Recording of acts of status in the Russian empire: many years of work on errors (based on the materials of the metrical books of the churches of the Yaroslavl district)

Abstract

This article discusses the issues of registration of state acts in the Russian Empire. The authors analyzed the legislation (primarily the decrees of the Synod) on the maintenance of metric books, as well as metrics themselves. Trends in the development of forms and content of status acts in pre-revolutionary Russia, their features, errors in the implementation of registration activities in church parishes are revealed. Assumptions are made about the causes of shortcomings and errors, which mainly consisted in a negligent attitude on the part of the law enforcement officer to the relevant duties, as well as poor-quality legal regulation of the registration of state acts. The significance of metric books for the emergence or termination of rights and obligations is revealed. The study, in addition to sources on church law, is based on archival materials of the churches of the villages of the Yaroslavl district (mainly the Church of the Nativity of Christ in the village of Ponomarevo) from 1736 to 1918.