Research of Civil and Legal Relations of Kievan Rus Period Made by Professor P. P. Tsitovich (1843-1913)

The subject matter of the research is the creative work of the professor of Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa and St. Petersburg Universities P. P. Tsitovich related to some aspects of the law of Kievan Rus. The novelty of the work is the fact that this problem in the historical and legal literature has not been studied yet. For the first time, the author of the article has studied the main aspects of scientific research accomplished by professor P. P. Tsitovich in the field of civil law of the period of the Old Russian State. The author of this research has used historical, formal and logical methods. It has been discovered that the first sources were Russo-Byzantine treaties of the X century, which were the beginning of his research; the author of the article has accomplished a comparative analysis of his points of view on these issues as well as the opinions of his contemporaries – scholars from other Universities; has analyzed his thoughts about testamentary heritage in the Ancient Russia era. It has been also established that P. P. Tsitovich concluded that the treaties between Rus and Byzantine Empire of the X century are irrelevant for the history of Russian succession law both in nature and through the confusion of the resolutions contained there. He believed that they did not determine the system and procedure of inheritance. This point of view did not coincide with the opinion of most law historians of that time. P. Tsitovich also expressed his opinion about the general characteristics of the property relations of the Kievan Rus era. He believed that the land itself did not have any value in that era and it was only received as a household. P. Tsitovich also expressed his opinion that the equal relations between men and women in the family are possible, in case if a woman was not stolen and was not purchased, but voluntary got married like in the equal to equal relationships. The scholar’s work put forward two dogmas related to inheritance: 1) heirs – are children in general, but the preference is given to men over women; 2) unmarried women have the right to a part of the inheritance if there are brothers. The works of P. P. Tsitovich in the sphere of succession law and marital relations of the Kievan Rus era have a certain significance at the present time.