Citizenship of the Russian Empire: the Analysis of Individual Legislative Acts Regulating Its Acceptance and Abandonment by Foreigners

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the norms of chapter three "On the procedure for foreigners to become citizens and their choice of lifestyle" of the Laws on States (1832), the law of February 10, 1864, which introduced significant changes to them. The authors set themselves the task, using the method of comparative legal research, to establish and summarize the conditions that created the prerequisites for amendments to Articles 1538-1558 (Code of Laws of 1857) by the law of 02/10/1864. These articles regulated the procedures for accepting foreigners into Russian citizenship and its abandonment. The author's attention was drawn not only to comparing procedures, but also to highlighting individual ones in order to understand, by abstracting, the reasons for the acceptance and abandonment of Russian citizenship by foreigners, and the attitude of the legislator of the Russian Empire towards this. Certain provisions of Peter I's Manifestos have not been left without study: "On the conscription of the Swedes into the service and on their freedom to enter the Russian State, upon taking the oath, to settle, marry, acquire immovable property, engage in trade and crafts" (April 1721); "On their unrestricted entry into marriage with Gentiles" (August 18, 1721). As well as later ones, in particular, the Manifesto "On the oath of foreigners wishing to swear eternal citizenship of Russia" (and their subsequent correction). The analysis and generalization of the above normative acts, abstracted information allowed us to conclude that they laid down the legal framework for regulating this important area of activity for the Russian state, and showed the concern of replenishing the fatherland with the population, primarily by various specialists in the civil and military spheres. And the manifestos of Peter the Great for the first time legally fixed the oath as the basis for obtaining Russian citizenship, later called naturalization.