Year of the "Russian Truth". Code of Laws of Yaroslav the Wise

"Russian Truth" was the first legislative code in Russia. For the future generation, this document was a valuable source of information about life in those days. All subsequent laws were based on their ideas of "Russian Truth".

How did the "Russian Truth" come about?

Habitual for us the word "truth" in the time of Yaroslav the Wise meant not only the truth. Its main meaning in that era is the law and the charter. That is why the first set of rules was called "Russian Truth" (year of creation - 1016). Until that time, all the title documents were based on the pagan ethics, and later on the church-Byzantine religion.

The laws of the "Russian Truth" were due to appear for several reasons. First, judging in Russia at that time consisted of Greeks and Southern Slavs. They were practically not familiar with the Russian customs in jurisprudence. Secondly, the old Russian customs contained norms of pagan law. This did not correspond to a new morality based on new religious principles. Therefore, the institution of ecclesiastical courts introduced and the adoption of Christianity became the main factors through which the written laws were created. That is why the "Russian Truth" took shape without the special participation of the principality. But the ecclesiastical jurisdiction acted as an active compiler of this unique document.

The place where the "Russian Truth" was first published is disputes. Some researchers say that it was in Novgorod, others are sure that it happened in Kiev.

Summary

Unfortunately, "Russkaya Pravda", the text of which included legislative articles on criminal, commercial, hereditary law, underwent changes. And the original presentation has not survived to this day.

The year of the creation of the "Russian Truth", according to historians, 1016th. Although no one can provide reliable information. Until 1054, all laws were collected in one book on the initiative of Yaroslav the Wise. It contained legislative articles dealing with the following issues:

• criminal law;
• Work of the court;
• Social status of citizens.

Structure of the "Russian Truth"

Despite the fact that the year of the creation of the "Russian Truth" - 1016-th, up to now, one of their copies has come down, which dates back to 1280. This is the oldest copy, found to date. And in print, the first text appeared in 1738 due to the Russian historian V. N. Tatishchev.

"Russian Truth" has several options for presentation:

• Short;
• Extensive;
• Abridged.

The very first of these is the oldest version.

In the short version there are 4 documents. They put 43 articles. They are devoted to the state traditions in Russia, including old customs like blood revenge. Also in "Pravda" are laid out the rules for payment of fines, and for what they need to be charged. In this case, the punishment was determined on the basis of the social status of the offender. The document featured the absence of a differentiated approach to determining the size of fines.

In a more complete version of "Russian Truth", the text of which is about 121 articles, contains the statutes of Yaroslav the Wise and Vladimir Monomakh. This option is called "Extensive Truth". Here it is already clearly defined that the feudal lords are endowed with privileges, which can not be said about the serfs. Articles defined legal relations in determining the ownership of any property, when it is transferred to the inheritance and the conclusion of various contracts. In this version, codes of law were also used by church and civil courts to punish criminals.

"Abbreviated Truth"

This is the latest version, which was fully formed by the middle of the 15th century. It was created on the basis of "Extensive Truth".

There would not be the original sources of the code of law, do not be the foundation for its creation. In this case, such sources and have become "Brief Truth" and "Extensive Truth".

Crime and Punishment

The Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise, together with his sons, established laws on which they should live, prescribed all possible penalties for various crimes.

The novelty was that the custom was abolished under the name of "blood feud". True, this happened not in the year of the creation of the "Russian Truth", but a little later. For the murder had to answer by law.

At the same time, princely princes and princes themselves received milder punishments than people without a "clan and tribe".

For many crimes, fines were imposed. For serious offenses, punishments were severe. The family could be expelled along with the guilty from the settlement, and the property was confiscated. These punishments were used for arson, theft of horses.

The court attached great importance to the testimony of witnesses when making a decision. They were then called "rumors".

The document separated the intentional homicide from the unintentional. It retained the death penalty. Fines were imposed in various monetary denominations.

"Russian Pravda" determined the order of the courts: in which place they should take place, who participates in them, where they will contain criminals and how they should be judged.

The meaning of the document for contemporaries

The year of the creation of the "Russian Pravda" can not be called unequivocal. It was constantly supplemented. However, regardless of this, the book is of great importance for historians studying the era of Yaroslav the Wise, and for future generations. After all, it contains so much interesting knowledge about the initial stage of development of Kievan Rus.

Many words in modern law have much in common with the first legal document. For example, the "criminal": in the "Russian Truth", the killer was called a "gunman", and the person killed in the document was called "head".

In addition, the laws of the "Russian Truth" give us an idea of the life of the principality and the common people at the time. Here the superiority of the ruling class over the serfs and servants is clearly seen. This was so favorable for the principality that the articles of the Russian Truth were used in new legal collections until the 15th century.

Fundamental replacement of Pravda was the Code of Law of Ivan III, which was issued in 1497. But this does not mean that he fundamentally changed legal relations. On the contrary, all subsequent judicial documents were formed exclusively on the "Russian Truth".