“Interesting Cases”: On the Problem of Embezzlement in the Russian Army of the 18th – Early 19th Century

Abstract

The article is written mainly on the materials of military court cases from the Russian State Military Historical Archive, as well as regulatory and legislative sources. The author examines property crimes within the Russian army from a socio-cultural perspective. The author concludes that the tools and practices that served as constraints in plundering money and resources have evolved over several decades. The practice of intimidation and capital punishment, which originated under Peter I, very quickly proved to be uneffective. As a result, by the middle of the 18th century, a system was formed so that, aside from the usual financial liability of the perpetrators, criminal and disciplinary penalties, it was effectively complemented by the principle of the command vertical liability in the matter of compensation for damage, which gave it a special corporate character. A specific attitude towards damage also facilitated this. The claim arose from a specific military unit, not from the treasury. This damage could not be forgiven even by the emperor. Measures such as sequestration of the culprit’s real estate and extending material claims to their heirs further reinforced the corporate identity of the regiment’s property.