The Lower and upper rozprava of the Katerynoslav Vicarage: peculiarities of functioning

Abstract

The purpose of the article: to characterize the work of the upper and lower rozpravy of the Katerynoslav Governorate which were special state judicial institutions of the last quarter of the 18th century and dealt with the analysis of cases of free settlers, state peasants and categories equated to them. Research methods: historical-comparative, retrospective, method of internal criticism of sources, statistical. Main results. Archival heuristics prove that preserved documentary complexes provide information for forming a general idea of the activities of individual judicial establishments in the 1780s and 1800s. Lacunae, which are not covered by archival materials, can be filled by referring to the general imperial legislative base; to the documents of other institutions that cooperated with the rozpravy. In country court only nobles were elected as assessors to hear the cases of the nobles, but nobles, officials, commoners, and finally, representatives of the villagers could also be elected as the assessors for hearing at rozpravy. A significant part of village assessors was illiterate. Execution judges were appointed from officials. One of the districts which the bureaucratic apparatus of Southern Ukraine was filled from in the specified period were employees of hundred and regiment offices of the former Hetmanship and the Slobidska Ukraine. The vast majority of cases in Katerynoslavska upper and lower district rozpravy belonged to the field of criminal law. Since minor criminal offenses were dealt with in settlements by elders, village elders, more significant offenses were included in the rozpravy. This explains the presence of a significant number of serious criminal offenses under consideration in rozpravy, for example, murder cases were in the range of 30 to 40% out of the total number. Documents of the rozpravy of the Katerynoslav governorate indicate the cases of legal battles between state peasants (often former Cossacks) for land ownership with their landlord neighbors. State judiciary was more often on the side of the landowners, but there were also examples of successful struggle of the rural community as a collective subject of law. Originality: Court cases provide an opportunity to obtain new evidence about peasant everyday life, peasants' understanding of their rights and status, behavioral strategies in new life circumstances. Type of article: research.