There were significant changes in the law in this period. First, it completed the evolution from a dyadic process to a triadic process. Second, it made significant progress in the shift from a law based primarily on oral evidence to one based on written evidence. Third, it featured four major law codes, Sudebniki, which were major advances over what Russia had known previously.

The medieval legal compilation, the Russkaia pravda, which was initiated in 1016 and was completed in the 1170s, remained the ‘fundamental law’ of Russia through to 1549. What follows is a summary of the provisions of the Pravda. This will be used for comparison to illustrate the evolution of middle Muscovite law, as the era of the Sudebniki is sometimes called.

Russkaia pravda

The Pravda began as a court handbook to facilitate the protection of the people of Novgorod against mercenary Viking oppression. Accretions added around 1072 by Iaroslav’s sons, probably based on estate codes, were motivated by an attempt to protect representatives of the princely administration and their property with sanctions of various fines for homicide or theft or destruction of princely property. The so-called ‘Statute of Vladimir Monomakh’ (1113–25) dealt particularly with debt. Accretions added during the reign of Vsevolod around 1176 included a ‘slavery statute’ (in which it was observed that a slave was not an animal, but had human characteristics – ‘a to est’ ne skot’), plus articles on court procedure, penal law and inheritance.