The adoption of the Cathedral Code

Sobornoe Ulozhenie 1649 is a list of laws of the Russian state. It is the first regulatory act that regulated virtually all areas of life at that time.

The appearance of this set of laws is due to the results of the uprisings in the seventeenth century, which arose as a result of peasant movements, as well as the need for a single law. During these times, peasant wars and anti-feudal movements took place in the serf state against the intensification of exploitation, the increase of duty and lack of rights. The basis of the movements was small monastic and church organizations, townspeople and slaves. When the struggle reached its peak, the government decided to reduce the salary of the so-called serving people, which provoked a protest, which resulted in an uprising in 1648. The adoption of the Catholic Code was the result of this uprising and an acute class struggle.

The Tsar announced the convening of the Zemsky Sobor for the development of the Code. The need for new laws is considered the main reason for the creation of the Code, it can be said that this determined its character.

Nobles, boyars and merchants, who were frightened by the insurrection, demanded that the Council be convened to discuss the situation on it, although in reality each of them pursued its goals. The government made concessions in order to pacify the people.

The adoption of the Code of the Code dates back to 1648, when the king created a decree on writing the Book. They decided to write articles written by Greek kings, as well as the old government, which needed to be corrected and supplemented so that the court and the punishment for crimes were equal for every person living on the territory of the Moscow state.

To compile a code of laws entrusted to a special commission of five people. This commission worked out new laws that were submitted to the tsar for consideration. The king was instructed that the adoption of the Cathedral Code should be carried out by the people selected by him from the settlements and cities (from each of one person).

At the Council, the draft of the Code was heard, discussed and signed. This document was sent to all the cities in the office. Thus, the Zemsky Sobor became the largest of all those that were convened during the reign of kings in Russia.

The code contained twenty-five chapters (nine hundred and sixty-seven tattoos). They contained laws and codes of Greek kings, Moscow judgments and additional sentences, as well as boyar sentences drawn from the Lithuanian Statute, church ordinances, criminal law. According to the Sobornoye Ordinance, every law or regulation was written in special books, to which the regulations were written, indicating the amended laws, as well as decrees concerning changes in laws that had not been considered earlier, and those that included cases not provided for by law. The Cathedral Code had three hundred and fifteen signatures of people who compiled it, as well as special notes on the columns that pointed to the source of a certain article.

Thus, this document had a complex structure, it was divided into thematic sections devoted to certain branches of law, each section had its own heading.

The adoption of the Cathedral Code is the greatest achievement of the reign of Alexis. This great collection of laws played the role of the legal code for quite a long period of time. The Code encompassed a wide field of legislation, facilitated the definition of relations between classes. Change the Code failed for a long period of time.