Justice in the Policy of Legal Acculturation of Siberian Peoples (First Half of the 19th Century)

Abstract

The article examines the issue of extending Russian legal standards to the indigenous population of Siberia through the jurisdictional activities of imperial authorities. At the same time, an acculturation model is used to explain the relations between the imperial center and the internal peripheral regions and outskirts of the state, which previous historiography has not dealt with. The scientific analysis was carried out using regulatory legal acts and office documentation, mainly re-extracted from domestic state archives. Government measures aimed at the legal acculturation and integration of Siberian indigenous peoples into the general imperial legal system through the use of flexible forms of judicial system and legal proceedings are considered. The living conditions of the “foreigners” had significant geographical, cultural, and economic differences. This was taken into account by the imperial legislator, who offered the aborigines extraordinary bodies of justice. However, social life made traditional forms of court extremely viable, which, together with other factors, increased the diversity of judicial institutions and procedures in the Siberian macro-region.