The Sobornoye Ulozheniye (Russian: Соборное уложение) was a legal code promulgated in 1649 by the Zemsky Sobor under Alexis of Russia as a replacement for the Sudebnik of 1497 introduced by Ivan III of Russia, which is based, among others, on the Third Statute of Lithuania. The code survived well into the 19th century (up to 1849), when its articles were revised under the direction of Mikhail Speransky.

The code consolidated Russia's slaves and free peasants into a new serf class and pronounced that class hereditary and unchangeable (see Russian serfdom). Travel between towns was made forbidden without an internal passport. Russian nobility agreed to serve in the army, but were granted the exclusive privilege of owning serfs.

[edit] The causes of promulgation

As the Time of Troubles ended, a new dynastic government (Romanovs) commenced active law-making. An intensive growth of the number of edicts ("ukases") since the Sudebnik of 1497 can be seen from the following data:

Years	edicts
1550 - 1600	80
1601 - 1610	17
1611 - 1620	97
1621 - 1630	90
1631 - 1640	98
1641 - 1648	63

Overall, in the years 1611-1648, a total of 348 edicts were issued, and in the period of 1550-1648, another 445 edicts. This led to a situation in a Russian state when there existed an immense number of state edicts, which not only were obsolete, but even contradicted each other.

This chaos was contributed to by the scattering of normative acts throughout different state institutes (traditionally new edicts were made on demand of some prikaz, and after their promulgation were attached to an edict book of this prikaz). There was also an absence of coordination in law application: a new article in this book was often known only to the statesmen of the given prikaz. Also, the casual character of legal rules was becoming inefficient. The legislators now sought to regulate legal rules, that is, to pass on to a normative interpretation of legal rules.

The Salt Riot, which broke out in Moscow in 1648, also contributed to the promulgation of the Sobornoye Ulozheniye, one of the demands of the rioters being to call the Zemsky Sobor and to make a new legal code. The riot was suppressed, but as one of the concessions to the rioters, the czar called the Zemsky Sobor, which continued to work until the promulgation of Sobornoye Ulozheniye in 1649.

This Russian history-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This legislation article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

[edit] External links

• Excerpts from The Code of Law of 1649

Please expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in the Russian Wikipedia. (February 2009) After translating, {{Translated|ru|Соборное уложение 1649 года}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. Translation instructions · Translate via Google