Categories of Crimes Committed by the Russian Army Servicemen in 1731–1736

Abstract

Military justice has always been the most important element of the military system and served as the basis for troop discipline. This also applies to the Russian army of the 18th century. Despite this, the practice of military justice in the 18th century has not been studied sufficiently. The presented work aims to identify the main types of crimes committed by military personnel of the Russian army, as well as to consider the practice of punishment. Based on the analysis of archival materials, a conclusion was made about the discrepancy between the requirements of military legislation and the practice of resolving cases of soldiers and non-commissioned officers. The authors highlight the most typical types of offenses and key factors that influenced the verdict in relation to military personnel. The attitude of the military leadership to violators of military legislation was distinguished by humanity and pragmatism, which for a long time were considered uncharacteristic of the Russian army of the 18th century. The relevance of the issues considered makes the results of the study important not only for an objective characterization of the army of the “palace coups” era, but also for improving the modern military system of the Russian Federation.