Russian Truth became 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 the idea of "Russian Truth."
How did the "Russian Truth"
The word “truth”, which is familiar to us, at the time of Yaroslav the Wise meant not only 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 documents of title were based on the morality of the pagan, and later on the church-Byzantine religion.
The laws of Russian Truth were to appear for several reasons. Firstly, refereeing in Russia at that time consisted of Greeks and Southern Slavs. They were practically not familiar with Russian customs in jurisprudence. Secondly, the old Russian customs contained the norms of pagan law. This was not in line with the new morality based on new religious principles. Therefore, the introduced institution of church courts and the adoption of Christianity became the main factors due to which the written laws were created. That is why the "Russian truth" took shape without much involvement of the principality. But church jurisdiction was an active compiler of this unique document.
There is debate about the place in which Russian Truth was first released. Some researchers say that it was in Novgorod, while others are sure that this happened in Kiev.
Summary
Unfortunately, Russkaya Pravda, the text of which included legislative articles on criminal, commercial, and inheritance law, underwent changes. And the original presentation has not been preserved to this day.
The year of the creation of "Russian Truth", according to historians, is the 1016th. Although no one of the researchers can provide reliable information. Until 1054, all laws were collected in one book at the initiative of Yaroslav the Wise. It contained legislative articles concerning the following issues:
- criminal law;
- court work;
- social status of citizens.
The structure of "Russian truth"
Despite the fact that the year of the creation of the “Russian Truth” is the 1016th, one of them has survived to the present day, which refers to 1280. This is the oldest copy found to date. And in print the first text appeared in 1738 thanks to the Russian historian V.N. Tatishchev.
"Russian truth" has several options for presentation:
- short;
- lengthy;
- abbreviated.
The very first of them is the oldest option.
In short, there are 4 documents. They posted 43 articles. They are devoted to state traditions in Russia, including old customs like blood feud. Pravda also laid down the rules for the payment of fines, and for which they need to be charged. Moreover, the punishment was determined based on the social status of the offender. The document was distinguished by the lack of a differentiated approach to determining the size of fines.
In a more complete version, “Russian Truth”, the text of which has about 121 articles, contains the charters of Yaroslav the Wise and Vladimir Monomakh. This option is called the "Universe Truth". It has already been clearly defined here that the feudal lords are endowed with privileges, which cannot be said about the slaves. The articles determined the legal relations when determining the ownership of any property, when transferring it to the inheritance and concluding various agreements. In this version, codes of law were also used by church and civil courts to punish criminals.
The Abridged Truth
This is the latest version, which was fully formed by the middle of the 15th century. It was created on the basis of the "Wide Truth".
There would be no initial sources of the code of law if there were no foundation for its creation. In this case, the Brief Truth and the Universe Truth became such sources.
Crimes and Punishments
Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise, together with his sons, established laws by which they should live, prescribed all possible punishments for various crimes.
The innovation was that the custom called "blood feud" was canceled. True, this did not happen in the year of the creation of "Russian Truth", but a little later. For the murder was to be held legally.
Moreover, princely close associates and princes themselves received milder sentences than people without a "clan and tribe."
For many crimes fines were imposed. For serious misconduct punishments were severe. The family could be expelled along with the perpetrator from the village, and property was confiscated. These punishments were used for arson, theft of horses.
The court gave the testimony of witnesses the importance of the decision. They were then called "rumors."
The document separated intentional killing from unintentional. It retained the death penalty. Fines were imposed in various monetary denominations.
“Russian Truth” determined the order of the courts: in what place they should take place, who participates in them, where they will contain the criminals and how they must be tried.
The value of the document for contemporaries
The year of creation of "Russian Truth" cannot be called unambiguously. She was constantly updated. However, regardless of this, the book is of great importance both for historians studying the era of Yaroslav the Wise, and for future generations. Indeed, 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 “Russian Truth” the killer was called the “headman”, and the murdered person in the document was called the “head”.
In addition, the laws of "Russian Truth" give us an idea of the life of the principality and the common people at that time. Here the superiority of the ruling class over servants and servants is clearly traced. It was so favorable for the principality that the articles of Russian Truth were used in new legal collections until the 15th century.
The fundamental substitute for "Truth" was the Judicial Code of Ivan III, which was published in 1497. But this does not mean that he radically changed the legal relationship. On the contrary, all subsequent court documents were formed exclusively on the "Russian Truth".