The Legal Responsibility of Russian Subjects for Insulting the Reigning Emperor in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Insulting the reigning emperor in pre-revolutionary Russia naturally led to legal liability. At the same time, it did not matter what class the Russian citizen belonged to who insulted the monarch. The ruling Russian tsar was also the head of the Orthodox Church, which implied the sacred meaning of his state status. However, cases of insulting the sacred royal person verbally or by action periodically occurred among Russian subjects. It should be noted that the official government reacted to such misconduct. The author identifies and systematizes the most famous cases of Russian subjects insulting the reigning emperor and the legal sanctions that followed.