The Soudiebnik is the first specifically Russian code of laws, compiled by Vladimir Goussev and presented by the sovereign Ivan III in September 1497. This code played a very great part in the centralization of the Russian State and the end of feudality.

The Soudiebnik takes its roots of the Russkaya Pravda , code of laws of the principality of Pskov but with an improvement of the payments. It establishes a system of legal bodies of the State and defines their competences. It enumerates and increases the list of the punishable acts by the State (sedition, sacrilege, calumny). It states also the kinds of punishment (scourging, capital punishment) for each crime.

Although the sovereign now has precedence of the capacity of the Boyards, their rights are protected all the same inside their grounds. They can indeed punish their peasants without the State being able to intervene. The right of the peasant to rent his services with another boyard is now limited. The Soudiebnik fixes a price and a date in the year (in November) for the peasants who want to change feudal lord. In fact, this code of laws is the first step towards a control of the country class.

New a Soudiebnik , promugué in 1550 by Ivan the Terrible, modernizes that of Ivan III. It creates embryos of ministries, and the functions of their bureaucracy are widened.