Russian Holidays - Notary Day

Notary Day in Russia is an annual professional holiday, which received official status thanks to Presidential Decree No. 195 of April 26, 2016, and at the same time a more precise date. Since 2007, the celebration has been celebrated on the 27th, as the board of the notary chamber tried to avoid intersections with the events of the Chernobyl disaster. But the decree of V.V. Putin confirmed the historically only correct date of official emergence. It was on April 26, 1866 (April 14, old style) that Russian Emperor Alexander II adopted the “Regulations on the notarial part.” This document allowed the notary to be considered an independent legal institution, although the first representatives appeared in Rus' back in the 12th century. These include the historical character Torlin from Nizhny Novgorod: written and sealed with his signature “Torlin’s letter,” the birch bark scroll is an analogue of a modern notarized document for a loan transaction of three hryvnia. It took the inhabitants of Ancient Rus' many years to approve a charter of judgment at the assembly in 1467 in Pskov, the first articles of which were constantly supplemented since 1397. The document began to contain normative legal acts not only of the judicial system - it legislatively regulated notarial activities. The Council Code of 1649 completely streamlined the procedure for registering transactions, and area clerks were engaged in conducting and drawing up documents. And only Peter the Great carried out reforms, as a result of which they are elevated by the General Regulations of 1720 to the rank of officials of the imperial chancellery, their activities are enshrined in a special decree, and the term “notary” first appears in the Bill of Exchange Charter of 1729. Today, the Russian notary office has about 30 thousand employees who perform public legal actions on behalf of the state with dignity and happily celebrate their professional holiday together with employees and students of specialized educational institutions. Congratulations on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, specialized lectures, seminars, and conferences for the exchange of experience have already become traditional. For the 150th anniversary, special book gift editions and a presentation calendar were published, the pages of which highlight the centuries-old history of the progressive legal institution that is the notary. Various monographs, the so-called “golden pages of notaries,” were presented to the attention of the general public, professional lawyers and ordinary history buffs. They represent professional studies of the formation and development in each specific region: Vyatka and Simbirsk provinces (modern Kirov and Ulyanovsk regions), Yaroslavl and Samara, every corner of Russia, where the existence of this important activity is determined by the life of society.