CHAPTER 2. - The Sovereign’s Honor, and How to Safeguard His Royal Well-Being. In It Are 22 Articles.

1. If someone by any intent proceeds to think up an evil deed against the sovereign's well-being, and someone denounces his evil intent, and after that denunciation that evil intent of his is established conclusively, that he conceived all evil deed against his tsarist majesty, and he intended to carry it out: after investigation, punish such a person with death.

2. Likewise, if in the realm of his tsarist majesty, someone, desiring to seize possessions of the Muscovite state and to become sovereign, begins to assemble an armed force to effect his evil intention; or, if someone proceeds to make friends with enemies of [his] tsarist majesty, and to establish secret relationships by [exchanging] advisory letters, and to render them aid in various ways so that those enemies of the sovereign, using his secret relationship with the enemy, may take possession of the Muscovite state, or commit any other bad deed; and someone denounces his activity; and after that denunciation his treason is established conclusively: punish such a traitor with death accordingly.

3. If a subject of his tsarist majesty surrenders a town to an enemy in an act of treason; or, a subject of his tsarist majesty receives into the towns foreigners from other states for the purpose of similarly committing treason; and that is established conclusively: punish such traitors with death also.

4. If someone premeditatedly, with treasonous intent, sets fire to a town, or to houses; and at that time, or later, the arsonist is arrested, and that felonious conduct of his is established conclusively: burn him [in a cage] himself without the slightest mercy.

5. Confiscate the service landholdings, and hereditary estates, and movable property of traitors for the sovereign.

6. If the wives and children of such traitors knew about their treason: similarly punish them with death.

7. If a wife did not know about the treason of her husband, or children [did not know] about the treason of their father, and it is established about that conclusively that they did not know about that treason: do not execute them for that, and inflict no punishment on them; [give] them a maintenance allotment from [the executed traitor's] hereditary estates and service landholdings that the sovereign grants.

8. If children remain after [the execution of] a traitor, and those children of his lived separately from him, and not with him [in the same household or on the same estate] prior to his treason, and those children of his did not know about his treason, and they had their own movable property and their hereditary estates were separate from his: do not confiscate from those children of his their movable property and hereditary estates.

9. If someone commits treason, and after him survive a father, or mother, or natural brothers, or half-brothers, or uncles, or any other member of his clan in the Muscovite state; and he lived together with them and they had common movable property and hereditary estates: conduct a rigorous investigation by all methods of inquiry about that traitor to determine whether his father, and mother, and clan knew about his treason. If it is established conclusively that they knew about the treason of that traitor: punish them with death also, and confiscate their hereditary estates, and service landholdings, and movable property for the sovereign.

10. If it is established conclusively about them that they did not know about the treason of that traitor: do not punish them with death, and do not confiscate the service landholdings, and hereditary estates, and movable property from them.

11. If a traitor, having been in another state, comes to the Muscovite state, and the sovereign bestows favor upon him, orders that he be forgiven his offenses: he shall have to earn service landholdings anew. The sovereign is free [to return or otherwise dispose of] his hereditary estates, but his former service landholdings shall not be returned to him.

12. If someone proceeds to denounce someone for a treasonous offense but does not present any witnesses in support of his denunciation, and no other evidence is presented to convict [the accused], and there is no basis for initiating an investigation into such a treason case: compile a decree about such a treason case, upon rigorous review, as the sovereign decrees.

13. If someone's slaves proceed to denounce those people whom they are serving in the matter of the sovereign's well-being, or any treason case, or peasants [do the same] against the lords under whom they are living as peasants, and they present no evidence to support the accusation in that case: do not believe their denunciation. Having punished them severely by beating them mercilessly with the knout, give them back to those people whose slaves and peasants they are. With the exception of treason cases, do not place the slightest credence in any [other] cases initiated by such informers.

14. If slaves of any category proceed to initiate a treason case on their own behalf; but subsequently they themselves proceed to say that they know of no treason case, but that they had initiated the treason case to escape a beating by someone [the accused], or they were drunk: beat them with the knout for that, and having beaten them with the knout, give them back to their owners.

15. If someone, having overtaken a traitor on the road, kills him; or, having apprehended him, brings him to the sovereign: punish that traitor with death. That person who brings him in or kills him shall be given a royal reward from his [the traitor's] property, as the sovereign decrees.

16. If someone proceeds to denounce someone else about an important case involving the sovereign, or treason, but that person whom he denounces [in] that case is not present in person at that time: find that person against whom the denunciation was made and arrange an eye-to-eye confrontation with the informer. Conduct a rigorous investigation by all methods of inquiry about the accusation of a case involving the sovereign and about treason. After investigation, compile a decree as is written about that above this.

17. If someone has initiated an important case involving the sovereign or a treason charge against someone, but did not support it, and it is established about that conclusively that he deliberately initiated such a [false] case against someone: inflict on that informer [the same sanction that] the person whom he accused would have deserved.

18. If people of various ranks of the Muscovite state learn about or hear that there is an insurrectionary plot, or any other evil intention, among some people, against his tsarist majesty: they shall inform the Sovereign, Tsar, and Grand Prince of all Russia Aleksei Mikhailovich or his royal boyars and close advisers, or in the provincial towns the governors and chancellery officials, about it.

19. If someone, having learned about or hearing about an insurrectionary plot or any other evil intention among any people against his tsarist majesty, fails to inform the sovereign and his royal boyars and intimates, or the governors and chancellery officials in the provincial towns, and it becomes known to the sovereign that he knew about such a case, but did not convey the information, and that is established conclusively: punish him with death without any mercy for this.

20. No one, either by his own volition or as a member of an insurrectionary plot against his tsarist majesty, and his royal boyars, and okol’nichie, and counselors, and intimates, and in the towns and regiments against the governors, and generals, and chancellery officials, shall approach anyone [in a threatening manner], nor shall [anyone] rob or assault anyone.

21. If someone, as part of an insurrectionary plot, proceeds to approach his tsarist majesty, or his royal boyars, and okol'nichie, and counselors, and intimates, and the governors and generals in the towns and the regiments, and the chancellery officials, or anyone else [in a threatening manner], and proceed[s] to rob or assault someone: similarly punish with death without any mercy those people who commit such an act there.

22. If generals, governors, and chancellery officials from a provincial town or from the regiments report to the sovereign that servicemen or people of any other ranks approached them as part of an insurrectionary plot and desired to kill them; and those people against whom they wrote the report proceed to petition the sovereign against the generals, governors, and chancellery officials for an investigation [and they respond] that they did not approach them as part of an insurrectionary plot, but rather that only a few people approached them [to submit] a petition: on the basis of that petition, conduct an investigation about them in the towns by interrogating [all the residents of] the town, and all the troops in the regiments. If it is established conclusively about them that they approached the governors in the towns and the generals in the regiments [to submit] a petition, and not for a felonious purpose: do not punish them with death after the investigation. Severely punish the generals, governors, and chancellery officials who reported against them falsely to the sovereign, however, as the sovereign decrees.