Sexual Crimes Narratives as a Source for the Study of Morality in XVIII Century Russia

In my master's thesis, I made an attempt to study how fornication and adultery were described as moral crimes in the Russian Empire of the XVIII century in the church court. The object of the study was the previously unpublished investigative cases on the investigation of the sins of fornication of the Holy Synod, the Moscow Synodal Office and the spiritual consistories for the period from 1697 to 1796. I used actor-network analysis to investigate the place of denunciations and interrogations in determining punishments by the spiritual court. By entering into communication with the governmental institute for the control of morality, the applicant or the accused, through narrative, sought to achieve a beneficial solution to the case. To do this, at the trial, the accused were prescribed forbidden practices, statements and emotions in order to achieve fair punishment for what they had done. The new judicial space has transformed the concept of fornication not as a sin, but as a crime requiring evidence and witnesses.