Sobornoe Uloschenie

First page of the collection of laws

Sobornoje uloschenije ( Russian Соборное уложение , scientific transliteration Sobornoe uloženie ) is the name of a collection of Russian laws published by Tsar Alexei I in 1649 , also known as the Imperial Code for short . The Tsar had entrusted the assembly of estates, the Semsky Sobor , with the collection and codification of the laws and decrees applicable in the Russian Empire . During the time of turmoil , a confusing legal situation arose: there were around 450 decrees from the years 1550 to 1648, some of which were now outdated or even contradictory. Previous law books came from 1497 and 1550; they were under the government of Ivan III. and Ivan IV . The new compilation was ready on January 29, 1649, was signed by 315 Sobor members and had 25 chapters with a total of 967 articles.

The regulations now contained were valid until the first half of the 19th century. This, for example, strengthened the transfer of peasants into serfdom in European Russia. Every subject was tied to his clod: the farmers were not allowed to leave their land, the citizens not their city. As a result, the peasant revolts and emigration through the Urals increased .

A copy of the collection of laws in Ferapontow Monastery

Under Catherine II , the original of the collection of laws from 1649 received a silver book cover. It is now kept in the armory of the Moscow Kremlin . A copy is in the Ferapontow Monastery .

Web links

• Excerpts from the collection of laws from 1649 (translation into English)
• Text of the Code of Laws of 1649 in Wikisource (Russian)
• The Laws of 1649 on the Moscow Lomonosov University website (in Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information on the website of the Austrian Parliamentary Administration from 2008