ABSTRACT
Suspicion of formal legal remedies as implied in Almazov’s comic verse cited here is often considered to have been a distinctive feature of the peasant world reluctant to change its ways. But, in fact, it cut across society as a whole and, albeit for vastly different reasons, was just as much a mark of radical thought seeking to defy the status quo as it was telling of government practice that was determined to maintain it. It was therefore imperative for juridical reformers to gain public trust in the law and in the judiciary as an independent professional body. Open justice, reformers believed, would enable the people to see for themselves that crimes, whether for reasons of personal vengeance or political gain, were being dealt with fairly.
