"Every Twentieth Should Be Executed by Lot": Incidents on Land Surveying as the Land Legislation Basis of the Russian Empire of the Xviii Century

The paper is an attempt at a historical and legal analysis of the development of the normative field of the land surveying (delimitation) process in the 18th century. The source base consists of legislative acts of the 17th–18th centuries. The works of researchers of the practice and history of land surveying were also involved. It is shown that land surveying in Russia took place against the backdrop of constant disputes, clashes, and conflicts involving a significant number of peasants. Land surveying during the period under study went through several stages. Rulers addressed the topic of boundary conflicts and the prevention of disputes several times in the 18th century during new land surveying campaigns. These attempts received different names in the history of land surveying: Ingermanland (Petrine), Anne's, Elizabethan, General (Catherinian). The period under study is important because at this time there was a transition from the registration of borders using private fortresses (documents) to rights registered by the state. An analysis of documents showed that the rules of law often correlated after some cases of clashes between claimants on the disputed boundaries of sites. Several documents were identified (decrees, edicts signed by the Czar, decisions of the Senate, etc.) that described real cases with precise identification of places, participants in the dispute, and other things. On the basis of documents of a casual nature, more generalized legal documents of a generally valid nature (manifestos, instructions, etc.) were created. The analysis showed that legal documents were based on the decisions of previous rulers, which appeared in the voluminous citation of texts.