Народный суд Туркестанского края в российской прессе

Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Серия 2. История. 2025. Т. 70. № 2. С. 362–374.

Pochekaev R. Y.

The article is an analysis of the Russian publicist articles on the organization and activity of the people’s courts in the Turkestan Region of the Russian Empire. Author deals with texts published in the Russian newspapers and magazines of the end of 19th — beginning of 20th centuries included into the “Turkestan Collection” which is a unique set of materials on history, geography ethnography and current situation in the Russian Turkestan and neighbor areas. These materials were not studied in details as a source on court and proceedings in the region until now, but they are of great value. Firstly, journalistic genre allowed to express own opinion of author even if he was an official. Secondly, studied articles were written by representatives of different groups of interest (officials, lawyers, scholars, journalists, etc.) and published in different media (governmental, social, oppositional). Thirdly, the “Turkestan Collection” is the only source containing some publications as some original magazines and newspapers did not survive to present day. Authors of articles discussed wide scope of problems: competence of judges, Russian control for accordance of their activity with imperial legislation, perjury, limitation of women’s procedural rights, etc. Basing on their experience and positions, authors offer different ways of problem-solving: from the specific changes in the practice of people courts to their complete replacement by Russian court institutions. Some authors also criticized Russian courts in the Russian Turkestan, but in general all of them consider the Russian influence in the court and proceedings of the region as positive.

Keywords: Russian Empire, Российская империя, Sharia, традиционное право, народный суд, шариат, traditional law, иностранные судебные решения, Turkestan Region, Туркестанский край, people's court, court reforms, Turkestan Collection, Туркестанский сборник, Russian periodicals of the end of 19th — beginning of 20th centuries, русская пресса конца XIX - начала XX в.