The first period in the history of the death penalty in Russia began, of course, before the demise of the Varangians. We find its expression in the Russian Truth of Yaroslav the Wise. The following decree of this law clearly depicts the nature of this period: “If the husband kills his husband, then he must take revenge on his brother’s brother, or on his father’s son, or on his father’s son, or on his brother’s child, or on his son’s sister.* One can, however, think that the Truth of Yaroslav the Wise falls at a time when, in all likelihood, the custom of murder, in the form of revenge, began to decline. So one can think. because the sons of Yaroslav had already issued a commandment that replaced murder in the form of revenge with a ransom.
"According to Yaroslav, says the chronicler, he copulated with his son and put off killing for his head; but ransomed kunami*. Thus, the invisible death penalty in the form of murder in vengeance was put an end to in the eleventh century. This replacement was made by some of the European writers (such as the late Ducpessier), familiar with our right from second hand, they do not thoroughly provide evidence that in Russia the death penalty was initially abolished in the 11th century.
When did the second period in the history of the death penalty begin in Russia? Domestic researchers of ancient Russian law consider the Dvina charter of Vasily Dmitrievich of 1398 to be the first law that established the death penalty as a state institution. An opinion that cannot be agreed with if we take into account, on the one hand, the general law of development, according to which, in early periods of the life of peoples, each institution appears in life much earlier than in law; on the other hand, if you pay attention to the numerous examples of executions that were carried out by those in power, starting from the end of the 10th and the beginning of the eleventh century. Be that as it may, it is undeniable, however, that the death penalty, as a fully established, social, and subsequently regulated by law institution, developed and strengthened in Russia along with the development of non-state power. During the reign of Ivan III and the reign of Ivan IV, the Terrible, the final turning point in the political life of Russia took place in the sense of generalization, unification and strengthening of national power. These same reigns constitute an era in the history of the death penalty in Russia. The code of justice of Ivan II and Ivan IV the Terrible collected cases of the death penalty scattered under separate laws and applied according to custom, and gave them final legislative sanction. The first of them mentions ten types and subtypes of crimes subject to the death penalty. The Second Code of Law contains 13 such crimes, and if we add to this the appointment in later laws of the same reign of the death penalty for four new crimes, then under Grozny there were 17 types and subtypes of crimes subject to the death penalty. Among these crimes we find such crimes as: theft and fraud committed for the second time; throwing thieves' things into someone else's house; under-