M. A. Kozlova. Cases of “Insulting His Majesty”: Detection Mechanisms, Motives of Participants
and the Reaction of the Authorities in the Russian Empire in the First Quarter of the 19th Century // Petersburg Historical Journal, no. 4, 2025, pp. 120–132.

DOI: 10.51255/2311–603X_2025_4_120

Abstract:

The present study is devoted to an examination of criminal offences committed against the Majesty in the first quarter of the 19th century. The article under scrutiny here elucidates the intricacies of recordkeeping, the processes involved in investigating cases, and the procedures for court decisions. The materials of the archives of the Senate and the State Council, which contain information on the procedure for filing charges, forms of denunciation and procedures of proceedings, are analysed. The difference between the approach to this type of crime at the local and central levels is demonstrated. It is imperative to undertake a thorough examination of the sources of information and to meticulously record any conversations that had a detrimental
effect on the image of the monarch. The objective of the present study is to achieve an in-depth understanding of the historical process of the formation of the punitive policy of the Russian Empire regarding state crimes.

Key words: insults to the Emperor, judicial practice, the Senate, the Council of State, public safety.

Author:

Kozlova, Maria Alekseevna — junior researcher, Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of the Academy of Sciences (Yekaterinburg, Russia).
E-mail: ma.kozlova@urfu.ru
ORCID: 0009-0009-1347-1825

References:

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i obshchestvennoe mnenie [Secret Societies in Russia in the First Third of the 19th Century: Government Policy and Public Opinion. In Russ.]. St. Petersburg, Liki Rossii publ., 2009. 911 p.

Anisimov, E. V. Dyba i knut: Politicheskii sysk i russkoe obshchestvo v XVIII veke [The Rack and the Whip: Political Sleuthing and Russian Society in the 18th Century. In Russ.]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie publ., 1999. 719 p.

Bokova, V. M. Epokha tainykh obshchestv. Russkie obshchestvennye ob”edineniya pervoi treti XIX v. [The Era of Secret Societies. Russian Public Associations of the First Third of the 19th Century. In Russ.]. Moscow, Realii-Press publ., 2003. 651 p.

Chernikova, T. V. Gosudarevo Slovo i Delo pri Anne Ioannovne [The Tsar’s Word and Deed during the Reign of Anna Ioannovna. In Russ.]. In Istoriya SSSR. 1989. No. 5, pp. 155–163.

Kamenskii, A. A. Tainye bezumtsy Rossiiskoi imperii XVIII veka [The Secret Madmen of the Russian Empire of the 18th Century. In Russ.]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie publ., 2024. 304 p.

Korneva, N. M., Solnyshkin, A. A. “Oskorblenie Ego Velichestva derzkimi slovami” kak gosudarstvennoe prestuplenie (na materialakh Sankt-Peterburgskikh arkhivov) [“Insulting His Majesty with Insolent Words” as State Crime (St. Petersburg Archives). In Russ.]. In Nauchnyi dialog. 2022. Vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 388–409.

Kozlova, M. A. “Komitet okhraneniya obshchei bezopasnosti” 1807 goda: mekhanizmy vyyavleniya i soderzhanie sotsial’no-politicheskikh slukhov [“Committee for the Protection of General Security” of 1807: Mechanisms for Detecting and the Content of Socio-Political Rumors. In Russ.]. In Vestnik gumanitarnogo obrazovaniya. 2024. No. 3, pp. 18–27.

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