Reviews for Law in Medieval Russia

The average rating for Law in Medieval Russia based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-01-12 00:00:00 Steven Hopkins This is an interesting book, but I'm not sure it lives up to its title. I thought this would deal with laws and regulations in Medieval Russia (Kievan Rus, Novgorod, etc.), describing how the juridical element affected life for different social strata, that kind of thing. What gets your hand chopped off, what costs you your head, etc. And you do get that, but... That's only a very small part of the book. There are perhaps not enough Old Russian law texts or accounts of actual cases around to write much about, but the fact that I have read most of the texts mentioned says something (since I don't even study historical law). Having read the texts helps, of course. Having read the texts, you also know that what is said in them is extremely sparse and at times mostly incomprehensible. It goes something like "And insult a free man - 5 grivna". That's it. That's an entire law. "If someone sits on another man's horse without asking, then 3 grivna". For somewhat more serious things like, say, murdering someone, it can get a bit more verbose: "If someone kills a woman, then he shall be judged by the same court, as for the murder of a man. If found guilty, then he shall pay 20 grivna" (аже кто ѹбиѥть жену. то тѣм же судомь судити. яко же и мужа. аже будеть виноватъ. то пѡл виры .к҃. гр҃и.) I'm not sure how many grivnas people had lying around back in those days, but that sounds like a pretty good deal. By comparison, damaging someone's beard or knocking out a tooth (provided the victim is male, I presume) costs you 12 grivna. Killing a man, by the way, costs you either your life (at the hand of his relatives), or 80 grivna, so that's way riskier business. You can pay your way out of most things, which is a brilliant extra income for the prince. Why execute people if you can make money off them? This is also the case in the world's oldest known law text, pre-dating the Law Code of Hammurabi, which I recently read about in Ancient Iraq. I think that, for lots of people, ancient times and law equals DEATH and MUTILATION (I mean, who does not think "medieval" when they hear the word "torture"?), but that actually seems to have been pretty rare. Except for in Byzantine law. I get the impression that was more hardcore. Capital punishment for repeated theft was apparently first introduced in Russia in 1397, and the author mentions that capital punishment was sometimes used in Georgia (which is dealt with at the end of the book) in later times, but always rarely. Not to mention that the idea of locking people up was obviously altogether non-existent (because that wouldn't bring income). I remember from A History of Russia, Volume 1: To 1917, that some more gruesome punishments were in use for stuff like counterfeiting money (gotta keep your priorities straight): pouring molten lead down the culprit's throat (seems to be a classic, that one), but that was later, in somewhat more modern times - when they didn't execute people left and right either. But, let's backtrack a bit. Comparing laws. That's something this book unfortunately deals with quite a lot in -- again, unfortunately -- the first part. Not those ultra-ancient An Eye For An Eye-ones, but Byzantine, Roman and Slavic law, seeing what may have come from what empire, who influenced who, etc. I don't find this all that interesting, especially in the form it was presented. It really, really came across more like a very specialized article in a Historical Law journal, arguing how this or that law need not necessarily have come from Byzantium, and so on. Perhaps not of all that great interest for a casual reader. A great part of this book deals with treaties, which is something I don't find all that interesting either(also, I mix them up). It makes sense though: treaties were usually what triggered the writing down of laws, and many of the laws were therefore related to trade or other relations between the parties of the treaty. Furthermore, the book deals quite extensively with the status and organization of Novgorod and Pskov, with the Mongol Yoke and misconceptions surrounding it, with the rise of Moscow, with dynasties and extremely complicated rules of inheritance (no wonder I can never keep track of who is prince of what or son of whom in any Old Russian text!) and some other things. All of interest. To sum things up a bit, I'd say this is Big History. Structures, states, rulers, etc. I prefer to read Small History, dealing with actual, concrete people and their situations and how the society of their time directly affected them. That's why I find sexual and moral laws so very interesting - they affect everyone, not just thieves, murderers or people who dare sit on other people's horses. Due to the nature of Slavic sources (always so concerned with God, God, and... God, and then money) I guess the more intimate aspect of history is lost. I haven't read the entire basic law text of Medieval Russia yet though (I'm like halfway) but right now, it's dealing with what you have to pay if you destroy someone's bees, possibly with or without the hive (people don't actually know what all the words mean...). I'm curious about whether rape ever shows up in any of the law codes...

Review # 2 was written on 2019-11-13 00:00:00 Adelina Lask Don't know what to say!! Either I'm totally stupid or the book is really porly written. I am no smarter than I was when I started this book!