Social ladder: Tsar, boyars and service nobles
Society was a ladder. At the top was the Tsar. Below him were the boyars, old noble families who owned big estates and sat in the Tsar's council (the Boyar Duma). Next came service nobles (dvoryane). Their job was to fight for the Tsar, and he gave each a piece of land called a pomestie while they served. If they stopped serving, the land could go back. Over the century the Tsars leaned more on service nobles than on boyars.
The clergy (priests and monks) were a separate and respected group, and monasteries owned a lot of land.
Peasants, townspeople and Cossacks
Peasants farmed the land and paid rent and labour to the owner. By the law code of 1497 (Sudebnik), a peasant could leave only for about two weeks around St George's Day (26 November, the old autumn day when the harvest was over) and had to pay a fee. In the late 1500s the government sometimes banned even this, in the so-called forbidden years. This was a big step towards serfdom (peasants bound to land).
Townspeople (posad) were traders and craftsmen who paid taxes. Cossacks were free people living on the southern and eastern edges. Many had left villages. They guarded the border, and the state hired them as riders. Unfree people, called kholops, also existed in the households of the rich.
A state of many peoples
In 1552 the Tsar's army took Kazan and in 1556 Astrakhan. The whole Volga river route was now inside the state. Tatars, Chuvash, Mari, Mordvins, Udmurts and others joined. Bashkir clans accepted the Tsar's rule in the 1550s. From the 1580s Cossack bands and the Tsar's men moved into Siberia and built forts such as Tobolsk (1587).
People paid a tribute called yasak (often furs), served in the army, and in most cases kept their faith, language and local ways. Some were pushed from their lands when Russian settlers arrived, and some resisted. So the state became multi-national, a place where many peoples lived together under one ruler.
Key formulas and definitions
- Ladder: Tsar > boyars > service nobles > townspeople > peasants
- Pomestie = land given for service (not owned for ever)
- Peasant moving right: only around St George's Day; forbidden years closed it
- 1552 Kazan, 1556 Astrakhan, 1580s Siberia: new peoples join
- Yasak = tribute (often furs) paid by non-Russian peoples
Worked examples
1. What was a pomestie, and why did the Tsar use it?
A pomestie was a piece of land given to a noble for as long as he served in the army. The Tsar had many wars but little coin, so land paid for soldiers.
2. Why did tying peasants to land help service nobles?
A noble on service needed workers to grow his food. If peasants could leave freely, a pomestie with no peasants was useless. So nobles wanted the peasants to stay, and the state made leaving harder.
3. How did the state change after 1552 and 1556?
It took in Kazan and Astrakhan, so Tatars, Chuvash, Mari and others now lived inside it. From a mostly Russian state it became a state of many peoples.
Common mistakes
- Thinking that peasants were fully enslaved already in 1500. Their freedom was cut step by step; they could still leave around St George's Day at first.
- Mixing boyars and service nobles. Boyars were old great families; service nobles held land only for service.
- Saying all peoples became Russian. Most kept their own faith, language and customs.
- Calling Cossacks an army of the Tsar only. They began as free settlers and were hired later.