INSULTS TO THE AUTHORITIES AS AN EXPRESSION OF THE PROTEST SENTIMENTS OF THE PEASANTS OF THE PSKOV PROVINCE 1908–1916

Frolov Vitalij Nikolaevich

This article examines insults to the authorities and their representatives as a non-violent form of expressing protest sentiments. The aim of the study is to analyze illegal peasant protests (insults to the authorities) in the Pskov province from 1908 to 1916. The study includes criminal cases and official reports to the governor, which recorded instances of insults to the authorities, the church, and faith. Most of these insults were committed while intoxicated and were situational or "carnival-like" in nature. The analysis reveals the presence of a stratum of peasants dissatisfied with the authorities, whose protest sentiments reflected the loss of the sacred status of the authorities, associated with the tsar as their supreme symbol. The article also notes law enforcement practices regarding insults to the authorities, concluding that insults to religious symbols and clergy were met with harsher penalties than insults to the authorities. Overall, the study demonstrates that the period 1908–1916 was characterized by a marked increase in the number of peasants. In the Pskov province there was a time of relative calm, but the process of accumulation and expression of protest created the preconditions for the subsequent revolutionary events of 1917–1918.

Keywords:insults to the authorities, peasant protest, protest sentiments, Nicholas II, peasants.