On the Problem of Legal Regulation of the Activities of Military Clergy in Armed Conflict: History and Modern Times (Taking into Account the Experience of a Special Military Operation)

Abstract

The article briefly examines and analyzes sources of church and state law regulating the specifics of the activities of the clergy in the troops, in armed conflicts both in the pre-revolutionary period of the Russian Empire and in the period of modern Russian history. Legal norms of the Russian Church and State are considered in chronological order. According to their content, an analysis is made of changes in the legal status of a clergyman in a military organization, his priestly duties and responsibility for their violation, jurisdiction and subordination to higher management. Particular attention is paid to the organization of the construction of the structure of the military clergy in the combat zone, in the warring troops, including on the fronts of the First World War, when this structure reached its peak of development, in comparison with the current state of the military clergy in the area of a special military operation. Some measures are proposed and considered for further improvement of the institution of military clergy, taking into account its participation in armed conflicts, including the conceptual provisions and principles of its organizational structure.