The Lawful Empire
Legal Change and Cultural Diversity in Late Tsarist Russia

An analysis of law and imperial rule reveals that Tsarist Russia was far more 'lawful' than generally assumed.

Stefan B. Kirmse (Author)

9781108730631, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 June 2022

355 pages, 3 b/w illus. 4 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.478 kg

'The book contains everything needed to acquaint the reader with its content, including maps, detailed lists of primary sources and secondary literature, and a remarkably well-crafted and useful index. Moreover, it provides new insight amidst the ever-growing literature on the regional history of both Crimea and Kazan Province, and on their Muslim communities in particular.' Michel Tissier, H-Soz-Kult-Zentralredaktion

The Russian Empire and its legal institutions have often been associated with arbitrariness, corruption, and the lack of a 'rule of law'. Stefan B. Kirmse challenges these assumptions in this important new study of empire-building, minority rights, and legal practice in late Tsarist Russia, revealing how legal reform transformed ordinary people's interaction with state institutions from the 1860s to the 1890s. By focusing on two regions that stood out for their ethnic and religious diversity, the book follows the spread of the new legal institutions into the open steppe of Southern Russia, especially Crimea, and into the fields and forests of the Middle Volga region around the ancient Tatar capital of Kazan. It explores the degree to which the courts served as instruments of integration: the integration of former borderlands with the imperial centre and the integration of the empire's internal 'others' with the rest of society.

Introduction
1. Minority rights and legal integration in the Russian empire
2. Borderlands no more: Crimea and Kazan in the mid-nineteenth century
3. Implementing legal change: new courts for Crimea and Kazan
4. Images and practices in the new courts: the enactment of monarchy, modesty, and cultural diversity
5. Seeking justice: Muslim Tatars go to court
6. Confronting the state: peasant resistance over land and faith
7. Dealing with unrest: crime and punishment in the 'crisis years' 1878–79
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Courts & procedure [LNAA], Legal history [LAZ], Law & society [LAQ], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], European history [HBJD], Regional & national history [HBJ]