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

There are other names in the literature - Free servants, Attendants, Military people, Warriors, Sovereign's people.

• 1 History
  • 1.1 Service people “in the homeland”
  • 1.2 Service people “according to the device”
  • 1.3 Service people “on call”
  • 1.4 Church servants
  • 1.5 Combat serfs (servants)
• 2 See also
• 3 Notes
• 4 Literature
• 5 Links

Story

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 servicemen of the state who carried out military service personally and indefinitely and made up the local noble cavalry (local army).

They were divided into:

• Moscow service people, so in sources from the end of the 16th century they report about the Ukrainian service of Moscow service people: “And the sovereign ordered all Ukrainian governors in all Ukrainian cities to stand in their place according to the previous list and at the gathering they should be in regiment according to the previous list; and how will the military people come to the sovereign’s Ukraine, and the sovereign ordered to be in the forefront of the Ukrainian regiment.”;
• city ​​service people (city nobles and boyar children, enrolled in military service in cities (Kaluga residents, Vladimir residents, Epifans and others), made up city noble horse hundreds with their heads and other commanders).

Service people in the Russian kingdom were divided into categories:

• servants “for the fatherland” (out of duty), these included Moscow ranks, city nobles and boyar children, who bore personal land duties 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 noble people from among the reitar were allocated to hussars (only in the Novgorod rank) and spearmen;
• servants “by instrument” (selection, selection), these included archers, Cossacks, gunners, zatinshchiki, pishchalniks, and so on, who carried out constant service for a salary in money, in-kind provision of bread, salt, fabrics, and more;
• “conscript” servicemen, temporarily serving in wartime by decree (conscription), these included peasants according to a certain proportion - the so-called “dacha people”;
• church service people;
• combat slaves or servants.

Service people "in the homeland"

The service was mainly passed down from father to son. This category included boyars, okolnichys, stolniks, boyar children, Murzas and service Tatars, Lithuanian courtyards, stellate sturgeons, nobles, Duma clerks, white-domestic Cossacks and others. They were considered a privileged class, owned land (on patrimonial, “quarter” or local rights) and peasants. For their service they received cash or local salaries, titles and other rewards.

Main article: Local system

Service people "according to the instrument"

They were recruited from representatives of the tax-paying classes who were personally free. First of all, these are the Streltsy, who obeyed the Streletsky order. Most of the city Cossacks also obeyed the Streletsky order. This can be explained by the lack of a clear difference in the service of city Cossacks and archers. Both were armed with arquebuses and did not have horses for service. Some of the Cossacks obeyed the Cossack order. There were few such Cossacks with atamans and esauls. Subsequently, the service “on the device” also turned into hereditary. Children of Streltsy became Streltsy, children of Cossacks became Cossacks. A specific group of the population were Streltsy and Cossack children, nephews and elders. This group formed gradually, when all the places in the required number of city Cossacks or Streltsy were already occupied, but their origin obliged these people to serve in the “instrument” people. The state did not consider them a full-fledged army, but they were included in the city estimate lists. Streltsy and Cossack children, nephews and elders were armed with spears and “served on foot.” There were also smaller service units: gunners, zatinshchiki, collar workers, state blacksmiths, interpreters, messengers (messengers), carpenters, bridge builders, notch watchmen and yam hunters. Each of the categories had its own functions, but in general they were considered inferior to the Streltsy or Cossacks. Bridge builders and watchmen are not mentioned in all cities. In Korotoyak and Surgut, among the local service people there were also local executioners. Serving people “according to the instrument” were rarely involved in regimental service. They were engaged in gardening, crafts, trade, and crafts. All service people paid grain taxes into the city treasury in case of a siege. In the 17th century, ordinary military personnel of the regiments of the “new order” were added to the category of service people “according to the instrument” - musketeers, reiters, dragoons, soldiers, as well as plow soldiers and dragoons.

Service people "on call"

In wartime, by decree (conscription) 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 eliminated by the grand ducal government. 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 (pososhny army).

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

Main article: The marching army

Church servants

The third, special and quite numerous category was made up of church ministers (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 the highest hierarchs (metropolitans, archbishops, archimandrites) of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to contemporaries, Patriarch Nikon, “if necessary,” could “put into the field” up to ten thousand people. The Patriarchal Streltsy, for example, guarded the patriarch and were a special intra-church “morality police” that monitored the behavior of the clergy. “The Patriarchal archers constantly go around the city,” wrote Archdeacon of the Antiochian Orthodox Church Pavel of Aleppo, who visited Moscow, “and as soon as they meet a drunken priest and monk, they immediately take him to prison and subject him to every kind 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 witchcraft, and after the church reform of 1666, Old Believers, including Archpriest Avvakum and noblewoman Morozova. “The Patriarch’s archers grabbed the noblewoman by the chain, knocked her to the floor and dragged her away from the chamber down the stairs, counting the wooden steps with her unfortunate head...” The Patriarchal archers walked around Moscow churches and houses and, having seized 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 ruler” carried out guard duty to protect 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 Boris and Gleb Monastery , Zheltovodsk Makariev Monastery, Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery, Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, Solovetsky Monastery, Pafnutievo-Borovsky Monastery, Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery, Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, Trinity-Sergius Lavra and others had powerful artillery, high walls with towers and numerous garrisons of monastic warriors, were able to withstand a long siege and played a key role in the defense of the Russian state. The Holy Trinity Borshchev Monastery, one of the most powerful fortresses of the Belgorod region, was founded in 1615 by the Don Cossacks and Borshchev was built specifically for the atamans and Cossacks, “which of them are tonsured and which of them will be wounded and maimed in that monastery.”

Combat serfs (servants)

The fourth category was fighting slaves (servants) - armed servants who belonged to the category of the unfree population. They existed in the Russian state in the 16th-18th centuries, they formed the armed retinue and personal guard of large and medium-sized landowners and carried out military service in the local army along with nobles and “children of the boyars”. The servants occupied an intermediate social position between the nobility and the peasants. Compared to the completely powerless arable and yard serfs, this stratum enjoyed considerable privileges. Starting from the second half of the 16th century, among the military serfs, ruined “children of the boyars” and “newcomers” rejected during the tsarist establishment increasingly began to appear, for whom joining the boyar retinue, even at the cost of freedom, was the only way to maintain their belonging to the military class. In different years, the number of combat slaves ranged from 15 to 25 thousand people, which amounted to from 30 to 55% of the total number of the entire local army.

In the 19th century, the word was retained in the form “servant” as an address to soldiers or other lower military ranks.

See also

• Serviceman
• Person liable for military service
• Conscript
• Volunteer
• Mercenary
• Warrior
• Soldier
• Hussar
• Militiaman
• City Cossacks
• Serving Tatars
• Boyar children
• Sagittarius
• Cossacks
• Battle serfs

Notes

1. Ill. 92. Warriors in tags and iron caps // Historical description of clothing and weapons of the Russian troops, with drawings, compiled by the highest order: in 30 volumes, in 60 books. / Ed. A. V. Viskovatova.
2. Belyaev I. D. “On guard, village and field service in the Polish Ukraine of the Moscow 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. “Service in Russia” 1450-1725. - M., 1998

Literature

• Brodnikov A. A. About the protective weapons of the service people of Siberia in the 17th century // Bulletin of NSU. Series: History, philology. - 2007. - T. 6, No. 1.
• About the Russian army during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich and after it, before the transformations made by Peter the Great. Historical research of action. member Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities I. Belyaev. Moscow. 1846

Links

instrument service people

Service people Information About

Introduction

As a result of military reforms and the general growth of the armed forces, the composition of the Russian army increased significantly. At the same time, its organization has become more complex. From the middle of the 16th century. the army consisted of service people according to the “fatherland” and service people according to the “device”.

The first group included:

Duma service people - boyars, okolnichy, Duma nobles;

Moscow service people - stewards, solicitors, Moscow nobles, tenants;

city ​​service people - nobles and boyar children elected (“from choice”), courtyards (“according to the courtyard list”) and policemen (city and siege service).

The second group consisted of archers, Cossacks, gunners, zatinshchiki, collar workers, government blacksmiths, carpenters, etc. This group also includes prefabricated and pososh people.

Let's look at each group separately.

Service people in the “fatherland” (noble militia)

The bulk of service people in the “fatherland” were city nobles and boyar children.

According to the charter of 1556, the service of nobles and boyar children began at the age of 15; before that time they were considered “underage.” To enlist the grown-up nobles and children of the boyars, or, as they were called, “noviks,” into the service, boyars and other Duma officials with clerks were periodically sent from Moscow to the cities; sometimes this matter was entrusted to local governors. Arriving in the city, the boyar had to organize elections from local service nobles and children of boyar special salary workers, with the help of which recruitment was carried out. Based on inquiries from those enlisted into the service and instructions from salary earners, the property status and service suitability of each new recruit were established. Salaries showed who could be in the same article with whom based on origin and property status. Then the newcomer was enlisted in the service and was assigned a local and monetary salary.

Salaries were set depending on the origin, property status and service of the newcomer. Local salaries of new workers ranged on average from 100 quarters (150 dessiatines in three fields) to 300 quarters (450 dessiatines) and cash salaries - from 4 to 7 rubles. During the service, the local and monetary salaries of new recruits increased.

The government vigilantly ensured that people from the lower classes did not penetrate among the nobles and children of the boyars. When recruiting new recruits into the service, it was specified that there should be no “priests’ and peasants’ children, and boyar slaves, and monastery servants.” Here we are talking not only about representatives of the tax population (peasants and townspeople), whose preservation the government was especially concerned about for tax purposes, but also about all non-noble people in general. This principle remained in force later. During inspections (debriefs) of nobles and boyar children, non-nobles were removed from service.

The military needs of the country, especially the organization of the defense of the southern border, nevertheless encouraged the government to recruit persons of non-boyar-noble origin, for example, Cossacks, into the ranks of the children of boyars and service people. In general, on the southern outskirts of the state, where military men were very much needed, the government took less into account the “fatherland” of those who were assigned to the estate.

The promotion of new recruits to the service often took place simultaneously with a general review of all service people in the “fatherland” of a given city and county. At these reviews, or “debriefings,” it was necessary to find out, with the help of paymasters, about each person: what kind of horse and weapon and people he would be in the service, what kind of fatherland and service he would be, and to whom “a mile away”, what his local and monetary salary, how much service he can perform, whether he shows up for work on time and leaves it, etc. As a result of the layout and review, a special list was compiled for the city and county, the so-called “tenth”.

In the organization of local militia, tithes were of great importance. The government took into account the nobles and children of the boyars in tens, appointed them to the service and dismissed them from it. All tens were kept in the Discharge Order. Before the new analysis, the Rank noted in tens all the official movements of each person, participation in campaigns and battles, additions to local and monetary salaries, captivity, death, etc. For the Local Order, tens were the basis for allocating estates to service people in accordance with salaries.

The number of serving nobles and boyar children in each city and county ultimately depended on the land area of ​​the county suitable for local distribution. Thus, in Kolomna in 1577 there were about 310 nobles and boyar children, in Pereyaslavl Zalessky in 1590 - 107, in Murom in 1597 - 154. The largest number of serving nobles and boyar children had such large cities as Novgorod (more than 2,000 people in five Pyatina), Pskov and Smolensk (more than 479 people) .

Depending on their birth, property wealth and serviceability, nobles and boyar children were divided into elected, courtyard and policemen.

Elected boyar children constituted a privileged part of the district service people in the “fatherland”. In peacetime, they served alternately in Moscow at the royal court under the name “tenants.” They guarded the royal court, and also carried out various assignments of a military, administrative and other nature. In wartime, the residents were part of the Tsar's regiment or were the Tsar's bodyguards. They were appointed heads of hundreds of local militia.

During the time under study, boyar courtyard children occupied a middle position between elected officials and city officials. Boyar children were replenished from the policemen according to the “yard list”; Electors were appointed from among the boyars' courtyard children. The largest group consisted of city boyar children, who performed both regimental and city service.

The local and monetary salaries of serving nobles and boyar children were very different: they ranged from 20 to 700 quarters and from 4 to 14 rubles. per year. The size of salaries depended primarily on the rank of the serving person. The highest salaries were received by boyar children who served “by choice” (350 – 700 quarters), then “according to the yard list” (350 – 500 quarters) and, finally, by “policemen” - the largest and most varied group in terms of salaries ( 20 -- 500 quarters). There were no uniform local and monetary salaries for nobles and boyar children. Salaries varied geographically and were determined by the government.

Depending on the performance of official duties, local and monetary salaries changed. For proper service, the landowner's salary increased. For faulty service (failure to show up for service, early departure from it, etc.), local and monetary salaries were reduced, and in case of malicious violation of official duties, the estate was taken away from the landowner and transferred to the boyars' homeless children.

In the second half of the 16th century. The military service of nobles and boyar children was divided into city (siege) and regimental. Siege service was carried out either by small-scale residents with salaries of 20 rubles or by those who were unable for health reasons to perform regimental (march) service; in the latter case, part of their estates was taken away from the boyars' children. Siege service was carried out on foot, and it had to be carried out only “from the ground”, from the estates; No salary was paid to those in siege service. For good service, nobles and boyar children were transferred from siege service to regimental service with an increase in local salary and the issuance of a cash salary.

Regimental service was long-distance (march) and short-range (Ukrainian, coastal). In peacetime, regimental service consisted of constant protection of borders, mainly southern ones.

Moscow service people (stewards, solicitors, Moscow nobles and tenants) were in a more privileged position than city people. Thus, Moscow nobles received local salaries from 500 to 1000 quarters and cash from 20 to 100 rubles. In addition, many of them had estates. In peacetime, Moscow servicemen carried out diplomatic, military and administrative assignments, and were governors in cities. In wartime, some of the Moscow ranks were included in the tsar's regiment, while others were sent to other regiments. In the regiments, Moscow ranks occupied command positions of governors, their comrades, heads of hundreds, etc. The total number of Moscow service people was small - no more than 2 - 3 thousand people.

Duma ranks (boyars, okolnichy, Duma nobles) occupied the highest command positions in the army. They were appointed large regimental and simple regimental governors, governors in border cities, etc. The most noble of the boyars were entrusted with the main command of the army.

Boyars and okolnichi received local salaries in the amount of 1000 to 2000 quarters, and Duma nobles from 800 to 1200 quarters; the boyars' cash salaries were 500-1200 rubles; okolnichy - 200 - 400 rubles, Duma nobles 100 - 200 rubles. per year.

There were few Duma ranks: about 15 okolniks, no more than 6 Duma nobles. As for the boyars, the largest number of them - 30 people - was under Boris Godunov; on average, the composition of the boyars ranged from 15 to 25 people.

Called into service, the landowners of one district formed hundreds of assembly points; from the remnants of the district hundreds, mixed hundreds were created; they were all distributed on the shelves. After the end of the service, the nobles and boyar children went home, hundreds broke up and were formed again at the next call for service. Thus, the bends, like the regiments, were only temporary military units of the local militia.

At the head of the hundreds were heads appointed by the government or regimental governors from local district or Moscow nobles. Heads were in military service only during a campaign or war.

All service people according to the “fatherland” were required to appear for service “on horseback, armed and with people,” that is, on horseback, with weapons and with people.

The earliest information about the composition and armament of the nobles and children of the boyars has been preserved from 1556, when a review was carried out in the city of Kashira by the boyars Kurlyatev and Yuryev and the clerk Vyluzga. For analysis, we will take only those nobles and boyar children whose local salaries are shown; There are 222 such people in tenths. In terms of their property status, these persons belonged mainly to the middle-class nobility: they had estates of 100–250 quarters. Everyone, without exception, came to the review on horses, and many even with two horses. The weapons of these persons were as follows: saadak - 41 people, spear - 19, spear - 9, ax - 1 person and without any weapons 152 people. In addition, 49 people had protective weapons (armor).

The review was also attended by 224 noble people-slaves (except for the kosha - baggage trains), including 129 unarmed people. The remaining 95 people had the following weapons: saadak and saber - 15 people, saadak and spear - 5, saadak and spear - 2, saadak - 41, spear - 15, spear - 16 and arquebus - 1 person. Of the 224 people, 45 were in protective equipment, all had horses. Consequently, there were no fewer serfs than the landowners themselves, and they were armed no worse than the landowners.

How the noble cavalry changed at the end of the 16th century is shown by the tenth in Kolomna in 1577. Kolomna nobles and boyar children (283 people) also belonged to the average landowners and came to the review better armed than the Kashirs. Almost all of them had the same weapons: saadak and saber. It is necessary to take into account, however, that the review in Kolomna was accompanied by the analysis and issuance of local and monetary salaries with the simultaneous issuance of salaries. The landowner was ordered in advance to “be” on duty with weapons and a certain number of people.

The imperfection of the weapons of the nobles and boyars' children was explained mainly by the fact that the government did not establish with what kind of weapon the landowner was obliged to show up for service. At the end of the 16th century. the government made some attempts to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the local cavalry. Thus, in 1594, during an inspection of the children of the boyars of the city of Ryazhsk, most of them were ordered to serve with arquebuses.

The attempt to arm all the boyars' children with arquebuses and create a permanent organization of hundreds was caused by the military situation and was temporary. It did not receive further development, and in the 17th century. the weapons of the noble cavalry were as diverse as in the period under study.

In addition to unsatisfactory weapons, the local militia had another major drawback, namely weak military discipline. The government took measures against violations of service, reduced local and cash salaries or completely deprived them of land and cash salaries, etc. However, all these measures turned out to be of little effect. Discontent and escapes from service continued to grow, becoming widespread, and the government, interested in serving people, did not apply punishments consistently and strictly enough. Failure to perform service and weak discipline were the most convincing indicators of the beginning of the disintegration of the local militia. This process reached its highest development at the beginning of the 17th century. and ultimately led to the gradual replacement of the noble cavalry with other branches of the army.

Regarding the total number of local militia at the end of the 16th century. There are indications in the special work of S. M. Seredonin on the armed forces of the Russian state. The author came to the conclusion that the total number of nobles and boyar children at the end of the 16th century. did not exceed 25 thousand people. Seredonin calculated that these landowners, having an average of 200 quarters of estates or estates, had to bring 2 people with them. Thus, the total number of cavalry from nobles and boyar children with their people was approximately 75 thousand people. These author's calculations need clarification. From 200 quarters of land, the landowner had to bring, according to the Code of 1556, not two, but one armed man, since from half of the specified land (100 quarters) he personally served. Consequently, the total number of the noble militia was not 75, but 50 thousand people. Surviving tithes for the second half of the 16th century. show that the nobles and boyars' children very carelessly brought with them armed people who were owed them under the Code of 1556, and therefore the figure of the noble cavalry of 50 thousand people should be considered the maximum.

The management of service people in the “fatherland” was under the jurisdiction of the Rank Order. The functions of the Rank Order to provide serving people in the “fatherland” with lands were continued by the Local Order. Based on local salaries established in the Rank, the Local Order carried out the actual allocation of land (“dacha in salary”).

Having thrown off the centuries-old shackles of the Horde and overcome feudal fragmentation, Rus' by the middle of the sixteenth century turned into a single state with a large population and vast territories. She needed a strong and organized army to protect the borders and develop new lands. This is how service people appeared in Rus' - these are professional warriors and administrators who were in the service of the sovereign, received a salary in lands, food or bread and were exempt from paying taxes.

Categories

There were two main categories of service people.

1. Those who served in their country. The highest military class, recruited from among the Russian nobility. From the name it is clear that the service was passed on to the son from the father. Occupied all leadership positions. For their service, they received land plots for permanent use, fed and grew rich through the work of the peasants on these plots.

2. Those who served according to the device, that is, by choice. The bulk of the army, ordinary warriors and low-level commanders. They were chosen from the masses. As a salary they received land plots for general use and for a time. After leaving service or death, the land was taken by the state. No matter what talents the “instrumental” warriors possessed, no matter what feats they performed, the road to the highest military positions was closed to them.

Servicemen for the Fatherland

The children of boyars and nobles were included in the category of service people in their homeland. They began to serve at the age of 15, before which they were considered minors. Special Moscow officials with assistant clerks were sent to the cities of Rus', where they organized shows of noble youth, who were called “noviki.” The new recruit's suitability for service, his military qualities and financial status were determined. After which the applicant was enrolled in the service, and he was assigned a monetary and local salary.

Based on the results of the reviews, tens were compiled - special lists in which records of all service people were kept. The authorities used these lists to control the number of troops and the amount of salaries. In tens, the movements of the serviceman, his appointment or dismissal, injuries, death, and captivity were noted.

Service people in the country were hierarchically divided into:

Moscow;

Urban.

Duma servants for the fatherland

People from the highest aristocratic environment who occupied a dominant position in the state and army. They were governors, ambassadors, governors in border cities, led orders, troops and all state affairs. The Duma were divided into four ranks:

Boyars. The most powerful people of the state after the Grand Duke and the Patriarch. Boyars had the right to sit in the Boyar Duma, were appointed ambassadors, governors, and members of the Judicial Collegium.

Okolnichy. The second most important rank, especially close to the sovereign. Okolnichy represented foreign ambassadors to the ruler of Rus', they were also involved in all the grand ducal trips, be it a trip to war, prayer or hunting. The okolnichy went ahead of the king, checked the integrity and safety of the roads, found overnight accommodation for the entire retinue, and provided everything necessary.

Duma nobles. They performed a variety of duties: they were appointed governors and managers of Prikazas, participated in the work of commissions of the Boyar Duma, they had military and court duties. With the proper talent and zeal, they moved to a higher rank.

The clerks are Duma. Experienced officials of the Boyar Duma and various Orders. They were responsible for working with the documents of the Duma and the most important Orders. The clerks edited royal and Duma decrees, acted as speakers at Duma meetings, and sometimes rose to the rank of head of the Order.

Instrument officers

According to the instrument, service people constituted the combat core of the Russian troops. They were recruited from free people: the population of cities, bankrupt servicemen in the homeland, and partly from the “Pribornye”, they were exempt from most duties and taxes and for their service they were given a cash salary and small plots of land, on which they worked themselves in their free time from service and wars.

Service people according to the device were divided into:

Kazakov;

Streltsov;

Gunners.

Cossacks

The Cossacks did not immediately become the sovereign's servants. These willful and brave warriors only entered the sphere of influence of Moscow in the second half of the sixteenth century, when the Don Cossacks, for a reward, began to guard the trade route connecting Rus' with Turkey and Crimea. But the Cossack troops quickly became a formidable force in the Russian army. They guarded the southern and eastern borders of the state and actively participated in the development of Siberia.

Cossacks settled separately in cities. Their army was divided into “devices” of 500 Cossacks each, under the leadership of a Cossack head. Additionally, the instruments were divided into hundreds, fifty and tens, they were commanded by centurions, pentecostals and tens. The general management of the Cossacks was in the hands of who appointed and dismissed service people. The same order determined their salaries, punished and judged them, and sent them on campaigns.

Sagittarius

Streltsy can rightfully be called the first regular army in Rus'. Armed with bladed weapons and arquebuses, they were distinguished by high military training, versatility and discipline. The archers were mainly foot warriors, they could fight both independently and as a full-fledged addition to the cavalry, which until then had been the main striking force of the sovereign's troops.

In addition, the streltsy regiments had a clear advantage over the noble cavalry, because they did not need long training, they went on a campaign at the first order of the authorities. In peacetime, archers monitored law and order in cities, guarded palaces, and performed guard duty on city walls and streets. During the war, they took part in sieges of fortresses, repelling attacks on cities and in field battles.

Like the free Cossacks, the archers were divided into orders of 500 warriors, and they, in turn, were divided into hundreds, fifty, and the smallest units - tens. Only serious injuries, old age and wounds could put an end to the service of the archer, otherwise it was for life and was often inherited.

Pushkari

Already in the sixteenth century, statesmen understood the importance of artillery, so special service people appeared - these were gunners. They performed all tasks related to the guns. In peacetime, they kept the guns in order, stood guard next to them, and were responsible for obtaining new guns and making cannonballs and gunpowder.

During the war, they were responsible for all the artillery issues. They transported guns, maintained them, and took part in battles. The gunners were additionally armed with arquebuses. The Pushkar rank also included carpenters, blacksmiths, collar workers and other artisans needed to repair tools and city fortifications.

Other service people in Russia in the 16th century

Conscripted service people. This was the name of the fighters who were recruited from the peasants by special decree of the tsar during difficult wars.

Battle serfs. Military retinue of large aristocrats and middle-class landowners. They were recruited from unfree peasants and rejected or bankrupt newcomers. Combat serfs were an intermediate link between the draft peasantry and the nobles.

Church servants. These were warrior-monks, patriarchal archers. Warriors who took monastic vows and reported directly to the patriarch. They played the role of the Russian Inquisition, monitoring the piety of the clergy and defending the values ​​of the Orthodox faith. In addition, they guarded the highest dignitaries of the church and, if necessary, became a formidable garrison in the defense of fortress monasteries.

The category of service people “according to the instrument” took shape during the military reforms of the mid-16th century. and government colonization of the southern, southeastern and eastern regions of the country. The service people "according to the order" included free elements of the urban population, the black-growing peasantry and partially ruined service people "according to the fatherland." Their number included: archers, gunners and zatinshchiki (the rank and file of the marching and fortress artillery), collars, Cossacks ("policemen", "stern" and "local"). Service people "according to the order" carried out military service, were personally free and exempted from most state taxes and duties (in the districts of colonization they participated in the processing of the so-called "palace tithe"). Service people “by appointment” settled in settlements in cities and were allocated small plots of government land, and their land plots were very similar to the tax plots of townspeople. Those who served “by appointment”, being landowners, but not having peasants or slave workers, worked the land themselves and made a living with their own hands. Some of them had some privileges in trade and craft activities. For their service, service people received a salary from the government “according to the rules”: cash, land, and in the areas of colonization in kind (“grain”). For some of the service people, “according to the rules” of the colonized areas, the way was opened for transition to the lower ranks of the ruling class.

Let us now consider these categories separately.

Sagittarius. Starting from the middle of the 16th century, according to the military reform carried out, the archers began to be designated as a standing army armed with firearms.

Streltsy were first mentioned in chronicles for 1546, in the story about the Kazan campaign. “Elective” streltsy detachments were formed in 1550: “the tsar created... elective streltsy and arquebuses of 3,000 people, and ordered them to live in Vorobyovoy Sloboda.” The 3,000-strong Stremyanny Regiment was formed from the Moscow archers, which was also the Tsar’s Life Guard and guarded the life of Ivan the Terrible “at the stirrup” along with the Sovereign Regiment. To control the Streltsy, the Streletsky Order was created.

The permanent mounted and foot streltsy army was divided into Moscow and city streltsy. The number of archers in the middle of the 16th century. reached 12 thousand soldiers, of which 5 thousand were constantly in Moscow, and the rest served in border cities. Streltsy served in regiments or orders, headed by a head appointed by the Streltsy order, necessarily from the nobility. Streltsy served for life, the service was inherited. The archer's salary was 4 rubles. per year. The archers received not a land salary for their service, but a monetary, sometimes in kind (bread) salary. The Sagittarius lived in special settlements, in which each Sagittarius received a plot of land and a monetary allowance for building a house. Streltsy did not pay taxes and enjoyed benefits and privileges when trading, especially for their goods produced in settlements. They could also own baths.

City Cossacks are Cossack communities that lived in many border cities of Muscovy and allocated their people to the regimental and stanitsa services G. Gubarev. Cossack historical dictionary-reference book, 1970.

The first clear mention of the G. Cossacks dates back to 1502, when the Moscow century. Prince Ivan III ordered Princess Agripina of Ryazan: “Your service people and city Cossacks should all be in my service, and whoever disobeys and goes to the Don as a tyrant in his youth, you, Agripina, would order them to be executed.”

City Cossacks were called by the name of the city in which they and their families lived. Sometimes they provided volunteers for the Streltsy regiments and the “oprichnina” detachments of Grozny, but on the other hand, some guilty Muscovites were sent to the City Cossack regiments for correction.

Management of all G. Cossacks on the territory of the state in the 16th century. was under the jurisdiction of Streletsky Prikaz. The Streletsky Prikaz recruited Cossacks for service and dismissed them from it, paying a monetary salary, moved them in service from one city to another, assigned them to campaigns and was the highest court of justice for the Cossacks. Through the Order, the appointment of commanders over the Cossacks (heads, centurions) took place, who, while serving with the Cossacks, also obeyed the Order. The internal structure of the G. Cossacks was the same as that of the city archers. The Cossacks were in a “device” near their head, which recruited them for service. The Cossack head was directly subordinate to the city governor or siege head. The normal composition of the device was estimated at 500 people. The instruments were divided into hundreds, which were in the “order” of the centurions. The hundreds, in turn, were divided into fifty (led by Pentecostals) and tens (led by tens). The rights and responsibilities of officials corresponded to the functions of the same officials among the archers. For their service, the government paid the Cossacks with cash salaries and land plots, settling them mainly in border towns.

As for the local and forage Cossacks, they were not very different from the city Cossacks - they were also settled in cities, and were designated only by the way they were provided for. Local Cossacks, receiving land plots as their property from the Russian government, carried out military service on a basis almost identical to the soldiers of the local cavalry. Fodder Cossacks served only for a salary, without land plots.

In the first half of the 17th century it was equipped with all service people states that carried out military service personally and indefinitely and constituted the local noble cavalry (local army).

They were divided into:

• Moscow service people, so in sources of the late 16th century they report about the Ukrainian service of Moscow service people: “And the sovereign ordered all Ukrainian governors in all Ukrainian cities to stand in their places according to the previous list and at the gathering they should be in regiment according to the previous list; and how will the military people come to the sovereign’s Ukraine, and the sovereign ordered to be in the forefront of the Ukrainian regiment”.;
• city ​​service people (city nobles and boyar children, enrolled in military service in cities (Kaluga residents, Vladimir residents, Epifans and others), made up city noble horse hundreds with their heads and other commanders).

Most of the city Cossacks also obeyed the Streletsky order. This can be explained by the lack of a clear difference in the service of city Cossacks and archers. Both were armed with arquebuses and did not have horses for service. Some of the Cossacks obeyed the Cossack Order. There were few such Cossacks with atamans and esauls.

Subsequently, the service “on the device” also turned into hereditary. Children of Streltsy became Streltsy, children of Cossacks became Cossacks. A specific group of the population were Streltsy and Cossack children, nephews and elders. This group formed gradually, when all the places in the required number of city Cossacks or Streltsy were already occupied, but their 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 city estimate lists. Streltsy and Cossack children, nephews and elders were armed with spears and “served on foot.”

There were also smaller service units: gunners, zatinshchiki, collar workers, state blacksmiths, interpreters, messengers (messengers), carpenters, bridge builders, notch watchmen and yam hunters. Each of the categories had its own functions, but in general they were considered inferior to the Streltsy or Cossacks. Bridge builders and watchmen are not mentioned in all cities. In Korotoyak and Surgut, among the local service people there were also local executioners.

Serving people “according to the instrument” were rarely involved in regimental service. They were engaged in gardening, crafts, trade, and crafts. All service people paid grain taxes into the city treasury in case of a siege.

In the 17th century, ordinary military personnel of the regiments of the “new order” were added to the category of service people “according to the instrument” - musketeers, reiters, dragoons, soldiers, as well as plow soldiers and dragoons.

Service people "on call"

In wartime, by decree (conscription) 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”.

Church servants

The fourth, special and quite numerous category, consisted of church ministers(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 the highest hierarchs (metropolitans, archbishops, archimandrites) of the Russian Orthodox Church.

According to contemporaries, Patriarch Nikon, “if necessary,” could “put into the field” up to ten thousand people. The Patriarchal Streltsy, for example, guarded the patriarch and were a special intra-church “morality police” that monitored the behavior of the clergy. " Patriarchal archers constantly go around the city, - wrote Archdeacon of the Antiochian Orthodox Church Pavel of Aleppo, who visited Moscow, - and as soon as they meet a drunken priest and monk, they immediately take him to prison and subject him to every kind 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 witchcraft, and after the church reform of 1666, Old Believers, including Archpriest Avvakum and noblewoman Morozova. " The patriarch's archers grabbed the noblewoman by the chain, knocked her to the floor and dragged her away from the chamber down the stairs, counting the wooden steps with her unfortunate head..." The Patriarchal archers walked around Moscow churches and houses and, having seized 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 beginning of the 17th centuries, the “people of the Ryazan ruler” carried out guard duty to protect 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, Tolga Monastery Rostov, Boris and Glebsky Monastery , Zheltovodsk Makariev Monastery, Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery, Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, Solovetsky Monastery, Pafnutyevo-Borovsky Monastery, Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, Trinity-Sergius Lavra and others had powerful artillery, high walls with towers and numerous garrisons of monastic warriors, were able to withstand a long siege and played a key role in the defense of the Russian state. Holy Trinity Borshchev Monastery, one of the most powerful fortresses of the Belgorod region, 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 maimed in that monastery».

Combat serfs (servants)

The fifth category was fighting slaves (servants) - armed servants who belonged to the category of the unfree population. They existed in the Russian state in the 16th-18th centuries, they formed the armed retinue and personal guard of large and medium-sized landowners and carried out military service in the local army along with nobles and “children of the boyars”.

The servants occupied an intermediate social position between the nobility and the peasants. Compared to the completely powerless arable and yard serfs, this stratum enjoyed considerable privileges. Starting from the second half of the 16th century, among the military serfs, ruined “children of the boyars” and “newcomers” rejected during the tsarist establishment increasingly began to appear, for whom joining the boyar retinue, even at the cost of freedom, was the only way to maintain their belonging to the military class. In different years, the number of combat serfs ranged from 15 to 25 thousand people, which amounted to from 30 to 55% of the total number of the entire local army.

See also

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Notes

Literature

• Brodnikov A. A.// Bulletin of NSU. Series: History, philology. - 2007. - T. 6, No. 1.
• About the Russian army during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich and after it, before the transformations made by Peter the Great. Historical research of action. member Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities I. Belyaev. Moscow. 1846

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Excerpt characterizing Service People

In the unfinished house on Varvarka, below which there was a drinking house, drunken screams and songs were heard. About ten factory workers were sitting on benches near tables in a small dirty room. All of them, drunk, sweaty, with dull eyes, straining and opening their mouths wide, sang some kind of song. They sang separately, with difficulty, with effort, obviously not because they wanted to sing, but only to prove that they were drunk and partying. One of them, a tall, blond fellow in a clear blue scent, stood above them. His face with a thin, straight nose would be beautiful if it were not for his thin, pursed, constantly moving lips and dull, frowning, motionless eyes. He stood over those who were singing, and, apparently imagining something, solemnly and angularly waved his white hand rolled up to the elbow over their heads, the dirty fingers of which he unnaturally tried to spread out. The sleeve of his tunic was constantly falling down, and the fellow diligently rolled it up again with his left hand, as if there was something particularly important in the fact that this white, sinewy, waving arm was certainly bare. In the middle of the song, screams of fighting and blows were heard in the hallway and on the porch. The tall fellow waved his hand.
- Sabbath! – he shouted imperiously. - Fight, guys! - And he, without ceasing to roll up his sleeve, went out onto the porch.
The factory workers followed him. The factory workers, who were drinking in the tavern that morning under the leadership of a tall fellow, brought skins from the factory to the kisser, and for this they were given wine. The blacksmiths from the neighboring cousins, hearing the noise in the tavern and believing that the tavern was broken, wanted to force their way into it. A fight broke out on the porch.
The kisser was fighting with the blacksmith at the door, and while the factory workers were coming out, the blacksmith broke away from the kisser and fell face down on the pavement.
Another blacksmith was rushing through the door, leaning on the kisser with his chest.
The fellow with his sleeve rolled up hit the blacksmith in the face as he rushed through the door and shouted wildly:
- Guys! They're beating our people!
At this time, the first blacksmith rose from the ground and, scratching the blood on his broken face, shouted in a crying voice:
- Guard! Killed!.. Killed a man! Brothers!..
- Oh, fathers, they killed him to death, they killed a man! - the woman squealed as she came out of the neighboring gate. A crowd of people gathered around the bloody blacksmith.
“It’s not enough that you robbed people, took off their shirts,” said someone’s voice, turning to the kisser, “why did you kill a person?” Robber!
The tall fellow, standing on the porch, looked with dull eyes first at the kisser, then at the blacksmiths, as if wondering who he should fight with now.
- Murderer! – he suddenly shouted at the kisser. - Knit it, guys!
- Why, I tied up one such and such! - the kisser shouted, waving off the people who attacked him, and, tearing off his hat, he threw it on the ground. As if this action had some mysteriously threatening significance, the factory workers who surrounded the kisser stopped in indecision.
“Brother, I know the order very well.” I'll get to the private part. Do you think I won't make it? Nowadays no one is ordered to commit robbery! – the kisser shouted, raising his hat.
- And let's go, look! And let's go... look! - the kisser and the tall fellow repeated one after another, and both moved forward along the street together. The bloody blacksmith walked next to them. Factory workers and strangers followed them, talking and shouting.
At the corner of Maroseyka, opposite a large house with locked shutters, on which was a sign of a shoemaker, stood with sad faces about twenty shoemakers, thin, exhausted people in dressing gowns and tattered tunics.
- He will treat the people properly! - said a thin craftsman with a scraggly beard and frowning eyebrows. - Well, he sucked our blood - and that’s it. He drove us, drove us - all week. And now he brought it to the last end, and left.
Seeing the people and the bloody man, the worker who had been speaking fell silent, and all the shoemakers, with hasty curiosity, joined the moving crowd.
-Where are the people going?
- It is known where, he goes to the authorities.
- Well, did our power really not take over?
- And you thought how! Look what the people are saying.
Questions and answers were heard. The kisser, taking advantage of the increase in the crowd, fell behind the people and returned to his tavern.
The tall fellow, not noticing the disappearance of his enemy the kisser, waving his bare arm, did not stop talking, thereby drawing everyone’s attention to himself. The people mostly pressed on him, expecting from him to get a solution to all the questions that occupied them.
- Show him order, show him the law, that’s what the authorities are in charge of! Is that what I say, Orthodox? - said the tall fellow, smiling slightly.
– He thinks, and there are no authorities? Is it possible without bosses? Otherwise, you never know how to rob them.
- What nonsense to say! - responded in the crowd. - Well, then they’ll abandon Moscow! They told you to laugh, but you believed it. You never know how many of our troops are coming. So they let him in! That's what the authorities do. “Listen to what the people are saying,” they said, pointing to the tall fellow.
Near the wall of China City, another small group of people surrounded a man in a frieze overcoat holding a paper in his hands.
- The decree, the decree is being read! The decree is being read! - was heard in the crowd, and people rushed to the reader.
A man in a frieze overcoat was reading a poster dated August 31st. When the crowd surrounded him, he seemed embarrassed, but in response to the demand of the tall fellow who had pushed ahead of him, with a slight trembling in his voice, he began to read the poster from the beginning.
“Tomorrow I’m going early to the Most Serene Prince,” he read (the brightening one! - the tall fellow solemnly repeated, smiling with his mouth and frowning his eyebrows), “to talk with him, act and help the troops exterminate the villains; We too will become the spirit of them...” the reader continued and stopped (“Saw?” the little one shouted victoriously. “He will untie you all the distance...”) ... - eradicate and send these guests to hell; I’ll come back for lunch, and we’ll get down to business, we’ll do it, we’ll finish it, and we’ll get rid of the villains.”
The last words were read by the reader in complete silence. The tall fellow sadly lowered his head. It was obvious that no one understood these last words. In particular, the words: “I will come tomorrow for lunch,” apparently even upset both the reader and the listeners. The understanding of the people was in a high mood, and this was too simple and unnecessary understandable; this was the very thing that each of them could say and that therefore a decree emanating from a higher power could not speak.
Everyone stood in dejected silence. The tall fellow moved his lips and staggered.
“I should ask him!.. That’s what he is?.. Well, he asked!.. But then... He’ll point out...” was suddenly heard in the back rows of the crowd, and everyone’s attention turned to the droshky of the police chief, accompanied by two mounted dragoons.
The police chief, who had gone that morning by order of the count to burn the barges and, on the occasion of this order, had rescued a large sum of money that was in his pocket at that moment, seeing a crowd of people moving towards him, ordered the coachman to stop.
- What kind of people? - he shouted at the people, scattered and timidly approaching the droshky. - What kind of people? Am I asking you? - repeated the police chief, who did not receive an answer.
“They, your honor,” said the clerk in the frieze overcoat, “they, your highness, at the announcement of the most illustrious count, without sparing their lives, wanted to serve, and not like some kind of riot, as said from the most illustrious count...
“The Count has not left, he is here, and there will be orders about you,” said the police chief. - Let's go! - he said to the coachman. The crowd stopped, crowding around those who had heard what the authorities said, and looking at the droshky driving away.
At that time, the police chief looked around in fear and said something to the coachman, and his horses went faster.
- Cheating, guys! Lead to it yourself! - shouted the voice of a tall guy. - Don't let me go, guys! Let him submit the report! Hold it! - voices shouted, and people ran after the droshky.
The crowd behind the police chief, talking noisily, headed to the Lubyanka.
- Well, the gentlemen and the merchants have left, and that’s why we are lost? Well, we are dogs, or what! – was heard more often in the crowd.

On the evening of September 1, after his meeting with Kutuzov, Count Rastopchin, upset and offended by the fact that he was not invited to the military council, that Kutuzov did not pay any attention to his proposal to take part in the defense of the capital, and surprised by the new look that opened up to him in the camp , in which the question of the calm of the capital and its patriotic mood turned out to be not only secondary, but completely unnecessary and insignificant - upset, offended and surprised by all this, Count Rostopchin returned to Moscow. After dinner, the count, without undressing, lay down on the sofa and at one o'clock was awakened by a courier who brought him a letter from Kutuzov. The letter said that since the troops were retreating to the Ryazan road outside Moscow, would the count like to send police officials to conduct troops through the city. This news was not news to Rostopchin. Not only from yesterday’s meeting with Kutuzov on Poklonnaya Hill, but also from the Battle of Borodino itself, when all the generals who came to Moscow unanimously said that another battle could not be fought, and when, with the count’s permission, every night government property and residents were already removing up to half let's leave - Count Rastopchin knew that Moscow would be abandoned; but nevertheless, this news, communicated in the form of a simple note with an order from Kutuzov and received at night, during his first sleep, surprised and irritated the count.