The genesis of legal liability for improper provision of medical services in Russia during the XI-XX centuries

Introduction: in this work, the author has carried out a consistent analysis of the emergence and further development in the pre-revolutionary period of our country (from the middle of the XI to the beginning of the XX centuries) of the legal basis for criminalizing medical personnel, in case of unfair performance of their functional duties. Materials and Methods: the theoretical basis of the study was made up of legislative and other regulatory legal acts in medicine of the historical period under consideration, as well as the works of domestic specialists in the history of Russian medicine, the history of legal support of healthcare in Russia, the genesis of medical crimes, the responsibility of medical workers for committing offenses. On the basis of general scientific techniques and methods of cognition for the collection and processing of empiric material, analysis, modeling, synthesis, abstraction, comparison, formal logical approach, special legal and private scientific methods, the author conducted a study of the legal foundations and public relations arising in the process of poor-quality provision of medical services by medical personnel to the population in the pre-revolutionary period under consideration. Results: the need to attract medical personnel to a fair and reasonable punishment was not accidental, and was formed historically due to various reasons and conditions. Analyzing the genesis of the legislative bases for bringing medical workers to criminal responsibility in the historical period under consideration the author comes to the conclusion that the issues of bringing medical personnel to responsibility have been relevant in Russia since the time of Kievan Rus. Discussion and Conclusions: throughout the period under review in our country, the desire of state structures to form a special attitude of society towards guilty medical personnel who commit medical errors and various offenses is noted. At the same time, in different years, the measures of responsibility for the acts in question could be mitigated, or on the contrary, they were tightened. The commission of illegal acts by physicians at different stages of the development of Russian statehood is characterized by both different interpretations of the dispositions of legal norms providing for responsibility and sanctions, from the death penalty to church repentance.