The class of feudal lords is changing. As the process of state consolidation deepened, the class of feudal lords split into: service princes, boyars, free servants and boyar children, “servants under the court.”
The serving princes constituted the top class of feudal lords; these were former appanage princes, who, after the annexation of their appanages to Moscow, lost their independence, but retained ownership of the land. They occupied leading positions in the army, and later merged with the top of the boyars.
The boyars, or princes, constituted the economically dominant group within the feudal class. The middle and small feudal lords were free servants and boyar children - they served the Grand Duke.
The feudal lords had the right of departure, that is, they had the right to choose their overlord at their own discretion. Since there were many principalities in the 14th-15th centuries, the feudal lords had quite a wide range of options to choose from. The departing vassal did not lose his fiefdom. Therefore, it happened that the boyar had lands in one principality, and he served in another, sometimes at war with the first. The boyars sought to serve the most influential prince who could protect their interests.
In the 14th and early 15th centuries, the right of departure was beneficial to the Moscow princes, as it contributed to the collection of Russian lands. But as the centralized state strengthened, it began to interfere with them: the service princes and the top of the boyars tried to take advantage of this right in order to prevent further centralization and achieve their former independence. Therefore, the Moscow princes are trying to limit the right of departure, and then completely abolish it. The way to deal with the departing boyars was to deprive them of their estates. Later they began to look at leaving as treason.
The lowest group of feudal lords were “servants under the court,” who were recruited from the prince’s slaves. Over time, some of them began to occupy high positions in the palace and government administration. At the same time, they received land from the prince and became real feudal lords. “Servants under the court” existed both at the grand ducal court and at the courts of appanage princes.
In the 15th century, changes occurred in the position of the feudal lords associated with the strengthening of the centralization process. The composition and position of the boyars changed. In the 2nd half of the century, the number of boyars at the Moscow court increased 4 times due to appanage princes who came to serve the Moscow prince along with the boyars. The princes pushed aside the ancient Moscow boyars. As a result, the meaning of the term “boyar” itself changes. If earlier it only meant belonging to a certain social group - large feudal lords, now the boyars are becoming a court rank that granted Grand Duke (introduced boyars). This rank was assigned primarily to serving princes. The second court rank was rank of okolnichy. It was received by the bulk of the former boyars. The boyars, who did not have court ranks, merged with the boyars' children and free servants.
The change in the nature of the boyars influenced his attitude towards the Grand Duke. The former Moscow boyars linked their fate with the successes of the prince and therefore helped him in every possible way. The current boyars - yesterday's appanage princes - were in opposition. The great princes begin to seek support in a new group of the feudal class - the nobility. The nobles were formed from “servants under the court” at the prince’s court. In addition, the great princes, especially Ivan III, gave land on the basis of estate rights to many, and even to slaves, on condition of bearing military service. The nobility was entirely dependent on the Grand Duke, and therefore was his faithful support. For their service, the nobility hoped to receive new lands and peasants. The influence of the nobility grew as the influence of the boyars decreased. The latter is from the second half of the 15th century. greatly weakened in its economic position, unable to adapt to the new socio-economic situation.
The church remained a major feudal lord. In the central regions, monastic land ownership expanded due to grants from princes and boyars, as well as by virtue of wills. In the northeast, monasteries are occupying undeveloped and often black-mown lands. The Grand Dukes, concerned about the impoverishment of the boyar clans, are taking measures to limit the transfer of their lands to monasteries. An attempt is also made to take away their land in order to distribute it to the landowners, but the attempt fails.
Rural feudal-dependent the population was called orphans. In the 14th century, this term was gradually replaced by a new one - peasants (from “Christians”), although “smerdy” is also used along with it. Peasants were divided into 2 categories - black-tax and possessive. Owner's peasants lived on lands that belonged to landowners and patrimonial owners, black tax peasants lived on other lands; this category of land was considered to belong directly to the prince. In the 15th century, the black draft peasants were attached to the land and the enslavement of the landowners took place.
The establishment of feudal dependence presupposes economic coercion of the peasant to work for the feudal lord, who has seized the main means of production - land. With the development of feudalism, measures of political and legal coercion are required. But the peasants still have the right to transfer from one owner to another (small feudal lords suffered from such transfers, and they sought to enslave the peasants). Organized enslavement began with special charters from the princes.
The form of feudal dependence makes it possible to divide privately owned peasants into ranks:
· old residents - peasants who from time immemorial lived on black lands or in private estates, had their own farm and bore the sovereign's tax or duty to the feudal lord;
· new contractors (newcomers) - who lost the opportunity to run their own farms, were forced to take the lands of feudal lords and move to other places (after 5-6 years they became old-timers);
· silversmiths - peasants who owed money at interest or to pay off the debt by work;
· silver debtors - those who gave a debt note (“bonded note”) became enslaved;
· ladles - impoverished peasants who work part-time (up to 50%) feudal land;
· bobyli - impoverished people (farmers and artisans) who owe duties to the feudal lord or dues to the state;
· suffering serfs - serfs who were put on the ground and carried out corvée labor.
· monastery peasants (monastic children, subordinates).
At the lowest stage of the social ladder there were serfs who worked in the courts of princes and feudal lords (keykeepers, tiuns). Their number has decreased noticeably, since some of them were planted on the ground. In addition, Code of Law 1497 limits the sources of servitude. They could become those who married a slave, through self-sale, entering the rural tyunstvo (family members remained free). In the cities, the situation was different - entering the service “according to the city key” did not entail servitude. The Code of Law of 1497 marked the beginning of the general enslavement of the peasants, it established a single transition time - a week before and a week after St. George’s Day (11/26), the peasant had to pay the dues. Code of Law 1550 further limits the sources of servitude: tyunship does not entail servitude ( Art.76).
Factors increasing exploitation were:
·the desire of feudal lords and the state to extract maximum profit from peasant labor;
· the need for funds to pay tribute;
· distribution of state (community) lands to the noble army;
· the routine state of feudal technology.
Serfs. Tatar-Mongol yoke led to a reduction in the number of slaves in Rus'. Captivity as a source of servitude has lost its significance. Slaves were divided into several categories: large, full and reporting slaves. Great serfs are the top serfs, princely and boyar servants, who sometimes held high positions. In the 15th century, some slaves received land for their service to the prince. Full and reported slaves worked on the feudal lord's farm as servants, artisans and cultivators. The economic disadvantage of servile labor is becoming more and more obvious. Therefore, there is a tendency towards a reduction in servitude. According to S.1497, in contrast to the RP, a free person who became a key keeper in the city was no longer considered a slave. The transformation of a feudal-dependent peasant into a serf for running away from his master was also abolished. The number of slaves was also reduced due to their release (according to the will, the monasteries did the same).
During this period, the process of erasing the line between serfs and peasants, which began in Ancient Rus', is developing. Serfs receive property rights, and enslaved peasants increasingly lose them. Among the slaves they varied sufferers, that is, slaves planted on the ground.
Along with the relative reduction in the number of slaves, a new category of people similar to them in position arises - bonded people (bondage - from debt dependence). The debtor had to pay off the interest. Most often, bondage became lifelong.
Urban population. Cities were divided into two parts: the city, that is, a place enclosed by a wall, the fortress and the suburb surrounding the city walls. Accordingly, the population was divided. Representatives lived in the fortress princely power, garrison and servants of the feudal lords. Craftsmen and traders settled in the settlement. The first part of the urban population was free from taxes and government duties, the second belonged to "black" people. The intermediate category consisted of the population of settlements and courtyards that belonged to individual feudal lords and were located within the city limits. These people, connected with the economic interests of the settlement, were free from city taxes and bore duties only in favor of their master. The economic rise in the 15th century, the development of crafts and trade strengthened the position of cities, and, consequently, raised the importance of the townspeople. In the cities, the wealthiest circles of merchants stand out - guests conducting foreign trade. A special category of guests appeared - Surozh residents trading with the Crimea (with Surozh-Sudak). Somewhat lower stood the clothiers - cloth merchants.
1. Big slaves- this is the top of the servitude, princely and boyar servants, who sometimes held high positions. So, until the 15th century. were in charge of the princely treasury officials from slaves. In the 15th century some slaves receive land for their service to the prince.
2. Full and reporting slaves worked on the feudal lord's farm as servants, artisans, and cultivators. The economic disadvantage of servile labor is becoming more and more obvious.
Therefore, there is a tendency towards a relative reduction in servitude. At the same time, self-selling into slaves became widespread. Impoverished peasants were sold as slaves. The price of a slave in the 15th century. ranged from one to three rubles.
The number of slaves was also reduced due to their release. Over time, this becomes quite common. Most often, slaves were released according to a will.
With the reduction in the number of slaves, a new category of people arises - bonded people. Bondage arose from debt dependence. A person who took out a loan (usually 3 - 5 rubles) had to pay off the interest. Most often, bondage became lifelong.
Urban population. Cities were usually divided into two parts: the city itself, i.e. a walled place, a fortress, and a trade and craft settlement surrounding the city walls. Accordingly, the population was divided. In peacetime, mainly representatives of the princely authorities, the garrison and servants of local feudal lords lived in the Detinets fortress. Craftsmen and traders settled in the settlement. The first part of the urban population was free from taxes and government duties, the second belonged to the tax, “black” people. The intermediate category consisted of the population of settlements and courtyards that belonged to one or another feudal lord and were located within the city limits. These people, economically connected with the settlement, were nevertheless free from city taxes and bore duties only in favor of their master.
The economic boom in the 15th century, the development of crafts and trade strengthened the economic position of cities, and therefore raised the importance of the townspeople
The reorganization of the state apparatus began in the 80s of the 15th century, after the annexation of Tver, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Veliky Novgorod to Moscow and the liberation of Rus' from Tatar yoke. Palace-patrimonial system public administration, which developed back in the days feudal fragmentation, became unsuitable in the new conditions.
The power of the king increases significantly, the Boyar Duma is formed, the central authorities management - orders. In the formation of a centralized state royal power relied on the numerous nobility, political significance which was increasingly increasing, and on the merchants. Thus, an estate-representative monarchy is created, which is characterized by the presence of class-representative bodies both in the center ( Zemsky Sobor. Boyar Duma), and locally (laborial and zemstvo bodies).
Despite the deepening and expansion of the process of feudalization, the category of serfs continued to exist in the Moscow state. Slaves stood at the very bottom of the social ladder.
K XV century there were several groups of slaves: “big slaves”, full and reporting slaves.
The first were princely and boyar clerks, key holders, tiuns, and “clerks.” Sometimes “great serfs” received from their masters, as compensation for their service, lands inhabited by peasants, and thus themselves actually became feudal lords.
The difference between full and reporting serfs, which is mentioned by some sources, cannot be accurately established due to a lack of materials. Full serfs most likely meant serfs themselves.
And the reporting category probably included those slaves who lived outside the household of their feudal lord, were relatively independent in their daily activities (although it was believed that all economic activities were carried out by them in the interests of the feudal owner) and only periodically reported to their master.
With the development of commodity relations in the 15th century. the low-productivity work of slaves in the economy of the feudal lords became unprofitable. In view of this, cases of releasing slaves under a will became frequent.
The legislation reflected the change in the attitude of feudal lords towards the exploitation of the labor of slaves. Since the unprofitability of servile labor was well recognized by the feudal lords, during this period there was a pronounced tendency to compress, narrow the scope of servitude as much as possible, and reduce the number of its sources. According to the Code of Law of 1497, the number of sources of servitude was reduced. Captivity in the present period, although it continued to be a source of servility, was to an extremely insignificant extent. On the other hand, according to the Code of Law of 1497, a slave who was captured by the Tatars, but then escaped from this captivity, turned into a free person. “Service according to the key” has lost its independent meaning. People who became housekeepers in the city did not now turn into serfs (although according to the Russian Truth, all housekeepers turned into slaves, unless the contrary was specifically stated). The “key” could lead to servitude only “according to the report.”
Crime has ceased to be a source of servility, as has insolvency. Both the criminal and the insolvent debtor were now given up not “for sale,” but “head to redemption,” i.e. before working off your debt.
The sources of servitude remained birth to serf parents and marriage to serfs.
The reduction in complete servitude was accompanied by an increase in the number of “enslaved people” i.e. people who made a loan and formalized it in a special promissory note called bondage. Bonded people had to work until the debt was paid (including interest on the debt). In fact, only in exceptional cases could an enslaved person obtain the money he needed to pay off his debt, and, consequently, his dependence on the master (creditor) turned into a lifelong dependence.
B XVE century The final regulation of the situation of enslaved people was carried out. The main tendency of legislative measures was to protect against bondage service people. Already the Code of Law of 1550 forbade giving bondage in excess of 15 rubles. And the Decree of 1558 ordered the destruction of service bondage issued to boyar children under the age of fifteen.
Especially many important and interesting decrees on enslaved slavery were contained in the Decree of 1586, which has not come down to us, but which is mentioned in the Decree of 1597. This Decree introduced the mandatory recording of bondages in slaves' serf records, assigned enslaved people the name serfs and established indentured servitude for life.
Formally, the position of slaves remained the same: they did not have any personal or property rights. But in fact, slaves began to acquire a certain degree of legal capacity and legal capacity. Since slaves very often used the land, cultivated it, acquired property with their labor, civil transactions became possible, concluded with slaves even by their own masters. For example, documents have reached us that testify to loans made by slaves from masters, and the slave, like any free person, gave a note to secure the loan. There were also cases when a slave, without being released, received land from his master and owned it hereditarily.
This is how a very definite tendency towards the transformation of slaves into dependent peasants was realized and continued to intensify.
This trend was determined primarily by the transformation of serfs into plowed people. Already in the 15th and 16th centuries. the number of slaves who were imprisoned and lost contact with the noble court began to increase sharply. Even a special term arose to designate this category of serfs - they began to be called backyard serfs, or backyard people. Slaves, planted on the ground and obliged to perform corvée, were called sufferers.
Particularly important for merging the position of serfs and serfs was the reform in the taxation system - the abandonment of the coarse salary "living by a quarter." Under this taxation system, the salary was determined not by the size of the plowed arable land, but by the number of peasant households. And it was profitable for landowners to increase the size of their plowing with the help of serfs, since they did not have to pay taxes for a serf’s yard. The reform of 1679 was aimed at establishing a system of household taxation instead of the “living quarter”. She found a mass of serfs on the landowners' lands, sitting on arable land and owning yards like peasants. By a decree of 1679, these serfs were included in the taxation and, thus, any significant difference between the enslaved peasants, close in their position to the serfs, and the serfs sitting on tax lands, like peasants, disappeared.
By the end of the 17th century. The actual servile position was preserved only among courtyard serfs.
There are many different classifications of Russian serfdom according to their legal status. Any classification of servitude contains exceptions and is open to revision. When classifying serfs according to legal principles, it is most advisable to consider the legal diversity of Moscow serfdom according to R. Helly, since for this period serfdom was heterogeneous. In Muscovy there were eight types of servitude. In the Russian state there were the following types of serfs: 1. hereditary, not in the first generation (ancient); 2. complete, also passed on to descendants until very late times; 3.report, for privileged slaves, in particular, for estate managers; 4. debt served by insolvent debtors and criminals who are unable to pay a fine of 5 rubles per year for an adult man, 2.5 rubles per year for a woman and 2 rubles per year for a child of ten years or more; 5.residential or contractual; 6. voluntary, in which a person who worked for someone from 3 to 6 months could be converted at the request of the employer; 7.bondage, which was servitude under an agreement of limited duration; 8.slaves, whose ranks were formed from prisoners of war. Until the middle of the 17th century, there was still a special urban type of servitude - pawnbroking, that is, turning oneself into a pawn See: Helly R. Decree. cit., pp. 51-52.. The types and numbers of servitude can be traced from the data in the tables (see Appendices 1, 2).
M.F. Vladimirsky-Budanov determines that in the Russian state there was slavery of two kinds: temporary and eternal, or, in other words, incomplete and complete. Slavery of the first kind differed from the second not only in duration, but also in the essence of the rights of the master. In the era of Russian Pravda, temporary servitude was determined by the duration of the obligation from which it arose, but in Moscow law (in a very early era) it received certainty regardless of obligations, namely, it became lifelong; its limit was designated not only by the death of the slave, but also by the death of his master, without passing on to the heirs of either. This type of slavery became special (sui generis) and independent under the guise of service bondage. It arises under a special agreement (bondage) regardless of the loan agreement or personal hire, although the previous signs of a personal mortgage for a debt are still preserved See: Vladimirsky-Budanov M.F. Decree. cit., p.394-395..
Now let's look at the most important groups of slaves that Professor Halley identifies.
Reported servitude was intended mainly for the “servile aristocracy”; The authorities began to examine such cases for a fee and keep records on them much earlier than on other types of slaves, regarding which their position remained neutral for a long time. The law required that competent people invested with trust be serfs - “servants to the core” for reasons of maintaining subordination. This institution seems to have arisen at the end of the 15th century, and the last lengthy document on reported servitude dates back to the end of the 17th century. The decree of Tsar Vasily Shuisky to the Serf Order of May 21, 1609 linked report and servitude in the sense that both of them had to end with the death of the owner in whose name the letter was drawn up. See: Helly R. Decree. cit., p. 54-55..
Voluntary servitude was the most bizarre type of enslavement of people in Muscovy. In the decree of 1555 it is mentioned only indirectly. For most of the 16th century, it was entirely possible to serve a master without formalizing the slave-master relationship. Initially, apparently, it was precisely such people who were called voluntary slaves - they served their masters without being formally converted to slavery. The decree of 1555 concerned the possibility of punishing a voluntary slave in court for the theft of the master's property and deprived the owners of the right to initiate such claims. Voluntary servitude begins to flourish after the decree of 1586, which changed the conditions of indentured servitude and made it less attractive. Between 1586 and 1597 voluntary servitude was probably quite popular, replacing indentured servitude and causing a temporary decline in the number of people willing to become indentured servants See: Helly R. Decree. cit., p.56-57..
The Code of February 1, 1597 on servitude was intended to significantly change the status of voluntary service and contribute to the elimination of this institution. In it, this category, along with the previous designations (“voluntary people”, “serves voluntarily”), receives for the first time in legislation the term “serf” in an essentially unnatural combination - with the definition “voluntary”, “free”. The Code ordered the transfer within a very short term all voluntary slaves, without exception, who had served for at least six months by 1597-1598, were included in the category of enslaved people See: Paneyakh V.M.. Decree. cit., p.119-120..
The next form of servitude in Muscovy was debt, perhaps the most familiar to the vast majority of societies. Debt slavery has often been associated with various forms of punitive slavery, as failure to pay obligations is seen as a form of theft. The Code of Law of 1497 prescribed extinguishment for initially convicted criminals who did not have the means to compensate the victim for the damage they had caused. If the attacker was punished with a whip, then in no case could he be turned into a slave of the plaintiff. On October 1, 1560, the government prohibited creditors from receiving full and memorandum letters on debtors, and gave debtors whose houses were destroyed by fire on June 17, 1560, a five-year deferment of payments. In the next reign, on February 8, 1588, a fifteen-year limitation was established on the time limits for filing claims for the collection of non-repaid loans. These measures create the impression that the “program of the authorities” was aimed at reducing debt servitude See: Helly R. Decree. cit., p.59..
According to the Council Code of 1649, a person unable to pay off obligations recognized by law (debts, fines, payment of claims for theft of property) could be demanded by his creditor for the time necessary to work off the debt: five rubles per year for men, two and a half rubles for women and two rubles for a child over 9 years old. Establishing a ban that seemed to be the norm in other societies, the Russians proclaimed that “minors under ten years of age ... do not work in such summers.” It is not known whether debt servitude was actually used as charity, but given the persistence of indentured servitude, it can be assumed that slave owners were not too eager to use forms of enslavement that gave them fewer advantages. Ibid., pp. 60-61..
Residential servitude was an ancient form of temporary enslavement, known from the Russian Pravda, and the inclusion of some - but by no means all - of the old provisions in the Brief Pravda shows that at the end of the 15th century. this form barely survived; It is best preserved in the laws of Western Rus'. Residential serfdom was revived in the 17th century, when older forms had lost their flexibility. According to the Russian Truth, a residential worker (purchase) was, as in other places, a semi-free person. During his service, he acted in some cases as a representative of his master, and at times on his own behalf. The owner could not accuse his residential slave of theft. The owner could not take away the employee's property, sell the resident to a third party or into servitude (Articles 57 and 58 of the Long Pravda). The legislation on residential servitude was meager, and the few cases that are now known do not fully correspond to it - perhaps the institution itself has changed over time. In legislation, residential servitude appears to be a means of allowing parents to free themselves from their children without selling them into other forms of servitude. The degree of dependence created by residential serfs in Muscovy is unknown; nothing is known about what kind of life free people led after the end of their period of residential servitude. Be that as it may, there is little doubt that their release with money or property created for them significantly better conditions for independent survival than most other slaves who were released without either See: Helly R. Decree. cit., pp.61-63..
Ancient servitude was usually called the condition of those whose parents were serfs. The documents confirming someone's ancient servility in accordance with the Code of Laws of 1550 were spiritual letters or “other records.” In the Council Code of 1649, the list of such documents was expanded and included spiritual, data, dowry, row and right charters. When such serfs were given as part of the dowry, and the wife died without issue, the widower had to return the serfs (with their spouses) to the family of the late wife who gave her the dowry. A very large proportion, perhaps up to half, of all serfs were ancient.
In accordance with the Code of 1649, if the plaintiff in the case of a runaway old slave based his claims on a business bill of sale, and this bill of sale did not establish that the slave and his offspring were purchased down to his grandchildren, such a runaway was transferred to the defendant, who had a letter of servitude for him. One of the unusual features of Moscow servility from the point of view of comparative studies is that it was in many cases hereditary. Whatever the intentions of the government, at the end of the 17th century the ancient serfs continued to exist and were passed from hand to hand.
Complete servility arose in the pre-Moscow period. According to Russian Truth (Article 110), 3 sources of complete servility are known: self-sale for no less than half a hryvnia, in the presence of witnesses, with the payment of a fee to a representative of the authorities; the marriage of a free person to a servant, if before the wedding her owner was not presented with a condition for preserving freedom for her future husband; entry into service or as a housekeeper without a pre-agreed condition of maintaining freedom Kolycheva E.I. Russian Truth and common law about complete slaves of the 15th-16th centuries. / E.I. Kolycheva // Historical notes. - T.85 (1970).. During the Moscow period, complete servility became almost exclusively self-selling. Most documents on complete slavery contain neither information about the seller of the slave nor about the recipient of the money. Some expressly point out that the slave sells himself, and it seems safe to assume that most cases of complete servitude were cases of self-sale. Self-sale is the only source of complete servitude under the 1550 law. A few real standards Cathedral Code 1649 only indentured and ancient serfdom were recognized, but other decrees also mention full serfs. The descendants of full serfs were hereditary ancient serfs Ibid., pp.64-65..
The expression “indentured servitude” is based on the term “bondage,” which means “written contract.” It is not known exactly when indentured servitude arose in the Moscow state. The first mentions of this phenomenon appear towards the end of the 15th century from spiritual members ruling house, in which they order the release of enslaved people. The oldest service bondage came to us from 1510 from the south-eastern border of Muscovy with Ryazan. By 1550, indentured servitude was recognized as an established and legally lower form of servitude in the main code of laws - the Code of Laws. In the Russian state, the predominant forms of slavery were complete and indentured servitude. Bonded servitude differed from full of topics that one could only get there by one’s own free will. Bondages were concluded on the initiative of free people who, taking out a loan for a year (the initial limit), agreed to serve the interest and pay the principal at the end of the year. If they were unable to pay, they became complete slaves. In 1586 the order was changed, presumably because almost no one could pay See: Helly R. Decree. cit., p.66-67..
The very fact of the presence of many types of servitude, differentiated according to legal criteria, indicates that in the Russian state servitude was stratified in connection with the development of socio-economic relations. As the needs of slave owners changed, the duties of slaves towards their masters changed accordingly. This initially significantly expanded the sources of serfdom, but over time served as a reason for the transformation of certain types of serfs into serfs. However, the diversity of Moscow servitude most clearly explains the variety of their activities and the various sources of their formation. If voluntary slaves entered into such a state of their own free will, then bonded slaves became dependent due to non-payment of debt.
G., reflecting evolution of the institution of servitude the first half of the 16th century, distinguishes three categories of hereditary bondage: overweight people, reportable, ancient (“on overweight people, and on reporting and on ancient slaves, do not impose bondages”).
These same types of servitude, named after the way documentation is drawn up for them, are often found in private legal acts: “And because my people are fat, and those on my stomach / will go to the settlement,” “May you bless your wife... gave... your fat people slaves... And you gave your old people to your wife...", "And what... people... complete and enslaved and reportable" However, it should be noted that the term “reported people” is known to us only from documents of the 16th century . In the acts of the 15th century, only plump and ancient people appear. The most detailed definition of “ancient, old people” was given by N.P. Pavlov-Silvansky, who believed that this term was used to designate “both specifically serfs in the rank and file or spiritual, and in general all the descendants of slaves who served in the fortresses of their fathers.” 2. The genealogy of one of these serfs, born in the courtyard of a feudal lord, was preserved for us by a spiritual letter of 1472. A.F. Beleutov, among the ancient people, sets Nikiforos free, obviously still a child: “Ankin’s son Yakushev’s daughter (eri Mikiforts) released him into freedom “His mother Anka and grandfather Yakush appear in the will as complete serfs3. The term “old serfs” “ancient, old people” is used relatively rarely in the 16th century.
During the period when the government, through a series of regulations, persistently pursued a policy of securing slaves by issuing certificates for them and registering them in special books, this term could not enjoy much popularity. It became almost generally accepted that the children and grandchildren of slaves born in the domain of a feudal lord were called according to the type of fortress that was taken over by their parents: full or reported slaves.
The most common and widespread type of slavery at the end of the 15th century. there was complete servility. The first mention of him was preserved in the spiritual 1358 of Grand Duke Ivan Ivanovich (“... whoever my people were, full, bought, literate, gave them freedom...”) and in the agreement of 1375 between Dmitry Donskoy and Mikhail Alexandrovich (“And you can’t take it from complete serfs (tribute - E.K.), on whom the housekeepers kiss”). We first learn about “full people” who are in the service of private individuals from the will of Fedosya Filip’s wife in 14046.
Around the same time, the first information about full charters formalizing the sale of free people into slavery dates back. Vladimir Andreevich, Prince of Serpukhov and Boravsky, wrote in his spiritual 1401/02: “And those beekeepers, or gardeners, or huntsmen, or beavers, or profiteers, delyuev, will not want to live on those lands, in which the land is deprived, go away, but your son, Prince Ivan, doesn’t need it, for whom there will be no full letters...”7 In the will of 1406/07, Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich says: “And my princess, those people that I gave her with my stomach, and she has certificates full of those people...” Consequently, the category of complete serfs arose no later than the 14th century. in connection with the development of office work in the Russian state.
Ancient Rus' knew another term for slavery - “whitewashed servitude”, the legal status of which is discussed in a number of articles of Russian Pravda. Already pre-revolutionary researchers drew attention to the undoubted continuity of whitewashing and complete servitude 9. By the 15th century. the term “white slaves” disappears almost everywhere on the territory of the Moscow State. The situation was different in the neighboring Principality of Lithuania, where one of the sources of valid law was also Russian Pravda. Here the concept of “obel” in the meaning of “slave” has been preserved much longer. In the Lithuanian acts of 1517 we read: “I bought the same for my father’s servants... the obel, forever, and the bill of sale... in myself,” “I sold the parobka... the obel forever.” We observe a similar phenomenon in the neighboring Ryazan principality. True, under the influence of Moscow office work, the term “obel” appears here in combination with the concept “full”. So, according to the right charter of 1483-1490. The Ryazan prince Ivan Vasilyevich was brought to trial Sergeets, who “beat up ... three slaves and took them abroad.” As punishment, Sergeyets is handed over to the injured feudal lord “in the polnitsa obel in those servants.”
In Russian lands that were not part of the XIV-XV centuries. part of the Moscow state, there were other terms that meant complete slaves. Novgorodian Ostafiy Ananyevich in his spiritual 1393 endows the heirs with “turfy servants.” In the Novgorod land there was another synonym for complete serfs. The son of Ostafy Ananyevich, Fyodor Ostafyevich, in 1435 already calls his slaves not “turf servants”, but “vulgar people”: “And my people are vulgar, according to my father’s handwriting and in my own writing, and according to a practical letter, and those people are children mine in half." The will of the Dvinian Martemyan, written no earlier than the first quarter of the 15th century, also mentions “vulgar people who do not go away”: “And I will send my servants who do not go away, I command my wife and my children.” After the annexation of Novgorod to Moscow, both terms - “turfy” and “vulgar” - disappear. Their place is taken by the term “full people”, which became widespread in all lands of the Russian state, as they united around Moscow and the introduction of an official procedure for registering servitude with full letters.
One of the main sources for studying the institution of complete servitude are the letters documenting the sale into slavery. They were first studied as an object of study by S.N. Valk, who, based on an analysis of 58 acts, gave a thorough description of the stages of the evolution of full literacy and revealed the process of its disappearance by the middle of the 16th century.
Until recently, complete charters were known to us only by summary their contents in the notebooks of old fortresses. Now two originals have been discovered, one of which was compiled in Pskov (1511) |7, the other in Suzdal (1494). The rest of the charters have been preserved in the form of abbreviated records of the text of the 16th century. The scribes, who, according to the decree of 1597, registered all the fortresses for slaves in a special book, subjected the full charters to a kind of processing when recording, somewhat reducing the content of the acts, leveling out the features of the charters that arose in territorially remote areas of the country; we, sometimes omitting the names of rumors, customs officers, bailiffs; etc. In total, the notebooks of old fortresses contain 102 complete charters. Due to the fact that two of them are counterfeit, one is devoid of the middle and end, and two are copies. from one original, then more or less substantiated conclusions can be drawn from only 99 acts (including the discovered two originals).
The surviving complete charters chronologically cover almost a century and a half and relate to different regions of the Russian state (see 1).
“Despite all their originality, we can trace the common features inherent in all full, regardless of the time and place of their origin. For all full, a clause on the sale “in full” to the slave owner and his children is required; see, for example: “Bought by Semyon Ivanov Kartmazov's son Trufanka Martyanov became a son for himself and his children in full.” The phrase “bought (repaid) ... in full” is the main feature by which one can distinguish full from other types of letters documenting servitude.
In total, according to the full charters at our disposal, “over 200 people were converted into slaves, of whom women make up only a quarter of the total number. The vast majority are men. Novgorod and Pskov charters, containing a clause about the place of birth of the slave, make it possible to clarify some aspects migration of the Russian population of the late XV-early XVI centuries. Among the people who were compiled in Pskov, the following are mentioned: Pskovians (1515, 1520) - 5 men and 4 women (1510, 1517, 1524, 1526) - 5 men; Kostroma residents (1510) - 2 men; Muscovites (1532, 1533) - 2 men; Rzhevichi (1524) - 6 men and one woman (1533) - 2 men.
In Novgorod, the following are registered as serfs: Novgorodians (from 1488 to 1531) -32 men and 10 women; Muscovites (1490, 1523, 1526, 1527) - 3 men and 2 women; Pereyaslavl residents (1496, 1526) -2 men; Rostovites (1531) - one man; Litvins (1554) -2 men.
Among the Moscow full, only one letter mentions the place of birth of the serf - Starodub. In other charters relating to the center of the Moscow state, such a clause is absent.
As can be seen from the acts, the ranks of full serfs were replenished at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. came primarily at the expense of the local population, at least in the northern regions of the Russian state. This is especially clearly seen in the example of Novgorod, where the overwhelming majority of all those registered as slaves are Novgorodians. There are very few newcomers from other places, with most of them falling in the period after 1520.
We see approximately the same picture in Pskov, where charters formalizing slavery for newcomers from the central regions are found after 1520. The Kostroma residents are an exception, but, as N.A. Rozhkov showed, Kostroma occupied a unique position in the Russian state compared to other central districts, the city was periodically ravaged at the beginning of the 16th century. raids of the Tatars and Nogais30. As a result, part of the population was forced to leave for other cities. The presence of a large number of Novgorod residents in Taizha in Pskov is not surprising, since in connection with the expropriation of land holdings and the persecution of the largest Novgorod boyars their courtyards were destroyed, their servants were disbanded, a large number of slaves found themselves free and scattered to other cities in search of food.
Increased influx in the 20s of the 16th century. immigrants from the central regions of the country to the northern, without a doubt, has some connection with rising prices for agricultural products and, first of all, for bread. A.G. Mankov believes that the 20s - early 30s saw a break in the smooth increase in prices and an immediate increase of 1.5 times31. The reason for this jump has not yet been clarified. Price fluctuations manifested themselves more sharply in the center than in the markets of the North32. This may have caused the outflow of some of the population of the central regions to the northern regions. As a rule, all aliens registered as slaves do not have a family. Basically, the transition to servitude occurred in winter time: December - March. During these 4 months, half of all dated full ones were registered in Moscow, and in Novgorod - about 78%33, and many of them record the sale into slavery of entire families with children34.
Social composition people who fell into slavery is characterized by significant diversity. Among the full charters there are several acts issued to artisans. There are well-known cases when representatives of the feudal class who owned their estates became slaves.
The Code of Law of 1550, in a special article, prohibited the serfdom of boyars' service children, thereby indirectly confirming that such a practice existed in the first half of the 16th century. quite widespread. iC became interested in this problem at one time. B. Veselov€Kiy, who collected rich material indicating the emasculation of a number of representatives of the ruling class. But the conclusion he made cannot be accepted by us. .WITH. B. Veselovsky believed that the main contingent of slaves were boyar children. This is a wrong point of view. The increase in the number of full serfs at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. came primarily at the expense of the lower strata of the population, including the peasantry. This assumption is confirmed by the largest number of complete ones, compiled in February-March (see 2), i.e., in the most hungry time, when reserves from the previous harvest have already been eaten. This indicates the forced nature of the sale into slavery.
As is known, in the center of the Russian state, winter grains sharply prevailed over spring grains, which was not typical for Novgorod. Winter crops were harvested in July and sown in August, until about the 15th. That’s why the second wave of registration for servitude, although less significant than the first, in Moscow’s full population falls in July. The feudal lord at this time was not interested in artisans or warriors, but in people engaged in agriculture, whom he found among the impoverished peasants. Unlike winter, in summer singles, unencumbered by family, went into servitude. When registering in full, they received a slightly larger amount than their counterparts in the winter. However, prices for the local population were always lower than for newcomers. It is possible that some of those registered as slaves had previously owed one or another amount to the slave businessman and therefore were forced to agree to the conditions that the latter offered.
The peasant origin of the slaves is evidenced by a lawsuit at the end of the 15th century. because of the meadow, which was previously mowed by “the Christians Ivashko Lyapa and Ivashko Vagov and Ivashko Poryvka, who lived in a nearby village. By the time of the trial, two peasants had died, “and Ivashko Poryvka... was a servant of Prince Ivan Zhiry.”
The evidence of one journalistic work of the second half of the 15th century is also very interesting. Joseph Volotsky, in his message to the monks of the Pafnutiev Monastery, reproaches Ivan III for breaking his promise: to take care of the monastery peasants, as a result of which “some monastery orphans were sold, some were beaten, and others were enslaved.”
The practice of replenishing the ranks of complete serfdom at the expense of the peasants was also reflected in the legislation of that time. Article 88 of the Tsar’s Code of Law provided for the case of a farmer going into slavery with the provision of benefits to him: “And a peasant from arable land is sold to someone in full in serfdom, and he will come out empty-handed and there will be no elderly person from him...”
Studying the real situation that developed in the first half of the 16th century, R. G. Skrynnikov by analyzing the Novgorod ones. scribe books established that from the end of the 15th century. landowners, extremely interested in the development of lordly plowing, use the labor of complete slaves to process it. This explains large quantity full letters formalizing the dependence of former farmers.
