9 century

9-12centuries Russia represented a federation of city-states headed by the great Prince of Kiev. On Kievan Rus’ the term Grand prince is conventionally used to refer to the prince of Kiev. The title of «grand prince» designated the senior prince of the Rurikid dynasty in Rus principalities from the era of Kievan Rus’ until 1721.
Having secured control over the territory, landlords proceeded to introduce a system for the actual collection of tradables. Initially, this was based on mixed pattern of either «povoz», meaning that subdued tribes brought the tribute themselves, or «poludie», which means that the Prince and his retinue made a tour of the land to collect dues and taxes, tributes and tolls. Soon, however, there emerged a more structured system of tax administration that was based on old trading posts, know as «pogosti». In each district a special official was made responsible for the collection and timely transfer to Kiev of livied taxes.
During Polyudia the Prince dealt with complaints and ruled the court.
Druzhina, in early Rus, was a prince’s retinue, which helped him to administer his principality and constituted the area’s military force. The first druzhinniki (members of a druzhina) in Rus were the Norse Varangians, whose princes established control there in the 9th century. Soon members of the local Slavic aristocracy as well as adventurers of a variety of other nationalities became druzhinniki.
The druzhina was composed of two groups: the senior members (who became known as boyars) and the junior members. The boyars were the prince’s closest advisers; they also performed higher state functions. The junior members constituted the prince’s personal bodyguard and were common soldiers. All the members were dependent upon their prince for financial support, but each member served the prince freely and had the right to leave him and join the druzhina of another prince. As a result, a prince was inclined to seek the goodwill of his druzhina; he paid the druzhinniki wages, shared his war booty and taxes with them, and eventually rewarded the boyars with landed estates, complete with rights to tax and administer justice to the local population.
The ancient Russian legal process: if someone had a case against another, whom he considered guilty of theft, self-harm or murder, then he would summon him to the court of the Prince.
There was a judicial duel, during which both sides had to prove their case. The Prince decided the case with his sentence.
If both sides did not suit this sentence, then the final decision remained for the weapon.

10 century

As a result of the tax reform of Princess Olga, the polyudia system was abolished and replaced by paying fixed tribute. These tributes were gathered in the administrative centers by special Princely officials (by tiuni).
The veche - in ancient and medieval Rus’ a meeting of the people for the discussion of general affairs - arose from the tribal meetings of Slavs. With the formation of the old Russian state of Kievan Rus’, the feudal notables used the veche for limiting the power of the prince. Veche meetings became used on a wide scale in Rus’ with the weakening of the power of the princes in the period of feudal fragmentation (the second half of the 11th and the 12th centuries).
In the chronicle, the veche was referred to in Novgorod the Great in 1016, and in Kiev in 1068.The veches handled questions of war and peace; the calling and banishing of princes; the selection and removal of the posadnik, tysiatskii (thousand - the head of decimal military unit), and others, and in Novgorod, also of archbishops; the conclusion of treaties with other lands and principalities; and the passing of laws (for example, the Novgorod and Pskov law codes). The veche meetings were usually convoked by the ringing of the veche bell on the initiative of the representatives of the authorities or the population itself; the meetings were not held at regular intervals.
The proportion of estates was insignificant, and the main part of the territory was in the state property of military nobility, realized through the system of tributes.
Boyar, Russian Boyarin, plural Boyare, member of the upper stratum of medieval Russian society and state administration. In Kievan Rus during the 10th–12th century, the boyars constituted the senior group in the prince’s retinue (druzhina) and occupied the higher posts in the armed forces and in the civil administration. They also formed a boyar council, or duma, which advised the prince in important matters of state. The boyars in Russia were divided into «Princely people» - close to the Prince and «elders of the city» - descendants of tribal nobility.
The Boyars were getting the votchinas. Votchina or otchina or patrimony (о́тчина – from word Father) was a land estate that could be inherited. An owner of votchina (votchinnik) not only had property rights to it, but also some administrative and legal power over people living on its territory. These people, however, were not serfs, as they had a right to freely move to different votchinas.
First, Kievan Rus’ was a relatively free society, especially by the European standards of the time. Its princes, even within their individual principalities, did not have anything like the absolute power Russia's later czars would wield. Princely authority was limited by the power of boyars, who met in councils called dumas. Consulting with the boyars was the moral duty of the prince.
The jurisdiction of the church courts was controlled by Church Regulations (attributed to Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich).
starting 10 century a sloboda - was a kind of settlement in Kievan Rus. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for «freedom» and may be loosely translated as «(tax-)free settlement».
People living at sloboda were free from boyars and were belonging to the state as state citizens.
Initially, the settlers of such sloboda were freed from various taxes and levies for various reasons. Freedom from taxes was an incentive for colonization.
By the first half of the 18th century, this privilege was abolished, and slobodas became ordinary villages, shtetls, townlets, suburbs.

11 century

1016-1054 The «Russkaya Pravda», an 11th century series of law codes written by the Grand Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich of Kiev and Novgorod. This document, and its later additions, were the formation of jurisdiction and judicial systems. The Russkaya Pravda regulated crimes that were universally seen as grave offences, such as murder, beatings, mutilations, and robb12eries. The Russkaya pravda provided little evidence of any distinction between civil and criminal law. All offenses were conceptualized as simple torts, and detailed schedules of compensation provided a framework within which all disputes could be settled. The law codes have no capital punishment associated with them, but instead the perpetrator was charged a fine to the Prince. This system corresponds to the social hierarchy of early Rus society, and is different from the law codes of the surrounding areas, such as Byzantium.
Yaroslav was responsible for introducing several more legislative documents in his life time, such as the Statue on Church Courts, but additional statues and laws were written into the Russkaya Pravda, and other documents, by Yaroslav’s children.
The central theme of the second main part of the Pravda was the protection of the Prince's own personnel and property. The Prince's personnel ranged from highest officials (the ognishchanin and the pod'ezdnoy) to slaves. The fine fo killing of high-ranking official was twice that imposed for a freeman (80 instead of 40 grivna). There is general agreement that this fine (vira, translated as bloodwite) was to be paid to the prince. Damage to the Prince's property (lifestock, boats, beehives, bordermarkers, etc) was also punished by a fine, usually called prodazha. A special official, the virnik or bloodwite collector, was in charge of collecting the fines imposed.
Russkaya Pravda defined different categories of citizens and their social status: noble people and privileged servants (Princes, warriors), then ordinary free citizens (dependent on the feudal lord), the lowest category — peasants, slaves, serfs.
There was a formation of a unified state and administration: posadniki - governors for management in cities (appointed by the Princes from among the senior members of the armed forces), governors - the leaders of military units, thousand (tysyatsky) - the highest officials in the decimal control system, land tax collectors, swordsmen, virniki, minor officials, mytniki, trade duties collectors. From the squad of the detachment corporation, the rulers of the Princely patrimonial economy — the tiuns and the headmen — stood out. The power of local feudal lords increased and a new authority appeared - feudal congress.
Feudal Congress addressed the issues of war and peace, land division, vassalage.

12 century

11-12th centuries The veche acquired its greatest power. It was associated with the increased role of cities and the urban population in the political life of the principalities. Veche meetings were widely spread in Russia with the weakening of Princely power during the period of feudal fragmentation. But gradually veche lost importance with the decline of the old trading cities in the central Dnieper River region. The political centre of Russia was shifting to the northeastern region, where newer cities lacked the strong urban classes capable of developing their own political organs and of successfully competing with the authority of the princes.
There was not well-established government in Kievan Rus’. For a long time there was desiatinnaia system, which preserved the system of military democracy and performed administrative, financial and other functions. Over time, it was displaced by the palace-patrimonial system of governance.
Prince's court was the management center. Grand Prince settled his armed forces on his lands for ruling there till they performed military service. At court there are various agencies to manage specific sectors of the economy. It was called posadnichestvo. Posadnik was a representative of the prince. He received one-third of the taxes levied on its content.
The princely palace was the center of the specific administration, and was ruled by the prince alone.
The patrimony of the boyars is the territory in which the palace (princely) administration and economy was entrusted to individual boyars, free servants or serfs. Princely officials were: voivode, tiuny, ognishchane, elders, etc. The palace control was presented as:
1) the palace;
2) the department of the Palace Routes, where the Routes are administrative and judicial authorities, they were headed by «worthy boyars» (huntsman, horseman and others).
In the folding of the local government system, the Feeding system played an important role, when representatives of the central government (governors, volosteli, etc.) salaries were not received from the treasury, but «fed» at the expense of the local population. Feeding was granted on the basis of certificates for Feeding. Feeding certificates gave the governors the right to rule. The Feed consisted of:
1) «inward feed» (at the start of their rule);
2) periodic (at Christmas, Easter, Petrov day);
3) trade duties from nonresident merchants;
4) judicial duties.
Feeders (Kormlenshchiki) were appointed for a year or two and were not interested in good management. Small landowners and landlords suffered especially from the Feeding system.
Revenues from the local government went into the pocket of the boyars, providing them with a great political weight. This caused discontent rising Dvoryanstvo (Russian nobility).

13 century

1245-1275 Mongol Census taken in Rus to streamline the collection of tribute.
The power of the Kiev princes more and more declined, the political significance of the landowning nobility grew.
1274 At the Vladimir Cathedral, differences in church law were eliminated and attention was paid to strengthening church discipline such as:
1. Limited simony - set out in san "on mzde" set a fixed fee for ordination;
2. Against violations listed in the rank that took place in some churches;
3. Against of drunkenness of clergyman;
The Russkaya pravda (Russian truth) survived in two fundamental redactions - Short and Expanded. The oldest of The Expanded Pravda, is extant in nearly 100 copies, included in the oldest Kormchaya kniga - Pilot's book (1282).
The gradual differentiation of criminal law from the civil law did take place in the Expanded redaction of the Russkaya pravda. Russkaya pravda devoted considerable space to inheritance law. Also of relevance to the development of civil law in medieval Russia is the Pravda's large codex on slavery. The statute defines the various types of slavery, conditions of enslavement, and a slave's legal responsibility.
Church guarantees flourished in the early Muscovite period. Churchmen, like many private landlords, enjoyed varying degrees of judicial immunity: no cleric would be subject to any secular court, and that certain offenses - principally offenses against marriage and morality - would be judged exclusively by churchmen. This way church had an immunity from secular jurisdiction for its own personnel and the exclusive right to adjudicate crimes of morality.
The Effects of the Mongol invasion on Administration and Institutions:
In the times after the Mongols had conquered the majority of Kievan Russia, veches ceased to exist in all cities except Novgorod, Pskov, and others in the northwestern regions. Veches in those cities continued to function and develop until Moscow itself subjugated them in the late 15th century.
Of great importance to the Mongol overlords was census tabulation, which allowed for the collection of taxes. To support censuses, the Mongols imposed a special dual system of regional administration headed by military governors, the basqaqi (баскаки), and/or civilian governors, the darugi (даругы). Essentially, the basqaqi were given the responsibility of directing the activities of rulers in the areas that were resistant or had challenged Mongol authority. The darugi were civilian governors that oversaw those regions of the empire that had submitted without a fight or that were considered already pacified to Mongol forces.
In the13th century the basqaqi were stationed in the conquered lands to subjugate the people and authorize even the day-to-day activities of the princes. Furthermore, in addition to ensuring the census, the basqaqi oversaw conscription of the local populace.
The 1st census taken by the Mongols occurred in 1257, just 17 years after their conquest of Rus’ lands. The population was divided into multiples of ten, a system that had been employed by the Chinese and later adopted by the Mongols who extended its use over the entirety of their empire; the census served as the primary purpose for conscription as well as for taxation. This practice was carried on by Moscow after it stopped acknowledging the Horde in 1480. The practice fascinated foreign visitors to Russia, to whom large-scale censuses were still unknown.

14 century

The Russian princes were required to go to Sarai to tender personal homage and to pay tribute to the khans. The Khans retained control over princely successions and exercised a veto over all major policy decisions. The collection of taxes was closely monitored by the Golden Horde through officials that were stationed in Russian towns. Russian princes were obliged to send recruits for the Mongol armies when ordered so by the Khans. In the beginning, the Mongols collected taxes from the Russians by means of their own agents.
The regional Princes fought against the Grand Princely power, who tried to constrain their political rights.
They concluded treaties among themselves, which established the boundaries of the principalities, the conditions for issuing runaway peasants and serfs,
rules of travel of merchants, and also determined the general line of foreign policy and diplomacy.
However, in the context of political fragmentation, these treaties were constantly violated.
Later, the Khans appointed one Russian ruler as Grand Prince and authorized him to maintain public order, law, and discipline.

The Effects of the Mongol invasion on Administration and Institutions (continued):
Existing sources and research indicates that the basqaqi had largely disappeared from the Rus’ lands by the mid-14th century, as the Rus more or less accepted the Mongol overlords. As the basqaqi left, the darugi replaced them in power. However, unlike the basqaqi, the darugi were not based in the confines of the lands of the Rus; in fact, they were stationed in Sarai, the old capital of the Golden Horde located not far from present-day Volgograd. The darugi functioned mainly as experts on the lands of the Rus’ and advised the khan accordingly. While the responsibility of collecting and delivering tribute and conscripts had belonged to the basqaqi, with the transition from the basqaqi to the darugi these duties were actually transferred to the princes themselves when the khan saw that the princes could complete such tasks.
One important institution that the basqaqi oversaw and maintained was the yam (a system of posts), which was constructed to provide food, bedding, horses, and either coaches or sleds, according to the season.
The system was quite efficient. Another report by emissary of the Hapsburgs stated that the yam system allowed to travel 500 kilometers (from Novgorod to Moscow) within 72 hours – much faster than anywhere in Europe. The yam system helped the Mongols to maintain tight control over their empire.

15 century

The character of the government of Muscovy took on an autocratic form under Ivan 3 which it had never had before. After the fall of Constantinople, Orthodox canonists were inclined to regard the Muscovite grand dukes as the successors of the emperors. The boyars were no longer consulted on affairs of state. The sovereign became sacred, while the boyars were absolutely dependent on the wll of the sovereign.
The land management system was feudalism. Feudal lords had broad judicial and administrative rights to the population and troops (consisting of service people - Dvoryanstvo nobility).
The church was a large feudal organization with its own court and administration system. The head of the church - the metropolitan - had his own «court», boyars, army, service people.
Similar was the organization of local churches under the authority of the metropolitan and ruled by archbishops and bishops.
The secular power has judged the church people
1497 It was during the reign of Ivan 3 that the new Russian Sudebnik, or law code, was compiled. The 1497 Sudebnik was Russia's first national law code. Unlike earlier immunity charters, which pertained only to a private landholder and his land or to particular localities, it promulgated rules of general application for Muscovite courts. The Code is usually interpreted as part of Ivan's policy of nationbuilding.
Sudebnik contains relatively little substantive law. This has encouraged speculation that the Russkaya pravda and other customary norms continued to have the force of law in the overwhelmingly agrarian society of early Muscovy.

16 century

The territory of the Russia was divided into provincial districts, that were called «uyezd» in Muscovy and the later Russian Empire. Each uyezd had several «volosts» that were subordinated to the uyezd city.
In Muscovy and in Russia from the 15th to the 18th centuries, a Prikaz (in modern Russian, prikaz literally means an «order») was an administrative, judicial, territorial, or executive office functioning on behalf of palace, civil, military, or church authorities. It was replacing the palace-patrimonial system of governance. The term usually suggests the functionality of a modern ministry, office or department.
Most of the prikazes were subordinated to the Boyar Duma. Some of them (palace prikazes) were subordinated to the 1st prikaz, which answered directly to the tsar.
The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia had his own prikazes.
1535 The 1st currency reform in Russia was held, giving birth to Russia’s smallest coin, the kopeck, the first all-Russia currency. The reform was carried out by Princess Elena Glinskaya, mother of Tsar Ivan 4 the Terrible.
1549-60 In his youth Ivan 4 tried to govern in a progressive manner: he administered the country together with an informal government called the Elected Rada (a circle of confidants, young representatives of the aristocracy and the clergy).
The Rada implemented a series of important reforms, concentrated power in the hands of the tsar and limited the boyars' authority.
Reforms were carried out such as:
Military - the creation of Strelets troops to protect the sovereign and restore order in military service.
Financial - Entering a single state duty.
Ivan later dissolved Elected Rada (in 1560) and began governing alone.
1549 The 1st Zemsky Sobor. Zemsky sobor («assembly of the land»), in 16th- and 17th-century Russia, an advisory assembly convened by the tsar or the highest civil authority in power whenever necessary. It was generally composed of representatives from the ecclesiastical and monastic authorities, the boyar council, the landowning classes, and the urban freemen; elections for representatives and the sessions of each group were held separately.
1551 The Stoglavy Sobor was a church council, held in Moscow with the participation of Tsar Ivan 4, Metropolitan Macarius, and representatives of the Boyar Duma. The Tsar summoned a synod of the Russian Church to discuss the ritual practices that had grown up in Russia which did not conform with those of the Greek Church. The Stoglavy Sobor proclaimed the inviolability of church properties and the exclusive jurisdiction of church courts over ecclesiastical matters. By decisions of the Stoglavy Sobor, church ceremonies and duties in the whole territory of Russia were unified. The decisions of the Stoglavy Sobor that approved the native Russian rituals at the expense of those accepted in Greece and other Orthodox countries were cancelled by the Moscow Sobor of 1666–1667, leading to a great schism of the Russian church known as the Raskol.
1564-72 Oprichnina regime. Russia was failing in the Livonian war and in the fight against the Crimea, and the Tsar suspected the boyars of treason. The term oprichnina refers to this reign of terror, which was conducted by the oprichniki, members of the tsar’s new court, who were primarily drawn from the lower gentry and foreign population. The policy reduced the boyars’ political power, disrupted the Russian economy, and contributed to the centralization of the Muscovite state. After 1572, when the oprichniki were disbanded, the term dvor (court) replaced oprichnina.
1597 A full enslavement of peasants. A temporary (Forbidden years) and later an open-ended prohibition for peasants to leave their masters was introduced by the ukase of 1597 under the reign of Boris Godunov, which took away the peasants' right to free movement around Yuri's Day, binding the vast majority of the Russian peasantry in full serfdom. These also defined the so-called fixed years (urochniye leta), or the 5-year time frame for search of the runaway peasants.

17 century

1607 A new ukase (order) defined sanctions for hiding and keeping the runaway peasants: the fine had to be paid to the state and pozhiloye – to the previous owner of the peasant.
1649 When the Time of Troubles was over, the Romanov dynasty began to rule the country taking active steps in lawmaking. In the mid-17th century there was a need to systematize orders and legislate on new socio-political system. In 1649 the Zemsky Sobor adopted a new code of laws of the Russian state — the Council Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (Sobornoye Ulozheniye).
This unique code of laws of the Russian Empire developed and adopted by the Zemsky Sobor of 1649 as a result of the confrontation of different social groups of the Russian society, determined the law and order and social relations in the country during 200 years.
965 articles united into 25 chapters of the new code of laws in contrast to the previous documents of the kind contained the norms not just of the procedural law but also of the state, civil, administrative and criminal law. The code determined for the first time the status of the head of state, the order of the government service, the types of the state and penal crimes.
The code had approved the serfdom in the country, having abolished the fixed years and declared the search for the run-away serfs unlimited. From that time on peasants’ serfdom became hereditary and their property was acknowledged as the one belonging to the landowner.
All the tradespeople were now registered in their trading quarters and became a taxed estate. However it had a privilege to undertake the commercial and industrial activity.
The code seriously limited the rights of the clergy. Henceforth it was subject to trial without special preferences and could no more acquire ancestral lands for the exception of a patriarch and his retainers. The Monastery office was established to administrate the former ancestral lands of monasteries and clergy.
Law Code of 1649 carefully retained the distinction between the pomestie (Dvoryanstvo) and the votchina (Boyars), but the distinctions were fading in reality. During the first half of the 17th century, the pomestie essentially became hereditary property, but service still was compulsory and holders could not freely alienate it.
1653 In the New Trade Charter internal duties were abolished and uniform duties were established for merchants.
1654 Bureau of Secret Affairs (Prikaz Tainykh Del) was established. It supervised other central government offices, ambassadors, and military governors of cities and regimental military commanders. It directed important political investigations, organized expeditions to seek out valuable mineral resources throughout Russia, and administered the manufacture of weapons and cannons.
1652-67 Nikon's reforms — the beginning of schism. Patriarch Nikon, desiring to change the ancient traditions, began to impose new ritual and liturgical practices onto Russia’s Church Together with Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, they decided to remake Russia’s Church along the lines of her contemporary Greek counterpart.
Ecclesiastical literature was the first target of reform. In 1654, Nikon summoned a synod to re-examine the service-books revised by the Patriarch Joasaf, and the majority of the synod decided that «the Greeks should be followed rather than our own ancients».
Nikon's patriarchal staff descended with crushing force upon those with whom he disagreed. Although they apparently consisted of mere external rituals, Nikon's reforms attacked the very essence of Orthodoxy in the view of many of his contemporaries. The opponents of the new reforms claimed to stand for the old faith and took the name «Old Believers». Despite their efforts, they failed to reverse the reforms. An international Orthodox church council met in Moscow in 1666-1667 to confirm the Nikonian reforms and anathematize the recalcitrant Old Believers.
1667 The Novgorod charter was adopted, which defined additional benefits for foreign trade.
1682 Mestnichestvo, by which a noble was appointed to a service position on the basis of his family’s rank in the hierarchy of boyars, was abolished.

18 century

Peter's I reforms
Military reform:
Military reform was designed to create a powerful permanently standing army and navy, was the central goal of all of Peter the Great's monumental reform:
- the creation of a navy that he used to great effect against the Ottomans in the sea of Azov and the Swedes in the Baltic during the Great Northern War;
- the creation of the Guard's Officer Corps, replaced by officers with General Staff training during the nineteenth century;
- a twenty-five year service requirement for peasants selected by lot to be soldiers;
- his codifying military's existence by personally writing a set of instructions in 1716 for the army and 1720 for the navy.
Peter 1 formed a modern regular army built withanew aspect: officers not necessarily from nobility, as talented commoners were given promotions that eventually included (such promotions were later abolished during the reign of Catherine the Great). Conscription of peasants and townspeople was based on quota system, per settlement. Initially it was based on the number of households, later it was based on the population numbers.
1711 A new state body was established by ukaz — The Governing Senate. All its members were appointed by Tsar Peter 1 from among his own associates and originally consisted of 10 people. All appointments and resignations of senators occurred by personal imperial decrees. The senate did not interrupt the activity and was the permanent operating state body.
Administrative reform:
1708 Old national subdivisions (uyezds) were abolished and established in their place eight governorates (guberniyas): Moscow, Ingermanland, Kiev, Smolensk, Archangelgorod, Kazan, Azov, and Siberian.
1713 Landrats were established (from the German word for «national council») in each of the governorates, staffed by between eight and twelve professional civil servants, who assisted a royally-appointed governor.
1717 Peter 1 established nine collegia or boards which replaced old Prikazs. Each collegium had a President and Vice-President, but some Vice-Presidents were never appointed.
1722 Table of Ranks - a formal list of ranks in the Russian military, government, and royal court. The Table of Ranks established a complex system of titles and honorifics, each classed withanumber (1 to 14) denoting a specific level of service or loyalty to the Tsar. With minimal modifications, the Table of Ranks remained in effect until the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Also City, Class structure and Judicial reforms were carried out.
Financial reforms: monopolizing certain strategic industries, such as salt, vodka, oak, and tar. Peter also taxed many Russian cultural customs (such as bathing, fishing, beekeeping, and wearing beards) and issued tax stamps for paper goods.
Poll tax replaced household tax on cultivated land. Previously, peasants had skirted the tax by combining several households into one estate; now, however, each peasant was assessed individually for a tax of 70 kopeks, paid in cash. This was significantly heavier than the taxes it replaced, and it enabled the Russian state to expand its treasury almost sixfold between 1680 and 1724. (Peter's government was constantly in dire need of money for Great Northern War and other wars). Peter also pursued proto-protectionist trade policies, placing heavy tariffs on imports and trade to maintain a favorable environment for Russian-made goods.
Church reform: instead of being governed by a patriarch or metropolitan, the government of the church came under the control of a committee known as the Most Holy Governing Synod, which was composed both of bishops and lay bureaucrats appointed by the Emperor. The Holy Governing Synod was administered by a lay director, or Ober-Procurator. The Synod changed in composition over time, but basically it remained a committee of churchmen headed by a lay appointee of the Emperor.
Social reforms: education reform - civilian and military schools were opened, the Academy of Sciences was created; cultural; Medical - many new hospitals were opened.
Philanthropy reforms:
Legislation specified the categories of population entitled to relief - decrepit and disabled soldiers, cripples, illegitimate babies, and orphans. Almsgiving in the streets was prohibited on pain of a fine. Secular hospitals, almshouses and orphanages were established similar to the charity institutions in Europe. The 1721 decree established that 1% should be deducted from the allowances of 'people in any positions, excepting soldiers' so as to maintain hospitals and to provide for the patients.

Elizaveta Petrovna was the successor to the ideas of her father Peter the Great. Under Elizaveta, Russia's export economy blossomed, which, beginning in the early 1740s, systematically expanded the sale of agricultural goods abroad. The first noble land bank was established in 1753. Landlords could borrow money from the bank at below market rates.
The beginning of the epoch of the Enlightenment and the reorganization of military educational institutions are associated with the rule of Elizaveta 1 Petrovna.
1744 Elizaveta issued a decree on the extension of the network of primary schools. First gymnasiums were opened in Moscow (1755) and Kazan (1758).
1755 The Moscow University was founded.
1757 The Academy of Arts was founded.

Reforms of Catherine 2.
Catherine's major influences on her adopted country were in expanding Russia's borders and continuing the process of Westernisation begun by Peter the Great. During her reign she extended the Russian empire southwards and westwards, adding territories which included the Crimea, Belarus and Lithuania . Agreements with Prussia and Austria led to three partitions of Poland, in 1772, 1793, and 1795, extending Russia's borders well into central Europe.
1767 The Legislative Commission was convened to codify Russia's laws and in the process modernised Russian life. Catherine presented the commission with her Nakaz, (or 'Instruction'), a strikingly liberal document that presented the empress’s vision of the ideal government. This work was widely distributed in Europe and caused a sensation because it called for a legal system far in advance of the times. It proposed a system providing equal protection under law for all persons and emphasized prevention of criminal acts rather than harsh punishment for them.
1785 «Charter to the Nobility» established Dvoryanstvo nobility as a separate estate in Russian society and assured their privileges (one of the reasons was Catherine's heavy reliance on the nobility to control the country after the Pugachev Rebellion of 1774-1775). Therefore the serfs status and rights declined further.
Catherine's main interests were in education and culture. She read widely and corresponded with many of the prominent thinkers of the era, including Voltaire and Diderot. She was a patron of the arts, literature and education and acquired an art collection which now forms the basis of the Hermitage Museum.
Philanthropy reforms:
1763 The Decree to create foundling homes in Moscow and St Petersburg. The guberniias (provinces) allowed to individuals and associations to create specialised charitable institutions, including almshouses, insane almshouses, orphanages, workhouses, etc.

Paul’s 1 reforms.
There was probably no sphere in state affairs which was not influenced by the Paul 1. Paul passed an incredible number of new laws – 595 in 1797, 509 in 1798, 330 in 1799, 469 in 1800. Thus, Paul averaged 42 decrees of new laws per month, where Catherine 2 had averaged only 12.
Army reforms: Paul strove to reshape the Russian army in the Prussian fashion, introducing strict discipline and ridiculous wigs for soldiers. These reforms fed discontent among officers and ordinary soldiers alike.
1797 A law of hereditary succession to the crown in the male line, and afterwards in the female, instead of leaving it to the caprice of the reigning sovereign.
1797 A manifesto on serfs and landlords, which was a starting point for easing serfdom’s rules.
Serfs’ forced labour for their landlord on Sundays was prohibited. For the first time in Russia history, peasants could be sworn in as witnesses. A special peasantry department was set up, the state peasants received plots of land, and all peasants were granted the right to appeal court decisions.
1797 The Department of the Institutions of Empress Mariathe - the largest charitable organisation was founded.
The Old Believers were allowed to practice and build their own churches.

19 century

Alexander's I reforms.
2 factors had a big impact on Czar Alexander I reign: the Enlightenment education he received from his grandmother, Catherine the Great, and the Napoleonic Wars . Alexander was brought up during the Enlightenment period of the late 18th century. As a result, the future czar was familiar with the most liberal, up-to-date views on European politics, history and philosophy.
After the darkness into which Paul had plunged Russia, Alexander wanted his reign to be a happy one and dreamed of great and necessary reforms. He formed the Private Committee (Neglasny Komitet). Its avowed purpose was to frame «good laws, which are the source of the well-being of the Nation».
Public education: involved the formation of many schools of different types, institutions for training teachers, and the founding of three new universities.
1802 Imperial Philanthropic Society was founded, and a nation-wide network of charitable establishments developed. The initiative in the development of philanthropy belonged to the elite strata of society, to the educated nobility. The upsurge of patriotic feelings in the course of the 1812 war against Napoleon resulted in active collection of funds for the wounded.
The idea of the abolition of serfdom.
The institution of serfdom was, in the tsar’s own words, «a degradation» that kept Russia in a disastrously backward state. But to liberate the serfs (75% of the population), would arouse the hostility of their noble masters. Serfdom prevented modernization of the country, which was at least a century behind the rest of Europe. Despite the humanitarian ideas, Alexander lacked the energy necessary for the abolition of serfdom.
Preparation of a reforms by M. Speransky. The State Council was established - the legislative body since 1810. Alexander I gave Constitution to Poland and Bessarabia. A draft of the Russian Constitution and a program for the abolition of serfdom was prepared.
1820s The Final Decade of Alexander rule marked a turning point for the tsar. He had become religious; he read the Bible daily and prayed often. He left everything in Arakcheyev’s hands («arakcheevschina»). The establishment of military settlements - soldiers (yesterday’s peasants) were forced, along with military service, to engage in peasant labor. In the military settlements reigned tough barracks discipline and half-prison orders. For Russia, it was a period of reaction, obscurantism, and struggle against real and imagined subversion.

Nicholas I reforms.
Nicholas I often considered the personification of classic autocracy. For his reactionary policies, he has been called the emperor who froze Russia for 30 years. The new regime became preeminently one of militarism and bureaucracy. Thirty years on the throne earned him a reputation as the Gendarme of Europe.
The importance of the Committee of Ministers, the State Council, and the Senate decreased in the course of his reign.
Third Department. This political police (heads of the Third Department — Count Benckendorff and Prince Orlov) acted as the autocrat’s main weapon against subversion and revolution and as Nicholas principal agency for controlling the behaviour of his subjects and for distributing punishments and rewards among them.
Peasant reform - the abolition of the physical punishments of landowners and the reduction of taxes.
1835 «The Code of laws of the Russian Empire» intended to replace the outdated Ulozhenie of 1649. The Code was elaborated by a prominent statesman M. Speransky. The Code of laws had two levels: the national Code of laws and the codes of local laws (civil law sources). The Code of laws contained 42 thousand articles united into 8 sections which comprised 15 volumes.
Industrial reforms - there was a growth of factories and plants, construction of roads, and the 1st railway was opened in 1837.
In his final Years Nicholas I, who was frightened by European revolutions, became completely reactionary. During the last years of the reign the emperor’s once successful foreign policy collapsed, leading to isolation and to the tragedy of the Crimean War.

Reforms of Alexander II.
1861-74 Alexander II, «Tsar Liberator», decreed major reforms of Russia's social, judicial, educational, financial, administrative, and military systems. His program came to be known as the Great Reforms. These acts liberated roughly 40 percent of the population from bondage, created an independent judicial system, introduced self-governing councils in towns and rural areas, eased censorship, transformed military service, strengthened banking, granted more autonomy to universities, greater openness (glasnost) in official and civil affairs, and civic engagement of all members of society.
The overall goals were to accelerate economic development and restore Russia's military dominance as a Great Power after its sobering defeat in the Crimean War (1853–1856).
1861 Emancipation of proprietary/seigniorial serfs and establishment of volost courts. The reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire. The 1861 Emancipation Manifesto proclaimed the emancipation of the serfs on private estates and of the domestic (household) serfs.
1862 State Treasury created; state budget hence forth published;
1863 Emancipation of appanage peasants; univer sity statute; abolition of dehumanizing corporal punishments in military;
1864, 1870 Zemstvo statute; Municipal Reform; judicial reform.
With Zemstvo the process of power decentralisation became one of the dominant features of the Russia's modernisation. The self-governing municipalities (city dumas and municipal boards) in the big cities and Zemstvo self-government in the rural districts took upon themselves the task of securing all aspects of life of local communities, including poor relief: hospitals, orphanages etc.
Despite a fast growth of charity funds, the level of development of philanthropy in Russia was very low by comparison with the countries of the West (33 times less than Great Britain).
1865 Temporary regulations on censorship;
1866 Emancipation of state peasants; creation of State Bank;
1874 Universal military service statute.
As a consequence of the Great Reforms, the nobility lost two key defining features of their status: ownership of other human beings who provided them free labor and freedom from military service.
As the zemstvos and reformed courts took root, landowning gentry also lost their dominant roles in rural life, even finding that their former serfs could sit in judgment over them in jury trials. Emancipated peasants, however frustrated by the terms of the land reform, took advantage of the courts and zemstvos to pursue their interests and engage in public life. Many became landowners themselves.
Expanded educational opportunities through zemstvo schools, universities and institutes, and military service increased literacy among the peasantry and stimulated the growth of professions among the other social estates. The Russian Empire continued to be a predominantly agricultural, illiterate, and rural society (over 80 percent of the population still lived in the countryside in 1897), but state-sponsored industrialization and urbanization provided opportunities for all layers of society.
The Great Reforms , however, did not alter the political structure of the empire. The Russian tsar remained an autocrat, above the law and without any formal constraints on his personal will.
The tension between the social and economic transformations the Great Reforms introduced and the persistent patriarchal paternalism of the autocratic system worsened

Alexander III reforms.
The 3 principles of Alexander III rule: Orthodoxy, autocracy, and narodnost.
Alexander III condemned the influence of Western culture, ideas, and liberalist reforms supported by his father.
He believed that Russia had lost its domineering role in Eastern Europe due to Western liberalism.
Alexander's political ideal was a nation containing only one nationality, language, religion and form of administration; and he did his utmost to prepare for the realization of this ideal (the Policy of «Russification») by imposing the Russian language and Russian schools on his German, Polish and other non-Russian subjects, by fostering Eastern Orthodoxy at the expense of other religions, by persecuting Jews and by destroying the remnants of German, Polish and Swedish institutions in the outlying provinces.
1782 State for foreign affairs and a separate Foreign Office with the departments grouped into two categories: political and non-political.
All the internal reforms that he initiated were intended to correct what he considered the too liberal tendencies of the previous reign.
In his opinion, Russia was to be saved from anarchical disorders and revolutionary agitation not by the parliamentary institutions and so-called liberalism of western Europe.

Nicholas 2 reforms.
1896 Major currency reform by S. Witte to place the Russian ruble on the gold standard. This led to increased investment activity and an increase in the inflow of foreign capital.
1897 A law limiting working hours in enterprises by S. Witte.
1898 Commercial and industrial taxes reformed by S. Witte.

20 century

The reforms of Nicholas II.
1905 The first representative body of legislative power was created as result of the revolution – the State Duma. The State Council of the Russian Empire became the second chamber.
1906-17 P. Stolypin land reform in order to restructure the peasant land tenure system. They were instituted in the wake of the Revolution of 1905 in an effort to deal with the ongoing agrarian problem. Its aim was to encourage industrious peasants to acquire their own land, and ultimately to create a class of prosperous, conservative, small farmers that would be a stabilizing influence in the countryside and would support the autocracy.

The reforms after Great October Socialistic Revolution.
1918-21 War communism: applied by the Bolsheviks during the period of the Russian Civil War (1918–20). The policy’s chief features were the expropriation of private business and the nationalization of industry throughout Soviet Russia, and the forced requisition of surplus grain and other food products from the peasantry by the state. Money had been abolished. The policy of War Communism brought the national economy to the point of total breakdown.
1921-28 NEP (new economic policy) - the economic policy of the government, representing a temporary retreat from its previous policy of extreme centralization and doctrinaire socialism. The Kronshtadt Rebellion of 1921 convinced the Communist Party and its leader, Vladimir Lenin, of the need to retreat from socialist policies in order to maintain the party’s hold on power.
These measures included the return of most agriculture, retail trade, and small-scale light industry to private ownership and management while the state retained control of heavy industry, transport, banking, and foreign trade. Money was reintroduced. The peasantry were allowed to own and cultivate their own land, while paying taxes to the state. The NEP reintroduced a measure of stability to the economy and allowed the Soviet people to recover from years of war.
1924 1st Constitution of the USSR. Constitution legitimized the Creation of the USSR between the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The USSR was in charge of: the army, foreign policy and trade, economic planning, the monetary system, civil and criminal legislation, labor, health and education laws.
1928-90 Five-Year Plans - method of planning economic growth over limited periods, through the use of quotas. The Soviet state planning committee Gosplan developed these plans based on the theory of the productive forces that formed part of the ideology of the Communist Party for development of the Soviet economy. Fulfilling the current plan became the watchword of Soviet bureaucracy.
1936 Second USSR Constitution, also known as the Stalin Constitution, redesigned the government of the Soviet Union with the proclamation of the victory of socialism in the USSR and the consolidation of the leadership of the Communist Party.
It nominally granted all manner of rights and freedoms, and spelled out a number of democratic procedures such as: freedoms to work, to rest, to education, freedom of speech, press, rallies, street demonstrations, the integrity of the person and home, the privacy of correspondence.
In practice, by asserting the «leading role» of the Communist Party, it cemented the complete control of the party and its leader, Joseph Stalin.
1965-70 Soviet economic reform, sometimes called the Kosygin reform: This liberman reform were a set of planned changes in the economy of the Soviet Union. A centerpiece of these changes was the introduction of profitability and sales as the two key indicators of enterprise success. Some of an enterprise's profits would go to reward workers and expand operations; most would go to the central budget.
1977 3rd Constitution of the USSR: «the constitution of developed socialism». The preamble stated that «the aims of the dictatorship of the proletariat having been fulfilled, the Soviet state has become the state of the whole people.» Compared with previous constitutions, the Brezhnev Constitution extended the scope of the constitutional regulation of society.

«Perestroika reforms».
Perestroika was a political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1980s and 1990s and is widely associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning openness) policy reform.
1990 Dissolution of the USSR and the Establishment of Independent Republics.
The three Baltic states were the first to declare their independence, claiming continuity from the original states that existed prior to their annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940. The Baltic states focused on European Union and NATO membership.
1990 The Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian SFSR was a political act of the Russian SFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic), then part of the Soviet Union, which marked the beginning of constitutional reform in Russia. It proclaimed the sovereignty of the Russian SFSR and the intention to establish a democratic constitutional state within a liberalized Soviet Union. The declaration also states the following:
Priority of the constitution and laws of the Russian SFSR over legislation of the Soviet Union (sovereignty).
Equal legal opportunities for all citizens, political parties and public organizations (equality before the law).
The principle of separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers.
The need to significantly expand the rights of the autonomous republics, regions, districts, territories of Russia (federalism).
1991 The Belovezha Accords are the agreement that declared the USSR as effectively ceasing to exist and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place as a successor entity. It was signed by the leaders of three of the four republics-signatories of the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR.
1990-95 Radical transformation. Price liberalization. «Shock therapy». Voucher privatization. Dollarization of the economy. Rising prices and falling levels of the population. Unemployment. «Black» market. Criminalization.
1993 Constitution of the RSFSR. According to the Constitution of Russia, the President of Russia is head of state, and of a multi-party system with executive power exercised by the government, headed by the Prime Minister, who is appointed by the President with the parliament's approval.The constitution provides for welfare protection, access to social security, pensions, free health care, and affordable housing; it also guarantees local self-governance.
1995-99 Adjustment of the reform course and attempts at stabilization. De-industrialization and dependence on world energy prices.
Financial pyramids and mortgage auctions. The crisis of education and science. Religious renaissance.
1998 The Russian Default , when the Russian stock, bond, and currency markets collapsed as a result of investor fears that the government would devalue the ruble, default on domestic debt, or both. Annual yields on ruble- denominated bonds were more than 200%.