The Russkaia Pravda (Short Version)
The term Russkaia Pravda refers to a set of early Russian law-giving documents, preserved thanks to their insertion in various so-called Chronicles. The present text, consisting of 43 articles, dates from the 11th century CE. Called the Short Version to distinguish it from a 121-article Long Version promulgated sometime later (probably the 13th century), it is divided into two sections. The first, the so-called Law Of Iaroslav The Wise or the Ancient Law (Drevneichaia pravda) is probably the earliest code of conduct to have been set down in Kievan Rus'. The second, the Law Of The Sons of Iaroslav, begins a long tradition of expanding existing statutes to cover new situations. The existence of multiple versions of these documents, inevitably divergent thanks to scribal error, makes it essentially impossible to arrive at a definitive text. However the Rus' themselves seem to have worked past the difficulties -- the Russkaia Pravda helped ensure relatively uniform justice in a society that for its time and place was comparatively orderly. Moreover the articles below are at least as much statements about social structure and values as they are proscriptions of behavior.
1. How do the texts below institutionalize a social hierarchy?
2. How does the Russkaia Pravda deal with the problem of uncorroborated testimony?
3. Does the Russkaia Pravda consider slavery to be a rights issue or a property matter? How does it regulate slavery?
4. What does the fact that the fine for stealing two hunting hawks is greater than that for killing a slave suggest about the relative value of human life at the time?
The Law Of Iaroslav
1. If a man kills a man, the brother is to avenge his brother; the son, his father; or the father, his son; or nephews, their uncles; and if there is no avenger [the murderer pays] forty grivnas fine. (1) If [the killed man] is a Kievan Russian, whether a temporarily de-classed person (2) or a merchant, or a sheriff, or an agent of the prince, or a serf, or even a Novgorodian Russian, the fine is forty grivnas.
2. If a man is bleeding or is blue from bruises, he does not need any eyewitness [to justify retaliation]. If he has no sign [of injury] he is to produce an eyewitness; if he cannot, the matter ends there. If he cannot avenge himself he is to receive three grivnas [from the perpetrator] while his physician is to get an honorarium. (3)
3. If a person hits another with a stick, or a rod, or a fist, or a bowl, or a drinking horn, or the dull side of a sword, he is to pay twelve grivnas fine. If the offender is not hit back [by his victim], he must pay, and there the matter ends.
4. If a person strikes another with an unsheathed sword, or with the hilt of a sword, he pays twelve grivnas for the offence.
5. If a person hits [another's] arm and the arm is severed or shrinks, he pays forty grivnas fine. And if he hits the leg [but does not sever it], and then he [the victim] becomes lame, let both [parties] reach an agreement.
6. And if a finger is cut off, three grivnas for the offence.
7. For the moustache twelve grivnas; and for the beard twelve grivnas.
8. If anyone unsheathes his sword, but does not hit, he pays one grivna fine.
9. If a man pulls another man toward himself or pushes him away and [the offended] brings two witnesses, the fine is three grivnas. If he should be a Varangian or a Kolbiag, an oath is to be taken. (4)
10. If anyone conceals a runaway slave of a Varangian or a Kolbiag for three days, and if it is discovered on the third day, the original owner gets back his slave and three grivnas for the offence. (5)
11. If anyone rides another's horse without the owner's permission, he has to pay three grivnas.
12. If anyone steals another's horse, or weapon, or clothes, and the owner recognises it within his township, he gets back his property and three grivnas for the offence.
13. If anyone should recognise his stolen property, he should neither take it nor say to a person, "This is mine." He should say as follows: "Let us go to the place where you got it." If that person will not go immediately, he must post bond within five days.
14. If a business partner should demand money from his associate and the latter should refuse, he must be brought to a court of twelve men. (6) If if it should be established that [the associate] cheated, the partner shall receive his share and three grivnas for the offence.
15. If the original owner should recognise his [runaway] slave and should want him back, the present owner shall lead him to the party from whom he purchased the slave, and the slave may go back to the latter. Should the matter involve a third party, the third party should be told: "Give me back my slave and try to get your money back [from the second party] with the aid of an eyewitness." (7)
16. If a slave should hit a free man and then hide in the house of his master, and the master should be unwilling to give him up, the slave must be seized and the master must pay twelve grivnas fine. The offended free man may beat that slave wherever he finds him. (8)
17. If anyone should break [someone's] spear, or shield, or damage his clothes, and then should want to keep [these items], he must pay for them; and if he should insist on returning the damaged article he must pay for the value of the article.
The Law Of The Sons Of Iaroslav
The law of the land of Rus enacted at a meeting of Princes Iziaslav, Vsevolod, Iaroslav, and the advisors Kosniachko, Pereneg, Nikifor of Kiev, Chudin and Mikula. (9)
18. Should a palace steward (10) be killed deliberately, the killer must pay eighty grivnas fine (the people are not to pay); and for [the murder of] a tax collector, eighty grivnas.
19. If a thane (11) is killed in a highway robbery and the people do not search for the killer, the fine will be paid by that locality where the killed official is found.
20. Should a thane be killed near a barn, or near a horse [stable], or a livestock shed, or [while trying to prevent] cattle theft, the murderer should be killed like a dog. The same law is applicable to the murderer of a thane.
21. And for a prince's thane, eighty grivnas, and for a master of the stable [killed] near his livestock, also eighty grivnas, as decreed by Iziaslav when the Dorogobuzhians killed his master of the stable. (12)
22. For [the murder of] the elder of a prince's village, or for a field overseer, twelve grivnas; and for the helper of a contractual thane five grivnas. (13)
23. And for the killing of a peasant or a slave, five grivnas.
24. And if a slave-nurse or her son is killed, twelve grivnas.
25. And for [the killing of] a prince's horse, if the latter has a brand, three grivnas, and for a peasant's horse, two grivnas.
26. And for a mare, sixty rezanas; (14) for an ox, one grivna; for a cow, forty rezanas; for a three-year-old cow, fifteen kunas; (15) for a yearling [heifer], one-half grivna; for a calf, five rezanas; for a yearling ewe, one nogata; (16) and for a yearling ram, one nogata.
27. If anyone should abduct someone's male or female slave, he has to pay twelve grivnas for the offence.
28. If a man should come bleeding or bruised, he needs no witness.
29. And whoever steals either a horse or an ox, or robs a barn, if he is alone he has to pay one grivna and thirty rezanas. If there were as many as ten or eighteen thieves, each pays three grivnas and thirty rezanas to the prince's men. (17)
30. And if anyone damages or burns a prince's beehive, three grivnas. (18)
31. And if anyone should torture a peasant, without the prince's order, three grivnas for the offence.
32. [For the torture of] a bailiff, a steward, or a man of arms, twelve grivnas.
33. Whoever should plough over the property line or destroy a property mark, twelve grivnas for the offence.
34. Whoever steals a boat has to pay [the owner] thirty rezanas for the boat and sixty rezanas fine.
35. For [the theft of] a dove or a chicken, nine kunas.
36. For [the theft of] a duck, a goose, a crane, or a swan, thirty rezanas and a fine of sixty rezanas.
37. If anyone steals someone's hunting dog, or a hawk, or a falcon, three grivnas for the offence.
38. If anyone should kill a thief in his own yard, or at the barn, or at the stable, he is [justly] killed. If however, anyone detains the thief till daylight, he must bring him to the prince's court; and should he [the thief] be killed, and should people see that the thief was bound at the time, the killer must pay for him. (19)
39. If anyone should steal hay, nine kunas; and for wood, nine kunas.
40. If a gang of ten thieves should steal an ewe, or a goat, or a pig, each must pay a fine of sixty rezanas. (20)
41. Whoever should apprehend a thief receives ten rezanas. A sheriff receives fifteen kunas from every three grivnas [collected in fines]. Fifteen kunas go to the Church as a tithe, and the prince receives three grivnas. From twelve grivnas of theft, the apprehender of the thief will receive seventy kunas, [the Church] two grivnas as tithe, and the prince ten grivnas.
Source: The Russian Primary Chronicle
(1) The primary media of exchange in Kievan Rus' were silver Islamic coins (dirhams) that the Rus' called kunas. Large quantities of kuna were reckoned in grivnas: one grivna was worth 25 kunas.
(2) The Russian term here is izgoi, signifying persons who had become separated from their normal social surroundings (e.g. peasants who had left the village commune). The specifics of this status, and of reinstatement, evidently varied.
(3) That is, medical expenses were to be paid by the perpetrator, not the victim.
(4) Varangians were a Scandinavian people, representatives of whom are generally held to have been the founders of Kievan Rus'. Who the "Kolbiags" were is obscure; they are thought to have been another Scandinavian people, possibly from Karelia. The prescription for "oath-taking" is an attempt to deal with difficulties that Varangians or Kolbiags who were claiming runaway slaves would have had in producing witnesses in a foreign country.
(5) The specified intervals are not to be taken literally. The article is establishing the general principle that runaway slaves may be claimed regardless of the passage of time.
(6) Known as an izvod in Russian, this jury derived from communal rather than princely traditions of justice.
(7) In other words, the original owner's rights extend to stolen property that has been resold.
(8) That is, slaveowners are responsible for the actions of their slaves.
(9) The Law of the Sons of Iaroslav is generally thought to have been drafted in 1072 CE. The princes named here were sons of Iaroslav who all ruled Kievan Rus': Iziaslav 1054-1073 and again 1076-1078; Sviatoslav 1073-1076; and Vsevolod 1078-1093. Kosniachko, Nikifor, Chudin, and Mikula were all boiars; with the first known to have been military chief (voevoda) of Kiev in 1068. Pereneg is obscure, but presumably also a boiar.
(10) Ognishchanin in Russia, in the literal sense a "guardian of the foyer." A member of the "inner circle" of princely intimates.
(11) A term of Scandinavian origin for a servitor.
(12) Dorogobuzh was a village in the Pripet marshes near Smolensk.
(13) "Contractual thane" = riadovich in Russian, literally a "man of the contract" (riad = agreement) and hence a voluntary servitor.
(14) The rezana was half of a kuna, formed by cutting the latter in two. See note (1) above.
(15) See note (1) above.
(16) The nogata was an alternative silver coin roughly equivalent to the kuna but slightly larger. Large quantities of nogatas were reckoned in grivnas: one grivna was worth 20 nogatas. See note (1) above.
(17) Another instance in which the number specified in the text is not to be taken literally. Here it establishes the principle that collective crime is to be punished more severely than individual action.
(18) Apiaries (beehives) were extremely valuable possessions in Kievan Rus', both as sources of honey and in terms of pollinating crops and orchards. As a rule their control belonged to nobility.
(19) In other words, killing in defense of one's home is acceptible only if in response to a direct threat.
(20) Again the number in the text is not to be taken literally. The suggestion here is that punishment cannot be evaded through collective action.
Non-attributed original translation revised and annotated by Jon Bone.