In this book, traditional law is considered as an integral part of the system of peasant self-government. The author, based on a wide range of archival sources and scientific research, reconstructs the customary law of the Russian village of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries and shows what role legal customs played in the life of the peasantry. Even if from the point of view of modern jurisprudence this practice may seem archaic, the experience of self-organization and independent resolution of issues within the local community today, when the state interferes in everything and does not cope with anything, is again relevant.