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Dostoevsky V. The Judicial Reforms Of 1864: How And Why One Of 19th Century Russia’S Greatest Writers Mercilessly Criticized The Nation’S Most Successful Reform, Brian Sc Conlon

Brian SC Conlon

The legal reforms of 1864 marked a shift in Russian legal culture from an amorphous, corrupt, pre-modern system of procedure, structure and customary law to an independent, modern and westernized system as liberal as any nation of Europe or North America. These reforms were nearly universally lauded by legal and cultural critics, both at the time they were introduced and in historical accounts. Despite the apparent necessity and success of the new courts, one of the leading figures in 19th Century Russian literature (and indeed the history of world literature), Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, continually criticized the new system in both …