Лекция: RUSSIAN CUSTOMS

The current Russian word for Customs, tamozhnya, appeared in the times of Mongol-Tatar yoke. The word tamga in Tatar, meant “Customs tax, the official who collected it, and the stamped seal or statement showing that it had been paid”. Each market had its tamozhnya, and the right to collect duties could be purchased from the State. The right was often given to powerful merchants.

The Russian Customs service, however, predates even the Mongol-Tatar yoke (1237-1480). Some three centuries before, in Kievan Rus, taxes were collected for the transportation of goods through the frontiers of the individual princedoms.

Thus, Russia has had a Customs service in some form during the past 1000 years. Moreover, for almost all of that history, it has been much more than a force for keeping out contraband. In fact, it has been a powerful administrative body, serving mainly protectionist interests.

The first Russian Customs statute was handed down in 1667. It was strict towards foreigners, who were allowed to trade only in frontier towns on pain of confiscation. A special tsar’s certificate was required for trading further inside the country.

Such protectionismwent on for most of the next 300 years. Every tsar, from Peter the Great to Nicolas II, approved laws limiting the import of foreign goods and defending Russian producers.