According to the Law of War: Ransom and Exchange of Prisoners in the Late 17th – Early 18th Centuries on the Azov Borderland

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issue of ransom and exchange of prisoners on the Azov border of Russia in the late 17th – early 18th centuries. The authors show the features and specifics of this process, restore the mechanisms of interaction between the warring parties on this issue, and study the mentality of a person in a border society. Most documents are introduced for scientific use for the first time. It is noted that after the advance of the Russian borders to the south, the situation with the capture of the Russian population worsened. War became an everyday reality for the new Russian frontier territory. After Peter the Great captured Azov in 1696, this city became the center for the maintenance and exchange of prisoners. The Azov Order Chamber kept records of ransom and exchange, and the voivode personally supervised this process. In 1711, the archive of the Order Chamber was transferred to Voronezh, which became the new administrative center after Azov was returned to the Ottoman Empire. The bulk of the documentation has been preserved in the funds of the State Archive of the Voronezh Region. The novelty of the scientific research is connected with the study of the mentality of a person of the frontier territory. Having analyzed documents from the funds of the State Archive of the Voronezh Region the authors conclude that life on the Azov border was complicated and had special rules, the “law of war” regulating the relations of the warring parties. These rules influenced the nature of everyday life, and, ultimately, determined the behavior of a person, his consciousness and mental attitudes.

Keywords

• frontier territory
• azov
• borderland
• prisoners
• law of war
• peter the great
• voivode
• kuban
• ottoman empire
• crimean tatars