The first chapter provides the thematic context for the rest of the book. Offering an overview of evolving social and religious distinctions in the Russian Empire from the mid-sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries, it puts the Great Reforms of the 1860s into a broader historical perspective. While it pays particular attention to the changing position of minorities, it then explains the scope and importance of the changes introduced by the Judicial Reform of 1864. At the same time, the chapter discusses the resulting legal pluralism across large parts of the empire – an evolving, state-regulated network of courts, along with village, religious, “customary,” and other legal forums. In so doing, it highlights the coexistence and interaction of different legal cultures across time and space.