In May 1715, for the first time in the Russian Empire, Peter the Great published a military procedural-criminal code and called it the Military Article of 1715.
This article was developed by the emperor forcreation and management of a regular army. It consisted of 24 chapters, which were divided into 209 articles, or, as they were called, articles. Each article was supplemented with 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 providing 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.
Let us consider in more detail the article of military in 1715.His description briefly shows that the main principles in the content of this code of law 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:
When creating the article of the Russian emperor, manyborrowed from the sources of foreign states. For example, he first 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 andclose personalities from his office (including Secretary Makarov), and this document has become a compilation from various sources of foreign states.
Military article of 1715, general descriptionwhich testifies 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 subject to jurisdiction.
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 military article of 1715 defined the crimeas a dangerous social act. The document indicated that "a dangerous public act causes great damage to the state." The criminals were people who violated the laws.
Crimes were divided into the following types:accidental, reckless and willful. Criminal liability was imposed when committed careless 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 a legal document.
Its description as a legal act indicates that the document contained such directions:
Continuation:
For insulting a person 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 charged the accused.
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:
This included the rape of men by men, thatwas called "sodomy". The punishment was a reference to the galleys, the death penalty. For bestiality, corporal punishment was prescribed. 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 imprisonment and church repentance were provided.
The main types of punishment that includedmilitary 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, wasqualified and simple. To simple execution belonged: shootings, cutting off the head, hanging. Qualified executions included burning, wheeling, quartering, pouring molten metal into the throat.
Corporal punishment was divided into painful andself-defeating. To the painful sanctions was the use of beatings, rods or whips, and to the self-injurious - the chopping off of 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 forofficers. 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.
