Günter Baranowski Die Gerichtsurkunde von Pskov. Frankfurt/Main [usw.]: Peter Lang, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2008. = Rechtshistorische Reihe, 364. ISBN: 978-3-631-57127-9

Günter Baranowski: Die Gerichtsurkunde von Pskov. Frankfurt/Main [usw.]: Lang, 2008. 440 S. = Rechtshistorische Reihe, 364. ISBN: 978-3-631-57127-9.

There is hardly any other subject in the Russian history of more ideological import than the history of late-medieval Pskov and Novgorod. The similarity the political institutions of these cities had with free German trade cities has interested historians of both Eastern and West Europe from the end of the eighteenth century to the present and has been the source of constant political speculation. From the end of the eighteenth century, under the influence of Enlightenment ideas, Pskov and Novgorod were presented as republics comparable to say Venice in Italy and were usually regarded as a major contrast to the Russian autocratic tradition. From the late nineteenth century under the influence of the liberal ideas of the Narodniki movement Pskov and Novgorod were believed to be ruled by people gatherings. This political structure was thought to be common for the whole Russia but was gradually suppressed by princely power, leading to autocracy in all Russian principalities except for Novgorod and Pskov. During the Soviet period the history of Novgorod and Pskov was seen through the concept of class struggle. In Russia it was difficult to research into this subject for ideological reasons or due to monopolies within influential academic circles. In Western Europe historians seemed to be free from such obstacles but suffered from limited access to sources. This made historians sometimes take on trust in some controversial concepts offered by the Russian historians based on the latter’s own understanding of the sources.

As one of the most important documents of Pskov history, central to the understanding of the political development of this city during the blossoming of its freedom, the Pskov Judicial charter had never been translated into German and its text had only been available through some fragmentary quotations in German historical literature. Günter Baranowski’s book is the first scientific publication of the Pskov Judicial Charter translated into German. The book gives an exciting survey of the stages of discovery, publication and commentary of the Charter, as well as providing a comparison with previous and subsequent judicial documents.

In his preface Baranowski starts off with a brief overview of Pskov history and its political system focusing on the concept of the veche, the posadnik as a representative of the city and the head of the city administration and the “Council of boyars”. One weakness of the commentary is that it builds more on historical literature (often pre-revolutionary) rather then on the sources and for this reason it is not entirely free of some of the false historical notions characteristic of the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the first part of the twentieth century. The picture of veche as the highest-authority power institution is shown as something fixed thus ignoring the fact that the very thesis of veche as an institution was a question of great discussion and till the end of the fourteenth century was not approved by the sources. Nevertheless the second part of the preface is particularly strong, giving a well-researched picture of the different versions of the Charter, and exploring the history of its publication.

The second chapter, the main part of the book, offers an excellent translation and comments on the 120 articles of the charter. The text of each article is supported by a detailed commentary, which contains scrupulous textual analysis, a historiography of the problem of unearthing and tracking the key historical debates around the text of the article as well as providing an informed bibliography. The German translation of the text of the Charter is surprisingly precise and supported with different variants of previous translations available. Untranslated terms are explained in the glossary.

In the third chapter of the book Baranowski explores the structure of the Charter looking into its historical development and the history of the main translations of the Charter: 1397, circa 1420 and 1462. He works through all the existing literature giving a well-researched overview on this subject.

In the fourth chapter, the author in broad brush strokes establishes the key contrast of the Pskov Judicial charter with Russkaja Pravda, and in the last part of the book he includes some previous, contemporary and subsequent judicial documents such as The Novgorod Judicial Charter and others. The appendix of the book contains important documents of the time.

In general the book gives an all-round analysis of the Charter and uncovers lots of interesting material. It is extremely valuable not only for the German-speaking world but also for historical science as a whole. One only regrets that there is not yet available a translation of the Novgorod Judicial Charter of similar quality.

Olga Sevastyanova, Aberdeen