Arson as a criminal offence during the reign of Peter the Great

Introduction: the article analyses such a type of crime widespread in Russia as arson. The continuity of punishments for this crime in historical retrospection is traced and the peculiarities in the development of legislation associated with the personality of Peter I and the transition of the country from the artisanal mode of production to manufactures are highlighted.Materials and Methods: the methods of scientific cognition: dialectical, hermeneutics, comparative-historical, logical, formal-legal, as well as the principles of historicism, objectivity and systematicity were used in the work.The Results of the Study: The author's study of the history of firefighting led him to consider one of the most important aspects of fire, related to the most serious type of crime, which received in the Criminal Code such wording as deliberate destruction or damage to another's property by fire, i.e. arson. Since different types of this crime in historical retrospection have been considered by the author earlier, this article analyses the criminal legislation providing punishment for arson during the reign of Peter the Great, and reveals the reasons for increasing the punishment for this type of crime.Findings and Conclusions: the analysis of the legislation of Peter the Great in the field of determining punishments for arson allows us to conclude both the continuity of responsibility for crimes related to this criminal offence, and a noticeable toughening in this period, associated with the personality of the emperor, who intended to form a "regular state" with a fair share of imitation of the Western model, especially in the toughening of punishment for crimes.