Markers of the Legal Status of Foreigners in Russia in the First Quarter of the 18th Century

This article examines the basic components of the socio-legal status of foreign specialists in Russia in the first quarter of the eighteenth century: citizenship, attitude to the oath (of loyalty to the service, of eternal service), the contract (as a key document that determined not only the conditions of work, but also the position of a foreigner in society, as well as social prestige). During the time of Peter the Great, the concept of citizenship (as applied to foreigners) developed: from identifying citizenship with belonging to the Moscow Church to understanding citizenship as belonging to the state (or the monarch). The author examines the corresponding status characteristics: their legal bases (including procedural and documentary forms of recording subjects’ obligations) and practical significance for foreign specialists. Issues related to the acceptance (or non-acceptance) of Russian citizenship by foreigners are studied in direct connection with other obligatory relations of foreigners with the authorities (the practice of taking the oath of “loyalty to the service”, as well as of “eternal service”). The paper shows the nuances of their interrelationship, similarities and differences with the oath of citizenship. This aspect leads to the problem of the conflict of legal consciousness connected with the different ideas about the rights and mutual obligations of foreign specialists and representatives of state authorities. For foreigners, taking the oath and its form (including the text of the document) were of fundamental importance, became a subject of discussion and served as a reason for entering into dialogue with the authorities. In addition to issues related to the oath, the conclusion of service contracts created a legal contact area for communication between the state and foreigners. During the discussions, the parties managed to reach an agreement on the working conditions of the specialists: the foreigners’ demands to adapt the contractual texts were met. In practice, however, this did not mean the obligatory fulfilment of the prescribed conditions. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, both swearing an oath (for citizenship, perpetual service, loyalty to the service) and concluding a contract remained forms of unilateral obligations of foreigners towards the authorities.