The Evolution of Evidence and Evidence in the Domestic Criminal Process

The article examines the development of domestic criminal justice from its rudimentary state in the X century to a more codified, but still medieval, mosaic and cumbersome Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich of the XVII century. The author also considers the evolution of evidence from the initial oral forms to fixing the circumstances of the crimes committed on paper, that is, the moment of transition to paper protocols of investigative actions is indicated. The paper focuses on the transformation of the evidentiary process from adversarial to inquisitorial. The list of investigative actions available to the ancient Russian "interrogators and investigators" in the framework of the investigation of criminal cases is noted: "persecution of the trace", "vault", "ordalia", "field", etc. The author studied the legislative activity of the rulers of Russia: Yaroslav the Wise, Ivan III, Ivan IV, Alexei Mikhailovich, and traced the line of naming the positions of persons who carried out the investigation of crimes. The emphasis is placed on the simultaneous coexistence of both archaic types of evidence and quite rational ones in the "criminal procedure law" of Ancient and Medieval Russia.