DOI 10.51255/2311–603X_2025_3_86
V. B. Aksenov. War and Blasphemy: Criminal Cases of Insults to the Imperial Family during the
Russo-Japanese and World War I as a Historical Source // Petersburg Historical Journal, no 3,
2025, pp. 86–101
Abstract:
Cases of insults against members of the imperial family are a valuable source for studying public
sentiments and the images of power formed in them; they allow reconstructing the portrait of an average insulter, as well as demonstrating the paradoxes of state practices of counteracting obscene statements. The sources show that the obscene political discourse of the Russo-Japanese War period, despite a comparable number of cases to that of World War I, is less diverse and emotional, with less prevalent infernal characterizations of members of the royal family and less pronounced eschatological sentiments and political rumors. The author believes that the state’s struggle against insults to power cannot be considered successful — in a number
of cases legislation and judicial practice contributed to the spread of insulting political discourse, creating relevant precedents and thus intensifying socio-political conflicts of the war era.
Key words: insults, Nicholas II, Russo-Japanese War, World War I, Article 103 of the Criminal Code, Article 246 of the Penal Code.
Author:
Aksenov, Vladislav Benovich — Dr. of Sci. in History, Leading Researcher of the Institute of
Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia).
E-mail: vlaks@mail.ru
ORCID: 0000-0003-2716-7700
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