Judicial practice of the Penza Criminal Court’s Chamber in 1812–1815

Abstract

Background. In recent years, the interest in the Patriotic War of 1812 has not faded in Russian historiography. It is important to study the impact of such a large-scale event on the most diverse aspects of society. The purpose of this work is to analyze the ac-tivities of Penza Criminal Court’s Chamber in 1812–1815, to determine the features of crime on the territory of the Penza province during this period, to find a reflection of the Patriotic War of 1812 in criminological indicators. Materials and methods. The set purpo-ses were achieved on the basis of the analysis of the materials of the State Archive of Penza region. The main body of sources was the management documentation of Penza Criminal Court’s Chamber: minutes, logs of meetings, court rulings. The methodological potential includes historical-typological, systematic and statistical methods. Results. In the course of the study, all criminal cases considered by Penza Criminal Court’s Chamber during the period under review were analyzed and classified. On the basis of this, statistical data were obtained concerning the nature of criminal cases, criminological indicators of crime, the impact of the Patriotic War of 1812 on them. Conclusions. There are two main directions in the activities of Penza Criminal Court’s Chamber: consideration of cases in the first instance and revision of cases received from lower courts. The main load was the second direction. The Patriotic War of 1812 and the Foreign campaigns of the Russian army of 1813–1814 had an impact on the structure of crime in Penza region, in particular crimes related to concealment from conscription, the number of which depends on the recruitment sets.

Keywords

• the patriotic war of 1812
• penza criminal court’s chamber
• microhistory
• archive
• crime
• conscription