstances ;
• The division of crimes into categories;
• The difference in the stages of the crime and the separate punishment for each of them.

How the document was created

When creating the article, the Russian emperor borrowed many provisions from sources of foreign states. For example, the first he used the Swedish article of Gustav Adolf in 1683. Then he applied the German imperial laws, the statutes of the Danish and Dutch rulers, as well as ordinances of Louis XIV. As a result, the penal system was substantially changed.

The military article of 1715 was prepared personally by the tsar and close personalities from his office (including Makarov's secretary), and this document became a compilation from various sources of foreign states.

Who was affected by the law

The military article of 1715, the general characteristic of which indicates that this was the first legislative code of criminal law in history, determined the focus of the law on war crimes. Such a document was to be applied on military courts. In addition to soldiers and officers, the persons serving the army could be jurisdictional.

However, the article described in detail the penalties for committing criminal acts of civilians - theft, rape, robbery, murder, so it was often used on public courts.

The main provisions of the document

The military article of 1715 defined crime as a dangerous social act. The document indicated that "a dangerous public act causes great damage to the state." Criminals were people who violated the laws.

Crimes were divided into the following types: casual, reckless and willful. Criminal responsibility was imposed when perpetrating incautious or willful atrocities. They were divided into stages: intent, attempt, committed crime. The punishment became increasingly severe from stage to stage.

These rules of law were first reflected in the legal document.

Military article 1715 g

Its characterization as a legal act indicates that the document contained such directions:

• For state crimes, such as an insult to the monarch, an attempt on his life, treason, rebellion and others, a simplified punishment was established by law for intent. For this punishment was punished by the intimidation, isolation of the offender, compensation for the damage caused.
• Crimes committed against faith (Chapters 1 and 2). This included: witchcraft, idolatry, blasphemy, church rebellion, violation of church military rites. The punishments were secular. The death penalty was also applied.
• Political or state crimes (chapters: 3, 6, 17). These included armed rebellion, treachery, the intention to kill the sovereign, indignation against him, capturing the monarch, condemning the king's intentions and actions, opening a password, negotiating with the enemy, information on the strengthening.

For what they punished with death or hard labor

Continuation:

• War crimes (chapters: 4-15). This included desertion and various evasions from the service. They punished us with sending to the galleys, with a whip, with spitscruten. If a soldier escaped from the battlefield, he was punished with death. The punishment was severe for the surrender of fortresses, fortifications and looting, especially during natural disasters.
• Crimes of office. This included: embezzlement, bribery, selfish abuse of power. Hanged hanging.
• Crimes against the court, management, order. This included: the destruction and disruption of decrees, false claims, perjury. Punishment was katorga and cutting off two fingers.
• Counterfeiting, illegal coinage, use of other metals, forgery of seals and documents was punished by burning alive.
• Crimes against tranquility, public order, deanery. This included fights, the maintenance of brothels, suspicious gatherings, concealment of criminals, misappropriation of false names, obscene utterances, the singing of obscene songs. Punishment served the death penalty.
• Acts against faith - witchcraft, idolatry, blasphemy were punished with excruciating death.

How the crimes against the person and property were punished

For insulting a man they punished him with corporal punishment and gave up to six months in prison. For libel they were punished as a crime for which the slanderer was charged by the accuser.

The killing of a man was punishable by the cutting off of his head. It should be noted that suicide was also classified as murder. The bodies of suicides were dragged along the streets and buried in "dishonorable" places.

The section "Property crimes" (chapter 21) included:

• A simple theft up to twenty rubles was punished with spitzcruten, hard labor, or self-mutilation;
• The theft of more than twenty rubles, from the military or from the church, was regarded as a qualified theft, for which they were punished by hanging or tumbling;
• Robbery without arms was brutally punished corporally;
• Robbery with weapons provided for the execution of a robber;
• For reckless arson were awarded damages;
• Deliberate arson was punished with death.

Sex crimes

This included rape by men of young men, which was called "muzhelozhestvom." The punishment was a reference to the galleys, the death penalty. For bestiality appointed corporal punishment. For the rape of women sent forever to the galleys or punished with death.

Adultery was punished by temporary hard labor or corporal punishment. Everything depended on the circumstances of the case. The punishment was mitigated if the husband forgave the traitor.

According to church rules, bigamy was punished. For incest (incest) they were punishable by death. If an illegitimate child was born , the culprit contained the child and the mother. In addition to all of the above, prison sentences and church repentances were provided.

Characteristic types of punishment

The main types of punishment, which included military article 1715, were the following: fines, indefinite and urgent references, confiscation of property, corporal punishment, hard labor, imprisonment, deprivation of life.

The death penalty, in turn, was skilled and simple. To a simple execution were: shooting, cutting off the head, hanging. Qualified executions included burning, wheeling, quartering, pouring molten metal into the throat.

Corporal punishment was divided into painful and self-injurious. To morbid sanctions was the use of beatings, rods or whips, and to self-injurious - cutting off different parts of the body and stamping.

When punished with penal servitude, the offender was sent to the construction of enterprises, fortifications, and also to galleys.

Certain types of punishment existed for officers. For example, resignation from service, arrest, demotion to the rank and file, deprivation of leave or rank. And the most shameful was civil death - a condition in which the accused was deprived of all rights at all.