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This is a magisterial new account of the day-to-day practice of Russian criminal justice in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Nancy Kollmann contrasts Russian written law with its pragmatic application by local judges, arguing that this combination of formal law and legal institutions with informal, flexible practice contributed to the country's social and political stability. She also places Russian developments in the broader context of early modern European state-building strategies of governance and legal practice. She compares Russia's rituals of execution to the 'spectacles of suffering' of contemporary European capital punishment and uncovers the dramatic ways in which even the tsar himself, complying with Moscow's ideologies of legitimacy, bent to the moral economy of the crowd in moments of uprising. Throughout, the book assesses how criminal legal practice used violence strategically, administering horrific punishments in some cases and in others accommodating with local communities and popular concepts of justice.
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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN EARLY MODERN RUSSIA This is a magisterial new account of the day-to-day practice of Russian criminal justice in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Nancy Kollmann contrasts Russian written law with its pragmatic application by local judges, arguing that this combination of formal law and legal institutions with informal, flexible practice contributed to the country’s social and political stability. She also places Russian developments in the broader context of early modern European state-building strategies of governance and legal practice. She compares Russia’s rituals of execution to the “spectacles of suffering” of contemporary European capital punishment, and uncovers the dramatic ways in which even the tsar himself, complying with Moscow’s ideologies of legitimacy, bent to the moral economy of the crowd in moments of uprising. Throughout, the book assesses how criminal legal practice used violence strategically, administering horrific punishments in some cases and in others accommodating with local communities and popular concepts of justice. n a n cy sh i e ld s k o l l m a n n is William H. Bonsall Professor in History at Stanford University. Her previous publications include By Honor Bound. State and Society in Early Modern Russia (1999). Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 210.212.129.125 on Sun Dec 23 05:42:54 WET 2012. http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9781139177535 Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2012 new studies in european history Edited by pe t er b al d w i n, University of California, Los Angeles c h r i sto p he r c lar k, University of Cambridge j a me s b . c o ll i n s , Georgetown University m i a r o d r ´ı g u e z - s a l g a d o , London School of Economics and Political Science l y n d a l r o p e r , University of Oxford t i m o t h y sn y d e r , Yale University The aim of this series in early modern and modern European history is to publish outstanding works of research, addressed to important themes across a wide geographical range, from southern and central Europe, to Scandinavia and Russia, from the time of the Renaissance to the Second World War. As it develops the series will comprise focused works of wide contextual range and intellectual ambition. A full list of titles published in the series can be found at: www.cambridge.org/newstudiesineuropeanhistory Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 210.212.129.125 on Sun Dec 23 05:42:54 WET 2012. http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9781139177535 Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2012 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN EARLY MODERN RUSSIA NANCY SHIELDS KOLLMANN Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 210.212.129.125 on Sun Dec 23 05:42:54 WET 2012