The first Russians who witnessed European duels only laughed at them – although Russia had its own tradition of settling disputes with standoffs. Over time, dueling invariably entered the life of Russian nobility. But when and how did it appear in Russia?
For a nineteenth-century Russian nobleman, honor was paramount. Any insult instantly led to a duel. They were so frequent in the era of Alexander Pushkin that the government began to fear for the number of young noblemen. Even the threat of exile to Siberia didn’t stop desperate duelists. Surprisingly, dueling wasn’t historical for Russia – it appeared only at the instigation of Europeans, in the 18th century. The first “duels of honor” were looked upon with surprise and even disdain by people.
While in Europe, the heyday of dueling was in the 16th-17th centuries, in the Moscow tsardom of the same era, duels were perceived as savage, unruly acts. Jacques Margeret, a French mercenary who served in Russia under tsar Boris Godunov, noted: “Among Russians, there are no duels at all – firstly, because they always go unarmed, except for wartime or travel; secondly, because the person offended by words appeals to the court, which determines the punishment for ‘dishonoring’.” According to Margeret, this order is explained by the severity of the law: independent resolution of disputes by duels was not allowed, so that the Russians did not arrogate to themselves “the power of justice, which alone has the right to try and prosecute crimes”.
