SKRYPNYK A. Yu. The struggle with desertion in the Russian army in the Right-Bank Ukraine in the middle of the XIX-th century.

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     The article presents the investigation of causes of soldiers desertion from the regular army of the Russian Empire based on archival sources. Scientific interpretation and assessment of this phenomenon in the writings of historians and lawyers of the second half of the 19^th – early 21^st centuries is shown. Evolution of the legislative framework meant for the total suppression as the willingness of the soldiers to leave military service, and the sympathy of local population to their fate in the form of cover-up of the fugitives what provided the status of criminals to the state is chronologically arranged. One of the tasks of the conducted study was an objective evaluation of such socio-political phenomenon as desertion. The actions of officials of civil law enforcement agencies and officers of the regular units are shown as oppressive. There were numerous contradictions and conflicts between representatives of various strata of the contemporary society in the right Bank Ukraine with fugitives from the army in the focus, among which motivation for denouncing, hunting people for cash consideration, the rural authorities’ revenge upon the villagers. The fact that desertion was one of the many flaws in the feudal imperfect mechanism of the military machine of the Russian state is supplied with scientific arguments.

     This article is a continuation of the desertion study as a social phenomenon existing in the territory of the Right-Bank Ukraine, where Russian military units, on the one hand, and the system of military command and executive bodies of provincial and district authorities towards preventing and combating this phenomenon within the legislative jurisdiction of the Empire, on the other, collided. That is, the evolution of the legislative framework and attempt to neutralize the causes of this phenomenon suggested evidence of slow and gradual but positive changes in the minds of officials and the society of the Empire concerning military personnel not like mindless mechanisms, but people with their positive and negative human traits and characteristics.

     In late 18^th – early 19^th century, the Russian government deliberately and systematically struggled with desertion as a socio-political phenomenon in the army and society with solely repressive methods and means. The formation of the state system of the Russian Empire and way of equipping the armed forces treated by higher bureaucratic echelons of power provided a wide range of methods of coercion and intimidation combined with planting in the public consciousness the idea of insignificance of a small man, of his inferiority and blind service in the autocratic state machinery.

     Unbearable conditions of service in feudal armies of the Empire, sometimes similar to those in prison, hard labor, high mortality rate among military personnel were the main reasons of the emergence and spread of defections, mostly among the recruits and young soldiers. Over time, there was a whole layer of "degenerate deserters" in the army, which indicated the roots of this phenomenon and the failure of the military command in dealing with it.

    One of the main activities of the local public executive authorities, police and judiciary was  chasing the soldiers, fugitives, and in the case of detention there were sentences and cruel corporal punishment. Concerning the locals who dared to help the deserters and hid them, the government clearly understood that without destruction of this social base of the struggle for the elimination of "shelter" will be unsuccessful. There was special legislation that encouraged the system of cash rewards for the capture of the fugitive, introduction of mutual responsibility in various sectors of society in Right-Bank Ukraine and the stimulation and encouragement of denunciations and slanders from the authorities.

Keywords: Russian Empire, regular army, desertion, cover-up, legislation, local authorities, population.