Insulting cases of Majesty as a historical source in modern Russian historiography

Importance. Insulting cases of Majesty provide fairly broad opportunities for the monarchist sentiments of the Russian society studying, what, in particular, can help to determine the effectiveness of modernization processes in the late Russian Empire. At the same time, the issues of the specifics’ identifying and methodology formation for studying of the above forensic documentation will have a high degree of relevance. The purpose of the study is to analyze modern publications in which Russian scientists identify cases of insulting Majesty as the main object, or basis for their work, in order to identify the characteristic features of this judicial and investigative documentation as a historical source.

Materials and Methods. The focus is on the considering of modern Russian historians’ works, in which the insulting cases of Majesty are either the main research object or one of the main historical sources. The basic studying principle of these works is chronological, it allows us to determine the dynamics of the source analysis conducted by scientists in retrospect.

Results and Discussion. The main attention is focused on the principles of information processing and classification of the insulting cases of Majesty. This aspect of the study as a whole gives the idea about the features and possible methods of studying this forensic documentation. Modern domestic authors’ points of view on determining the beginning of the devaluation of the monarchism principle in the mass consciousness of the Russian society are revealed.

Conclusion. The insulting cases of Majesty must be recognized as a mass and fairly reliable historical source. Information from them can be processed according to various criteria of quantitative and qualitative analysis. However, it is not possible to develop a complete picture of the dynamics of the monarchism principle in the Russian mentality based only on this forensic documentation type.