Policing Prostitution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siobhán Hearne
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Social History ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Urban Problem ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Imperial State

Policing Prostitution examines the complex world of commercial sex in the final two decades of the Russian Empire before its collapse in 1917. From the 1840s until 1917, prostitution was legally tolerated across the Empire under a system known as regulation. Medical-police were in charge of compiling information about registered prostitutes and ensuring that they followed the strict rules prescribed by the imperial state governing their visibility and behaviour. The vast majority of women who sold sex hailed from the lower classes, as did their managers and clients. Official interest in prostitution generated a mass of documentation, which allows us to glimpse the lives and challenges of various groups of the Empire’s urban lower classes, including women who sold sex, their clients, brothel madams, police, and wider urban communities. In the late imperial period, prostitution was not just an urban ‘problem’ to be controlled and contained, but also a lucrative commodity due to the formal and informal financial relationships forged between brothel madams, registered prostitutes, and the police. This study is a social history of prostitution, drawing on archival material from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. It focuses on how regulation was implemented, experienced, and resisted in various urban centres in the northwest of the Russian Empire, and how everyday experiences of regulation varied widely from place to place. In principle, the tsarist state regulated prostitution in the name of public order and public health; in practice, that regulation was both modulated by provincial police forces who had different local priorities, resources, and strategies, and contested by registered prostitutes, brothel madams, and others who interacted with the world of commercial sex.

scholarly journals ESTATES IN THE ACTIVITIES OF JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS AND PENITENTIARY ESTABLISHMENTS IN RIGHT-BANK UKRAINE (1864–1914)

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Victoria Vengerska ◽  
Oleksandr Zhukovskyi ◽  
Oleksandr Maksymov
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
District Court ◽  
Judicial Reform ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lower Courts ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
New Institutions

Right-bank Ukraine became part of the Russian Empire after the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1792. The integration of these territories into the new administrative, economic and cultural space caused certain difficulties. In the first half of the 19th century, the region had the highest percentage of peasant serfs and the elements and institutions of the non-existent state (including the courts) still existed and kept functioning. The defeat in the Crimean War of 1853–1856 imposed on the Russian Empire the need for radical reforms in all spheres of life. The wave-like periods of cooperation-confrontation between the Russian authorities and the local nobility brought about regional provisions in virtually all the reforms, launched by the peasant reform of 1861. The judicial reform and the emergence of new institutions and practices had to resolve existing problems, disputes, and punish criminals legally. The social estate (stanovy) character of the society was reflected in the establishment and activities of the volost courts, as the lower courts. The district courts were a completely novel phenomenon in the legal culture; their functioning was ensured by professional lawyers on the basis of new judicial statutes. The purpose of this article is to consider the court practices and functioning of penitentiary establishments in Right-Bank Ukraine (on the example of Volyn province) under implementation of the judicial reform through the prism of social and estate factors, based on the cases of the Zhytomyr District Court and the reports of the heads of local prisons. The methodology of the research includes the tools of social history and the so-called "new imperial history" that have helped to trace the adaptation of new legal practices to the socio-ethnic peculiarities of Right Bank Ukraine. The methods of history of everyday life and history of reading have been employed to consider the under-researched component of the penitentiary system of the Russian Empire, namely the libraries and their funds. This component should be attributed to the novelty of the suggested research findings. Conclusions. Estate privileges were maintained in the Russian Empire throughout the "long 19th century". Belonging to a higher social status practically made the Polish nobles equal in the rights with the imperial officials, endowed with power. During court decisions and sentencing, an ethnic criterion was not taken into consideration or had secondary significance. Many years of placing the peasants outside the legal field developed a steady arrogant attitude of the power-holders towards the representatives of this social estate. Though the peasants dominated in the social structure of the Empire population, they remained the most prevalent class. Since the early 20th century, some shifts in perception and attitudes towards peasantry were observed.

Living with Commercial Sex

2021 ◽  
pp. 149-180
Author(s):  
Siobhán Hearne
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Residency Restrictions ◽  
Imperial State

This chapter focuses on the experience of living in towns and cities in the late imperial period, when prostitution was a visible component of urban life. It examines the different unsuccessful policies employed by the imperial state to enforce the spatial segregation of registered prostitutes and attempts to render brothels invisible on the urban landscape. Official efforts to push lower-class sexuality to the spatial margins are also addressed, particularly policies of zoning and brothel ranking. Some landlords frequently complained to the police about the negative impact of nearby brothels on their rental prices, whereas others helped women who sold sex to resist some of the residency restrictions placed upon them by the police. Ultimately, officialdom’s attempts to limit the visibility of prostitution were spectacularly unsuccessful, as commercial sex was visible everywhere across the Empire’s towns and cities at the turn of the twentieth century.

Studying the History of the State Control in the Russian Empire During the Period of the Duma Monarchy

2020 ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Ziqiu Chen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
The State ◽  
State Control ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Russian State ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Council Of Ministers

After the establishment of constitutional monarchy in Russia as a result of the 1905–1906 reforms, the position of the Russian State Control (imperial audit service) changed. Formerly relatively independent, the State Control, whose head was directly accountable to the Emperor, now found itself in the united government, i.e. the Council of Ministers. The undermined independence of the State Control provoked a wide public discussion, which involved Duma deputies, employees of the State Control as well as competent Russian economists and financial experts, who made relevant recommendations calling for reducing the number of state institutions that were unaccountable to the audit service and giving the latter more independence. This paper analyses the key works of pre-revolutionary authors published in the early 20th century and devoted to the history of the State Control of the Russian Empire. Both in the imperial period and today, the Russian audit institution, in contrast with political, historical and military topics, has been of primary interest not to historians, but to economists, financiers and lawyers, since it requires special knowledge of the State Control’s technical mechanisms. Based on this, the author selected the following works that require thorough examination: How People’s Money Is Spent in Russia by I.Kh. Ozerov, On the Transformation of the State Control by Yu.V. Tansky, an official anniversary edition State Control. 1811–1911, and Essays on the Russian Budget Law. Part 1 by L.N. Yasnopolsky. The author of this article considers these works to be the highest quality studies on the Russian State Control at the beginning of the 20th century and their analysis to be of unquestionable importance for contemporary research into the history of the Russian audit institution.

scholarly journals Evolution of A. V. Kartashev's Views on the History of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Imperial Period

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 105-117
Author(s):  
S. P. Bychkov ◽  
◽  
O. V. Gefner ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Empire ◽  
Church History ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire

The article is devoted to the problem of changing the view of the historian of the Russian Orthodox Church Anton V. Kartashev on the peculiarities of the existence of Orthodoxy in the historical period of the Russian Empire. By comparing pre-revolutionary articles and publications of the 1930s and 1950s, the key positions of these changes are determined, and the factors that contributed to the evolution of the historian's scientific views are identified. The author concludes that Kartashev turns from an active critic of church shortcomings into an apologist of the Russian Church of the imperial period, and reveals many positive features of the existence of Orthodoxy during the period of Synodal administration. Russian Russian Orthodox Church, A.V. Kartashev, The Concept of Russian Church History, Synodal administration.

scholarly journals Visual image of the Russian capitals and provinces of the late XIX – early XX centuries in travelogues of the foreigners

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Aleksei Andreevich Seniukhin
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Daily Activity ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Visitor Attractions

The subject of this research is the iconography of the capitals and provinces of the Russian Empire of the late XIX – early XX centuries in the illustrative series of essays authored by the foreigners on their trip to Russia (travelogues). The topic seems relevant due to the “visual turn” and active study of the image of Russia as “Other” in the humanities. Based on application of the comparative and quantitative analysis, the author determines the frequency of storylines used for depicting St. Petersburg, Moscow and other regions of the Russian Empire in photography and drawings; as well as reveals the key elements of iconography and connections between them within the framework of a single illustration, which indicates the accents made by the travelers. The conclusion is made on versatility of the images of the Russian capitals and provinces of the late Imperial period in the illustrative series of travelogues, which manifests in the differences of frequency of the strategies for their representation and iconographic elements. Moscow and St. Petersburg were mostly described through visitor attractions and urban, which blended them in the “East – West” dichotomy. Although in the context of everyday life storylines, the province represented the journey and daily activity of the tourists, then through the landscapes, wooden buildings, dirt on the streets and appearance of the local dwellers, it formed the image of “authentic Russia”, close to the “barbaric”.

The Digest of Laws of the Russian Empire: The Phenomenon of Autocratic Legality

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 901-925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Borisova
Keyword(s):  
Russian Empire ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Complete Collection ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Imperial Russia ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire

Researchers of the history of late imperial Russia quite often base their studies on the texts of laws as recorded in the official edition: the Complete Collection of the Laws of the Russian Empire (Polnoe Sobranie zakonov Rossiiskoi imperii). The laws were published there in chronological order for purposes of conducting inquiries; it was specifically the Complete Collection in which the original text of a decree approved by the emperor could generally be found.

Authoritarian State, Dynamic Society, Failed Imperialist Power, 1878–1914

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut Walser Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
White Hegemony

This article focuses on statehood, society, and the failed imperialist powers that continued to rampage Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. A social history of German politics is given in this article. It begins with analyzing the meaning of Kaiserreich and emphasizing its inner logic, and endogenous social and political processes. This article concentrates on the relationship between state, society, and democracy, and argues that the essential conflicts of the Kaiserreich involved the contradictory integration of a newly-formed, authoritarian national state, with an exceedingly dynamic and mobile society, into a competitive world of overseas empires in the process of imposing white hegemony on large parts of the globe. The interpretive emphasis, which is on the national level, rather than the state or local level, does not presuppose that endogenous structural elements brought about the crisis of the late imperial period.

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