The Origins of Modern Russian Labor Legislation in the Post-Petrine Era (1725–1785)

This study employs historical-legal, comparative-historical, and formal-legal analysis to investigate the formation of the foundations of modern Russian labor law during the post-Petrine period (1725–1785). Although separated in time from the present, this era was pivotal in establishing early institutions, legal constructs, and regulatory approaches governing hired subordinate labor. 18 th -century labor legislation introduced notable methodological innovations, foremost among them the positivization of legal norms, whereby prescriptive rules acquired binding statutory form. A parallel development was the entrenchment of public-law principles in the regulation of labor relations. Pre-Petrine statehood largely refrained from intervening in the contractual relationship between an employer and an employee, maintaining a civil-law model of consensual hiring. In contrast, the post-Petrine legal landscape began to embody the defining characteristic of contemporary Russian labor law — a synthesis of private- and public-law principles. Key legal institutions codified in this period foreshadowed present-day labor protections, including guarantees for wages, limits on working hours, safety standards, prohibitions on arbitrary punishment, rules on wage deductions, formalized workplace discipline, and the recognition of localized norm-setting authority. The analysis reveals structural continuities between the 18 th century and the present, particularly in enduring regulatory weaknesses: ineffective enforcement of enacted norms, inadequate labor-law awareness among the workforce, and deficient mechanisms of oversight and compliance control.