Dmitriev A. V. Interaction between Military Personnel...

Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal. 2026. № 1 (57). P. 129—139

HISTORICAL SCIENCES

Original article

UDC 94(47)“17”

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2026.57.9

Interaction between Military Personnel and Civilian Population in 18^th Century Russia: Forms of Conflict and Punishment

Andrey V. Dmitriev, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor
Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia, khaldeus@academ.org, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9211-0407

Abstract

This article examines conflicts that arose between regular army soldiers and the civilian population in 18^th century Russia, as well as their consequences from the perspective of social discipline theory. The source material is the judicial investigations of officers and privates serving in units of the Siberian Corps, stationed in the east of the country in the second half of the 18^th century. The study focused on conflicts involving material and financial damage and domestic clashes, including both appeals to political crimes (“word and deed”) and attempted murder. It was established that army command and the disciplinary bodies of the military judicial department were not always able to protect civilians from the arbitrary and criminal actions of their own subordinates, despite the harsh penalties provided for such actions under current imperial legislation. This allows to conclude that in the conditions of 18^th century Russia, the necessary level of social discipline was not achieved among people who were granted the right to carry and use weapons.

Keywords

Regular army, civilian population, conflict, punishment, Russian Empire, 18^th century.

For citation:

Dmitriev A. V. Interaction between Military Personnel and Civilian Population in 18^th Century Russia: Forms of Conflict and Punishment. Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2026, no. 1 (57), pp. 129—139. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2026.57.9.

The full text of the article PDF (Russian)

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