In Rus' in the 13th century, the one who called the wife of a big boyar a whore had to pay five hryvnia or more than two kilograms of gold. The same insult against women from less noble boyar families cost the offender one hryvnia in gold. And for a similar disgrace, a city woman was supposed to pay three hryvnias of silver. Considerable fines were paid for grievances in later times. Moreover, the amounts collected exactly corresponded to the position occupied by the offended person in the state or church hierarchy.

EVGENY ZHIRNOV

Offensive hryvnias

There is nothing more durable and at the same time unsteady and changeable than people’s idea of correct behavior. At different times and among different peoples, revenge not only for murder or injury, but also for verbal insult to a fellow tribesman or relative was considered an important and universally approved matter. And over time, the same revenge under the same circumstances and in the same places was perceived as something completely wild and obscene.

The Russian land was no exception to this rule. What was considered the norm of behavior in Rus' already in the 18th-19th centuries caused disapproval and condemnation. The famous Russian lawyer, professor at the Moscow Imperial University, Mikhail Vasilyevich Dukhovskoy, gave the following example of such differences in approaches:

“Our ancestors were, of course, poorly developed mentally, and not only the lower, but also the upper classes were in a similar state. Because of this, among them it seemed humiliating, dishonorable that from the point of view of a person who was far from developed Thus, it was dishonorable not to beat a wife; treating her roughly was not only not considered reprehensible, but, on the contrary, it was a moral duty for the husband to be considered worthy of respect as the father of the family. If the groom left the bride, then he. he should not have said that he was her fiancé, otherwise the bride’s relatives would complain to the court about dishonor. A complaint about dishonor could be made even when the groom did not say anything bad about the bride: the mere fact that he left her could humiliate the latter. in the eyes of others and was considered sufficient grounds for a complaint of dishonor."

The question of what is considered an insult or insult and how to punish for moral damage was resolved in completely different ways in different eras. At the time of the appearance of the first Russian collections of laws, the main type of offense was considered to be what was later called “insult by action.” The legislation strictly qualified the severity of the crime based on what the blows were inflicted with. A blow with a hand, for example, was considered a less serious disgrace than a blow with a whip or batog. And if the offender used a sheathed sword as a weapon, when analyzing the case, the question of which part of the sword was struck—the sheath or the hilt—had to be carefully studied.

In addition, when deciding on the penalty for disgrace, the consequences of insult by action were also considered. Legislation separated red, blue and white tracks. For bloody wounds the highest fines followed; the offender paid slightly less for blue ones - bruises. And if there were no obvious signs of blows on the body of the offended person, the law required him to present witnesses to the incident. If they were not found, any consideration of the complaint was immediately terminated.

Over time, verbal insults also occupied an equally important place in legislation. The Charter of Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh, which appeared after the Kyiv uprising of 1113, already mentioned unacceptable verbal insults. And those who called a woman a whore, and any person without any reason a sorcerer or a heretic, faced a church trial.

In the next century, during the time of Yaroslav the Wise, the Charter was supplemented with penalties for both various types of insults by action and insults by word. Moreover, the previously existing tendency to correlate the measure of punishment with the nobility of the offended person looked especially vivid in the Charter of Yaroslav.

Since the time of Ivan the Terrible, the amount of payment for dishonor depended on the size of the salary of the offended
Photo: RGAKFD/Rosinform, Kommersant

Thus, for a blow inflicted on the daughter or wife of a great boyar, the offender had to pay 5 hryvnia or more than 2 kg of gold. For women from less noble boyar houses - 3 hryvnia, and for the wives and daughters of townspeople much less - 3 rubles. The same division by rank was observed in fines for verbal insults. For disgrace after being accused of debauchery, the wife of a great boyar was paid 5 hryvnias of gold, boyars of lesser rank - 3 hryvnias, city women - 3 hryvnias of silver, peasant women - one hryvnia of silver.

When the offense turned out to be too serious, the church court, having made its decision, also sent the culprit to the princely court. And here often difficult trials fell on both the offender and the offended. If the circumstances of the incident were not clear and it was not possible to clarify them during interrogations, according to the customs of that time, the offender could well be subjected to the test of water, which had existed since pagan times. God's judgment, as it was called, consisted of the suspect being tied up and thrown into the water. Those who sank and choked were declared innocent. Often posthumously. Those who surfaced were clearly found guilty. After all, only evil spirits, it was believed, could help perform such a trick. True, the church did not consider this method of clarifying the truth to be the judgment of God and recalled its pagan roots. So, in the end, the organizers of the “water” investigations had to introduce an additional element into the procedure. Before it began, the water was necessarily blessed.

Judicial battle

After the Mongol-Tatar invasion, various tortures began to be used during the investigation. However, “judicial duels” met with much greater approval and support from the princes and their courts. And during the reign of Ivan III, the rules for conducting such fights were included in his Code of Laws, and since 1497, this form of making decisions in civil and criminal cases has become firmly entrenched in Russian life.

Any of the parties to the proceedings - the accused and the prosecutor - could at any time demand a judicial duel, the rules of which were not very complicated. Most often, the participants in the litigation did not go out to fight themselves, but hired a professional fighter - a combatant. He had his own team, which prepared him for battle and ensured victory. So even the initial stage of preparation was very expensive. In addition, problems constantly arose with the clergy. After all, the basis of the teams of fighters were sorcerers, sorcerers and sorcerers, who, with magic spells and potions, were supposed to ensure the victory of their fighter and the defeat of his opponent. It even got to the point that in some dioceses fighters and those who used their services were forbidden to be allowed into churches, to confess and receive communion.

Peter I tried by hook or by crook to punish the libelists, even if the libel contained a significant amount of truth
Photo: RGAKFD/Rosinform, Kommersant

However, since the grand ducal authorities approved of judicial duels, they continued to be held. The rules of the fight were not complicated. There were no restrictions on the opponents' choice of weapons, and they could fight with a sword, a club, or their bare hands. Most often, the battle began with spears, and then, if success was not achieved, they moved on to other weapons. Often fighters preferred clubs.

Each of them was allowed to have a group of supporters, usually armed with clubs. Their main task throughout the battle remained to protect their fighter from the dishonest machinations of the opposing side. If the comrades of one fighter threw a stone at his enemy or did some other dirty trick, the support team rushed to the defense, and a real massacre began around the site of the main fight.

To prevent this from happening, the Code of Law of Ivan III contained the rules for judging the duel and determined the officials responsible for its conduct - the okolnichy, the clerk, the weekman, the weston and the scribe. For their presence during the duel, a fairly high fee was set, which brought quite significant income to officials and the grand ducal treasury. And it was for this reason that the great princes did not pay much attention to the church’s dissatisfaction with the judicial duels. The envoy of the Austrian Emperor in Moscow, Baron Sigismund von Herberstein, described the functions of the officials who supervised the fights, which he himself observed:

“The okolnichy is a praetor, i.e., a judge appointed by the prince; the same name is also used to call the highest adviser who is constantly with the prince. The weekly worker is a public position; the weekly workers call people to court, seize villains and keep them in prison; they belong to the ranks of the nobles."

The week's worker chose a place for the fight and fenced it with stakes with a rope stretched between them, for which he received a fee called “viscous” - four altyns, charged separately from the main fee for the fight. And Weston explained to the parties all the conditions of the fight. The conditions, by the way, necessarily included the fact that the fee for the fight was paid even if the parties decided to make peace. As a result, the cost for the one whose fighter was defeated or killed turned out to be not just huge, but catastrophic.

“If,” wrote Herberstein, “the duel takes place due to some kind of fire, the murder of a friend, kidnapping or theft, the accuser, if he wins, receives what he asked for; the okolnik should be given half a ruble and the weapon of the vanquished, the scribe fifty money, the week worker half a rouble, Weston received four altyns; everything remaining from the vanquished should be sold and given to the judges, and he himself should be subjected to corporal punishment according to the crime."

Judicial duels continued under Ivan the Terrible. In his Code of Laws in 1559, the rules of this kind of judicial procedures were included from the previous Code of Laws in full with clarifications and additions. Moreover, fights for the truth brought such significant income to the judges and all officials involved in the process that the “field,” as fights were called, began to be appointed in any, even completely clear, cases.

A considerable number of people of that era, as evidenced by written sources that have survived to our time, considered judicial duels to be undivine and unjust. After all, victory depended on how much money each of the litigants was willing to invest in it. However, it was not the indignation of individuals or even the objections of the church that put an end to the era of duels. Handguns made legal fights extremely dangerous for their professional participants, and therefore the number of fighters soon dwindled to nothing. And to resolve conflicts, including disputes about violated honor, they began to use other methods.

Due to the vastness of their possessions, the eminent Stroganovs received the largest payment for dishonor among the trading people.
Photo: RGAKFD/Rosinform, Kommersant

Pay by rank

At one time, the use of professional whistleblowers, who were available in any court and were ready to give any testimony the employer needed, became very popular in resolving cases of honor. In addition, for a bribe, they could play the role of a theatrical clique, booing witnesses, interfering with the judges to the best of their ability. They were, however, very expensive, and at times they turned from assistants into extortionists.

With their help, the offended party often managed to obtain a guilty verdict for the offenders. And then the Code of Law of Ivan the Terrible came into effect:

"Article 26 of the Code of Laws presents the first enumeration of the different assessments of honor among different classes of persons. All are divided into the following categories: first of all, serving princely people are nominated; in relation to them, the punishment for dishonor is not determined by a fixed figure, but is ordered to be taken, depending on their income from feeding, or from wages, or whatever the sovereign specifies; then the zemstvo people themselves follow in the following order: big guests - dishonor 50 rubles, merchants and good boyar people - 5 rubles, arable and not arable peasants, young boyar people. and black city people - 1 ruble. Dishonor for wives is always twice as much as for husbands."

The French captain Jacques Margeret, who was in Russian service during the Time of Troubles, wrote about how this system worked:

“It must be noted that there are no duels between them, for, firstly, they carry weapons only in time of war or on travel; when someone offends by word or other means, they go to court, which sentences the offender for the insult to punishment, known under the name of “dishonor.” For his satisfaction, the offended person can demand punishment with batogs (which is carried out in this way: having exposed his back to his shirt, they lay him face down on the ground, with two people holding him by the head and legs, and others in the presence the judge, the plaintiff and strangers rip his back with rods as thick as a finger until the judge says: “Stop!”) or a fine based on the salary received from the Sovereign, and if the offended person is married, then the offender must pay for the desecration of the honor of his wife double the amount of salary; thus, whoever receives 15 rubles of maintenance per year, the offender pays 15 rubles for insulting him and 30 rubles for insulting his wife, which is 45 rubles. But the offense could also be such that the offender, after being punished with a whip in the city, was subjected to payment of money for dishonor and then exile.”

As Margeret wrote, to his surprise, there were practically no duels in Russia:

“If, as I happened to see once during the course of six years, there was a duel between foreigners, and when someone was wounded, then the one (whether he was summoned or the one who caused it) who wounded is punished as for murder and cannot be justified by anything; even more: no matter how seriously someone is insulted in words, he cannot hit the offender, even with his hand, for fear of the above-mentioned punishment; if one hits, and the other responds in kind and a complaint follows, then both are punished. batogs, as stated above, or pay a fine to the sovereign, because, as they say, the one who is offended is under the protection of justice (which alone can decide who is right or wrong, and therefore punish the court, in case of disputes). , insults and insults, is more strict and swift than in other matters. And this custom is carefully observed not only by residents of cities in peacetime, but also by soldiers in wartime (of course, here we are talking about nobles, because for the dishonor of the peasant and the city dweller). the fee is limited to two rubles). However, they are not picky about words and are not very picky about insulting them; they say “you” to each other, but before it was even simpler; for if you said (to someone) something doubtful, and it was not justified, then instead of saying “excuse me” or “forgive me,” they say “you are lying,” and even a servant said so to his master. John Vasilyevich himself, whom they consider a tyrant, was not angry for these rudenesses. But now that foreigners have appeared among them, they are losing the habit of insolence in conversation and are more embarrassed in their expressions than before, thirty years ago.”

Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich appreciated all his subjects, down to the penny.
Photo: RGAKFD/Rosinform, Kommersant

Honor at list price

However, despite the severity of the punishment for dishonor, such cases not only continued to multiply, but petitions about the insults inflicted reached the reigning persons.

“In 1584,” wrote M.V. Dukhovskoy, “the Ryazan Bishop Leonid complained to the Tsar about the dishonor on the part of the Rostov Archbishop Euthymius, inflicted on him by the fact that the latter did not allow him to eat from the same dish as himself. At the same time, Bishop Leonid represented yet another request: “And about this, sir, I pray and beat with my forehead, that we, your pilgrims, the tonsures of Osif, are called not Osipovites, but Jews. Intercede, Tsar, defend against such slanderous and defamatory words!" In 1599, the Tsar was informed that the Cossack Petrov was dishonoring the princes (children of the Siberian prince Kuchum) by "barking obscenely at them." In 1582, the abbot of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery reported that "Elder Alexander he was self-willed, scolded everyone with inappropriate abuse, barked at his own children, was self-willed and slandered the elders and brothers with lies." The abbot considers this abuse to be dishonorable."

The new century did not bring any changes:

“In 1608, the Yaroslavl governor, Prince Boryatinsky, complained that a certain Danilov “dishonored him in front of all people, barked and called him a traitor, and that if the sovereign did not defend him, then in the future he “cannot be involved in sovereign affairs.” Then, dated 1609, on October 26, there is a petition from the servant of the boyar Sheremetyev Indrinko against a certain Semenov. Indrinko complained about dishonor through barking and said how he barked at him: “B... son, a herdnik, barked obscenely, said that your boyar is not dear to me at all, and then he barked with all sorts of inappropriate barks.”

Everything remained the same after the Romanov dynasty ascended the Russian throne:

“In 1614, it was forbidden to call the Cossacks who robbed and plundered in the Belozersk district “Cossacks,” so as not to dishonor the Cossacks who serve faithfully to the Tsar... In 1633, the archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery complained that a certain Grigoriev barked at the Trinity Elder Tikhon and his servant Opochinin with all sorts of inappropriate barking."

But the most remarkable story about dishonor happened due to the fact that one governor did not know the middle name of another:

"In 1615, the governor Prince Volkhonsky wrote to another governor Chikhachev as follows:" You write to me "Peter Ivanovich" in reference letters, and you are Ivanovich, and Yaz Andreevich, and then you don’t know the quarrel: you don’t know my name. "

With the weakening of censorship, the reader's interest in the life and the service of high -ranking persons sharply grew. And after that - the number of cases of slander in the press
Photo: RGAKFD/Rosinform, Kommersant

In the catch of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, 1649, the punishment and fines for dishonor were tightened. For example, to a double fee for dishonor, the wife of the offended was added concentration - his daughter. So in the end, the amount that was charged from the offender increased to enormous size.

In addition, all the subjects of the king were divided at the price of their honor. The famous Russian connoisseur of law P.O. Bobrovsky wrote in 1889:

"The first category. Boyars, okolny and thought people.

The second category. Steephodes, cooking, Moscow nobles, guests, clerks, tenants, nobles, city -city city children, foreigners (in officer ranks) and court ranks (courtyard ranks).

The third category (trading people and in general citizens). Namely Stroganov, guests, living rooms, cloth, official and black hundreds, state settlements, Posad, Yama hunters.

The fourth category (mainly rural inhabitants). The peasants of the palace villages and sovereign black volosts, boyar servicemen, business people, monastery, landowners and estates peasants and beavers, walking people.

A special group is the servants of the lower rank (according to the device): Sagittarius, Pushkari, Cossacks. "

In accordance with the categories, a payment for dishonor was assigned:

"I. The dishonor of the first group, with mutual insults of the first category (i.e., the dignitaries)" unpertensable word ", is determined by decree of the sovereign, in the event of insulting these state dignitaries by the persons of the second group of dishonor to" rule "by the size of the monetary salaries of the offended, And when there is nothing to pay for dishonor, “if you will bother the dignitaries, one of the persons attributed to the third and fourth categories, as well as Sagittarius, Pushkari and Cossacks“ Whoever Wake ”, then the offender determines the punishment of the whip and prison for two weeks.

II. For the dishonor of people of the second group, as well as the clerks and other ranks of people who are sovereign money salary, to rule the dishonor of their salaries.

III. For the dishonor of persons of the third category, the amount of money is scheduled for the law itself: for dishonor to eminent people Stroganov - 100 rubles each. man; guest -50 rubles., Hundreds of living rooms --25 rubles. etc., ending with a Yamsky hunter, who is appointed 5 rubles. For his dishonor.

IV. The dishonor of people of rural and walking people is determined in one ruble to man, but with such reservation: “But someone will be the sovereign peasants to take out Bity and the whores will mutter, or the eye, or the arm, or the leg, and on that Imati to the sovereign peasants for the uvee and for the dishonor For ten runs to a man, and there will be a peasant of the peasant, and there will be no injury, and on that Imati to the sovereign peasants for the battle and dishonor of two rubles.

Separate prices appeared for the dishonor of clergy. For example, for the hierarchs of the Church, they made up:

"For the patriarchal dishonor of the boyars, ringing and thought people, they are given the patriarch with their heads, meanwhile, for the" Lord's dishonor ", they pay a cash fine: to the Metropolitan - 400 rubles, the archbishop - 300 rubles - 200 rubles. If the indicated thought people to pay these They are not able to, then they are given the head of the second group of secular officials for the dishonor of the Metropolitan, and for the Lord's dishonor, they are imprisoned by all other persons. (Trade execution or Batoga) and imprisonment from one month to four days. "

The created system lasted many years. Moreover, the principle of payment for dishonor, based on the annual salary of the offended, continued to act in Russian legislation record for a long time - until 1851.

Honest innovations

All further changes in the system of protection of honor and dignity occurred mainly with the advent of technical innovations and transformations in the country's social and state structure. After the army perestroika, duels came into fashion in the western manner, and no exhortations in order to decide all the disputes about honor in the courts on the nobility were acted (see the “Case of a completely honest murder”, “Money” N3 from 01/23/12.).

In the reign of Peter I to Russia, a fashion for Pasquili came from the west. If earlier the letters that have been discouraged and insulted, traditionally called the estate, wrote mainly about the sovereign and high -ranking officials, then in the new era there were many people who wanted to defeat each other. And therefore, Peter's legislation was replenished with the provisions of the punishments of the pasquilians:

"Who will comply with Pasquvili or abundant letters, kill and distribute, and such as it is obscene to what passion or evil will count, through that his good name is caused, perhaps, he should be punished with such a punishment, what kind of passion he wanted to accuse; more than that executioner Such a letter has to be burned under the vilice. "

The deputies did not assume that the speeches of individual Duma speakers would lead to a mass filing of claims to the court
Photo: RGAKFD/Rosinform, Kommersant

Moreover, the punishment was not canceled, even if the charges brought in Pasquil were confirmed:

“If the matter, which will be accused of Pasquil is accused, will be very proven about that, however, although ordinary punishment will not be performed, but however, the Paskvilyant, by consideration by the judicial prison, by the exile of the hard labor, is sentinated and otherwise punished , then he did not go in the true way, in order to declare another error. "

And after the tightening of the serfdom of the case of the dishonor of the peasants in the Petrine times, they gradually disappeared from judicial practice. Once again, the fact that peasants cannot be offended with impunity, only Pavel I reminded the country in 1797:

"Everyone, who has touched on the word of a simple peasant, pays a half -tin of a penalty, the volost heads, the clerks and village elected and other foremen, that is, in general, officials should be very revered from the rest of the peasants, and 1 ruble should pay for their insults penalty ".

The following radical changes in the approach to the issue of honor and dignity occurred in the era of Alexander II reforms, when printed publications were able to evaluate the activities of officials, which was previously categorically forbidden. There were discussions in the country about who exactly should be classified as public figures, whose service and statements are important for society. Of course, the officials themselves sought to narrow this circle as much as possible, and the liberal public - to expand. Naturally, court cases arose on the basis of disputes.

However, the era of mass judicial protection of honor and dignity began after the first Russian revolution of 1905-1906 and the elections followed by it to the first Duma. So many unpleasant assessments of both imperial and local authorities sounded from the rostrum of the domestic parliament, that officials literally flooded Nicholas II with requests to initiate criminal prosecution against the deputies, as they believed, slandered them.

The rising wave caused a whole shaft of affairs of the same kind between private individuals. In some cases, the offended manages to sue quite significant amounts of print publications. But never again in Russia there was such a slender system of monetary assessment of honor that existed in pre -Petrine times.

It's a shame about the price