Many modern historians consider corruption 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, this statement has a grain of truth, but very often corruption is perceived as a purely Russian tradition, although in reality 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 back in records dating back to tens of millennia before the advent of our era. So, partly 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 world is fighting against this, as many claim, a shameful phenomenon, and for more than thirteen years there has even been an International Day against Corruption, not a single country or a single political regime has been able to win. Today we will trace the history of the emergence and development of corruption in Russia. And be sure to give an assessment of this topic from a global perspective.
Question Terminology
Plunging into the history of corruption, many call it “bribery”. However, in fact, this term has a much broader interpretation. If we consider it in this sense, it becomes clear how serious this disease is for mankind.
After studying several different dictionaries, it can be said that corruption is an action that is taken to benefit from one's official position. That is, we mean not only a bribe in money or an abuse of our powers, but also any vestment of our position in profit. Most often, of course, it is measured in monetary terms.
Talking about the history of corruption in general, one cannot ignore the main forms of its manifestation. It should be borne in mind that even the same shape 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 cause. In modern Russia, they sometimes amount to billions of dollars.
So, referring to the history of corruption, its following forms are highlighted:
- requisitions;
- bribes;
- use of his position for personal purposes.
In the world community, any of the above options is censured. But the 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 from the Byzantine Empire, firmly rooted, like many other foreign trends.
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 transformed from the tradition of giving gifts in order to receive what is desired from members of the tribe, standing on a higher level of the hierarchical ladder. In primitive society, gifts were offered to leaders and priests, because the welfare of the whole community and each of its members in particular depended on them. It is interesting that historians cannot give an exact date for the occurrence of corruption, but they are unambiguously convinced that it was a constant companion of mankind and developed along with it.
The logical stage in the growth of our civilization is statehood. But this important process is always accompanied by the appearance of officials, who represent a kind of social layer between the elite and the common people. Moreover, 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 look at the origins of corruption, the first written mention of it was made back in the Sumerian state. About two and a half thousand years BC, one of the kings severely pursued the bribe takers and became known as an implacable fighter against corruption. A little later, one of the Indian ministers devoted a whole scientific treatise to this problem, highlighting his regrets about the impossibility of at least somehow changing the situation for the better. These facts give us every right to assert that the history of the fight against corruption began literally immediately after the occurrence of this phenomenon. Therefore, in this case we are talking about interconnected, and, therefore, co-dependent processes. Understanding this phenomenon facilitates further study of the issue.
Corruption: history and modernity
With the development of mankind, corruption has changed. The emergence of the beginnings of the judicial system marked the emergence of its new species. Now judges, who have enormous power and are obliged to be as impartial as possible, have the opportunity to resolve disputes outside the legal field. Selling judges were the real scourge of Europe, because only very wealthy people could prove anything in court.
Interestingly, even the main religious cults of the planet seriously condemn such behavior and promise a real heavenly punishment for it.
By the eighteenth century, the attitude 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 promotion of liberal and democratic freedoms. Officials began to be perceived as people obliged to serve the people and the head of state. The state has increasingly begun to assume the functions of a regulatory body that 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 there is the possibility of a conspiracy between the economic and political elite in order to obtain benefits. The scale of such conspiracies is difficult to describe in a few words. In the history of corruption, this was a new stage, which, according to scientists, has not ended to this day.
It is believed that the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are marked with the seal of the fight against bribery and collusion. However, to one extent or another this can only be effectively done in developed countries. Here the bureaucratic apparatus, of course, is 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 amount of money or connections.
If we evaluate the twentieth century from the point of view of combating this problem, it becomes clear how ineffective all the measures taken to this day are. Corruption has the status of an international problem, because in the modern world, corporations are so easily able to come to terms with each other and actually manage countries. In such circumstances, 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 stating the history of corruption briefly, we cannot say that we have already lost the battle to this phenomenon and it is worth reconciling with it completely. Here and there, real scandals erupt periodically, exposing the corrupt actions of sometimes very important people. For example, not so long ago in the media, journalists made noise about the arrest of the crown princes in Saudi Arabia. They were involved in a grand scandal over the oil scam. It is not known how this case will end, but it clearly clearly illustrates the full extent of the problem.
It is also known that the Queen of Great Britain herself was not so far from corruption. Reporters found that she has several offshore accounts with foreign banks. And dozens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, lie on them.
The American Pentagon has survived many corruption allegations. Information periodically leaks out that the amounts allocated to military programs disappear in an incomprehensible direction. And officials holding important posts are enriched by ordinary taxpayers.
Despite the fact that such scandals are becoming known to the world community, they, in their entire mass, are coming to naught. They almost never reach trial, which indicates the imperfection of the existing anti-corruption system.
The history of corruption in Russia
It is difficult to say when our ancestors first encountered such a phenomenon as bribery, but it was already mentioned in the annals. It is known that one of the first metropolitans in Russia vehemently condemned the monetary bribe that it was customary to give for certain services. Moreover, the clergyman put this sin on a par with witchcraft and drunkenness. The Metropolitan called for executions for such misconduct to completely eradicate this phenomenon. Scientists studying the history of corruption in Russia believe that such a radical decision, made at the dawn of the development of Ancient Russia, could completely change the situation even in its infancy.
Historians claim that the Slavs took bribery from their Byzantine neighbors. It was there that it was customary not to pay officials a salary; they received their income from the population who paid them for certain services. During the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, the bureaucracy was quite ramified. The state could not pay everyone who served it, and here the system from Byzantium 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:
The first category was not punishable by law. It included, for example, monetary compensation for expediting a particular case, including judicial review. But if an official takes a bribe to announce a certain decision, it could be interpreted as extortion and 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, the prince and clerk suffered a public flogging, taking a bribe with a barrel of wine for making a decision contrary to the sovereign's command. This case has been documented and relates to the rarest phenomena of that time.
Corruption under Peter I
The great reformer went to a country with an already established bureaucratic apparatus 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 monetary terms. Often, officials received food, and they very willingly took eggs, milk and meat, since the state system of payment for their labor was practically not formed. Such gratitude was not considered bribery and was not condemned in any way, and for a state that was not able to maintain its bureaucracy, it was an excellent way out of the situation. However, such an approach was fraught with a lot of pitfalls and, first of all, difficulties in differentiating the concepts of ordinary gratitude in the framework of “feeding” and a bribe.
Historians believe that it was under Peter I that the bureaucratic apparatus grew to unprecedented proportions. However, in reality, the tsar-reformer came to power in a situation where bribery reached its zenith and was considered almost 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 king himself tried by his own example to show that you can live honestly on his salary. For this purpose, according to the rank assigned to him, the reformer received a monthly certain amount of money, for which he lived. Contemporaries of Peter wrote that the sovereign often felt an acute need for money, but invariably adhered to his principles. In order to teach officials to live within their means and eradicate the principle of “feeding,” the king appointed them a fixed salary, but it often happened that it was not paid on time, and local bribery continued to flourish.
The tsar, outraged by the level of corruption in the country, repeatedly issued all kinds of decrees, which provided for punishments for corrupt officials. Peter I personally beat sticks and lashes with his associates, who, by the way, stole in large quantities. But the tsar failed to rectify the situation - theft and bribery continued to flourish throughout Russia. Once an angry emperor even decided to issue a decree hanging everyone who steals an amount sufficient to purchase 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 is stolen and everywhere in Russia.
Corruption in Russia after the death of the Tsar Reformer
It so happened that in the history of countering corruption, the period that came after the death of Peter I can be considered stagnant. The country quickly returned to its former order. The salary for officials was officially canceled, and the bribes finally merged into one with the offerings made as a thank you.
Often, overseas guests later wrote in their notes on a trip to Russia, which is rather difficult to distinguish at first glance from robbers to officials. This was especially true for judges who made the necessary decisions depending on the size of the bribe. Officials completely ceased to be afraid of punishments from above and constantly raised the amount of payment for their services.
The reign of Catherine II
After the accession to the throne of Catherine II, the fight against bribery in the country took a new turn. If we talk about the history of corruption in Russia briefly, we can confidently say that the tsarina from the first days of her reign declared war on those who want to live at the expense of the people and plunder the state treasury. Of course, Catherine II was primarily concerned about her well-being, because the damage from theft, expressed in numbers, plunged her literally 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 maintenance, which allowed them not only to adequately support their families, but also to live on a fairly broad footing.
Catherine II believed that this would be quite enough to reduce the percentage of theft. However, she was very seriously mistaken, 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 riot of Pugachev, which shook Russia with its scale, arose because of the exorbitant requisitions of officials and landowners, who literally took every penny from ordinary people.
The Empress more than once conducted various checks on the provinces and each time their result was not satisfactory. For all the time of her reign, 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 the devaluation of banknotes occurred, 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 did not yet know 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 was aggravated. The people almost officially contained officials. In many provinces, it was customary to collect a certain amount of money in order to pay the police. Otherwise, the criminals would collect the payment, 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 looked for ways out of the situation and saw it only in a total change of regime and political system. They classified the built-in system as rotten and outdated, hoping that global changes in the country could 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 investigated cases of bribery. However, this idea proved to be a failure almost immediately. Supervisory officers often exceeded their authority and did not hesitate to take bribes. This practice quickly spread throughout the country and became familiar.
In order to radically solve the situation, a decree was issued in which a real prison term was envisaged as a punishment for bribes. Also, all property in favor of the state was confiscated from the convict. After a few years, the measures were tightened, and now for a bribe a citizen could well be shot. Over 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. Sometimes whole collectives of workers of various enterprises, led by their superiors, came under trial. Of course, it cannot be said that in Soviet Russia, bribery was defeated by all of the above measures. Rather, it took a slightly different look, and the process itself went into a latent form. The punitive function of the party forced officials to take bribes with great care and fear. More often than not, corruption consisted in certain services provided by some officials to others. But still, in the history of the fight against corruption in Russia, it was one of the most favorable periods.
Modern Russia
The collapse of the USSR became a time of rampant corruption. The state significantly reduced control over all officials in the regions, and people familiar with the thieves mentality gradually came to power. It was he who they began to plant in state structures. During this period, almost everything was sold and bought. The country was plundered, but ordinary people could not achieve anything without even giving the petty official the requested amount of money.
Today we can say that the fight against corruption is still underway. The laws regarding bribe takers are being gradually tightened, and real criminal cases go into court proceedings. Dates are received by ministers and smaller officials. And the president regularly announces the adopted programs to combat bribes and theft.
Will it help defeat corruption completely? We think not. In the entire history of the development of corruption in Russia, no one has yet succeeded in doing this. However, we hope that over time, our capital will nevertheless leave the "honorable" one hundred thirty-first place in the Corruption Perception Index, which it now occupies.