Illegal marriages: violation of the matrimonial requirements by the ukrainian orthodox population during the XVIIIth ‒ the first half of the XIXth centuries

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of illegal marriages among the Ukrainian Orthodox population of the XVIIIth ‒ the first half of the ХІХth centuries. The Scientific Novelty. The study of the common people family life in the context of various directions of a historical anthropology has determined the topicality, the scientific novelty of the issue under analysis and the need to study a significant array of sources of an administrative, procedural and legal direction, especially, the egodocuments from seven state archives. The Methodology of the Research. The research objectives were solved at the sensory and rational levels of cognition, but with the use of the general scientific (analysis and synthesis, abstraction and concretization, verification, etc.), special historical methods – prosopographic, a critical analysis and sources deconstruction and the principle of objectivity. The Conclusions. The marriages of persons of both sexes were considered invalid: if concluded between one or both mentally disabled brides; not divorced but remarried; divorced, when one representative of the couple did not have a permission for a new marriage and violated this requirement. The factors that caused a disorderly marital mobility and illegal marriages have been determined ‒ the restrictions on divorce rights, an uncontrolled mobility of the population, the lack of an effective institution of a passport control, church ceremony weddings of brides not in their native parishes, a long-term absence of one marital partner, documents falsification, giving false information by witnesses, etc. It has been determined that violation of matrimonial requirements could give rise to a special type of adultery ‒ bigamy (polygamy (polygyny) and polygamy (polyandry)). According to a civil law, an invalid marriage was terminated and the bigamist had to return to his legal spouse. In the case of divorce – the victim had the right to form a new family union, and the bigamist as a violator was doomed to celibacy. Soldiers’ wives had a special status: the divorce process had certain restrictions. Since 1812, on condition of an unknown absence of a military man for seven years, his wife could file for divorce. Beginning in 1841, no terms of a military man absence were taken into account by the court, only a documentary evidence of the death of an officer or soldier allowed his wife to remarry.