When the historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was asked what was happening in Russia during his trip to Europe, he answered in one word: "They are stealing!" Have any measures been taken to combat theft and bribes? How did various rulers fight corruption in the past centuries?
The 1990s went down in Russian history as dashing, becoming a symbol of unthinkable theft, bribery, and the merger of state power with crime. But theft and bribery, as well as the fight against them, have long historical traditions in Russia and in other countries.
War on Corruption BC
Probably the first ruler to be mentioned as a fighter against corruption was the Sumerian king Urukagina (Uruinimgina). Information about corruption was also found in the archives of Ancient Babylon (III millennium BC). Despite indicative and often harsh punishments for corruption, the fight against it did not lead to the desired results. At best, it was possible to prevent the most dangerous crimes, but at the level of petty waste and bribes, corruption was widespread.
The first treatise on corruption, the Artha Shastra, was published under the pseudonym Kautilya by one of the ministers of Bharat (India) in the 4th century BC. In it, he singled out 40 methods of embezzlement of state property by officials and noted with sadness that “just as one cannot but perceive honey if it is on the tongue, so the property of the king cannot be, albeit in small quantities, not appropriated by those in charge of this property.
The political figure of Ancient Rome, Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (154-121 BC), when he was a tribune, passed a judicial law, according to which judicial commissions were created from wealthy merchants and middle-class landowners to investigate cases of abuse of power and corruption of Roman governors in the provinces …
Gaius Julius Caesar in the middle of the 1st century BC also fought against corruption. According to the doctor of historical sciences Vasily Kuzishchin, Caesar was aware that it was not only about his personal ambition and desire to seize the supreme power in the state, pushing away from it the corrupt and incapable of ruling a huge power of the Roman aristocracy. Caesar took measures to strengthen the administrative apparatus of his regime: he tightened control over the activities of provincial governors, directed against their abuse of power.
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Emperor Augustus also conducted "an uncompromising fight against the corruption of the provincial administration." A series of trials over the governors, convicted of corruption and extortion, were carried out by the emperor Nero. Emperor Hadrian carried out constant control over the actions of governors, suppression of abuses of power and corruption.
Execution for a goose
In Russia, the first mention of the fight against corruption is found in the 1497 Code of Law. We are talking about bribery, that is, taking a bribe. In the later Code of Law of 1550, along with bribery, covetousness was already featured. It was understood as the receipt by an official of the judicial authorities of excessive duties. As a measure of responsibility, punishment was provided in the form of temporary and indefinite imprisonment, the death penalty was introduced. For a clerk, for example, who for a bribe distorted the testimony of the parties or drew up a forged protocol, imprisonment and a fine in the amount of the claim were provided.
The first Russian execution for a bribe took place in 1556 - the clerk was executed, who "accepted a goose stuffed with coins, taking too much promise." According to the tsarist decree, they first cut off his knee-deep legs, then - his arms to the elbow. "Is the goose meat tasty?" - the king asked about the execution of the convict, and only then the clerk's head was cut off. After this incident, the death penalty entered Russian practice of combating bribery.
In 1558, the French diplomat Arnold Shemo wrote to Paris: “Muscovy is unrecognizable - the fear of death changed this country so that our merchants now do not know how to conduct business. Even local princesses do not take gifts, because every day the bribe-takers are publicly chopped to pieces right on the town square. During the years of his rule, Ivan the Terrible publicly executed more than 8,000 officials with particular cruelty, which was approximately 34% of the total number of civil servants of that time.
The Cathedral Code of 1649 provided for punishment for similar unlawful acts in the form of dismissal, fine, deprivation of honor, commercial execution, punishment by cutting off the hand.
Under Catherine II, a decree was issued to tighten the responsibility of judges, which noted the incredible spread of bribery. At the same time, in different periods of the history of Russia, for a bribe, punishment was provided commensurate with the amount of the bribe.
Despite the understanding of the problem, the fight against which is recorded in the most important sets of laws, such as Russkaya Pravda, Code of Laws of Ivan III, Code of Laws of Ivan IV, Cathedral Code, and in a number of other legislative acts, the crown of which was the "Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire", created in XIX century, theft and especially bribery in Russia did not stop.
Offering or feeding?
At the same time, attention should be paid to the fact that in the context of saving funds from the state treasury, officials in Russia initially “fed”, that is, they worked without salary for donations from the population, which today is considered corruption, a criminal offense. As historians note, "at the beginning of the 11th century, Yaroslav the Wise, in the first Russian constitution, Russkaya Pravda, issued a decree on the responsibility of ordinary people for the maintenance of civil servants and established clear and very severe punishments even at that time for non-compliance."
The practice of spreading the feeding system in Russia is usually associated with the adoption of the experience of Byzantium. It should be noted that one of the reasons for the weakening and fall of Byzantium is considered the spread of the practice of feeding as oppression of the people by a narrow group of people, who were allowed "permissiveness" and, as a result, licentiousness.
Until the 18th century, only Moscow officials had a salary until the 18th century, but they were not forbidden to "feed from business" either. And already under Peter I, all "servants of the sovereign" began to receive a fixed monthly payment, and bribes (gifts) in any form began to be considered a crime. But due to frequent wars, the treasury was depleted, and it was not always possible to pay salaries. Having lost the main and only means of subsistence at that time, many officials were forced to resume feeding.
Officials in "unwashed Russia" were presented not only with money, but also with food sets: meat, fish, pies, and so on. In Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, who was fond of hunting, took bribes with greyhound puppies. This, perhaps, reflects the Russian traditions of communication with judges and officials, including during the periods of their feeding system.
When assessing corruption and bribery, it is important to take into account the proximity of those who take or give a bribe to the rulers. So, in the same historical period, they could be executed for a bribe and at the same time be taken for granted. For example, as the actions of Miloslavsky, who, “managing the order of the Great Treasury, invented many obstacles to trade; whoever brought him a large bribe received a letter with the appropriate permission."
Throughout the 18th century, there was a generous, wide distribution of wealth "to all political friends who just had time to bow deeply or curry favor with the authorities." Alexander II also covered bribe-takers from his inner circle. Under Nicholas II, the main bribe-taker was the Minister of Railways, and then the Minister of Finance Sergei Yulievich Witte.
The history of favoritism, embezzlement and bribery goes back to the distant past. These phenomena are inherent in different peoples, different eras. They are closely related to the underdevelopment of public administration structures, insufficient norms and rules for their functioning. The government itself chose whom to punish and whom to pardon, that is, in fact, it contributed to what is today called corruption.
Author: Maria Kosorukova
