History of formation and development of the institution of redress caused by offence in the criminal trial of ancient Rus and Russia until October 1917

It studies the main theoretical provisions on the subject of research stated by the processualists before the Revolution. The study was conducted in the context of criminal proceedings typology and development of its public and private principles. The institutes of redress for harm caused by the offense are not unfamiliar to the Russian criminal process, as they emerge and develop in the criminal process. The methods of redress (the victim's claim, restitution, voluntary compensation) exist throughout the history, but they transform under the influence of certain circumstances and the will of the legislator. Throughout the history there are two main trends of development of the criminal process and institutions for redress in Russia. On the one hand, they include the strengthened role of the state, higher imperative principles and developed institutions of investigative process. The opposite trend implies the democratization of the process and dispositive principles. It is impossible to give a clear-cut answer to the question what is better for the development of redress methods. The enhanced role of the state means that the victim ceases to be the subject of the process and becomes the "interested witness" only. The dispositive principles imply that the activity should belong to the victim, but the victim does not always want or can take advantage of this. It must be emphasized that it is a frequent practice when the investigative process eliminated any possibility for redress, and the adversarial process (under the Charter of Criminal Proceedings of 1864) made the redress available only for the wealthy victim.

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