Author: Marianna Muravyeva, Aleksanteri-instituutti: Valtakunnallinen Venäjän, Euraasian ja itäisen Euroopan tutkimuskeskus (Aleksanteri Institute - Finnish Centre for Russian and East European Studies), Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki) - Academia.edu, Google Scholar, ORCID, ResearchGate

Abstract: »This chapter explores the role of forensics and physical evidence in the prosecution of sexual violence in seventeenth-and eighteenth-century Russia. It examines how women’s bodies became central objects of investigation, often replacing survivors’ voices in the pursuit of justice. Drawing on legislation, medical literature, and trial records, the study highlights the evolving but problematic use of forensic assessments—from community midwives and “knowledgeable women” to professionalized male medical practitioners. It shows how midwives served as crucial expert witnesses in sexual assault, infanticide, and homicide cases before gradually being displaced by state-sanctioned doctors. The analysis underscores the tension between traditional, experience-based knowledge and the emerging authority of scientific medicine, which narrowed the legal definition of rape and contributed to the construction of the “false accuser” stereotype. Ultimately, the chapter situates Russian practices within broader European trends, emphasizing how the professionalization of medical expertise reshaped justice, gendered authority, and the treatment of survivors of sexual violence.« (Source: Springer Nature Link)

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Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of Russia / Tsardom of Russia, Russian Empire | Sex and the law: Sexual violence