Categories of service people in 16. Service people are ... Definition and types. An excerpt characterizing Servant people

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service people on the instrument
- in Russia of the XIV-XVIII centuries, the general name of persons obliged to carry out military or administrative service in favor of the state.

There are other names in the literature Free servants, servants, military people, Warriors, sovereign people.

• 1. History
  • 1.1 Serving people "in the fatherland"
  • 1.2 Service people "on the instrument"
  • 1.3 Service people "on call"
  • 1.4 Church servants
  • 1.5 Combat servants (servants)
• 2 See also
• 3 notes
• 4 Literature
• 5 Links

History

The armed forces of the Russian state (Russian army, Rat) at the end of the 15th - first half of the 17th centuries were staffed by all the service people of the state who carried out military service personally and indefinitely and made up the local noble cavalry (local army).

They were divided into:

• of Moscow service people, so in the sources of the end of the 16th century they report about the Ukrainian service of Moscow service people: and how will the arrival of military people to the sovereign Ukraine, and the sovereign ordered to be in the forefront in the Ukrainian regiment.
• city ​​service people (city nobles and boyar children, enrolled in military service in cities (Kaluga, Vladimir, Epifantsy and others), made up city noble equestrian hundreds with their heads and other bosses).

Service people in the Russian kingdom were divided into categories:

• servicemen "in the fatherland" (by duty), these included Moscow ranks, city nobles and boyar children, who carried personal land service and served at their own expense in the "hundred service" (the most noble and wealthy), or for a salary in the "reitarsky system", the most well-born people from among the Reiters stood out as hussars (only in the Novgorod category) and spearmen;
• servicemen "according to the instrument" (selection, selection), they included archers, Cossacks, gunners, zatinshchiks, pishchalniks, and so on, who carried out constant service for a salary in money, giving bread, salt, fabrics in kind, and more;
• servicemen “by conscription”, temporarily serving in wartime by decree (conscription), they were treated by peasants according to a certain proportion - the so-called “dacha people”;
• church servants;
• combat serfs or servants.

Serving people "in the fatherland"

The service was mostly passed down from father to son. This category included boyars, roundabouts, stolniks, boyar children, murzas and service Tatars, courtyard Lithuanians, sevryuks, nobles, duma clerks, white-located Cossacks and others. They were considered a privileged estate, owned land (on a patrimonial, "quarter" or local right) and peasants. For service they received monetary or local salaries, titles and other rewards.

Main article: local system

Service people "on the instrument"

They were recruited from representatives of taxable estates, personally free. First of all, these are archers, who obeyed the Streltsy order. Most of the city Cossacks also obeyed the Streltsy order. This can be explained by the lack of a clear difference in the service of urban Cossacks and archers. Both of them were armed with squeakers and did not have horses for service. Part of the Cossacks obeyed the Cossack order. There were few such Cossacks with chieftains and captains. Subsequently, the service "on the instrument" also turned into a hereditary one. Children of archers became archers, children of Cossacks - Cossacks. Streltsy and Cossack children, nephews and beans were a specific group of the population. This group was formed gradually, when all the places in the prescribed number of city Cossacks or archers were already occupied, but the origin obliged these people to serve in the "instrument" people. The state did not consider them a full-fledged army, but they were recorded in the estimated lists for the cities. Streltsy and Cossack children, nephews and beans were armed with spears and "served on foot." There were also smaller service units: gunners, gunners, collars, state blacksmiths, interpreters, messengers (messengers), carpenters, bridgemen, security guards and pit hunters. Each of the categories had its own functions, but in general they were considered lower than archers or Cossacks. Bridgemen and watchmen are not mentioned in all cities. Korotoyak and Surgut, local executioners were among the local service people. Service people "according to the instrument" were rarely involved in regimental service. They were engaged in gardening, crafts, trade, crafts. All service people "according to the instrument" paid grain taxes to the city treasury in case of siege time. In the 17th century, ordinary servicemen of the regiments of the “new system” were added to the category of service people “according to the instrument” - musketeers, reiters, dragoons, soldiers, as well as plowed soldiers and dragoons.

Service people "on call"

In wartime, by decree (call) of the tsar, at critical moments for the state, peasants were temporarily called up for service according to a certain proportion - the so-called "dacha people".

With the formation of a centralized state, the people's militia was liquidated by the grand ducal power. The prince attracted the masses to military service only in case of serious military danger, regulating the size and nature of this service at his own discretion (trade army).

A. V. Chernov, “The Armed Forces of the Russian State in the XV-XVII centuries”, M., Military Publishing, 1954, p. 27-28.

Main article: Peasant army

Church servants

The third, special and rather numerous category, were church servants (patriarchal nobles, boyar children, archers, messengers, etc.), who accepted obedience or tonsure (monasticism), were supported and armed at the expense of the church and were subordinate to the Patriarch and higher hierarchs (metropolitans, archbishops, archimandrites) of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to contemporaries, Patriarch Nikon, "if necessary" could "put in the field" up to ten thousand people. The patriarchal archers, for example, guarded the patriarch and were a special intra-church "moral police" that monitored the behavior of the clergy. “The patriarchal archers constantly bypass the city,” wrote Archdeacon of the Orthodox Church of Antioch Pavel of Aleppo, who had been in Moscow, “and as soon as they meet a drunken priest and monk, they immediately take him to prison and subject him to all kinds of reproach ...”. The patriarchal archers were also a kind of church inquisition - they were engaged in the search and arrests of people suspected of heresy and black magic, and after the church reform of 1666, the Old Believers, including Archpriest Avvakum and boyar Morozova. “The patriarchal archers grabbed the noblewoman by the chain, knocked her to the floor and dragged her away from the ward down the stairs, counting the wooden steps with her unfortunate head ...”. Patriarchal archers went around Moscow churches and houses and, seizing the “wrong” icons, brought them to Patriarch Nikon, who publicly broke them, throwing them to the ground. Church service people were also involved in public service. At the end of the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th centuries, “the people of the Ryazan lord” also carried the guard service for the protection of the southern border of the Russian state along with the Cossacks. Numerous monasteries-fortresses - Novodevichy Monastery, Donskoy Monastery, Simonov Monastery, Novospassky Monastery, New Jerusalem Monastery, Nikolo-Peshnoshsky Monastery, Vysotsky Monastery, Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, Bogolyubsky Monastery, Epiphany-Anastasia Monastery, Ipatiev Monastery, Tolgsky Monastery, Rostov Borisoglebsky Monastery , Zheltovodsky Makariev Monastery, Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery, Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, Solovetsky Monastery, Pafnutyevo-Borovsky Monastery, Pskov-Caves Monastery, Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, Trinity-Sergius Lavra and others had powerful artillery, high walls with towers and numerous garrisons of warrior monks, were able to withstand a long siege and played a key role in the defense of the Russian state. The Holy Trinity Borshchevsky Monastery, one of the most powerful fortresses of the Belgorod line, was founded in 1615 by the Don Cossacks and Borshchev was built specifically for atamans and Cossacks, "which of them are tonsured and which of them are wounded and crippled in that monastery."

Battle serfs (servants)

The fourth category was combat serfs (servants) - armed servants who belonged to the category of non-free population. They existed in the Russian state in the 16th-18th centuries, constituted an armed retinue and bodyguard of large and medium-sized landowners and carried out military service in the local army along with the nobles and "children of the boyars." The servants occupied an intermediate social position between the nobility and the peasants. Compared with the completely disenfranchised arable and yard serfs, this stratum enjoyed considerable privileges. Starting from the second half of the 16th century, ruined "children of the boyars" and "novices" rejected during the tsar's imposition began to appear among the fighting serfs, for whom entering the service of the boyar retinue, even at the cost of freedom, was the only way to maintain their belonging to the military class. different years, the number of combat serfs ranged from 15 to 25 thousand people, which was from 30 to 55% of the total number of the entire local army.

In the 19th century, the word was retained in the form "serviceman" as an appeal to soldiers or other lower military ranks.

see also

• Serviceman
• conscript
• conscript
• Volunteer
• Mercenary
• Warrior
• Soldier
• Hussar
• militia
• City Cossacks
• Serving Tatars
• Boyar children
• archers
• Cossacks
• Battle serfs

Notes

1. ill. 92. Warriors in tags and iron hats // Historical description of clothing and weapons of the Russian troops, with drawings, compiled by the highest command: in 30 volumes, in 60 books. / Ed. A. V. Viskovatova.
2. Belyaev I. D. "On guard, stanitsa and field service in the Polish Ukraine of the Muscovite state, before Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich" - M. 1846
3. Seredonin O. M. "News of foreigners about the Russian armed forces." - St. Petersburg, 1891
4. Boyar lists of the last quarter of the 16th - early 17th centuries. and painting of the Russian army in 1604" / Comp. S. P. Mordovina, A. L. Stanislavsky, part 1 - M., 1979
5. Richard Halley. "Slavery in Russia" 1450-1725. - M., 1998

Literature

• Brodnikov A.A. On the protective armament of the service people of Siberia in the 17th century // Bulletin of the Novosibirsk State University. Series: History, Philology. - 2007. - V. 6, No. 1.
• About the Russian army in the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich and after it, before the transformations made by Peter the Great. Historical study of action. member Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities I. Belyaev. Moscow. 1846

Links

service people on the instrument

Service people Information About

Serving people in the fatherland in Russia in the 17th century (nobles).

nobles occupied a more privileged position in Russian society of the 17th century. Οʜᴎ constituted the highest level of sovereign people who served the fatherland. nobles owned estates, which were inherited, subject to the continuation of the service of the heir to the sovereign. By the middle of the 17th century, the nobles had become the main pillar of tsarist power in Russia. It is worth noting that the only noble title that was inherited was the title of prince. The remaining ranks were not inherited, but assigned, and first of all, they meant a position, but gradually they lost their official significance.

The most clear hierarchy, reflecting the official significance, was in the ranks of the archery army. The regimental commanders were colonels, the commanders of individual detachments were semi-colonels, then there were heads and centurions.

In the 17th century in Russian society, most of the ranks did not have a clear division according to the type of activity. Duma ranks were considered the highest, people who were close to the tsar: duma clerk, duma nobleman, okolnichiy, boyar. Below the duma ranks were the palace or court ranks. These included: a steward, a lawyer, a military leader, diplomats, compilers of scribe books, tenants, a Moscow nobleman, an elected nobleman, a courtyard nobleman.

The lower strata of service people were recruited service people. They were archers, gunners, serving Cossacks.

Peasantry in Russian general

17. Government and nobility at 17 - per.
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even 18th century (decree on uniform inheritance and Table of Ranks)

By decree of January 16, 1721, Peter declares service merit, expressed in rank, as a source of gentry nobility. The new organization of civil service and equating it with the military in the sense of obligation for the gentry created the need for a new bureaucracy in this area of ​​public service. This was achieved by the establishment on January 24, 1722 of the ʼʼTable of Ranksʼʼ. In this table, all positions were distributed in three parallel rows: land and sea military, civilian and courtiers. Each of these ranks was divided into 14 ranks, or classes. A series of military positions begins, going from above, with field marshal general and ends with fendrik. These land positions correspond in the fleet to the general-admiral at the head of the row and the ship's commissar at the end. At the head of the civil ranks is the chancellor, behind him is the real privy councilor, and below him are the provincial secretaries (13th grade) and collegiate registrars (14th grade). The ʼʼTable of Ranksʼʼ created a revolution not only in the official hierarchy, but also in the foundations of the nobility itself. Having put the position as the basis for division into ranks, which was replaced by merit according to personal qualities and according to the personal suitability of the person entering it, the Table of Ranks abolished the completely old division on the basis of generosity and origin and eradicated any significance of aristocracy in the Russian state system. Now everyone, having reached a certain rank by personal merits, became in the corresponding position, and without going through the ranks from the lower ranks, no one could reach the highest. Service, personal merit become a source of nobility. In the paragraphs that accompanied the Table of Ranks, this was expressed very clearly. It says that all employees of the first eight ranks (not lower than major and collegiate assessor) with their offspring are ranked among the best senior nobility. In paragraph 8, it is noted that, although the sons of the most noble Russian nobility are given free access to the court for their noble breed, and it is desirable that they differ in dignity from others in all cases, however, none of them is given any rank for this, until they show services to the sovereign and the fatherland and for these nature (that is, state position expressed in rank and corresponding position) will not receive. The table of ranks further opened a wide path to the nobility for people of all classes, since these people got into the military and civil service and moved forward by personal merit. Because of all this, the end result of the action of the Table of Ranks was the final replacement of the old aristocratic hierarchy of the breed with a new bureaucratic hierarchy of merit and seniority.

First of all, well-born people suffered from this innovation, those who have long constituted a select circle of the genealogy of the nobility at the court and in the government. Now they are on the same level with the ordinary nobility. New people who came out of the environment not only of the lower and seedy service ranks, but also from lower people, not excluding serfs, penetrate under Peter to the highest government posts. Under him, from the very beginning of his reign, A.D. Menshikov, a man of humble origin, takes first place. The most prominent figures of the second half of the reign were all people of humble origin: Prosecutor General P.I. Yaguzhinsky, Peter's right hand at that time, Vice-Chancellor Baron Shafirov, Police Chief General Devier - they were all foreigners and nonresidents of very low origin; inspector of the City Hall, the vice-governor of the Arkhangelsk city Kurbatov was from the serfs, the manager of the Moscow province Ershov - too. From the old nobility, Princes Dolgoruky, Prince Kurakin, Prince Romodanovsky, Princes Golitsyns, Prince Repnin, Buturlins, Golovin and Field Marshal Count Sheremetev retained a high position under Peter.

In order to elevate the importance of his unborn associates in the eyes of those around him, Peter began to favor them with foreign titles. Menshikov was elevated in 1707 to the rank of prince, and before that, at the request of the king, he was made prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Boyarin F. A. Golovin was also first elevated by Emperor Leopold I to the dignity of a count of the Roman Empire.

Together with the titles, Peter, following the example of the West, began to approve the coats of arms of the nobles and issue letters to the nobility. Coats of arms, however, as early as the 17th century became a big fashion among the boyars, so Peter only legitimized this tendency, which started under the influence of the Polish gentry.

Following the example of the West, the first order in Russia, the ʼʼcavalryʼʼ of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called, was established in 1700 as the highest distinction. Once acquired by the service, the noble dignity since the time of Peter is inherited, as granted for long service, which is also news, not known to the 17th century, when, according to Kotoshikhin, the nobility, as a class dignity, ʼʼ was not given to anyone ʼʼ. "So, according to the table of ranks,- said Professor A. Romanovich-Slavatinsky, - a staircase of fourteen steps separated each plebeian from the first dignitaries of the state, and nothing prevented every gifted person, having stepped over these steps, to reach the first degrees in the state; she opened the doors wide through which, through the rank of ʼʼmeanʼʼ, members of society could ʼʼennobleʼʼ and enter the ranks of the nobility.

[edit] Decree on uniform inheritance

Main article:Decree on unanimity

The nobility of the time of Peter the Great continued to enjoy the right to land ownership, but since the foundations of this right had changed, the nature of land ownership itself also changed: the distribution of state lands to local ownership ceased by itself, as soon as the new nature of the noble service was finally established, as soon as this service, having concentrated in regular regiments, it lost its former militia character.
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Local distribution was then replaced by the granting of populated and uninhabited lands to full ownership, but not as a salary for service, but as a reward for exploits in the service. This consolidated the merging of estates and estates that had already developed in the 17th century into one. In his law ʼʼOn movable and immovable estates and on uniform inheritanceʼʼ, published on March 23, 1714, Peter did not make any difference between these two ancient forms of service land tenure, speaking only of immovable estate and meaning by this expression both local and patrimonial lands.

The content of the decree on single inheritance lies in the fact that a landowner who has sons could bequeath all his real estate to one of them, to whom he wanted, but certainly only to one. If the landowner died without a will, then all real estate passed by law to one eldest son. If the landowner did not have sons, he could bequeath his estate to one of his close or distant relatives, to whom he wanted, but certainly to one alone. In the event that he died without a will, the estate passed to the next of kin. When the deceased turned out to be the last in the family, he could bequeath real estate to one of his maiden daughters, a married woman, a widow, to whom he wanted, but certainly to one. Real estate passed to the eldest of the married daughters, and the husband or groom was obliged to take the last name of the last owner.

The law on single inheritance, however, concerned not only the nobility, but all ʼʼ subjects, no matter what rank and dignity they are ʼʼ. It was forbidden to mortgage and sell not only estates and estates, but also yards, shops, in general, any real estate. Explaining, as usual, in a decree the new law, Peter points out, first of all, that ʼʼif real estate will always be for one son, and only movable for others, then state revenues will be more fair, because the master will always be more satisfied with the big one, although he will take it little by little, and there will be one house, and not five, and can better benefit subjects, but don't ruinʼʼ.

The decree on single inheritance did not last long. He caused too much discontent among the nobility, and the gentry tried in every possible way to get around him: the fathers sold part of the villages in order to leave money to their younger sons, obligated the sole heir by an oath to pay the younger brothers their part of the inheritance in money. In a report submitted by the Senate in 1730 to Empress Anna Ioannovna, it was indicated that the law on single inheritance causes “hatred and quarrels and lengthy litigation with great loss and ruin for both sides” among members of noble families, and it is not unknown that not only some siblings and neighbors relatives among themselves, but the children also beat their fathers to deathʼʼ. Empress Anna abolished the law of single inheritance, but retained one of its essential features. The decree that abolished the uniform inheritance commanded ʼʼ henceforth, both estates and patrimonies, to name equally one real estate - patrimony; and to the fathers and mothers of their children to divide according to the Code is equal to everyone, so it is still to give for daughters as a dowry ʼʼ.

In the 17th century and earlier, service people who settled in the districts of the Moscow State lived a rather close-knit social life that was created around that case, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ they had to serve ʼʼeven to deathʼʼ. The military service gathered them in some cases in groups, when each had to arrange itself in order to serve the review together, choose the headman, prepare for the campaign, elect deputies to the Zemsky Sobor, etc. Finally, the regiments of the Moscow army were composed each from the nobles of the same locality, so that the neighbors served all in the same detachment.

Serving people in the fatherland in Russia in the 17th century (nobles). - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Serving people in the homeland in Russia in the 17th century (nobles)." 2017, 2018.

people in the service of the state, not by origin, but by hire (clerks, clerks, archers, gunners, gunners, city Cossacks, soldiers, coachmen). The state of the instrumental serviceman was hereditary, just like that of the son of a boyar; Streltsy children, as a general rule, tidied up in archers, Cossack children ~ in Cossacks. But this category of persons did not have hereditary isolation and was constantly replenished by an influx of new forces from various strata of society; from time to time new people tidied up the archers and Cossacks.

Sl. "According to the instrument" they settled in the cities with settlements and were endowed with small land plots of state land, and their land plots were very similar to the tax allotments of the townspeople. Sl. “according to the instrument”, being landowners, but having no peasants or serfs-workers, they cultivated the land themselves and hunted with their own hands. Streltsy, Cossacks and other instrumental people, like the children of the boyars, were free from taxes, as Sl., white townsmen, but with some restrictions. Many of them, living in cities, were engaged in trade and crafts.

In the 17th century Sl. “according to the instrument” they were endowed with land in the border regions of the country, where they guarded the state borders without additional salary.

In the middle of the XVII century. 60% of the city yards belonged to service people, among whom service people predominated according to the device, recruited from local residents (archers, Cossacks, zatinshchiks, gunners, etc.). According to the Council Code of 1649, they retained the right to engage in trade and crafts duty-free up to certain volumes. The policy of the government was aimed at preserving this category of service people in the second half of the 17th century. This was especially evident on the outskirts of the Russian state. In the Urals and Siberia, it was forbidden to distribute estates to nobles, including land provided to soldiers. And according to the decree of 1680, the Cossacks of Smolensk and other cities were obliged to serve from their land without a monetary salary, which meant that they would retain the allocated estates.

Conditions gradually developed for the replenishment of the nobility with service people according to the instrument. The entry of runaway serfs and peasants into the service allowed them to penetrate even into the ranks of the boyar children, that is, service people in the fatherland. In this regard, in the "Articles on the review and analysis of boyar children" of the late 70s of the XVII century. in the interests of the nobility, it is forbidden for serfs and arable peasants to make up a local and monetary salary. In turn, the expansion of state arable land in the south stimulates the transfer of service people according to the device into the black-mowed peasants. In particular, this applied to gunners who were given land instead of a grain salary. Thus, the policy of the government in relation to service people "according to the instrument" was determined not only by state interests. It also took into account those social contradictions that objectively arose as the nobility strengthened.

Clergy

In the 17th century the clergy were traditionally divided into black and white. The black clergy was formed on the basis of the adoption of the schema, i.e., tonsure as a monk. They were forbidden to perform rites (baptize, marry, etc.). Monasteries were male and female. Large monasteries, close to the royal house, possessing estates, carrying out trade and fishing activities, played a significant role in the socio-political and economic life of the country. These were mainly men's monasteries, but there are also women's cloisters, in particular the Novodevichy Convent. In addition to the Moscow monasteries (Chudov, Simonov, Novospassky, etc.), the richest monasteries also existed on the outskirts - Solovetsky, Kirillo-Belozersky and others. Such monasteries performed not only religious, but also state administrative and military functions. They become strongholds that provide the government with control over the development of new lands.

The overwhelming majority of women's and a significant part of men's monasteries did not have their own estates and existed by receiving maintenance from the state - a rug, which included funds for food and the minimum needs of a certain number of monks. Only in exceptional cases did the rug reach a significant size as recognition of the merits and significance of this monastery. The monasteries founded on the initiative of the highest church hierarchs were their houses and were financed from the diocesan treasury.

Bishops, archbishops, metropolitans and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, were elected from among the black clergy. The heads of the dioceses, including the patriarch who administers the patriarchal region as an independent diocese, were supported by income from the churches of the dioceses, as well as by granted estates and lands. In the event that there were no estates and a large number of parishes, the state assumed the costs of maintaining the court of the hierarch. Thus, the property status of the heads of the dioceses did not depend on the rank, but on the number of parishes, population density and land holdings.

The main source of replenishment of the diocesan treasury was the income received from the white clergy, i.e., clergy who perform rites in churches in the territory of this diocese. Each priest, in addition to paying the fee for setting up, for transferring from one church to another, etc., annually paid for the land of the parish and all the funds collected from the population for the performance of rites. Most of the priests did not bear duties in favor of the state, but if the tax community chose a priest from their midst, on their own initiative and sent him to be appointed to the head of the diocese, he retained the duty to bear the tax. A similar situation is observed in the estates in the case of the appointment of a priest from among the peasants at the initiative of the owner of the land. He is released from duties, but does not acquire the right to transfer to another church if the patrimonial church brings him sufficient income to meet his minimum needs.

A special role was played by the archpriests, the heads of cathedral churches, in which several priests could serve at once. Collegiate churches could have estates, a hand from the state, as well as maintenance from higher church officials. The Cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin stood out in particular, having significant land holdings and rich contributions. The property differentiation within the clergy was so significant that it objectively did not allow the clergy to consolidate on the basis of common social interests.

Servant people are a category of persons in the service of the sovereign; they took place from the 14th to the 18th centuries. Their other name is sovereign people. The service was military or administrative, had special privileges: remuneration with land allotments, titles, later some began to receive a local salary.

Definition and types of sovereign people

It is not easy for a modern person to understand the hierarchy of service people. With the development and formation of Russia, a category of service people was formed who served for the benefit of the state. All residents of the country can be divided into three parts: service, draft and non-draft population.

The draft population is tax payers: peasants, artisans, residents of black settlements, and so on. Non-taxable included the population, partially or completely exempted from taxes. These were the inhabitants of the white settlements, cities. The townspeople at that time played an important role, since by the beginning of the 16th century there were about 140 cities in Russia, the largest was Moscow.

It was in it, as well as in other cities, that most of the service people were concentrated. These were mainly administrative employees and the military. The main types of services performed by them were of several categories “according to the fatherland”, “according to the device”, “by call”, “church”. They, in turn, were divided into several subcategories, which were divided according to the type of service. Let's consider everything in order.

Serving people "in the fatherland." Main characteristics

Service people have always been the backbone of the state, since it was they who were responsible for its security and performed all the administrative functions that allow the country to live and work. Standing apart were the boyars, who exercised the representative power of the country and participated in its management. The category of service people "in the fatherland" included:

Duma ranks

The Muscovite state in the 16th century was a country with a political system of "estate-representative monarchy". Its representative body was the Boyar Duma, which, together with the tsar, decided most of the issues in the country.

Duma boyars sat in the Duma. From among them, appointments were made to the positions of governors, ambassadors, governors. They were the most powerful class in Russia. In their possession were lands - estates (lands with the population living on them), which were in eternal possession and inherited.

Duma nobles performed military and court duties, participated in meetings of the Boyar Duma, were appointed heads of orders, governors.

Duma clerks did not participate in the meetings of the Duma, they basically kept all the documentation: they carried out correspondence, prepared orders and resolutions. If necessary, they were appointed to positions. An example is the duma clerk Ivan Timofeev.

Moscow ranks

Separately, I want to say about this category of service people. These are, for the most part, representatives of secular authorities, officials performing various functions. Let's consider some of them:

What are service people "on the instrument"

Most of the city Cossacks also obeyed him. The rest obeyed the Cossack order, they were led by Yesauls and atamans. After a certain time, service people "according to the instrument" began to transfer their positions by inheritance.

Other categories

Service people "on call" - this definition is similar to the modern military "reserve". They were required for the duration of the war and were recruited for the most part from peasants. Their other name is "dacha warriors". These were people paying yasak. Of the three farms paying yasak, one warrior was called. It was a heavy yoke for peasant farms. But it was this kind of service people that lasted the longest.

Church servants

This is a numerous and diverse category included in the concept of service people in Russia in the 16th century. These were nobles, patriarchal boyar children, archers, messengers who accepted a haircut or obedience. They were supported and armed with church money and were subordinate only to the highest church ranks.

Church service people were involved in the service of the sovereign. They played an important role in the annexation of new lands. Numerous fortress-monasteries were built and operated on the outskirts of Russia, which helped protect Russian lands from enemy raids. They were fortified with powerful walls with high watchtowers. Equipped with artillery pieces, which were the most powerful for that time.

What did the service provide

As we can see, service people are a rather numerous and diverse category of the population of the Moscow kingdom, for whom the protection of the state was the main purpose. Service for the benefit of the state gave numerous privileges in the form of land allotments, food, and monetary support. Many people aspired to be among the servicemen.

Noble estates received great benefits from it: boyars, nobles, who received profitable places where they literally made fortunes, in addition, they received great privileges, resources, and tax exemption for their service. Their service, they passed on by inheritance. Around the positions that give income and power, certain social relations developed, generated by the struggle for their possession.

The importance of service people in the formation and strengthening of the Russian state can hardly be overestimated. Thanks to them, it was possible to preserve the state and overcome the consequences of the Time of Troubles. It was they who actively participated in the development of new lands, the construction of fortresses and prisons, the development of cities, the establishment of administrative rule in them. It was they who were the first to meet enemies encroaching on the integrity of the state.