What is the Military Article?

Answering the question about what an article is, a rare person will say that this is a well-known document of the early 18th century. But in many dictionaries and nowadays, along with this interpretation of this term, as a category or type of goods, one can find another explanation. We will be educated people and learn what is the article in all its meanings. At the same time and remember a little history of his country.

The era of the legendary reformer and innovator Peter I is known not only as a "window to Europe", the development of education and the change in the status of the state (it was precisely under Peter that Russia was referred to as an empire), but also the emergence of new requirements and norms of legislation, education and management. The appearance of the state fleet and the secretariat, the Senate and the secret chancery is just a small fraction of the transformations that the Russian state underwent at that time.

One of the main and notable documentary developments of the legal framework, along with the law, known as the "Table of Ranks", was the Petrine Maritime Charter and the Military Code. About him and go further narration. Published in the beginning of the XVIII century (more specifically - in 1716), it became the most important in its kind and to some extent a revolutionary document.

So what is the Military Code, which after many years does not cease to be considered a monument to Russian legislation? It can be called a military criminal code. It was the military article that clearly spelled out for the first time not only all possible crimes (mostly military), but also the order and measure of punishment applicable to the violator of the rules. Recall that many crimes before the introduction of this code were dealt with in church, and various domestic atrocities were not taken into account at all. Moreover, even the very term "crime" did not exist as such.

The Military Article is a very harmonious system of 24 chapters, divided into separate articles. At the same time, defining a crime, some chapters contain clarifications that allow you to soften or vice versa, to toughen the punishment for the committed act. In other words, the military article in the investigation of crimes began to take into account such concepts as intent and innocent harm, negligence and defense. As a crime of law, not only the abandonment of the post or desertion was considered, but also drunkenness or non-attendance to prayer. As criminal acts, not only actions prohibited by law but also capable of causing damage to the state as a whole began to be considered.

Speaking of what the Military Article is, one can not help saying that in this document it is possible to trace some notes of humanism and attempts to approach the issues of crime and punishment more humanely. However, the severity of punishment, traditional for those times, found its reflection in it. All political crimes (rebellion, indignation and, of course, treason) were punished by the only measure - the death penalty. Death awaited those who were convicted of blasphemy or witchcraft. As a punishment, such truly medieval measures as cutting a tongue, torture with hot iron, branding, whipping with a whip were used. The criminals were sent to hard labor or shackled and kept in prisons. However, there were no exceptions and such cases, when the death penalty was changed to a measure less severe.

Summarizing the above, I want to note that the military article was not only the first of its kind criminal code of the country, it introduced general rules for conducting litigation, streamlined the conduct of the investigation and the court session.