Many modern historians consider corruption to be a real cultural phenomenon of mankind, and therefore do not see the point in all measures to combat it. From the point of view of logic, there is a grain of truth in this statement, but very often corruption is perceived as a purely Russian tradition, although in fact it has a worldwide character. If you are interested in the history of corruption in the world, you can find the first mention of it in records dating back tens of millennia before our era. So, in part, this fact confirms the theory of scientists, which we have already mentioned. Therefore, we can safely draw a parallel between the history of corruption in Russia and the same process in other countries.
Of course, this phenomenon, depending on the state in which it manifests itself, stands out with its own characteristic features. However, in general, the processes can be considered identical. Despite the fact that the whole world is fighting against this, as many say, a shameful phenomenon, and for more than thirteen years there has even been an International Anti-Corruption Day, no country or political regime has managed to win. Today we will trace the history of the emergence and development of corruption in Russia. And be sure to rate this topic withglobal perspective.
Question terminology
Dipping into the history of corruption, many refer to it as "bribery". However, in fact, this term has a much broader interpretation. If we consider it in this sense, it becomes clear how serious the “disease” of humanity is this phenomenon.
After studying several different vocabularies, we can say that corruption is an act that takes advantage of one's official position. That is, we mean not only a bribe with money or abuse of one's powers, but also any dressing up one's position for profit. Most often, of course, it is measured in monetary terms.
It is impossible, talking about the history of corruption in general, not to mention the main forms of its manifestation. It should be borne in mind that even the same form can have different scales. It depends on the position of the official and his capabilities. The higher they are, the greater the scale of the disaster that he can do. In modern Russia, they sometimes amount to billions of dollars.
So, referring to the history of corruption, its following forms stand out:
- requisitions;
- bribes;
- using one's position for personal gain.
The world community condemns any of the above options. But examples of corruption in the history of Russia prove that some types of bribery were even completely legalized, which is a hallmark of our country. However, this phenomenon came to us fromThe Byzantine Empire, firmly rooted, like many other foreign influences.
We consider the issue from the point of view of world culture
The history of corruption is deeply rooted in antiquity. Scientists believe that it has been transformed from the tradition of giving gifts in order to get what you want from members of the tribe who are on a higher rung of the hierarchical ladder. In a primitive society, gifts were offered to leaders and priests, because the well-being of the whole community and each of its members in particular depended on them. Interestingly, historians cannot give an exact date for the emergence of corruption, but they are unequivocally sure that it was a constant companion of mankind and developed along with it.
Statehood is a natural stage in the maturation of our civilization. But this important process is always accompanied by the appearance of officials, who represent a kind of social stratum between the elite and the common people. At the same time, sometimes unlimited power is concentrated in their hands, which means that they get the opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of their advantageous position.
If we turn to the origins of corruption, the first written mention of it was made in the state of the Sumerians. Approximately two and a half thousand years BC, one of the kings severely pursued bribe takers and was known as an uncompromising fighter against corruption. A little later, one of the Indian ministers devoted a whole scientific treatise to this problem, highlighting in a special line his regrets about the impossibility of somehow changing the situation for the better.side. These facts give us every right to assert that the history of combating corruption began literally immediately after the emergence of this phenomenon. Therefore, in this case, we are talking about interrelated, and, therefore, co-dependent processes. Understanding this phenomenon facilitates further study of the issue.
Corruption: past and present
With the development of mankind, corruption has also changed. The emergence of the rudiments of the judicial system marked the emergence of its new kind. Now judges, who have enormous power and are obliged by the nature of their activities to be as impartial as possible, have the opportunity to resolve disputes outside the legal field. Corrupt judges were the real scourge of Europe, because only very we althy people could prove anything in court.
Interestingly, even the main religious cults of the planet seriously condemn such behavior and promise real punishment from heaven for it.
By the eighteenth century, attitudes towards bribery began to noticeably change in society. In the history of corruption, this moment can be considered a turning point. This is due to the growth of self-awareness of the population and the propaganda of liberal and democratic freedoms. Officials began to be perceived as people who are obliged to serve the people and the head of state. The state has increasingly begun to assume the functions of a supervisory body, which carefully monitors the quality of services provided by officials. They are also closely watched by political parties. However, this new system has caused another round of corruption. Now appearedthe possibility of collusion between the economic and political elite in order to gain benefits. The scale of such collusion is difficult to describe in a few words. In the history of the development of corruption, this was a new stage, which, according to scientists, has not ended to this day.
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries are considered to be marked by the stamp of the fight against bribery and collusion. However, this can be done to some extent effectively only in developed countries. Here the bureaucracy is, of course, extremely ramified, but the state has several levers of influence on it. But developing countries are literally a hotbed of corruption, where nothing can be done without an impressive sum of money or connections.
If we evaluate the twentieth century in terms of combating this problem, it becomes clear how ineffective all measures taken until today. Corruption has the status of an international problem, because in the modern world, corporations so easily manage to negotiate among themselves and actually manage countries. In such conditions, it is very important to turn to the history of the fight against corruption in order to develop an effective set of measures that can change things for the better.
The biggest corruption scandals of recent years
Summarizing and setting out the history of corruption briefly, we cannot say that we have already lost the battle to this phenomenon and we should come to terms with it completely. Here and there, real scandals periodically flare up, exposing corrupt practices sometimesvery important people. For example, not so long ago, journalists made noise in the media about the arrest of crown princes in Saudi Arabia. They were involved in a huge scandal over the oil scam. It is not known how this case will end, but it clearly illustrates the full scale of the problem.
It is also known that the Queen of Great Britain herself was not so far from corruption. Journalists found out that she has several offshore accounts in foreign banks. Moreover, tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars lie on them.
The US Pentagon has also experienced many accusations of corruption. Periodically, information leaks out that the amounts allocated for military programs disappear in an incomprehensible direction. And officials in important positions get rich at the expense of ordinary taxpayers.
Despite the fact that such scandals become known to the world community, they in their total mass fade away. They almost never reach court proceedings, which indicates the imperfection of the existing anti-corruption system.
History of corruption in Russia
It is difficult to say when our ancestors first encountered such a phenomenon as bribery, but it has already been mentioned in the annals. It is known that one of the first metropolitans in Russia ardently condemned the monetary bribe, which was customary to give for certain services. Moreover, the clergyman himself put this sin on a par with witchcraft and drunkenness. The Metropolitan called for executions for such misconduct in order to completely eradicate thisphenomenon. Scientists studying the history of corruption in Russia believe that such a cardinal decision, taken at the dawn of the development of Ancient Russia, could well have completely changed the situation in the bud.
Historians claim that the Slavs adopted bribery from their Byzantine neighbors. It was there that it was customary not to pay salaries to officials, they received their income from the population, which paid them for certain services. During the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, the bureaucracy was quite extensive. The state could not pay everyone who served it, and this is where the Byzantine system came in very handy. Slavic officials, with permission, began to take bribes, which allowed them to feed their families. Interestingly, at that time, bribes were divided into two categories:
- bribery;
- extortion.
The first category was not punished by law. It included, for example, monetary compensation for the acceleration of a particular case, including judicial consideration. But if an official takes a bribe in order to announce a certain decision, this could be interpreted as extortion and was severely punished. However, the history of the fight against corruption in Russia proves that there were not so many real cases of punishment.
For example, in the seventeenth century, a prince and a clerk were flogged in public, taking a bribe with a barrel of wine for making a decision that was contrary to the sovereign's command. This case was documented and is one of the rarest occurrences of the time.
Corruption under Peter I
The great reformer got a country with an already established bureaucracy and traditions of "feeding", which were almost impossible to eradicate. The term "feeding" refers to the Byzantine custom of leaving a gift to officials for their work. It was not always measured in terms of money. Often, officials received food, and they very willingly took eggs, milk and meat, since the state system for remunerating their labor was practically not formed. Such gratitude was not considered bribery and was not condemned in any way, but for a state that was unable to support its bureaucracy, it was an excellent way out of the situation. However, this approach was fraught with a lot of pitfalls and, first of all, difficulties in distinguishing between the concepts of ordinary gratitude in the framework of “feeding” and bribes.
Historians believe that it was under Peter I that the bureaucracy grew to an unprecedented size. However, in reality, the reformer tsar came to power at a time when bribery reached its apogee and was considered practically the norm in state structures. The history of the fight against corruption under Peter I received a new development, because for the first time the tsar himself tried to show by his own example that it is possible to live honestly on his salary. To this end, the reformer, according to the title assigned to him, received a monthly certain amount of money, on which he lived. Contemporaries of Peter wrote that the sovereign was often in dire need of money, but invariably adhered to his principles. In order to teach officials to live within their means and eradicatethe principle of "feeding", the king gave them a fixed salary, but it often happened that it was not paid on time, and local bribery continued to flourish.
The king, outraged by the level of corruption in the country, more than once issued all kinds of decrees, which provided for punishment for corrupt officials. Peter I personally beat his close associates, who, by the way, stole in huge quantities, with sticks and whips. But the tsar did not succeed in correcting the situation - theft and bribery continued to flourish throughout Russia. Once, the angry emperor even decided to issue a decree to hang anyone who steals an amount sufficient to buy a rope. However, the then governor-general warned the king that he would have to rule the country without subjects. Indeed, in one way or another, absolutely everything and everywhere in Russia is stolen.
Corruption in Russia after the death of the reformer tsar
It so happened that in the history of combating corruption, the period after the death of Peter I can be considered stagnant. The country very quickly returned to its former order. Salaries for officials were officially abolished, and bribes finally merged into one with offerings made as thanks.
Often, overseas guests later wrote in their notes about their trip to Russia, which is quite difficult to distinguish robbers from officials at first glance. This was especially true of judges who made the necessary decisions depending on the size of the bribe. Officials completely ceased to be afraid of punishment from above and constantly raised the amount of payment for their services.
Reign of Catherine II
After accession to the throne of Catherine II, the fight against bribery in the country took a new turn. If we talk briefly about the history of corruption in Russia, then we can confidently state that from the first days of her reign, the tsarina declared war on those who want to live at the expense of the people and plunder the state treasury. Of course, Catherine II, first of all, took care of her well-being, because the damage from theft, expressed in numbers, literally plunged her into shock. In this regard, she developed a set of measures to combat corruption.
First of all, the Empress returned the system of regular salary payments to all officials. At the same time, she appointed civil servants a very high salary, which allowed them not only to adequately support their families, but also to live on a fairly grand scale.
Catherine II believed that this would be enough to reduce the percentage of theft. However, she was very seriously mistaken, the officials did not want to part with the opportunity to receive money just like that and continued to take bribes en masse. Some contemporaries of the empress, who at that time were prominent public figures, believed that even the bloody revolt of Pugachev, which shook Russia with its scale, arose due to the exorbitant requisitions of officials and landowners, who literally took every penny from ordinary people.
The Empress repeatedly conducted various checks in the provinces and each time their result was not satisfactory. For all my timereign of Catherine II and he managed to radically change the situation in the country.
Tsarist Russia: corruption and the fight against it
Over time, the situation in the country only worsened. For example, under Paul I there was a depreciation of banknotes, which significantly reduced the income of officials. As a result, they increased the size and frequency of their requisitions. In short, the history of corruption in Russia has never known such a favorable set of circumstances for the development and rooting of bribery as a system.
By the nineteenth century, the situation in Russia with theft worsened. The people practically officially supported the officials. In many provinces it was customary to collect a certain amount of money in order to pay the police. Otherwise, criminals would collect their fees, and therefore, many decisions would be made in their favor.
Almost everyone spoke about corruption in the country. Satirical stories and serious journalistic articles were written about her. Many public figures were looking for a way out of the situation and saw it only in a total change of regime and political system. They classified the built system as rotten and outdated, pinning hopes that global changes in the country will be able to completely eradicate corruption.
The fight against corruption in the Soviet state
The young Soviet regime zealously took up the eradication of theft in the public sphere. This required the creation of a separate structure that monitored officials and investigatedbribery cases. However, this idea almost immediately proved to be a failure. Employees of the supervisory authority often exceeded their authority and did not hesitate to take bribes. This practice quickly spread throughout the country and became commonplace.
In order to radically resolve the situation, a decree was issued, in which a real prison term was provided as a punishment for bribes. Also, all the property of the convict was confiscated in favor of the state. A few years later, the measures were tightened, and now a citizen could well have been shot for taking bribes. For the entire existence of corruption, these were the most stringent measures to eradicate this problem.
Often the fight against corruption took the form of real punitive operations. Entire teams of workers from various enterprises, headed by their bosses, sometimes fell under court. Of course, it cannot be said that bribery was defeated in Soviet Russia by all the measures listed above. Rather, it took on slightly different forms, and the process itself turned into a latent form. The punitive function of the party forced officials to take bribes with great caution and fear. Most often, corruption consisted in certain services provided by some officials to others. But still, in the history of the fight against corruption in Russia, this was one of the most favorable periods.
Modern Russia
The collapse of the USSR was a time of rampant corruption. The state significantly reduced control over all officials in the regions, and people familiar with thieves began to gradually come to power.mentality. It was they who began to plant it in state structures. During this period, almost everything was sold and bought. The country was plundered, and ordinary people could not achieve anything without giving even a petty official the requested amount of money.
Today we can say that the fight against corruption is still underway. Laws against bribe-takers are gradually becoming tougher, and real criminal cases are moving into court proceedings. Terms are received by ministers and smaller officials. And the president regularly announces the adopted programs to combat bribery and theft.
Will this help defeat corruption once and for all? We think not. In the entire history of the development of corruption in Russia, no one has yet managed to do this. However, we hope that over time, our capital will still leave the "honorable" one hundred and thirty-first place in the Corruption Perceptions Index, which it now occupies.
