Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich 9788376560656, 9788376560649

Table of contents :
Contents
About Benjamin Uroff
From Marshall Poe
Marshall Poe Kotoshikhin’s World
{33} Chapter 2 On the tsar’s officials: on the boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest m
Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich by Grigorii Karpovich Kotoshikhin
Appendix 1. Weights, Measures, and Currency in Kotoshikhin
Index

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Grigorii Karpovich Kotoshikhin Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich

Grigorii Karpovich Kotoshikhin

Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich Translated by Benjamin Phillip Uroff Edited by Marshall Poe Managing Editor: Katarzyna Ślusarska

Published by De Gruyter Open Ltd, Warsaw/Berlin

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license, which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.

Copyright © 2014 Grigorii Karpovich Kotoshikhin ISBN: 978-83-7656-064-9 e-ISBN: 978-83-7656-065-6

Managing Editor: Katarzyna Ślusarska www.degruyteropen.com Cover illustration: © A. Olearius, The Travels of Olearius in Seventeenth-Century Russia, trans. and ed. Samuel. H. Baron (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1967)

Contents About Benjamin Uroff by Ralph T. Fisher Jr. From Marshall Poe

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Kotoshikhin’s World by Marshall Poe

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Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich

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Appendix 1: Weights, Measures, and Currency by Marshall Poe Appendix 2: Glossary of Russian Terms by Marshall Poe Index

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

This book is dedicated to the memory of Benjamin Philip Uroff

About Benjamin Uroff In Ben’s first college course in Russian history, at Yale around 1952, I had the good luck to be his teacher. He was exceptionally promising. He had learned Russian at home and had read broadly in both Russian and English. As he went on to finish Yale and then to earn his doctorate at Columbia, he accomplished his copiously annotated translation of Kotoshikhin’s work on Russia in the reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich. At that point and later several professional historians of Russia said they considered Ben’s dissertation to be virtually ready to publish. But Ben, ever meticulous, insisted that there were “a few little things” he wanted to improve before he submitted it for publication. Sadly, those “few things” were still blocking the way right up until his retirement and unexpectedly sudden death. Meanwhile, Ben became as knowledgeable about Russian history as anyone else I have encountered in my half-century in the field. But this had drawbacks. He kept on learning about other works he wanted to read before he published. As a keen judge of other people’s writings, he could see well how he might improve his own. Ben’s many students, from the 1960s on, were largely unaware of his frustrations. He was an inspiring teacher with a delightful sense of humor. These qualities were appreciated by his professional colleagues, especially those who had managed to get past the shyness and self-doubts that plagued Ben increasingly during his later years. Many of those colleagues, including visiting scholars, knew of Ben’s part in launching our Summer Research Lab in the 1970s. To them and to later researchers he was almost magical in his ability to guide them to historical sources best suited to their needs and to discuss with them disputed points of interpretation. Visitors sometimes wondered aloud how it was that they had never heard of “this fellow Uroff” who seemed to be already thoroughly familiar with most of their publications. Ben’s low profile in the academic world was of his own design. His two-volume dissertation, submitted routinely of course to University Microfilms, remained in typescript, unknown except to those who sought out that source. How might his life have changed if he had allowed his friends to sneak the work off to a press? Ben had my admiration and affection. Happily for our field (and for Ben’s family!), Ben’s fellow-specialist Marshall Poe has been willing to devote himself to the labor of updating Ben’s study and to publishing it. I applaud him most warmly! Ralph T. Fisher Jr. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

From Marshall Poe In the fall of 1999, I decided that it was high time that the field of Russian studies had a good published English translation of Gregorii Kotoshikhin’s remarkable Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich. There is no better introduction to Muscovite Russia than this book. I knew that Ben Uroff had translated the text in his 1970 Columbia University dissertation. More accurately, everyone who worked in the field knew that Ben had translated it because everyone in the field had used it. Never had there been a more popular dissertation. I had a well-worn copy myself. Ben’s dissertation was and remains a remarkable piece of scholarship. To call it simply an “annotated translation” is to freight the word “annotated” with a weight it cannot bear. The dissertation is a sort of encyclopedia of Old Russia with Kotoshikhin providing the main entries and Ben filling in all the details. And I mean all the details. The “annotation” contains close to 1,000 long, discursive, reference-heavy footnotes taking up over 300 pages. If you want to know about something in Muscovy, Ben’s dissertation is a good place to start. I wondered why Ben hadn’t published his thesis. I had never met him, so I had never had the opportunity to inquire. I asked around and discovered that Ben was a bit of a mystery. A few people had met him at Illinois, where Ben taught for many years, either during graduate school or while attending one of the university’s summer workshops. But even they couldn’t say much about him. I pursued the case no further and set about drafting my own translation. I didn’t get far. I translated a few pages and then decided to check them against “Uroff.” This was discouraging, because “Uroff” was better every time. I gave up and decided to write Ben to ask if he’d like help preparing the book for publication. Yes, he responded, he’d love to publish the book. It seemed as if he’d been waiting for someone to ask. And so we started our partnership. Ben seemed to enjoy the entire process—preparing and revising the manuscript, drafting the publication prospectus, and working toward eventual publication of the work. Alas, Ben passed away in October, 2005, before he could see the book in print. This is sad, there is no other word for it. But I take solace in the fact that in his last years he knew that his great work would finally be published. I also think he would be pleased with the result. The translation is almost entirely his, just as it was found in his dissertation. I have made certain alterations, primarily to bring Ben’s words into line with current scholarship. Since 1970 we have learned much about Muscovy. We have also learned a lot about Kotoshikhin and his text, thanks largely to the efforts of the late Ann E. Pennington. Her O Rossii v tsarstvovanie Alekseia Mikhailovicha. Text and Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980) provides what is now and likely will forever be the definitive edition of Kotoshikhin’s work from a linguistic point of view. Ben did not have access to this book, though he had and used Pennington’s dissertation “The Language of Kotoshikhin” (Oxford University, 1965). If Ben had had Pennington’s edition, he surely would have used it. He told me as much. So I felt no hesitation in using it to fine-tune Ben’s rendering.



From Marshall Poe 

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This book is an edition of Ben’s translation, first published in his dissertation “Grigorii Karpovich Kotoshikhin, On Russia in the Reign of Alexis Mikhailovich: An Annotated Translation” (Columbia University, 1970). It is intended to make an English text available to students and non-specialist scholars who might not otherwise have access to Kotoshikhin’s work. Muscovite-era experts will of course want to use Pennington’s Russian edition, and they will know that there is an extensive literature devoted to Kotoshikhin, much of which can be found simply by searching scholarly databases such as JSTOR or Project Muse. Because this book is meant for nonspecialists, I made a number of changes to Ben’s original work. I characterize them below. 1. Commentary Ben’s commentary on Kotoshikhin is a scholarly tour de force. Though it remains very valuable today, only area experts are likely to need or use it. Given this consideration and the fact that Ben’s dissertation is readily available online via ProQuest Dissertations, I have—with some regret—omitted his fine notes from the present edition. The reader will find footnotes in Kotoshikhin’s text below. These, however, are Kotoshikhin’s own marginal notes, that is, they are found in the original manuscript. 2. Syntax Ben tried to be true to Kotoshikhin’s sentence structure, which is often difficult to render in English. He succeeded, but it must be said that the results can be tough going. This is no fault of Ben’s. Kotoshikhin was not used to writing long descriptive sentences—exactly the kind the Swedes wanted him to write—so he sometimes got a bit tangled in his own words. Ben restored as much order as there was to restore, and thereby offered the reader a good impression of what it is like to read Kotoshikhin in the original. It would be graceless to ask for more, and would probably do violence to the meaning of the text. In a very few places I have altered the syntax to give a clearer indication of Kotoshikhin’s intent, or what I believe to have been Kotoshikhin’s intent. 3. Lexicon Ben was extraordinarily careful in selecting English words and phrases that telegraphically related the meanings of Kotoshikhin’s words and phrases. Yet he knew that Kotoshikhin used some terms that either have no good equivalents in English or that had confounded modern scholars. How should one translate a word like dvorianin? Dvor means (inter alia) “court.” So is “courtier” the right term? No, not really, as dvoriane usually didn’t serve at court. Following the standard practice of the field, Ben opted not to translate difficult terms at all. So dvorianin appeared as “dvorianin” in his dissertation. This has put me in something of bind. On the one hand, Ben’s expert-focused strategy won’t do as this book is intended for general readers, none of whom will have any interest in trying to figure out what the word “dvorianin”

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 From Marshall Poe

really means. On the other hand, it would be wrong to suggest that “nobleman” (the term I use) captures all—or even most—of the nuances of “dvorianin.” The compromise I have employed is this: I have translated Ben’s untranslated words and placed the Russian terms in square brackets next to them. So one reads “nobleman [dvorianin].” I’m mindful of the fact that this practice may be a bit distracting, but serving two masters—in this case, general readers and scholars—is never easy. A glossary of all the terms Ben left untranslated is found in Appendix 1 below. The single exception to this rule is the court rank “okol’nichii,” the rank immediately below boyar in the royal council. Most scholars agree that there is no good English equivalent for this term, so I have left it untranslated throughout. 4. Weights, Measures, and Currency Ben did not translate the weights, measures, and currencies found in Kotoshikhin. Rather, he left the original terms and explained each one as it appeared in the text. I, too, have left these terms untranslated, though I have provided an explanation of them in Appendix 2 below. 5. Pagination Ben’s used A. Barsukov, ed., O Rossii v tsarstvovanie Alekseia Mikhailovicha (St. Petersburg: Tip. Glavnago upravleniia udelov, 1906) as the basis for his translation. He did not provide any indication of the pagination found in the original manuscript, which I do not believe he ever saw. Pennington, however, used the original manuscript (found in the library of Uppsala University) as the basis for her edition and provided manuscript page numbers. Using Pennington’s edition, I have taken the liberty of inserting the folio numbers in the appropriate places in Ben’s translation. Thus “{106v}” indicates the beginning of folio 106 verso in the manuscript as described by Pennington. The placement of the folio numbers is only approximate, but should be of some use to experts looking up this or that word, sentence, or passage in Pennington. 6. Table of Contents Ben followed the edition he was translating and placed Kotoshikhin’s table of contents at the back of his rendering. This also reflects the manuscript, where the table falls on folios 234 to 249. Following the English custom, I have moved the contents to the front of the book. In closing, I would like to thank Charles Halperin, Daniel Kaiser, Edward Keenan and the members of H-EarlySlavic for their help in the preparation of this book. Marshall Poe Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts

Marshall Poe

Kotoshikhin’s World1 The first thing any reader of Gregorii Kotoshikhin’s Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich must understand is that it is not a Russian book. This may seem an odd thing to say. It was, after all, written by a Russian in the Russian language. But that does not make it a Russian book. You may search the short catalogue of Muscovite letters as much as you like, and you will never find anything remotely similar to Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich. The reason is simple: Muscovites did not write books like the one Kotoshikhin wrote. They wrote longish tracts of various kinds (though admittedly very, very few of them), just not ones like Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich. Indeed, had Kotoshikhin attempted to write a treatise like his Russia while an undersecretary (pod’iachii) in the Ambassadorial Chancellery he would have been accused of being a Polish or Swedish agent—which, incidentally, he later became. The results of such a charge were sure to be quite unpleasant. The authorities would have summarily thrown Kotoshikhin into a dungeon, tortured him mercilessly until he implicated others (guilty or not) in his putative misdeeds, and eventually executed him in some theatrical and gory fashion. The highly suspicious rulers of Muscovy did not play around with treason. Kotoshikhin knew this well. In a diplomatic report dated April 19, 1660, he had mistakenly omitted the word “master” [gosudar’] from the tsar’s very long and complicated title. An innocent mistake made by a trusted clerk who had by then served the tsar for over 15 years. He was beaten with rods. So naturally it never occurred to Kotoshikhin or any other Muscovite to write a tell-all description of Russian politics, at least while they were in Russia. Happily for us (though unhappily for him, as we will soon see), Kotoshikhin elected to jump the border and head for Poland in the Fall of 1664. Perhaps he was tired of being beaten with rods for trifling clerical errors. More likely, he was afraid of being found out as a  Swedish spy, which he was. As an ambassadorial clerk, Kotoshikhin attended summits in which the Muscovites, Swedes, and Polish-Lithuanians attempted to settle their long-standing differences, or at least talk about settling them. He had thereby seen Vilna, Dorpat, Revel, and even Stockholm. These were cities quite unlike any in Russia proper. They no doubt impressed Kotoshikhin mightily. He had also had the opportunity to mix with some heady company: Swedish dukes, Polish counts, Lithuanian lords, men often of great refinement and largess. These contacts, too, apparently had an effect on the Russian clerk. And of course he was a young

1 The following account is based on A. I. Markevich, Grigorii Karpovich Kotoshikhin i ego sochinenie o Moskovskom gosudarstve v polovine XVII veka (Odessa: Tip. shtaba okurga, 1895) and Ann E. Pennington, O Rossii v tsarstvovanie Alekseia Mikhailovicha. Text and Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980), 1-11. © 2014 Marshall Poe This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.

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 Kotoshikhin’s World

man, and young men are prone to adventurous, dangerous and all-too-often foolish undertakings. Just when the idea of defection emerged in Kotoshikhin’s mind we do not know. We do know, however, that by the Summer of 1663 he was selling diplomatic information to a Swedish diplomat named Adolf Ebers. We also know—or at least strongly suspect—that Kotoshikhin had run afoul of a couple of highly ranked Russian courtiers. One, the council nobleman (dumnyi dvorianin) Prokofii K. Elizarov, had accused Kotoshikhin’s father of embezzling funds. Apparently unable to collect the debt, Elizarov seized Kotoshikhin’s house and evicted his wife. The other, the boyar Prince Iurii A. Dolgorukii, attempted to pressure Kotoshikhin into denouncing his powerful rival, the boyar Prince Ia. K. Cherkasskii. He refused. Kotoshikihin was in a bad spot. He was in cahoots with Ebers, in debt to Elizarov, and in trouble with Dolgorukii. And then there were those rods. He fled. This move was neither novel nor very risky. Russians, Poles, and Lithuanians had been jumping ship for centuries. It was sort of a tradition to leave the service of one potentate when things got too hot and enter the service of another. Many Russian noblemen, for example, could trace their genealogical lines to Poland and Lithuania. Generally speaking, the migrants were received with open arms so long as they had something to offer. Kotoshikhin certainly did, namely, detailed intelligence on Muscovite military, diplomatic, and political affairs. The Polish King, Jan Casimir, was only too happy to grant Kotoshikhin a royal salary and set him up in Vilna. By all appearances, though, it wasn’t a good match. Kotoshikhin remained in Poland long enough to adopt a Polish name (Jan Selickij), but soon decamped. He first traveled to Silesia, then to Prussia, and finally to Lübeck. Why he left Poland when he did, and why he took this particular journey, remains a mystery. By October 1665, Kotoshikhin had made his way to the Baltic city of Narva, then under the Swedes. In an embarrassing petition, he claimed that he had really wanted to serve the Swedish crown all along, but had been held against his will by the dastardly Poles. Now that he was free, his greatest wish was to work for the Swedes. Not surprisingly, he didn’t use his Polish pseudonym in the petition. While Kotoshikhin awaited a reply, he came to the attention of the Russian authorities across the border. They demanded his return. He either went into hiding or was protected by his Swedish handlers, who claimed they did not know where he was. In January 1666, the Swedes formally accepted Kotoshikhin into service and granted him a stipend. The next month he was in Stockholm itself. There was then some question as to what he might do for his new masters. Kotoshikhin himself suggested that he teach Russian to Swedish diplomats. Evidently, the Swedes had something else in mind, or more probably one Swede—Chancellor Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie—had something else in mind. There are at least three good reasons to suspect that De la Gardie was behind Kotoshikhin’s eventual (and, as it turned out, final) commission. First, of course, as chancellor he needed to know as much as possible about the enigmatic Muscovites in order to conduct a reasonable foreign policy with them. Second, he had a Russian connection. His father,



Kotoshikhin’s World 

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Jacob De la Gardie had commanded a force that fought first with the Muscovites and then against them during the Russian Time of Troubles at the beginning of the seventeenth century. And third, he liked books, particularly what we would call history and ethnography. He established a professorship in history at the University of Uppsala and sent scholars on ethnological expeditions to Lapland. For De la Gardie, Kotoshikhin represented a terrific opportunity to pursue all three of these interests— diplomatic, personal, and scholarly. It was not an opportunity he would likely miss. If all this is sound, then Swedish officials asked Kotoshikhin to write a description of Russia, one that focused on the affairs of the Russian government. Though he was by Muscovite standards a remarkably worldly man, this request must have baffled Kotoshikhin. In his world, people, as we’ve said, just didn’t write such books. Having then spend several years in parts-western, he probably knew they existed. But he certainly had no idea how to write one himself. What topics should be included? How deep should one go? How should the material be arranged? Kotoshikhin could answer none of these questions himself, and the Swedes knew it. So they gave him an assistant, an official named Olaf Barckhusen who both spoke Russian and knew all about the kind of book the chancellor desired. And what kind of book was that? At the time Kotoshikhin was writing it was called a “state-description” or Staatsbeschreibung in the German-speaking lands where the genre was most evolved. In a letter of 1668, this is precisely what Barckhusen calls Kotoshikhin’s work, a “Muscovite state-description” (Muscowitiske Staatsbeskrifningens). The practice of Staatsbeschreibung evolved in the sixteenth century, driven by the evolution of the European diplomatic system and print culture. Diplomats needed to know about the countries they were dealing with and readers were eager to read about them as well. Envoys (though not only) wrote the state-descriptions, printers printed them, and curious people read them. Thousands of them were published. By the mid-seventeenth century Staatsbeschreibung was a well developed science and had already made its way into university curricula in the German lands. In the next century it would come to be called Statistik, and in the century following that its subject matter would be parceled up between the modern disciplines of history, geography, political science, and economics. But when Barckhusen sat down to tell Kotoshikhin what to do, it was the omnibus description of foreign countries. Barckhusen even seems to have provided Kotoshikhin with a model, which the latter duly cited in Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich.2

2 Cited in the footnotes to the text as “the chronicle of Petr Petreus.” This could be one of two books: Petrus Petrejus, Een wiss och sanfärdigh berättelse, om några förandringar, som j thesse framledne åhr, vthi storfurstendömet Muskow skedde äre, ... / skrifwin af Peder Pedersson (Stockholm, 1608) or Petrus Petrejus, Regni Muschovitici sciographia: thet är: Een wiss och egenteligh beskriffning om Rydzland, med thes många och stora furstendömers, provinciers, befestningars, städers, siögars och elfwers tilstånd, rum och lägenheet: ... / vthi sex böker korteligen författat, beskrifwin och sammandragin, af Petro Petreio (Stockholm, 1615).

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Kotoshikhin, however, neither could nor needed to write a full-blown Staatsbeschreibung. He was a creature of the Muscovite court and its central administration. He was born into it (circa 1630) and did not leave it until he escaped across the Polish-Lithuanian border in 1664. He probably knew little about the geography of Muscovy, or at least little that the Swedes did not already know. Naturally he was familiar with Russian customs, but only those of the Moscow elite. He showed little awareness of or interest in the ways of common people or nonRussians. He would have known something of the Russian economy, but only insofar as it touched on the tsar’s enterprises. He would probably have known a fair amount about Russian clerical affairs (they were largely administered from Moscow), but apparently his Swedish masters had no interest in these matters. What the Swedes wanted to know was this: How does the Muscovite state work? Barckhusen and others helped Kotoshikhin break this general concern down into sub-questions, all of which we can see answered in his book. Who’s in charge? Who serves whom? How is the state administered? How are foreign affairs conducted? How big is the army? How big is the empire? Who controls trade? How is land held? How is justice served? How do people live? Kotoshikhin knew all this because he had lived and breathed it for over 30 years. There is no reason for us to summarize what he says. His account stands on its own. It might be helpful, however, to provide a brief sketch of the tsar’s court so that the reader can better navigate Kotoshikhin’s description. Such a sketch is provided below. The seventeenth-century sovereign’s court (gosudarev dvor) was a largely hierarchical enterprise. At its head stood the tsar and his immediate family, including royal in-laws. Immediately below them, though still within the tsar’s familiar circle, were men Kotoshikhin calls “closest boyars and okol’nichie” (boiare i okol’nichie blizhnye). These servitors were the tsar’s friends and intimate advisors. They were recruited from the Boyar Council (boiarskaia duma), the central advisory body in the realm. Kotoshikhin describes the Council as being comprised of a group of elite families each of whom had representatives in the body. This is true and false. There were many old families in the Council in the mid-seventeenth century, and some of them had a customary right to place their senior members in its ranks. But there were also many new families in the Council, a product of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich’s rather liberal appointment policy. Though guided by precedent and custom, the tsar ultimately decided who would sit on the Council. In this, Tsar Aleksei was rather more gently guided than his predecessors. In any event, the Council was made up of four regular ranks: boyar (boiarin), okol’nichii (for which there is no good English term), council nobleman (dumnyi dvorianin), and council secretary (dumnyi d’iak). Generally speaking, the tsar appointed men from one regular rank to the next and regular ranks could not be skipped. Thus council secretaries were made council noblemen, council noblemen were made okol’nichie, and okol’nichie were made boyars. In fact, however, moving through more than one regular council rank in the course of a career was rare. In Kotoshikhin’s time, most men who entered the Council



Kotoshikhin’s World 

The Sovereign's Court in the Mid-Seventeenth Century Tsar and His Retinue 2-4 families

Tsarevna

Tsar

Tsarevichi In-Laws

Tsaritsy

Closest Boyars Boiare i okol'nichie blizhnye

Council Ranks 70 men; 20 families

Boyars Boiare

30 men

Okol'nichie 30 men

Council Nobles

Dumnye dvoriane

10 men

Ceremonial Ranks Kravchii Kaznachei Postel’nichii Pechatnik

Striapchii s kliuchom Lovchii moskovskii Iasel’nichii

3 men

Council Secretaries Dumnye d'iaki

3 men

Sub Council Court Ranks 2500 men; 1000 families

Lords-in-Waiting Stol'niki

Moscow Nobles Dvoriane moskovskie

Pages

Zhil'tsy

Administrative Ranks 2000 men

Secretaries

D'iaki

Under-Secretaries Pod'iachie

Figure 1.1: The Sovereign's Court in the Mid-Seventeenth Century

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 Kotoshikhin’s World

ended their careers where they started them. In addition, men of various ranks— already in the Council and outside it—were sometimes appointed to ceremonial positions such as butler (kravchii), chamberlain (spal’nik), and treasurer (kaznachei). These extraordinary dignities were invariably listed in the Court Registers (boiarskie knigi) among the regular council ranks, but it is not clear what role they played—if any—in the operation of the Council itself. They were not always filled, and neither do they appear to have been part of the regular cursus honorum, though they are rightly considered important offices. The highest three regular council ranks were recruited from the sub-council court ranks: lord-in-waiting (stol’nik), Moscow nobleman (dvorianin moskovskii), and page (zhil’ets). The scions of important families began their service careers in these positions. The sub-council ranks themselves constituted a cursus honorum, though it was not as strict as that found in the regular council ranks. In theory, the tsar could appoint a man holding any of the sub-council ranks to any of the three highest regular council ranks, that is, one could enter the Council as a boyar, okol’nichii, or council nobleman. Kotoshikhin points out, however, that members of high-ranking families generally entered the Council at higher ranks than did members of low-ranking families. Those from ancient clans were promoted directly from lord-in-waiting to okol’nichii, while those from new families were promoted from lord-in-waiting to council nobleman. Moreover, once in the council the difference in pedigree also mattered: those who entered the Council as okol’nichii were quite likely to be made boyars, while those who entered the Council as council noblemen were quite unlikely to be made okol’nichii. Below the sub-council court ranks we find the administrative ranks, the “chancellery men” (prikaznye liudi) in Kotoshikhin’s account. “Below” might not be quite right as these positions and the men who filled them really constituted a separate sphere, one removed from that of the well-breed elite who lived at court. The men who served as secretaries (d’iaki) and undersecretaries (pod’iachie) were commoners, albeit skilled and lucky ones. Kotoshikhin is typical of them. His father had been a clerk of some sort, and so was he. Kotoshikhin had a very good career. He had risen through the administrative ranks to a relatively exalted and responsible position. Had he remained in service and been a good boy, he might have eventually been appointed secretary, though this is unlikely. More unlikely still would have been an appointment to council secretary (dumnyi d’iak), the highest position to which any clerk could aspire. In Kotoshikhin’s time, council secretaries were never made council noblemen, though given the distance they had traveled—low to high—it is hard to feel sorry for them. We can, however, feel sorry for Kotoshikhin, for he met a bad end. The itinerant Russian had the misfortune of lodging with a man with a pretty wife. Apparently Kotoshikhin made a pass at the latter and mortally wounded the former. One imagines the two events were related. Kotoshikhin was at the end of his rope, quite literally. He had lost his family and career. He was hunted as a traitor by his countrymen.



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He had failed to secure a stable position in Poland-Lithuania. And now that he had finely found safe harbor in Sweden, he had committed murder. Where could he go? Kotoshikhin knew. He did not deny that he killed his landlord. He mounted no defense against the charges. He did not seek clemency though it was available to him for the asking. He did, however, seek forgiveness from God. He asked the Supreme Court to stay his execution until he was finished with his conversion to Lutheranism. His petition was granted. He was hung in November of 1667, after which his body was taken to the University of Uppsala for dissection. After his death, Kotoshikhin’s account was translated into Swedish, copied, and circulated for a time before being archived. The original manuscript fell into private hands and eventually made its way—like its author—to the University of Uppsala. For many decades now historians have been asking how much credit one should give Kotoshikhin’s account. This is a complicated issue. In Russia, Kotoshikhin makes thousands of factual claims, each of which must be checked against other sources. Fortunately, much of this work has been done, not least by Ben Uroff himself. The consensus seems to be that Kotoshikhin tried to tell the truth. Most of his assertions check out, at least in some general way. Of course some do not, and the careful reader is advised not to assume something is true simply because Kotoshikhin said it. If readers want to know whether something Kotoshikhin said is true, they should repair to Uroff’s remarkable commentary. If they want to know what Kotoshikhin thought was true, then the text of Russia itself is sufficient. It should be said, however, that Kotoshikhin was not above lying. Most of the time he honestely called things as he saw them. But sometimes he didn’t like what he saw. Kotoshikhin clearly had axes to grind and he ground them in Russia. As a man, he didn’t think much of women. As one who abandoned his wife, he’s not favorably disposed toward marriage, at least as practiced in Russia. As one schooled in letters, he didn’t have much respect for the illiterate. As a petty administrator, he resented his bosses. As a would-be Westerner, he’s eager to say that Russians are barbarians and that he is no Russian. As a convert to Lutheranism, he’s sure that his countrymen are not God-fearing. Luckily for us, Kotoshikhin makes no real effort to hide any of these prejudices. Thus they are easy to spot and discard. What’s left is largely the truth about seventeenth-century Russia. And it is also the truth about Russia more generally. Traditions change slowly. For this reason, every mature literate tradition possesses ancient foundational documents that continue to shed light on its present state. Anyone interested in the spirit of English mores would do well to read the Magna Carta. Anyone curious about the essence of American folkways would do well to read the Federalist Papers. And anyone who wants to know more about Russian culture would do well to read Kotoshikhin’s Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich. In its pages one can glean deep patterns of Russian life, patterns that are still alive and well today. Just what those patterns are is a matter of some debate, and I leave it to the reader to form his or her own opinion on the matter.

Russia in the Reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich by Grigorii Karpovich Kotoshikhin Translated by Benjamin Phillip Uroff {234} A List of Chapters and Articles Contained in this Book Chapter 1 About the tsars, about the tsarinas, about the tsareviches, and about the tsarevnas. 1. On Tsar Ivan Vasil’evich, and the manner in which the rule of a tsar was begun in the Muscovite state, and on other principalities. 2. On Tsar Feodor Ivanovich, and on his brother Tsarevich Dmitrii and on his murder, and on the boyar Boris Godunov. 3. O  n Tsar Boris Godunov and on the false Tsar Dmitrii. 4. On Tsar Vasilii Ivanovich. 5. On Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. 6. On the present Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich and, on his election and installation as tsar, and on his brides. {234v} 7. On the selection of the members of the tsar’s wedding party. 8. On the members of the wedding party. 9. On the tsar’s betrothal to his bride. 10. On the Te Deum attended by the tsar before the wedding. 11. On  the marriage ceremony, how they are arranged, and on the marriage, and on the wedding, and on the banquets. 12. How the tsar retires with his tsaritsa. 13. O  n the groomsman [druzhka] who goes to inquire of the tsar’s health. 14. On  the members of the wedding party, how they go to congratulate the tsar and the tsaritsa. 15. On  the bathhouses, how in the morning the tsar and tsaritsa go to the bathhouses, and on the gifts. 16. On  the second and third day of the wedding, and on the banquets, and how the members of the wedding bless the tsar and tsaritsa with icons and present gifts. {235} 17. On the entertainment, what sort of festivities accompany [the nuptials]. 18. On the fourth day, how the tsar holds a banquet for the hierarchs, and what gifts they present to the tsar and tsaritsa. 19. On the banquets which are likewise held for men of other ranks, and on their gifts. 20. On priests and monks, how they are given food and alms.



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21. How  after the wedding the tsar and tsaritsa visit the monasteries for Te Deums, and poorhouses for almsgiving. 22. On  the criminals who are released on the occasion of the wedding. 23. On  the tsaritsa’s kinsmen, how the tsar bestows his favor upon them after the wedding. 24. On  the apartments of the tsar and tsaritsa. 25. On the apartments of the tsarevnas, and their way of life. 26. On the birth of the tsar’s children, the tsareviches. 27. On the birth of tsarevnas. {235v} 28. On the upbringing of the tsar’s children, and on their education, and on their protection. 29. O  n the tsareviches and tsarevnas, when they walk to church or travel. 30. On the celebration of the saint’s days of the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas. 31. On the tsareviches, when there are two or three of them. 32. On the passing away of tsars and tsaritsas and tsareviches and tsarevnas, and on their burial. Chapter 2 On the tsar’s officials and various serving men. 1. O  n the boyars of the leading and most important families. {236} 2. O  n the boyars and okol’nichie who are below those boyars of the first category in honor. 3. O  n the okol’nichie and Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane]. 4. O  n the Duma secretaries. 5. O  n the chamberlains [spal’niki] who sleep in the tsar’s apartments and are conferred [high] ranks for their service. 6. O  n the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki]. 7. O  n the adjutants [striapchie]. 8. O  n the Moscow noblemen [dvoriane]. 9. O  n the secretaries. 10. On the pages [zhil’tsy]. 11. O  n the provincial noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie]. 12. O  n the Siberian and Kasimov and Georgean tsareviches. 13. O  n the lord chamberlains. 14. O  n the boyars’ arrival before the tsar. 15. O  n the arrival of lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and men of other rank. 16. H  ow men of various rank arrive, and how close [to the palace] each may come. {236v} 17. How the tsar goes on journeys, and who accompanies him, and who remains in Moscow.

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18. O  n the boyars and men of other ranks who wish to leave for rest in their villages, and beg permission from the tsar. 19. On the boyars’ saint’s days. 20. On the officials of the tsaritsa and tsarevnas, and on the boyar women, and on the arrival of the boyar wives to the tsaritsa and tsarevnas; and in it are 15 short articles. Chapter 3 On titles, how the tsar writes to each potentate. 1. To the Holy Roman Emperor. 2. To His Majesty the King of Sweden. {237} 3. To the Polish king. 4. To the English king. 5. To the Danish king. 6. To the electors and princes and counts [of the Empire], and to the States-General of Holland. 7. To Lübeck, to Hamburg, to the burgomasters and councilors, and likewise to the foreign traders who serve as agents of the tsar’s enterprises. 8. To what place the titles of all the above-mentioned sovereigns are written in gold. 9. O  n the French, Spanish, and Portuguese kings, that no letters have ever been sent to them. 10. T o the Turkish sultan. 11. To the Persian shah. 12. To the Crimean khan. 13. To the great khan who is beyond Siberia. 14. O  n the seals attached to letters sent to the various sovereigns. {237v} 15. On titles, that each sovereign is styled according to his dignity, as he styles himself; it being likewise when each addresses the tsar by his title. 16. What paper is used for each letter, and what ornaments are drawn in gold. 17. Question: why does the Muscovite tsar use his full title in writing to Christian states, but not to Mohammedan states? And to this an answer. Chapter 4 On Muscovite ambassadors and envoys and couriers, what rank of and dignity of men are sent to each foreign sovereignties, about the ambassadors sent to ambassadorial congresses. 1. To the Holy Roman Emperor. 2. To His Majesty the King of Sweden. {238} 3. To the Polish king. 4. To the English king.



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5. To the Danish king. 6. To the electors and princes and counts [of the Empire], and to the States-General of Holland. 7. To the Turkish sultan. 8. To the Persian shah. 9. To the Crimean khan. 10. On envoys and couriers. 11. O  n the ambassador’s retinue and other men who are sent with the ambassadors. 12. O  n ambassadors who are appointed to embassies, or commandants [voevody] [appointed] to the provincial administration and to the army, when others do not wish to serve under them and disputes and petitions follow among them, and the matter is investigated, and a decree is issued and punishment imposed for disobedience. {238v} 13. When men not of Duma rank and from not very exalted families refuse to serve as associates under someone, and an investigation is likewise conducted and a decree issued in their case, and a different punishment is imposed. 14. How men forcibly sent to serve under someone else intentionally fall ill, not wishing to serve under him. 15. How, when the tsar holds banquets for the boyars, they think of their family status and refuse to sit one below another at the table. 16. F rom what ranks are appointed as boyars and Duma men, and how they sit in the Duma and at the tsar’s banquets. 17. On what days the tsar holds banquets for the hierarchs and boyars. 18. On the bounty given to ambassadors when they are sent to other states. {239} 19. How men are chosen as ambassadors for the first time and lack the clothing and other items for the journey. 20. On ambassadors, how some receive their instructions in Moscow when they are ready for the journey, while others receive them on the road. 21. On the instructions, and the manner in which they are written for ambassadors and envoys and couriers. 22. On ambassadors who are sent to ambassadorial congresses, and in what matter they are ordered to come together with foreign ambassadors. 23. On instructions, that the real, true instructions are not given to ambassadors going to congresses. 24. On ambassadors and what they say to negotiators when on an embassy, and to [foreign] ambassadors when at a congress, and about the transcription of their speeches how they are written down in graceful and sensible manner, and not as they are spoken; and a question and its answer on this matter. {239v} 25. On the icons which are sent with ambassadors to congresses and with commandants [voevody] to war, and a question and its answer as to why these icons are sent. 26. How ambassadors return to Moscow after discharging their embassy.

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27. How ambassadors and regimental commandants [voevody] upon their return to Moscow appear before the tsar with their reports, and on the honor and bounty which they receive for their service. 28. On ambassadors and regimental commandants [voevody] who are at fault in their service, and what punishments are imposed. On the gifts which are sent with ambassadors to each sovereign, and in what amount. 29. To the Roman Emperor. 30. To His Majesty the King of Sweden. {240} 31. To the Polish king. 32. To the English king, a question and answer is included in this article. 33. To the Danish king. 34. To the electors and princes and counts, and to the States-General of Holland. 35. To the Turkish sultan. 36. To the Persian shah. 37. To the Crimean khan and to his tsaritsa, and to the tsareviches and tsarvenas, and to their children, and to the pashas, and to the princes, and to the murzas, and to the Tatars. 38. What quantity of gifts are sent with envoys to each potentate. Chapter 5 On the ambassadors and envoys and couriers of other sovereignties, how each is honored. {240v} 1. The ambassadors of His Majesty the King of Sweden, when they arrive at the border, and on their greeting and reception and subsistence and transport, and on the departure from the border town to Moscow, and on their greeting and reception in Moscow, and on the escorts [pristavy]. 2. On the day that the tsar orders them, the ambassadors, to appear before him for their initial audience, in what manner they appear before the tsar and discharge their embassy and present gifts. 3. How a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] is sent to the ambassadors with a banquet, with food and drink, and how he is ordered to drink the toasts. 4. O  n the day the tsar orders them, the ambassadors, to appear before him and before the boyars for negotiations, how these are conducted. 5. What rank and dignity of boyars and Duma men conduct negotiations with ambassadors. {241} 6. How ambassadors conduct subsequent negotiations. 7. On what days the ambassadors see the tsar and conduct negotiations. 8. When the ambassadors have discharged their embassy in its entirety and are dismissed, in what manner they appear before the tsar for dismissal.



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9. When the ambassadors are dismissed from Moscow, how they are accompanied from Moscow to the border. 10. When the ambassadors come in summer and in winter, what transport is used for their reception, and for taking them to the tsar. 11. When the ambassadors appear before the tsar, what clothing is worn by the boyars and how the chamber is furnished. 12. O  n the amount and form of the bounty given by the tsar to the ambassadors and members of the ambassador’s suite and his men upon their dismissal. 13. On envoys, how they are greeted, and their reception and subsistence, and how they appear before the tsar for the initial audience {241v} and dismissal, and when they are dismissed what bounty is given to them by the tsar upon dismissal. 14. On couriers, on their reception and how they appear before the tsar for the initial audience and for dismissal, and what bounty is given to them by the tsar. 15. On the guards, how many musketeers are assigned to the ambassadors’ court for their ambassadorial honor. 16. On the visits of Imperial, Polish, English, Danish, Turkish, and Persian ambassadors, and what honor and reception each is given. 17. On Crimean, Nogai, and Kalmyk ambassadors. 18. On Swedish and Polish ambassadors, in what way they come to confirm and ratify a Christian peace, and in what manner they appear before the tsar, and how at that ceremony of ratification the tsar swears on oath before the ambassadors that he will maintain peace. {242} Chapter 6 On the Tsar’s Courts: the Treasury, Liquor, Provisions, Bread, Grain, and Stables. 1. On the Treasury Court and about its chancellery, and on the receipt of various revenues, and where the expenditures go, listed by category. 2. The Liquor Court, where drink is kept, and from what sources drink is taken in and where it is distributed, listed by the item on the officials of that court. 3. O  n the Provisions Court, where food is prepared, and on its officials, and from what sources the stores of provisions are taken in and where they are distributed, likewise listed by item. 4. O  n the Bread Court, and on its officials, and what sources stores of bread are taken in and where it is {242v} distributed. 5. O  n the Grain Court, and on the receipt of grain and its distribution. 6. O  n the Stables Court and on its chancellery, and on the officials, and on horses’ and other kinds of equipment, and on all the resources of the stables, and on the receipt and distribution of horses’ fodder, and on monetary receipts and expenditures.

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Chapter 7 On the Chancelleries, and who is in charge of these chancelleries, and what men and cases are under the jurisdiction of each, and on monetary receipts and expenditures, and on the various articles of revenue. {243} 1. The Chancellery of Privy Affairs. 2. The Ambassadorial Chancellery. 3. The Military Service Chancellery [Razriad]. 4. The Chancellery of the Great Palace. 5. The Musketeers Chancellery. {243v} 6. The Chancellery of the Kazan’ Palace. 7. The Siberian Chancellery. 8. The Service Estate [Pomest’e] Chancellery, and in this article is written a question and answer: What are service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny], and landed estates? 9. The Chancellery of the Great Treasury; and in the same article is described the Mint, and coining, and master coiners, and master silversmiths and goldsmiths. See also how there was turmoil over copper coins, and why those coins have passed out of use. 10. The Chancellery of the Great Revenue. 11. The Artillery Chancellery. 12. The Chancellery of the Tsar’s Wardrobe Chamber. 13. The Chancellery of the Tsaritsa’s Wardrobe Chamber. 14. The Foreigners Chancellery. 15. The Cavalry [Reitary] Chancellery. 16. The Chancellery of the Novgorod Tax District [chetvert’]. 17. The Chancellery of the Ustiug Tax District [chetvert’]. 18. The Chancellery of the Kostroma Tax District [chetvert’]. 19. The Chancellery of the Galich Tax District [chetvert’]. 20. The Chancellery of the New Tax District [chetvert’]. 21. The Armory Chancellery. 22. The Chancellery of Gold and Silver Work. 23. The Apothecary Chancellery. 24. The Monastic Chancellery. 25. The Grain Chancellery. 26. The Postal Chancellery. 27. The Stonemasonry Chancellery. 28. The Petitions Chancellery. 29. The Chancellery for Little Russia. 30. The Land Chancellery. {244} 31. The Slaves Chancellery. 32. The two Chancelleries of Judicial Affairs: Moscow and Vladimir.



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33. The Chancellery Seals. 34. The Chancellery for Criminal Affairs. 35. The Requiem Chancellery. 36. The Accounting Chancellery. 37. H  ow someone brings petition against another, or brings a lawsuit against someone to court. 38. On trials, how the officials of those chancelleries hold trials over men of various rank. 39. If a defendant brings petition against a judge for being his enemy, that judge, because of his enmity, will not be allowed to try his case. 40. How someone brings a claim against another, on the bailiff’s instructions and on the bailiffs who find the defendant and bring him before the court without the right to leave Moscow, {244v} and on writs of surety taken from both plaintiff and defendant. 41. O  n trials for dishonor. 42. H  ow plaintiff and defendant appear before a court, and the proceedings are recorded. 43. That trials are held in accordance with written loan agreements and contracts, and without a written loan agreement no trial is held. 44. O  n defendants who wish to bring a counter-suit, or two or three, against the plaintiff. 45. No trials are held outside the tsar’s chancelleries [in Moscow] and in towns and villages and counties [volosti], and the chancelleries of the hierarchs. 46. On the bailiffs sent on assignments. 47. On criminals and other guilty men, how they are placed in prison and how they feed themselves. 48. On monetary receipts and expenditures, who receives them and distributes them. {245} Chapter 8 On the possession of the tsardoms and realms and lands and towns which are under Moscow, and about the commandants [voevody] of those towns. 1. On Novgorod the Great and about Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ and Siberia and other [regions] and on their commandants [voevody] and various local affairs. 2. On the towns subordinated to those large towns and realms, and on their commandants [voevody]. 3. On the commandants [voevody] of medium-sized towns, and on various local affairs. 4. On decrees and how the tsar’s messages are written to the commandants [voevody] of those towns; and in the same article is written a question and answer: Why does the tsar write “autocrat” in his title?

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5. On boyars and commandants [voevody] and chancellery officials {245v} and those on embassies and other assignments, in what manner they address official correspondence to the tsar. 6. O  n petitions, in what manner boyars and men of other ranks and their wives write to the tsar and to the tsaritsa and to the tsareviches and to the tsarevnas. 7. On the tsar’s revenues from settlements [posady] and from peasants and from various enterprises, and how they are collected. 8. On the men who are stationed in various citadels for defense. 9. I n time of war, on the siege quarters and on the peasants who are sent into the citadel. 10. On the maintenance of citadels, their repair and construction, and on the collection of money, and on military firearms. 11. O  n stone and wooden citadels, how they are constructed. {246} Chapter 9 On military levies. 1. When there is war with some state, with whom the tsar takes counsel, and having taken counsel, what men are conscripted. 2. O  n regiments of cavalrymen [reitary], and what ranks of men are recruited into those regiments, and what yearly wages are paid to them. 3. O  n regiments of musketeers. 4. O  n regiments of European-trained soldiers [soldaty], old and new, and from what sources new European-trained soldiers [soldaty] are recruited, and on their wages and subsistence. 5. On regiments of dragoons [dragunskie polki], old and new. 6. O  n regiments of Cossacks. 7. On the Don Cossacks. 8. On the collection of {246v} money and grain and various provisions as wages for all those soldiers. 9. B  oyars and commandants [voevody] and men of other ranks are ordered to appear for service with their own provisions. 10. When the tsar goes to war in person, how many soldiers there are in his own regiment and in the regiments commanded by the boyars and commandants [voevody]. 11. O  n the dismissal of the soldiers when the war is over. 12. The orders that are issued to healthy and wounded foreigners, and wounded Russians, and the wives, widows and children of foreigners whose service is at an end.



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Chapter 10 On trading men. 1. On trading company men [gosti]. 2. O  n the men of the trading [gostinaia] and cloth workers’ [sukhotnaia] guilds [sotni]. {247} 3. On trading men. 4. O  n commerce and on the taxes which they pay to the tsar each year. 5. H  ow a trading man brings suit against another, or is a defendant. 6. O  n the bounty given to trading men who have been in the tsar’s service and managed his enterprises, and have shown a profit. 7. O  n the punishments imposed for lack of zeal on trading men who have been in the tsar’s service and managed his enterprises and have not shown a profit. Chapter 11 On the peasants of the tsar and the hierarchs and monasteries and hereditary estate [votchina] and service estate [pomest’e] owners. 1. On the tsar’s peasants, who holds trials over them, and on the monetary revenues and various taxes collected from those peasants. {247v} 2. On the peasants of hierarchs and monasteries. 3. O  n the peasants of boyars and other ranks of men, owners of service estate [pomest’e] and hereditary estates [votchiny], how they rule over them and the taxes which they collect for themselves and for the tsar. 4. If some service estate [pomest’e] and hereditary estate [votchina] owner inflicts death or some evil abuse upon his peasants, or some evil thing upon their wives and daughters. 5. On criminals — brigands and others — who might appear in the villages and hamlets of the tsar or of service estate [pomest’e] and hereditary estate [votchina] owners. 6. O  n peasants, how many households belong to the tsar himself and to the patriarch and to the metropolitans and to other hierarchs and to monasteries and to boyars and closest {248} men and to various service estate [pomest’e] and hereditary estate [votchina] owners. Chapter 12 On the tsar’s trade. 1. In grain, hemp, potash, resin, raw silk, rhubarb in the town of Archangel, and where these goods come from. 2. Trade in fish and salt in the towns on the lower and middle Volga.

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3. With Persian merchants. 4. With Greek merchants. Chapter 13 {248v} On the Way of Life of the Boyars and Okol’nichie and Men of Other Ranks. 1. O  n the boyar’s houses and churches and divine services and priests. 2. On holidays and guests and banquets and courses; and how their wives or married daughters come out before the banquet to pay honor to the guests, and on the salutations and on the kisses. 3. When one marries or gives his son or daughter or sister in marriage, on the conclusion of the match and the wedding agreement. 4. When following the agreement one party refuses to take the bride in marriage, or refuses to give the bride away to the groom. 5. On the wedding, the manner in which the nuptials are celebrated. 6. On the day following the wedding, how the bride and groom go to the bathhouse and summon guests for dinner, {249} and how the groom and wedding party go to pay their respects to the tsar, and on the banquets and the gifts. 7. On the instructions given to the priest, in what manner and for what kind of people he is to perform a marriage ceremony. 8. O  n widowers who marry maidens, or widows who marry bachelors, and likewise on widowers who marry widows: on their marriage and wedding. 9. O  n lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and other ranks of men, in what manner they hold weddings, and how they live in their houses. 10. If a father and mother have two or three unmarried daughters and one is crippled, and someone wishes to make a match, they display a pretty daughter in place of the ugly one but give the ugly one away in marriage and not the one who was displayed; and when someone has married the ugly one, in what manner he lives with her. {249v} 11. O  n petitions presented to the patriarch by those who have been deceived in their brides, and on the investigation and orders regarding such petitions. 12. When a father has a daughter who is crippled, or stunted in her growth. 13. O  n crippled maidens. 14. When a bridegroom examines the bride himself and after the examination does not take her in marriage and dishonors her verbally and keeps others from making a match with her. 15. When someone gives her daughter away in marriage and she dies following the marriage, whether or not she has given birth to children: on the possessions she brought as a dowry. 16. O  n the boyars’ household servitors of male and female sex, how many each is able to keep in his domicile and what maintenance they receive.



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{1} Chapter 1 On the tsars and tsarinas and about the tsareviches and tsarvenas and on the tsar’s wedding, how it is celebrated. 1. The Grand Prince Ivan Vasil’evich of Moscow, the proud, with many of his own princes and boyars, went to war with a large army against the tsardoms of Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ and Siberia; and by the will of God he took captive the tsars of these tsardoms with their realms and lands, and settled many Christian men in these realms and lands to protect them. And from that time he, the grand prince, made himself Tsar and Grand Prince Ivan Vasil’evich of all Russia, over the Muscovite state and over those captured{1v}tsardoms and over the former [appanage] principalities, and in thus began the tsardom in the Russian land. That grand prince, ruling first as prince and then as tsar, governed his realm in malice and great wickedness, like a tyrant, and carried on war and strife with neighboring states. When he was not at strife with neighboring states, he oppressed his own subjects, fellow Christians, and inflicted great torment upon his princes and boyars, and upon the common people.3 He even dispatched his own son to the next world, piercing him with a staff, and ordered a certain metropolitan to be suffocated with a pillow. And having reigned, that tsar departed this life.4 2. After the death of this same tsar, his son the Tsarevich Fedor Ivanovich {2} became tsar over the Muscovite tsardom, while his other son, Tsarevich Dmitrii, with his mother was given the town and district of Uglich as an appanage. This Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Fedor Ivanovich, was very gentle and God-loving, unlike his father; and he appointed a magnate named Boris Godunov, the first boyar and master of the horse, to govern his realm in all matters, and devoted himself to humility and prayer. That boyar, in governing the realm for a number of years, became very rich. Then the accursed and cunning devil, in his immemorial hatred for the human race, inflamed his reason: for he had everything in abundance, possessions and wealth and honor, but yet he was not fully satisfied, being like a tsar in his way of life and power, but without a tsar’s glory. And at the devil’s instigation that boyar determined to make himself tsar by whatever means; and with his adherents he decided to send certain men to the town of Uglich {2v}, promising them great honor and riches if they would kill the tsar’s brother, the Tsarevich Dmitrii. Those who were sent did as he had ordered and cut the tsarevich’s throat, whereupon the townspeople killed

3 See more in the chronicle of Petr Petreus. 4 See more in the chronicle of Petr Petreus.

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the murderers themselves. And when the boyar learned that his design had been accomplished he greatly rejoiced, and straightway informed the tsar about the death, that his brother had wounded himself fatally while playing with his young friends. The tsar, hearing of this, was greatly saddened, and for many an hour his eyes were wet with tears; and he decided to go to bury his brother’s body and determined how he had died. But Boris Godunov sent many men to the town of Uglich, and set up barriers along the roads under penalty of death, so that no one should report the true circumstances of that murder but report everything as he ordered, and as he himself had told it to the tsar. Likewise [he ordered] that any letters {3}written to the tsar by the tsarevich’s mother be brought to him. As the tsar was on his way from Moscow to bury his brother, and while he was at the Trinity Monastery, the greatest in Muscovy, 60 versty from Moscow, that malevolent boyar ordered the burning and pillaging of houses in Moscow, and the killing of people, from which great rioting and bloodshed and fires broke out in all of Moscow. Then the boyar went to to the tsar and told him that great rioting and fires had broken out in Moscow, and that he should return to Moscow and order that his brother be buried without him, since his coming would not bring him back to life. The tsar heeded him and did accordingly. And the men whom the boyar had sent to the towns and to the barriers and to set fire to houses in Moscow had all their own houses burned down; and that boyar, fearing those men, lest they inform on him and do something to him, gave them much wealth and riches from his own {3v} treasury and the tsar’s. And after reigning a few years in sadness after his brother’s death, that tsar departed this life. 3. After the death of that tsar, that boyar Boris Godunov became tsar over the Muscovite tsardom, and reigned but a few years. And after this there came to be in the Russian tsardom civil disturbances and enemy incursions as never before. And in that time of troubles a monastic deacon from a certain monastery, abandoning his monk’s habit, appeared in Poland as an attendant of [the Palatine of] Sandomierz, and proclaimed himself the Tsarevich Dmitrii, son of the Tsar Ivan Vasil’evich; and within a short time, through much scheming and with the aid of Polish troops, he obtained possession of the Muscovite state and became tsar, and took to himself the daughter of [the Palatine of] Sandomierz. And at this time {4} many men recognized him, not as the true Tsarevich Dmitrii but as the criminal Grishka Otrep’ev, a former monk, but they did not dare say anything against him. And when he began to reign, he set about to introduce the popish faith in the Russian state, and to turn Greek churches into Polish Catholic churches [kostely], and did many vile things; and the boyars and men of every rank could not endure this, and plotted to extirpate this criminal tsar. And soon what they plotted came about: just as he had obtained the tsardom for himself suddenly and had ruled falsely, thus did he suddenly meet his death.5 And they began

5 See more in the chronicle of Petr Petreus.



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to kill the Poles and Lithuanians who were with that false tsar [in Moscow] and in the provinces, and drove them from the Muscovite state into their own country; and this led to more war with the Polish crown and with Lithuania. And after that tsar other such criminals appeared, acting as impostors and calling themselves the Tsarevich Dmitrii {4v}; and these men with their schemes came to the same end. 4. After the death of that criminal, the false tsar, a certain boyar of the great family of Shuiskii ruled the Muscovite tsardom as Tsar and Grand Prince Vasilii Ivanovich; and during his reign there likewise was war with the Poles and Lithuanians. And having reigned that tsar departed life. 5. After the death of that tsar the tsardom passed to the tsar and grand prince Mikhail Fedorovich, autocrat of all Russia, of the royal family of Romanov. His connection with the Tsar Ivan Vasil’evich was as follows: Anastasia Romanovna of the Romanov family was married to the Tsar Ivan Vasil’evich, and she had a brother, the boyar Nikita Romanovich, and that brother had two sons, Fedor and Ivan, and to Fedor was born Mikhail Fedorovich {5}, who became tsar. In the first years of his reign the war and bloodshed with the Poles during the reigns of the Tsar Vasilii Ivanovich and the Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich brought the state to almost complete devastation. But after the Tsar and Grand Prince Mikhail Fedorovich had quieted the shedding of Christian blood, he ruled his state in peace and prosperity. During his reign his father Fedor, who had the monastic name of Filaret, was patriarch in the Muscovite state. That tsar had two sons: the Tsarevich Aleksei Mikhailovich, who grew up to be very gentle, like his father; and a second son, Dmitrii, who was very cruel even as young child, inheriting the character of his great-grandfather, the first Muscovite tsar. Men of highand middle-ranking families who were close to the tsar and the tsareviches pondered the many evil things that he was doing while still a young child and the many greater evils that he may do {5v} after his father’s death, waited for a favorable moment, and poisoned him; and thus he died, with no one suspecting but that his hour of death had come. And having reigned in tranquility, that tsar departed this world. 6. He was survived by his son, the Tsarevich Aleksei Mikhailovich, and three daughters, the tsarevnas. And after a short time had elapsed, the patriarch and metropolitans and archbishops and bishops and archimandrites and abbots and all the clergy gathered in council, and the boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] and trading company men [gosti] and trading men and men of every rank and the common people, following the death of the former tsar, elected to the tsardom the presently reigning tsar, and held the coronation ceremony in the great chief cathedral, and prayed for God’s

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mercy.6 And when the tsar is crowned, he is anointed with chrism, and therefore he is called the [Lord’s] anointed {6}. And afterwards the hierarchs and the boyars and closest men and men of every rank hailed him as sovereign. And after hailing him the patriarch and metropolitans and archbishops and other hierarchs blessed the tsar with icons and brought before him bread and velvet and silk and satin and plain and gold damask and sables and silver vessels; and the boyars and closest men and lordsin-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and Moscow noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries and pages [zhil’tsy] and colonels and provincial noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] and trading company men [gosti] and serving men presented gifts in the same manner as the hierarchs; and the members of the [trading and cloth workers’] guilds [sotni] and [other] trading men [from Moscow], and settlement [posad] men from the provinces, brought before him bread and salt, and presented gifts in the same manner, whatever each one had; and for that election there were two noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] and settlement [posad] men {6v} from each district. And then the tsar feasted with the hierarchs and boyars and men of every rank. And afterwards the tsar took counsel with the patriarch, and spoke with the hierarchs and boyars and Duma men about entering into lawful wedlock; and the patriarch and hierarchs gave their blessing to such a goodly act as joining together in lawful love, and the boyars and Duma men gave their assent. And the tsar learned that one of his closest men had a daughter, a maiden of worthy stature and beauty and of excellent reason, and ordered her to be taken to his palace and placed in the care of his sisters, the tsarevnas, and given the same honors as his sisters the tsarevnas, until such time as the celebration of the festivities take place. But from time immemorial the wily devil has sowed {7} his tares in the Russian land: so that once a man has attained even a small degree of glory and honor and riches he is sure to be hated. Some of the [other] boyars and closest men [also] had daughters, but the tsar did not think of marrying any one of them. And those maidens’ mothers and sisters, who lived in the tsarevnas’ apartments, were jealous of this and schemed to do something to be rid of the chosen tsarevna, in the hope that the tsar would then take to himself the daughter of some other great boyar or closest man; and soon they accomplished this by poisoning her. The tsar was greatly saddened by this and took no food for many days, and afterwards thought no more of high-born maidens, for he realized that it had happened because of malice and envy. And some time later he happened to be in the church where he was crowned and saw the two daughters of a certain Moscow {7v} nobleman [dvorianin], Il’ia Miloslavskii, standing in church at prayer, and sent to his palace for some maidens and ordered to take the younger daughter of that nobleman [dvorianin] to his upper chambers; and when the service was over the tsar came to his chambers, looked at her and became enamored, and designated her as his tsarevna, and entrusted her care to his sisters,

6 See on the coronation ceremony in the book of Petr Petreus.



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and attired her in royal garments, and assigned trustworthy and God-fearing women to protect her until the hour of the wedding should come. 7. The tsar then put to one side the management of affairs of the state and the land and the administration of justice, and with his princes and boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men began to plan his wedding: which of the boyars and Duma men and closest men and their wives to choose for each rank in the wedding party, in the mother’s and father’s place {8}, and as seated boyars and boyar women and in the [bridegroom’s] train as the chiliarch [tysiatskii] and as boyars and groomsmen [druzhki] and bridesmaids [svakhi] and candlebearers and bread-bearers and equerries and the majordomo, and likewise on the bride’s side as seated boyars and boyar women and groomsmen [druzhki] and bridesmaids [svakhi]. And after pondering this for many days, he ordered the Duma secretaries to draw up a roster for his royal nuptials, [indicating] which boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men and their wives should occupy each rank in the wedding party, as he had chosen, whomever he selected for each rank, without regard for family or service rank or hereditary status, each to occupy the rank which had been directed for him; and after drawing up this roster the secretaries were to seal it with their signatures and present it to him. And he ordered {8v} his royal decree to be announced to the boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men in the presence of many people, so that on the day of the wedding they would be ready to serve in the rank designated for each without regard to hereditary status or family or service rank. And when the nuptials are held, if at that time any of these boyars or okol’nichie or Duma men or closest men should create any disturbance in the wedding ceremonies on the basis of his lineage or hereditary status or service rank, and the wedding ceremonies are thrown into disorder, he shall be put to death without mercy, and his service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] shall be confiscated, for reasons of his disobedience and disturbance.7 Likewise after the wedding no one is to speak words of abuse to another on account of the wedding ranks, or to hold it as a precedent that one has occupied a higher rank than another; and if anyone should begin to speak words of abuse and elevate himself, and this is discovered, he shall be held in great {9} disgrace and punished by the tsar. 8. And the ranks in the wedding party are such: on the tsar’s side, the first rank includes the father and mother, who are seated [at the banquet table] in the place of the tsar’s father and mother. The second rank includes the members of the train: the archpriest with a cross, the chiliarch [tysiatskii], who is the leading figure in the train; then the tsar and eight boyars. And the function of those members of

7 See below, Chapter 4, article 12, on ambassadors, for the reasons behind this decree. [See also] in the same chapter, article 15, for the seating of boyars at the table.

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the train is such: they are present in the church with the tsar and tsaritsa at the wedding ceremony, and sit at the [banquet] tables above all the rest. [Also in the train are] the groomsman [druzhka] and the groomsman’s assistant [podruzh’e], whose function is such: they summon the guests to the wedding, and at the wedding make speeches in the name of the chiliarch [tysiatskii] and of the tsar, and are sent with presents; the bridesmaids [svakhi], wives of the groomsmen [druzhki], whose function is such: they braid the tsaritsa’s hair and look after her, and dress and disrobe her; the candle-bearer: he {9v} holds a candle while the tsaritsa’s hair is being braided before the wedding ceremony; the bread-bearers, who carry bread to and from the church on trays which are lined with gold-colored velvet and covered with embroidered cloth and sables; the equerry, with his function. The third rank is made up of the seated boyars and boyar women, 12 men and women, who sit as guests at the banquet tables together with the tsar’s father and mother, but do not accompany the tsar to church. The fourth rank is the majordomo, with his function of standing at the sideboard with the food and drink. On the tsaritsa’s side, the first rank includes her own father and mother; the second is made up of the seated boyars and boyar women; the third rank includes the groomsmen [druzhki] and bridesmaids [svakhi], who are the wives of the groomsmen [druzhki], and a candlebearer and bread-bearers, in the same manner. And at the wedding each of the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] who serve food and drink to the tsar and tsaritsa and to the various ranks of people {10} at the tables serves where he is ordered according to the roster, and they are likewise not to engage in disputes [over precedence]. 9. And when the day of the tsar’s wedding arrives, on the eve of that day the tsar holds a banquet for the boyars and boyar women and for the bride’s father and mother; and the tsar sits at one table with his bride, and the boyars and boyar women [sit] at various separate tables. And before eating, the tsar’s spiritual advisor, the archpriest, blesses the tsar and tsarevna with a cross and enjoins them to kiss one another; and then the boyars and boyar wives congratulate the tsar and tsarevna on their betrothal. And after eating and drinking the tsar dismisses the tsarevna to his sisters, as before; and the boyars and boyar wives disperse to their homes. 10. And on the morning of the wedding day {10v}, the tsar goes to his first-ranking cathedral for the Te Deum; and after the Te Deum the patriarch blesses the tsar with a cross and sprinkles him with holy water, and the tsar kisses the icons and the relics of the saints; and then he asks the patriarch’s blessing on his marriage and the patriarch says his words of blessing. And the tsar goes from that church to another cathedral, where the former tsars are buried, and at the time a memorial service is held for the dead, and after making reverence before the tombs, he goes to his palace.



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On the wedding ceremonies, how they are organized. 11. First, the hall is prepared, and lined with velvet, with large Turkish and Persian carpets spread on the floor; and then a royal throne is set up for the tsar and his tsarevna to sit, and before them {11} a table, with other tables at which the boyars and boyar women are to sit, and tablecloths are spread and bread and salt is placed on those tables. And during this time the tsar arrays himself in all his royal garments, just as for his coronation, and orders the new tsarevna to be dressed in all her royal garments, except for a crown, since her head is covered with a maiden’s wreath; and at the same time the boyars and the entire wedding party and the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and Moscow noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries and colonels and commanders and trading company men [gosti] array themselves in gold-colored garments. And when everything is ready, the tsar is informed of this. And after a short time has passed, the tsar orders the tsarevna’s father and mother and all the attendants on her side to go with her to that hall and await his arrival; and when the tsarevna with her father and mother and wedding party enter {11v} the hall, they seat the tsarevna on the throne that has been prepared for her and themselves wait the tsar’s arrival at their own places, where it has been arranged for them to sit. And when the tsar is informed that they have arrived in the hall with their entire wedding party and have arranged themselves, the tsar tells his spiritual advisor the archpriest that it is time for him to go, and the spiritual advisor begins to say a prayer, and the tsar and his wedding party pray before the icons; and after the prayer the spiritual advisor blesses the wedding party and the tsar with a cross, and the groomsmen [druzhki] and wedding party ask the blessing of the father and mother who take the place of the tsar’s father and mother to go and bring the bride; and then the tsar asks for their blessing and the father and mother bless him with the words: “May God bless you!” and then the spiritual advisor and the wedding party and the tsar go forth; and the bread-bearers walk before them, carrying bread {12}. And when they come to the hall where everything has been arranged, and the archpriest enters the hall first, and then the wedding party and the tsar; and during this time the tsarevna and her wedding party remain standing. And having entered, the archpriest and the wedding party and the tsar pray before the icons, and then the groomsmen [druzhki] and the groomsmen’s assistants [podruzh’ia] ask the blessing of the bride’s father and mother for the bridegroom and their daughter to sit down on their throne; and they give their blessing in the same words. And when the tsar and tsarevna sit down on their throne, on the same cushion, then the boyars and the entire wedding party sit down in their places at the table, and the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] begin to bring food for the tsar and for the tsarevna and for the wedding party, and to serve the food, one dish on each table and not all at once, though on the table where the boyars and boyar women {12v} sit they place about five dishes of the same course, because some sit far way from there at the head of the table; and when the food has been served but before they begin to eat, the spiritual advisor stands and says a prayer,

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the Our Father; and when he has finished the prayer they sit down at their places; and then the groomsmen [druzhki] and the groomsmen’s assistants [podruzh’ia] ask the father and mother [of the bride] for their blessing to unravel the bride’s hair, and the archpriest and the wedding party begin to eat and drink, not to eat their fill but for the sake of ceremony; and they serve food to the tsar and carve it and carry it away from the table, but he does not eat of it; and when they have unraveled the bride’s hair the groomsmen [druzhki] ask the father and mother for their blessing to braid the bride’s hair, and they bless them with the same words. And while they are unraveling {13} and braiding the hair they cover the tsar and tsarevna with a veil, and the veil is held by the candle-bearers, and the unraveling and braiding is done by the bridesmaids [svakhi]; during this time a large platter of bread and cheese stands before the tsar on the table, and they begin to cut this bread and cheese and put it on plates, and on those same plates on top of that bread and cheese they place handkerchiefs as gifts from the bride, according to a roster, and the groomsmen [druzhki] present them first to the priest and the father and mother of the bride and the chiliarch [tysiatskii], then to the tsar and the wedding train and the seated boyars and boyar women, and to each other and the bridesmaids [svakhi] and the equerry and the majordomo and their assistants, likewise according to a roster. And after the bride’s hair is braided she is adorned with the same veil which had been used to cover them, and there is a cross embroidered on that veil and the maiden’s wreath is taken off and given for safekeeping {13v}. Likewise one of the bride’s groomsmen [druzhki] is sent to the tsar’s father and mother and to the tsarevnas and to the seated boyars and boyar women with bread and cheese and gifts, and to the patriarch with a quantity of white linen; and those gifts are handkerchiefs of white taffeta, their hems embroidered with gold and silver, with gold and silver around the fringes, or gold and silver [spun] with silk. And after the braiding, following the third course, the archpriest stands up from the table and says the postprandial grace; and then the groomsmen [druzhki] ask the father’s and mother’s blessing for the tsar and the tsarevna and their wedding train to set out for the marriage ceremony, and they give them their blessing; and then the father and mother bless the tsar and the bride with covered icons, their covers made of gold with precious stones and pearls; and then the father and mother take their daughter’s hand {14} and place it in the tsar’s hands, and bid her farewell. And as they are setting out for the church from the hall, the archpriest then blesses with a cross the breadbearers and candle-bearers and the wedding party and the tsar and the tsarevna. And they set out for the wedding party to that church in which the spiritual advisor serves, and past which the ambassadors from all [foreign] states enter the tsar’s palace, through the vestibule. And upon arriving at the church, the archpriest again blesses everyone with a cross, and then enters the church; and the tsar goes from the hall to the church together with the tsarevna, and leads her by the right hand; and meanwhile all the bells are rung and in all the churches prayers are said to God for the health of the tsar and tsarevna and their joining in lawful wedlock. And after entering the church the tsar and tsarevna take their places in the center of the church, near the



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sanctuary, and a sufficient quantity of gold moiré is spread for them {14v} to stand on; and the tsar is supported on one side by a groomsman [druzhka] and the tsarevna by a bridesmaid [svakha]; and the archpriest, arrayed in his church vestments, begins the wedding ceremony, and at this time the tsarevna is uncovered; and the archpriest places the wedding crowns over them, and after the marriage ceremony presents French red wine for them to drink out of a single vessel, and the wedding crowns are removed from them and a [royal] crown is placed on the tsar’s head. And then the archpriest instructs them how to live together: the wife should be obedient to her husband, and they should not become angry at one another, except that for certain faults the husband should punish her a little with a rod: for the husband is to the wife as Christ is head of the church; and they should live in purity and fear of God, and fast on Sundays and Wednesdays {15} and Fridays and during all the periods of fast; and on the Lord’s holy days and any days that commemorate the apostles and evangelists and other designated saints they should not fall into sin and should go to God’s temple and give offerings; and they should consult often with their spiritual advisor, for he will instruct them in all good things. And after concluding his instruction the archpriest takes the tsaritsa’s hand and places it in her husband’s, and enjoins them to kiss one another; and after the kiss the tsaritsa is covered, and then the archpriest and the wedding party congratulate the tsar and tsaritsa on their marriage. And after the congratulations, the archpriest removes his vestments and goes forth from the church, along with the entire wedding party and the tsar and tsaritsa; and at the door of the [church] vestibules the archpriest blesses everyone with a cross {15v} as before, and they go to the tsar’s apartments; and the chiliarch [tysiatskii] sends ahead a groomsman [druzhka] to tell the tsar’s and tsaritsa’s mother and father and the seated boyars and boyar women that the tsar and tsaritsa have been married in good health and are coming to them, and they reply that they are awaiting their arrival; and having said this the groomsman [druzhka] returns and repeats their answer to the chiliarch [tysiatskii]. And while the tsar is going from the church to his apartments all the bells peal forth. And while the tsar and tsaritsa are being married, the tsar’s father and mother and the boyars and boyar women all gather together in that hall where the braiding had been performed. And as the tsar and the wedding party enter the hall, at the entrance to the hall the archpriest blesses everyone with a cross as before, and at the same time the tsar’s father and mother bless the tsar and tsaritsa with covered icons {16}, and then the fathers and mothers and boyars and boyar women congratulate the tsar and tsaritsa on their marriage; and the tsar and tsaritsa sit down at the table, and the boyars and the wedding party at their tables, and the food is brought out, and they eat and drink until the third course, a swan, has been brought out and placed on the table; and at that time a groomsman [druzhka] asks the blessing of the father and mother and chiliarch [tysiatskii] for the newlyweds to retire, and they give their blessing in the same words. And the tsar and tsaritsa, and father and mother, and a few other men and women accompany them to the chamber where they are to retire,

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and after accompanying them they all go hither to the table, as before, and eat and drink until such time as they have news from the tsar. 12. And when the tsar and tsaritsa retire, the equerry begins to ride outside that chamber on horseback, with a naked sword {16v}, and no one is to come near that place; and the equerry rides all night until daybreak. 13. And when an hour by the clock has passed, the father and mother and chiliarch [tysiatskii] send to the tsar and tsaritsa to inquire of their health. And when the groomsman [druzhka] comes and inquires of their health, the tsar then answers that they are in good health, if the good thing has taken place between them; but if it has not taken place, the tsar orders him to return a second time, or a third time; and the groomsman [druzhka] likewise comes and inquires. And if the good thing has taken place between them, the tsar says that they are in good health, and orders the entire wedding party and fathers and mothers to appear before him, though the archpriest does not appear; but if the good thing does not take place, then all the boyars and the wedding party disperse in sadness, without appearing before the tsar. 14. And when the wedding party appears before the tsar, the fathers and mothers {17} and the entire party congratulate the tsar and tsaritsa on joining together in lawful wedlock, and the tsar favors them, presenting them with drink in goblets and cups, and then the tsaritsa likewise. And then the tsar orders that light food be brought for himself and the tsaritsa, because they have fasted the entire day, and he and the tsaritsa eat together. And when they have eaten, the tsar then tells the wedding party to go home and come to dine the next morning, and to assemble together before dinner; and he and the tsaritsa retire as before. 15. And on the morning of the [next] day, various bathing-chambers are prepared for the tsar and tsaritsa, and the tsar goes to the bath-chamber together with a groomsman [druzhka] and a lord chamberlain, and when the tsar comes out of the bath-chamber he is dressed in a new shirt and drawers and garments, and the chamberlain is ordered to take the old shirt for safekeeping; and afterwards the tsar {17v} attends matins, while the tsaritsa is in her bath; and when she is arrayed in her garments, the boyars at that time gather together in the tsar’s palace. And when the tsaritsa goes to the bath-chamber, she is accompanied by her mother and other closest women and a bridesmaid [svakha], who examines her shift; and after examining the shift, they show it to the tsar’s mother and to a few other female relatives, to determine that her maidenhood had been preserved intact; and those shirts, the tsar’s and the tsaritsa’s, and the sheets are gathered together and held in a secret place for safekeeping, until the nuptials are over; and then [the tsaritsa] leaves the bath-chamber for her own apartments. And when the tsar is informed that she has left the bath-chamber and that everything has been prepared as ceremony requires, the tsar then goes to the



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tsaritsa with his entire wedding train; and at this time the tsaritsa is dressed in all her garments and in a royal crown; and the members of the wedding party congratulate the tsar and tsaritsa; and then the tsaritsa presents the bath-gifts — shirts and drawers — to the tsar and the boyars {18} and the entire wedding party; and those shirts and drawers are made of taffeta and linen, embroidered with gold and silver. And then the tsar and the wedding train go to the patriarch, and the patriarch blesses and congratulates him; and from the patriarch the tsar visits his churches for Te Deums, and after the Te Deums he kisses the icons. 16. And when it is time to dine, the tsar and the tsaritsa eat in the same hall where the ceremony had first begun, and this is called the prince’s banquet hall; and the tsar sits with the tsaritsa at their table on royal thrones, and the members of the wedding party and boyar women [sit] at their former places; and after dining various fruits and sugar and berries and other rare things are placed on the table; and at that time the tsar and tsaritsa and the entire wedding party stand up; and first those who stand for the tsar’s father and mother, and the tsarevnas, and the seated boyars and boyar women {18v}, and the chiliarch [tysiatskii], bless the tsar and tsaritsa with covered icons, and then they present the tsar with velvet and satin and damask and gold and silver moiré and sables and silver goblets; likewise they present the tsaritsa with velvet and satin and damask and moiré and sables and gold rings with precious stones, and silver vessels, whatever each has; and after eating and drinking to their sovereign health, on that day the boyars and the entire wedding party disperse to the homes. In the same manner on the third day the tsar again holds a banquet in the same manner in honor of the newly-wedded tsaritsa, for the boyars and for the wedding party, and this is called the princess’s table, and they dine as before; and following the banquet, after the fruit, the tsaritsa’s father and mother and her kinsmen and the seated boyars and boyar women bless the tsar and tsaritsa with icons, and present gifts of the same kind as the members of the tsar’s wedding party; and after eating and drinking the entire wedding party likewise disperses to their homes. {19} 17. And while the nuptials are celebrated, in the palace courtyard and in the antechambers they play the horns and pipes and beat the drums; and to give light they burn fires all night long in designated places of the courtyards; and there are never any other games or music or dances at the tsar’s nuptials. 18. On the fourth day the patriarch and metropolitans and archbishops and bishops and archimandrites and abbots and monastery stewards dine at the tsar’s table; and after dinner the patriarch and hierarchs bless the tsar and tsaritsa with icons, and then they present gifts in the same manner as the boyars; and the tsar and tsaritsa receive personally the icons and images from the patriarch and the most important of the hierarchs, and order [others] to receive them from the other hierarchs. And then the tsar and tsaritsa offer drink to them in cups and goblets, and the hierarchs drink to

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their sovereign health {19v} and disperse to their homes; and afterwards the tsar and tsaritsa send offerings of money and gifts of linen and presentations of food and drink to the patriarch and the hierarchs. 19. In the same manner on subsequent days there are banquets for lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and Moscow noblemen [dvoriane] and trading company men [gosti] and the elders of the [trading and cloth workers’] guilds [sotni], and the representatives of the provincial settlement [posad] men; and these men likewise present whatever gifts they have to the tsar and tsaritsa; and the tsar receives these gifts himself, and the tsaritsa not being present at this table. 20. In the course of many days, priests and deacons and the servitors of cathedrals, and other churches, eat in the tsar’s palace, while others are given food and drink to take home; and they are also given money to pray for their sovereign’s health, 10 or five rubles or less, down {20} to half a ruble, depending upon the amount that each church receives yearly in subsidies from the tsar. And the tsar sends messages to the provinces, ordering that the priests and deacons of cathedrals and other churches be given money out of local revenues for Te Deums, in the same amount as in Moscow. And lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and pages [zhil’tsy] are sent from Moscow to the provincial monasteries with offerings and with money for Te Deums and for the maintenance of the monks; and they give each monk five rubles and four and three and two and one and half a ruble and less, depending on the person, and a napkin and two kerchiefs; and in the same fashion [the monks] bless those men with icons and present whatever gifts they have from the monastic treasury. 21. And after the royal festivities, the tsar and tsaritsa visit the monasteries in Moscow, and attend Te Deums, and give {20v} the monks maintenance and offerings: to each archimandrite and abbot and steward 20 and 15 and 10 rubles; to each elder and ordinary monk five rubles and four and three and two and one, and a napkin and two kerchiefs. And when the tsar and tsaritsa leave a monastery, its superiors and brethren bless the tsar and tsaritsa with covered icons, and present bread to them. And when the tsar and tsaritsa visit the poorhouses and prisons and likewise give alms, giving likewise to each of the needy and wretched a ruble and a half-ruble and less. And many thousands of rubles are spent in this way. 22. And when the tsar is crowned and his nuptials are celebrated, all the criminals in Moscow and in the provinces are set free, except in the most serious cases of murder. {21} 23. And after the royal festivities are over, the tsar bestows his favor upon his tsaritsa’s father and his own father-in-law, and his family, elevating them from low dignity to high; and if any of them are in need he assists them out of his royal treasury; and



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he assigns others for subsistence as commandants [voevody] in the provinces and to chancelleries in Moscow, and gives them service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny]; and they enrich themselves through these service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] and through service as commandants [voevody] and through sitting in chancelleries. On the royal apartments. 24. The tsar and tsaritsa have their separate apartments; and the boyars and closest men see the tsaritsa from time to time, but ordinary men rarely see her. And on the Lord’s holy days and on Sundays, and during periods of fast, the tsar and tsaritsa sleep in their separate apartments; but when they should sleep together, {21v} the tsar sends for the tsaritsa, ordering her to come to his chambers and to sleep, or else decides to come to her chambers. And when they have spent the night together, on the following morning they go separately to the bath-chamber, or wash themselves with water; for without going to the bath-chamber, or washing themselves with water, they must not go to church or approach the cross, since this is considered impure and sinful, and forbidden not only to the tsar and tsartitsa but to ordinary men. 25. The tsar’s sisters and daughters, the tsarevnas, have their own private apartments, and live like hermits, seeing few people and being seen by few, but spending all their time in prayer and fasting and washing their faces with tears: for although they have the pleasures of royalty they do not have the pleasure that Almighty God has granted to mankind of joining together and procreating {22}. For it is not the custom to give in marriage to princes and boyars of their own state, because these princes and boyars are slaves and call themselves slaves in their petitions8, and it would be considered an eternal disgrace if a mistress would marry a slave. Nor is it the custom to give them in marriage to the royal sons of princes of other states, because they are not of the same faith and will not renounce their faith or let their faith be put to scorn, and also because [the tsarevnas] are not familiar with the language and politics of those states, and this would bring shame upon them. On the birth of the tsar’s children. 26. When the time draws near for the birth of a tsarevich, the tsaritsa then goes to the bath-chamber, accompanied by a midwife and a few other women; and when he is born and the tsar is informed, they send for the spiritual advisor to say a prayer over the mother and infant and midwife and other women {22v} who are present, and so designate the name of the newborn infant; and after the spiritual advisor has said the prayer, the tsar enters the bath-chamber to see the newborn; but before the prayer

8 See Chapter 8, article 6, on petitions.

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has been said no one enters or leaves the bath-chamber. And the newborn infant is named after the saint whose feast day falls on the eighth day after his birth. And the tsar sends to the patriarch to inform him that God has presented him with a tsarevich, and the patriarch immediately goes to church, and then the tsar, and conducts a Te Deum; and they send to all the other churches and monasteries to hold Te Deums, and distribute alms to the needy and wretched; and then the tsar visits the monasteries and likewise gives maintenance and offerings to the monks; and likewise large amounts of alms are sent to the prisons and poorhouses, and those who are guilty of crimes are freed from prison, except in the most serious cases. And on the same day {23} that the tsarevich is born the tsar holds a birthday banquet for the patriarch and the hierarchs and boyars, and then for the priests and deacons; and the tsar bestows his bounty upon the musketeers and men of other ranks, and orders that they be given drink from the cellars. And lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and pages [zhil’tsy] are sent with messages from the tsar to the metropolitans and archbishops and bishops and commandants [voevody] and monasteries in the provinces, that they pray to God for the sovereign’s health and for the newborn tsarevich. And when those men have arrived in the provinces and performed their office and delivered the messages, and after the prayers have been said, they dine with the hierarchs and commandants [voevody] and in the monasteries, and after dining the hierarchs bless them with icons and present gifts, and the commandants [voevody] likewise present whatever gifts they have; and those gifts from the hierarchs and monasteries and commandants [voevody] are large in number; and when they return to Moscow {23v} and are asked who gave what, and if a rich man or institution has given a meager gift, the tsar holds it in anger, as it would seem that this man did not rejoice at the birth of the tsarevich. And afterwards the tsar holds the christening on some suitable day, depending upon the infant’s health; and the infant is christened by the patriarch, with the steward of the first-ranking Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery as the godfather and the tsar’s sister or a relative of the tsar’s and tsaritsa’s as the godmother. And after the christening a banquet is held for the patriarch and hierarchs and boyars and other ranks; and after dining the tsarevich is blessed with icons, and then the hierarchs and boyars and other ranks present gifts to the tsarevich, and the tsar personally receives the icons and gifts from the patriarch and leading hierarchs and boyars, and orders his closest men {24} to receive the icons and gifts from the other lesser hierarchs and men of lower rank; and the tsarevich is not present during this time; and after drinking his health they disperse to their homes. Likewise banquets are held for priests and deacons, and drink is distributed to the musketeers and men of various rank, in the same way as at the time of birth. And the musketeers and infantrymen and other ranks are given drink without measure; when such days or celebrations occur, tubs [of vodka] are set out for them in the courtyard of the tsar’s palace, each holding 100 or 200 vedra, and six and seven times that amount of beer and mead; if persons other than the musketeers want to drink they are free to do so; but no one is permitted to carry any home from the palace courtyard.



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27. And when a tsarevna is born, her birth and christening and Te Deums are arranged in the same way as with a tsarevich; but the distribution of food and drink and of money is on a lesser scale than with a tsarevich. {24v} 28. And for wet-nursing a tsarevich or a tsarevna, a women is selected from among women of every rank who is worthy and clean and whose milk is sweet and healthy; and that woman lives for a year in the tsaritsa’s apartments as a wet-nurse; and when a year has gone by, if she is the wife of a nobleman [dvorianin], the tsar appoints her husband to be a provincial commandant [voevoda] or grants him a hereditary estate [votchina]; if she is the wife of an undersecretary or a lesser serving man, he will be elevated in dignity and given a large salary; and if she is the wife of a settlement [posad] man, he will likewise be given a large salary and will be exempted for life from obligations and taxes to the tsar. And a governess, an old worthy boyar’s widow, and a dry-nurse, and other servitors, are assigned to look after that same tsarevich or tsarevna. And when a tsarevich reaches the age of five, a boyar {25} of high dignity, gentle and sensible, is assigned to take care of him and instruct him, assisted by an okol’nichii or Duma man; and likewise boyars’ children, of the same age as the tsarevich, are selected to serve him as lords-in-waiting [stol’niki]. And when the time comes to teach that tsarevich how to read and write, tutors who are gentle and sober are chosen to teach him; and one of the undersecretaries of the Ambassadorial Chancellery to instruct him in writing; but no language other than Russian — neither Latin nor Greek nor German nor any other — are taught in the Muscovite state. And each tsarevich and tsarevna has his own apartments and his own staff to look after him. And up to the age of 15 and beyond the tsarevich is not allowed to see anyone except those men who have been assigned to him, and boyars and closest men, for such is the custom; but after he is 15 years of age he is shown to the entire populace when he goes with his father to church or to the hunt; and when the people {25v} learn that he has already been presented, they come from many provinces just to look at him as if it were a wondrous sight. 29. The tsareviches in their early years, and the tsarevnas young and old, when going to church are concealed from view on all sides by screens of cloth carried around them; likewise when they stand in church no one can see them except the clergy, for they are curtained off with taffeta; and such times there are few people in church except for boyars and closest men. And when they visit monasteries, their covered sleighs [kaptany] and closed carriages [kolymagi] are likewise covered with taffeta. And for the tsaritsa’s and the tsarevna’s winter travel the covered sleighs [kaptany] are fitted out on sleighs like little boxes, lined with red velvet or cloth, with doors on both sides {26} with mica shutters and taffeta curtains; while for summer travel the closed carriages [kolymagi] are made to resemble coaches, lined also with cloth and with steps for entering, and are fitted with wheels just like an ordinary cart and not like those coaches which are suspended on straps; and those covered sleighs [kaptany]

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and closed carriages [kolymagi] have two poles without connecting shafts, and a single horse in harnessed to each with other horses added in side harness. 30. When it comes time each year to celebrate the birthday of the tsar or tsaritsa or tsareviches or tsarevnas, on that day the tsar holds a banquet for the patriarch and hierarchs and boyars and Duma men; and after the banquet the patriarch prays to God and toasts the tsar and drinks first to his health, and then passes {26v} the cup to the tsar and the metropolitans and boyars; and after drinking the tsar’s health and likewise that of the tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, they disperse to their homes. And before the banquet the tsar goes to his apartments and distributes cakes in his own name or the tsaritsa’s or a tsarevich’s or a tsarevna’s, according to whose day it is, to the hierarchs and boyars and Duma men and closest men, and likewise to the lordsin-waiting [stol’niki] and secretaries and colonels and trading company men [gosti]; and these cakes are elongated, two or three arshiny in length and quarter-arshin thick; and then food and drink are distributed to the priests and deacons and musketeers, and alms to the prisons and poorhouses in the same manner as mentioned above. And on the days when the saint’s days of the tsar’s family are celebrated, the chief commandants [voevody], both in the field and in the towns, and the metropolitans and the monastic superiors hold banquets for the soldiers and for other men and for the priests and monks; and after dining they similarly {27} drink toasts. Likewise on those days no work is performed by men of any rank, either in Moscow or in the provinces, and the trading stalls are closed, and no marriages are celebrated, and no burials are held. On the tsareviches, when there are two or three. 31. Tsar Ivan Vasil’evich left two sons, and one became tsar and the other with his mother was given his separate share as has been written above. At the present time the tsar has three sons; one is coming of age and the others are young; and during his lifetime [the tsar] may have them married or given their separate shares as he pleases. Likewise if they all happen to be alive when he dies, or if other sons are born, one of them will be elected tsar, and the others shall live on their separate shares either as originally arranged or according to some new plan for them. And if they were to receive a separate share, and their children should {27v} multiply, the share set aside for them would be too meager and small for their maintenance; but this cannot be described since there has never been any such case. And [only] non-sovereign towns are given as appanages; for they fear to give [towns] in the tsardoms of Kazan’, Astrakhan’, and Siberia, or in the realms of Vladimir, Novgorod, and Pskov: for the first tsar obtained and subjugated them only with great effort, and if they were given [as appanages] then [their princes] would refuse all obedience to their brother the tsar, and their children would break away and begin to live as independent sovereigns



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and not in obedience, or would want to become subjects of some other potentate; and there would be great turmoil as a result.{28} On the passing away of the tsars and tsaritsas and tsareviches and tsarevnas, and on their burial. 32. When the tsar departs this world for the next, they send to inform the patriarch and the boyars; and then the patriarch sends to his first-ranking church to ring a single bell at long intervals, that all men might know; and then the patriarch goes to the church, and chants the Great Canon for the deceased, and the Duma men and closest men dress themselves in black garments and go to the tsar’s palace and make their reverence before the tsar’s body; and on that same day the tsar is washed with warm water and dressed in a shirt and drawers and all his royal garments and crown, and placed in a casket; and that casket is made of wood, lined with cherry-colored velvet on the inside and purple on the outside; and the tsar’s body stands in his royal church which is located in front of his chambers, until it comes time for the burial; and for six weeks, day {28v} and night, the church clerks recite the Psalter and prayers at his casket. And all the monasteries and churches in Moscow and in the provinces are ordered to hold commemorative services for the tsar for six weeks, and to prepare the memorial dish [kutiia] every day except on Sundays and major holy days; and money for commemoration is sent to the monasteries and churches in Moscow, and money for commemoration is given to provincial monasteries and churches out of local revenue, half as much as in Moscow. And the patriarch sends messages to the provincial metropolitans and archbishops and bishops, and to the archimandrites and abbots in the monasteries, ordering them all to come for the tsar’s burial. And in Moscow on the third day the tsaritsa or tsareviches hold a commemorative banquet for the patriarch and hierarchs and boyars and priests, and serve a requiem, over the memorial dish [kutiia] and the memorial dish [kutiia] is made of boiled millet with honey and sugar and berries {29}, while in the monasteries and churches the memorial dish [kutiia] is made of boiled wheat with honey; and in the same way after three weeks have passed there is a banquet for the patriarch and hierarchs and boyars. And when the hierarchs have all assembled from the provinces in Moscow, a day is chosen for the burial, and the patriarch and hierarchs and priests and deacons assemble in the tsar’s palace and dress in church vestments, and the tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas and boyars and closest men and boyars’ wives and many women array themselves in black garments; and taking the tsar’s body they go forth from the tsar’s palace, in order: first go the deacons, priests, choir, and clerks, singing the Canons; behind them priests bearing the tsar’s body; behind the tsar’s body the patriarch and hierarchs and tsareviches and boyars; then the tsaritsa and tsarevnas and boyars’ wives; then a multitude of people, men and women {29v}, all together, not in any order, sobbing and weeping. And when they come to the church named after the Archangel Mikhail, near the tsar’s palace, where the tsars are buried, the deacons and priests remain outside the church while the hierarchs and tsaritsa and

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tsareviches and tsarevnas and boyars and other ranks enter the church; and after entering the church they place the tsar’s body in the middle of the church near the sanctuary and do not carry it into the sanctuary; and they begin to intone the funeral service, and when it is over they inter the tsar’s body in the earth and cover it with a flagstone; and then the patriarch says a prayer and swings incense over the kut’ia, and after finishing the prayer eats of the memorial dish [kutiia] three times with a spoon, and then presents it to the tsaritsa and the tsareviches and tsarevnas and leading hierarchs and boyars and men of every rank; and when the burial {30} has been performed each returns to his own home; and there is no funeral oration. And when the tsar is buried, men of every rank are given plain and twisted wax candles for accompanying [the tsar’s body]; and over 10 berkovtsy in candles are used up on that occasion. And at that same time money is distributed from the tsar’s treasury for the burial to the hierarchs and priests and deacons: 100 rubles to the patriarch, 80 rubles to the metropolitans, 60 and 70 rubles to the archbishops and bishops, 50 and 40 and 30 rubles to the archimandrites and abbots and leading priests, and 20 and 15 and 10 and five rubles and less to the other priests and deacons, depending of the person. And at that same time a large amount of money is gathered together in all the chancelleries and wrapped in paper in amounts of one ruble and half a ruble and quarter of a ruble, and brought out to the square {30v}, and the undersecretaries distribute personally the alms to the needy and wretched and to men of every rank; likewise to each elder and monk in the monasteries and to each man in the poorhouses and distributed sums of five and three and two rubles and one ruble, depending on the person; and in the provinces all the monks and priests and beggars are given money for commemoration and alms, in one-half and one-third the amount as in Moscow. Likewise upon the death of a tsar all the criminals in Moscow and in the provinces are freed from prison without punishment. Woe then to those who are present at the burial, for the burial takes place at night and there is a great multitude of people, both from Moscow and from the towns and rural districts; for Muscovites are not by nature God-fearing men: they rob men and women alike of their clothing, and beat them to death on the streets; and on the day that a tsar is buried {31} over 100 corpses will be found, of men who have been beaten or knifed to death. And when 40 days have gone by after a tsar’s death, which is called the “Forty Days” [sorochiny], then the hierarchs and tsaritsa and boyars attend the liturgy in that same church and serve a requiem for the tsar; and then there is a banquet in the tsar’s palace for the hierarchs and boyars and priests; and the closest men distribute food to the monks in the monasteries, and give contributions in half the amount as at the burial. And the money that is spent on the tsar’s burial in Moscow and in the provinces comes close to the amount of yearly revenue collected by the treasury from the entire state. And when the tsaritsa departs this life her burial and ceremonies are similar to the tsar’s; but not all the hierarchs assemble, because many live far away; and half as much money is spent as for the tsar. And when a tsarevich departs this life his burial



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is like a tsaritsa’s with a little less [distributed in alms] {31v}. And when a tsarevna departs this life, her burial is like the tsar’s, with one-quarter [the amount of alms]. And the burial ceremony is the same for all of them. And the tsars and tsareviches are all buried in that church of the Archangel Mikhail, while the tsaritsas and tsarevnas are also buried in the Kremlin, in the Ascension Monastery, where the nuns live. And when a tsarevich or tsarevna departs this life, the tsarevnas do not attend the burial. And mourning clothing is worn for six weeks and no longer by the tsar for his tsaritsa and for the tsareviches and tsarevnas, and by the tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas for the tsar, each for the other, and by the tsareviches for the tsarevnas and by the tsarevnas for the tsareviches; and likewise the boyars and Duma men and closest men and their wives and serving men of every rank {32}, all but the lowest ranks of men, wear mourning clothing for their sovereigns and for their own kinsmen in the same way. And year after year, for all time to come, the tsars and tsaritsas and tsareviches and tsarevnas are commemorated every Saturday in the monasteries and churches in Moscow and in the provinces. {32v}

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{33} Chapter 2 On the tsar’s officials: on the boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men, on the lords-inwaiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane], on the musketeer colonels and commanders, on the secretaries, on the pages [zhil’tsy], and on the various serving men and palace servitors. 1. Of the former great families of princes and boyars, many have died out. At present, succeeding those families, the families [whose members] serve as boyars but not as okol’nichie [include]: the princes Cherkasskii, the princes Vorotynskii, the princes Trubestskoi, the princes Golytsyn, the princes Khovanskii, the Morozovs, the Sheremetevs, the princes Odoeveskii, the princes Pronskii, the Sheins, the Saltykovs, the princes Repnin, the princes Prozorovskii, the princes Buinosov, the princes {33v} Khilkov, the princes Urusov. 2. Lesser families, who serve [both] as okol’nichie and as boyars [include]: the princes Kurakin, the princes Dolgorukov, the Buturlins, the princes Romodanovskii, the princes Pozharskii, the princes Volkonskii, the princes Lobanov, the Streshnevs, the princes Boriatinskii, the Miloslavskiis, the Sukins, the Pushkins, the Izmailovs, the Pleshcheevs, the [princes] Lvov. 3. There are families who serve as Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane] and okol’nichie, of honorable or middle-ranking origin, or descended from noblemen [dvoriane]; and those families do not attain a higher dignity. There are in addition many other good and eminent families, but they have not yet attained [such] dignity, either because of some fault or because they have not served long enough. {34} 4. Duma secretaries [dumnye d’iaki]. There are three or four, but never more than four; and those Duma secretaries are noblemen [dvoriane] or trading company men [gosti] or undersecretaries by origin; and among those Duma secretaries the secretary of the Ambassadorial Chancellery, even though he be of inferior birth, ranks above the rest by virtue of his chancellery and his duties; and in honor and dignity these Duma secretaries are like the Polish councilors [referendariusy] in Poland.



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5. Chamberlains [spal’niki]. They sleep in the tsar’s chambers in daily shifts, four men at a time; and many of them are married men and serve for many years in this rank; and they disrobe the tsar and pull off his boots. And the tsar selects these chamberlains [spal’niki] from among the children of all the boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men, while the rest try to obtain {34v} this rank but are unable to attain it. And after serving as chamberlains [spal’niki] the children of the leading boyars are appointed as boyars, and the children of other lesser families as okol’nichie, whatever [rank] the tsar sees fit to confer upon each one; and they are called boyars or okol’nichie of the chamber, and refer to themselves in ambassadorial reports as closest boyars and okol’nichie since they have been thus favored because of their closeness [to the tsar]. And the tsar confers the rank of boyar and okol’nichii and Duma man, even if the man is not in Moscow at the time, on New Year’s Day — the first day of September —, on Easter Day, and on the feast day of his patron saint, [elevating] an okol’nichii to boyar rank, or a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or a chamberlain [spal’nik] to [the rank of] okol’nichii or Duma man. And when the tsar sits in the Duma with those boyars and Duma men [to discuss] foreign {35} affairs and the affairs of his own state, the boyars and okol’nichie and Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane] seat themselves on benches, some distance from the tsar, according to rank: each boyar below those boyars to whom he is inferior in lineage, and not according to who is higher or senior in rank; below the boyars the okol’nichie, in the same order; below the okol’nichie, the Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane], likewise according to lineage rather than service. And the Duma secretaries stand, although sometimes the tsar permits them to sit. And they deliberate whatever needs to be deliberated, together with the tsar, as is the custom in other states. And when the tsar speaks his mind on some matter, having spoken he orders them, the boyars and Duma men, to deliberate and suggest the means for [accomplishing] this matter; and those boyars who are more eminent and more intelligent, or even those who are less eminent, state their opinion as to the means, while other boyars hold their beards {35v} rigid and give no answer, since in many cases boyar rank is conferred not for intelligence but for exalted lineage, and many of them are unlettered and uneducated; although, such men aside, other boyars of higher or lower degree can be found who give intelligent answers. And whatever they affirm on any matter, the tsar and boyars order the Duma secretaries to make note of it and write down that affirmation. And when it is necessary to write letters on some matter to a neighboring state, the Duma secretary of the Ambassadorial Chancellery is ordered to prepare such letters, and the Duma secretary does not prepare it himself but assigns it to an undersecretary, merely scratching out and adding things, whether it is necessary or not. And when they have been prepared, these letters are heard by the boyars first; and then the same boyars hear them a second time together {36} with the tsar; likewise other documents: after they have been written they are brought in to be heard by all the boyars, and after hearing them the boyars go to hear them a second time together with the tsar. And every document is sealed and noted by the Duma secretaries, while the tsar and boyars do not affix their signatures to treaties: for this is the function

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of Duma secretaries. And to various documents of lesser importance the ordinary secretaries affix their signatures, and the undersecretaries add their name below. And when the tsar wishes to deliberate a matter in private, the Duma then is composed of those closest boyar and okol’nichie who have been appointed from among the chamberlains [spal’niki], or who are ordered to attend, while the other boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men do not enter that chamber for a Duma [meeting] or for any {36v} matter whatsoever, unless the tsar so orders. 6. Lords-in-waiting [stol’niki]. These are likewise the children of boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and Moscow noblemen [dvoriane] and men of other ranks. Their service is such: when the tsar holds banquets for ambassadors of foreign states, or hierarchs and boyars, at such times they bring the food and drink to the tsar and to the hierarchs and ambassadors and boyars; and they place the dishes on the table, one platter of each dish. The tsar is served by a butler [kravchii], with okol’nichie assigned to serve at the other tables, while the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] hold the platters with the other dishes in their hands, not placing all the courses on the table at one time. And there are close to 500 of these lords-in-waiting [stol’niki]. And they are assigned to embassies as ambassadors or as the ambassador’s associates {37}, and as commandants [voevody], and to conduct investigations, and to determine the health of boyars who are in service, while others are officials in the chancelleries in Moscow, or serve as escorts [pristavy] to [foreign] ambassadors. 7. Adjutants [striapchie]. Their rank is such: when the tsar goes in procession to church, or to go hunting, or to [one of the palace] halls for a Duma [meeting] or a banquet, at such times they carry the scepter before him, and in church they hold his crown and kerchief, and when he travels they carry his breast plate, sword, and bow and quiver. And they are sent on various missions, but not as commandants [voevody] or ambassadors, that they should be ambassadors themselves. And there are about 800 of these adjutants [striapchie]. And these adjutants [striapchie] and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] live in Moscow in the tsar’s service half the year, in turn; and of the other half those who wish it leave for their villages until it is time [for them to serve]. {37v} 8. Moscow noblemen [dvoriane]. And such noblemen [dvoriane] are assigned to various duties, as commandants [voevody], and to embassies as ambassadors, and to conduct investigations and as officials in the chancelleries in Moscow, and as commanders of [regiments of] serving men, and as colonels and heads of musketeers. 9. Secretaries. And those secretaries are appointed from among the Moscow and provincial noblemen [dvoriane] and trading company men [gosti] and undersecretaries. And they serve as associates of the boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men in the chancelleries in Moscow in the provinces, and of ambassadors in



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embassies; and they serve together [with their superiors] and administer affairs of every kind, and hold trials, and are sent on various missions. 10. Pages [zhil’tsy]. Their rank is such: they sleep in the tsar’s palace, [to accompany him] on journeys and for any kind of assignment, in shifts {38} of 40 men or more, and they are sent on various missions. And they are children of noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries and undersecretaries. And from that rank [some] are appointed as adjutants [striapchie] and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and Duma men, and serve as commanders of cavalry and infantry [regiments], as cavalrymen [reitary] and European-trained soldiers [soldaty]. And there are about 2,000 of them. And all children of boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men begin their service in the tsar’s palace in this manner, although in lineage they are not equal to one another. 11. Provincial noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] are likewise sent on various missions and as commandants [voevody] and as commanders of cavalrymen [reitary] and European-trained soldiers [soldaty], and on other suitable assignments, and their service is rewarded with much honor. And those petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] are thus called for the following reason: when {38v} in years long past the Muscovite state would go to war with neighboring states, fighting men would be gathered from the entire Muscovite state, from various ranks of men, and upon [the conclusion of] peace would be dismissed to their homes, with some being freed from slavery or peasant bondage for their being taken prisoner. And those who had service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] kept them as before, but those men who did not have service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estate [votchina] were granted inhabited or uninhabited service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] for their service or for their suffering in captivity; but the service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] thus granted were too small to enable them to carry on service in the same manner as true noblemen [dvoriane]. Likewise some noblemen [dvoriane] had service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] which upon their death were divided among their children {39}; and these children likewise multiplied, and there was nothing left to give [to their sons] out of their fathers’ old service estates [pomest’ia] or hereditary estates [votchiny], and no new [estates] were available; therefore they did not serve in the tsar’s service, and their names were enrolled among the petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] who have little or no land. There are in addition other ranks of servitors in the tsar’s palace; and they are listed below in various places. 12. And of royal rank are the tsareviches of Siberia and Kasimov, who have been baptized in the Christian faith. In honor they are above the boyars, but they never participate and sit in the Duma, because their realms and they themselves were reduced to subjection through war, not long ago, and in any case it is not customary; likewise

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they are suspected in various ways {39v}. And their service is such: they support the tsar by the arms when he goes to church on holy days, and appear before the tsar each day to make obeisance. And they are given large hereditary estates [votchiny] and service estates [pomest’ia]; likewise they have married boyars’ daughters, taking them to themselves together with many chattels and with service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny]; and those whose service estates [pomest’ia] are small are given in addition a monetary allowance from the tsar each month. And when the Georgian tsarevich came with his mother to Moscow (and thus too on any future visit), he was given the same honor as the tsar’s own son; likewise he and his mother and their servitors were given regal clothing and adornments and household furnishings and food and drink, in abundance; and if he should come again the tsar will perhaps give him a tsarevna — {40} his daughter or his sister — in marriage, since he is of the same faith and has not lost his independence: for the tsar does not rule over his land, but by virtue of its fealty includes Georgia in his title when he writes to Christian, though not to Moslem, potentates.9 And these tsareviches, and likewise the princes of ancient lineage [who are] boyars and okol’nichie of the first and second category, are called tsareviches for their tsardoms, and princes for their principalities, and boyars for their boyar rank, having in former times served as boyars under the Russian grand princes; and the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of these tsareviches and princes are likewise given the title of “tsarevich” and “prince,” unaltered. Likewise among the Moscow and provincial noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie], many are of ancient lineage, from those families which had in the past served as noblemen [dvoriane] under the grand princes. And the {40v} Muscovite tsar cannot grant a new princely title to any boyar or closest man or man of other rank, but only the rank of boyar or some other, for this is not done either by custom or by innovation. Likewise there is no one with the title of “count” or “free lord,” and no one can be promoted from his Muscovite rank to either of these, for this reason: if anyone were to be made a free lord, it would be considered shameful for the tsar himself, as if that man by virtue of his title had left his service and was no longer his subject. And if the tsar wishes to confer anew the rank of boyar or okol’nichii or council nobleman [dumnyi dvorianin] upon a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or [Moscow] nobleman [dvorianin], or [to confer the rank of] nobleman [dvorianin] on a palace servitor of any rank or on a free man, he gives them, at his discretion, that dignity and position to which each is suited. And no one is given a patent or a coat of arms to denote his status {41} as a nobleman [dvorianin] or boyar, because they cannot devise a coat of arms for anyone: not only are boyars or other men given coats of arms, but the tsar himself seals with his true, authentic coat of arms only letters sent to the Crimean khan and

9 See below, Chapter 3, article 17, the answer.



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to the Kalmyks, and not to Christian states.10 Likewise neither do the princes and boyars of ancient or of recent lineage have true seals of their own, and neither do princes or boyars and other ranks or any ranks of men of the Muscovite state have coats of arms; and when someone has to affix a seal to a letter, or an ambassador to his report, he affixes whatever seal happens to be at hand, and not a family seal. And this can be demonstrated thus: when Muscovite ambassadors, on embassies or at congresses, affix their seals to documents and to deeds {41v}, and it happens that the same ambassador or a relative goes on an embassy a second time and affixes his seal to a document, in many cases the two documents have different seals. And the rank of nobleman [dvorianin] is not granted to any settlement [posad] men or sons of priests or peasants or bondsmen; but if any settlement [posad] man or peasant or anyone should release his son to serve as a European-trained soldiers [soldaty] or cavalryman [reitar] or undersecretary or other kind of royal servitor in a chancellery and if through service any of these children should be elevated from low to higher dignity, and shall obtain service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] for his service, then he and his descendants shall be noblemen [dvoriane]; and they are not given patents or coats of arms, but instead the great and lesser families, and noblemen [dvoriane], are given charters for their hereditary estates [votchiny] and service estates [pomest’ia], and in those charters they are named by rank and dignity. {42} 13. Lord chamberlain. And the rank of lord chamberlain is such: he is in charge of the tsar’s bedchamber and sleeps in the same room with him when [the tsar] does not sleep with the tsaritsa; likewise that lord chamberlain has a seal for documents [which must be prepared] in haste or in secret. And in honor that lord chamberlain is equal to an okol’nichii. 14. On the boyars’ appearance before the tsar. The boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men come each day, early in the morning, to make obeisance to the tsar; and upon their arrival, when they see the tsar in church or in his chamber, they bow to the ground before him; and whenever the boyars are late in arriving, or if they are sent for and delay in appearing before him, or do any trifling thing that is against his wishes, he speaks wrathfully to them or orders them expelled from the chamber or sends them to prison {42v}, and they likewise bow to the ground again and again until he forgives them their offenses; and while they are making their obeisance upon arrival he stands or sits wearing his crown and never takes off his crown in response to the boyars’ obeisance. And when he sits in his apartments and hears reports, or holds a conversation, the boyars all stand before him, and if they become tired from standing they leave to sit and rest in the courtyards. Likewise each day they come after dinner, at vesper time. And coming to the tsar’s palace on horseback, or in

10 On the seals see below, Chapter 3, article 14.

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carriages and sleighs before reaching the palace and far from the portico; and they never ride up to the portico itself or into the tsar’s courtyard; and the boyar’s horses are not allowed to go across the courtyard; and the boyars’ horses {43} are not allowed to go across the courtyard, but are led around the courtyard. And those boyars ride in carriages who are old and cannot sit on horseback. And if any boyar or other person should force his way and ride into the tsar’s courtyard on horseback, even if the tsar is away, and if he should learn of this, he will immediately order him to be sent to prison until [further] orders, and be deprived of his dignity; and if a boyar’s man should lead his horse across the courtyard without his knowledge, that man will be beaten with the knout. And through the tsar’s courtyard not only are boyars forbidden to ride and have their horses led, but no men are allowed of any rank — whether they are trading men with their wares, or peasants, or common people — except for musketeers with their weapons and in their uniforms; nor are foreigners of various faiths allowed to go into the courtyard or across the courtyard. And if anyone {43v} has some business with a boyar or Duma man he waits outside the tsar’s palace; likewise in the tsar’s villages, when he visits them, no one is allowed across the [palace] courtyard. And if anyone except the guard on duty should cross the tsar’s courtyard, in Moscow or in the villages, with a weapon or with a sword or with pistols, [either] stealthily [or] in ignorance, without any evil intent, and such a man is seen or pointed out by someone and seized, he is then tortured [to learn] why he was crossing the tsar’s courtyard with a weapon, and whether it was [directed] against the tsar or his palace or the boyars and Duma men and closest men, and whether it was at the instigation of some boyars or Duma men or closest men or settlement [posad] men or itinerate men or peasants: and if under torture that man should say that he was crossing the tsar’s courtyard by his own design and not on someone’s instructions, wishing for some reason to kill the tsar or one of his household or one of the boyars or Duma men or closest {44} men, then this scoundrel, after being severely tortured three times [to learn] if he really went by his own design and not on instructions, shall be put to death without mercy, whosoever he may be. But if he should testify that he went purposely on the instructions of some boyars and Duma men or any other men, then on the basis of his testimony whatever people he names shall all be ordered to be seized and tortured, [to learn] why they turned this man against the tsar’s person, and whether [they were acting] upon the instructions of some other potentate whose subjects they wished to become, or upon their own desire to seize power in the state; or [why they turned this man] against the boyars and Duma men, [whether it was] to create turmoil within the state so as to pillage houses and possessions. And if those men shall acknowledge their guilt in this matter right away, they shall all be likewise put to death without mercy; but if they do not acknowledge their guilt, then he who testified {44v} against them shall be tortured a second time; and if under torture he says that he truly acted on their instructions, those men shall be tortured a second time; and if they do not acknowledge their guilt that man shall be tortured a third time; and if he still gives the same testimony those men shall all likewise be tortured a third time; and after being



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tortured three times, even if some of them do not acknowledge their guilt they shall all be put in prison until they can obtain surety that henceforth they shall not plot any evil or engage in any crime; but if they cannot obtain surety they are kept in prison for 15 years or as long as may be, and then are released and sent into lifelong exile to distant provinces, to Siberia, or to the [river] Terek. And if that man should lie, and under the first torture give false testimony against them because of enmity, and they all are tortured without acknowledging their guilt, and if afterwards under the second or third torture that man {45} should testify that he testified falsely against those men, than he shall once again be severely tortured, [since] he had given testimony against them under the first torture and perhaps is now denying the testimony or someone’s instructions; and if he testifies that he was instructed by those same men against whom he testified, then those men who instructed [him] shall all be seized and likewise tortured; and if they acknowledge their guilt they shall all be put to death; but if under those [repeated tortures] he should say that he truly lied against them because of enmity, he alone shall be put to death, while the others shall all be made to obtain surety and then released, and those who cannot obtain surety shall likewise be put in prison until [further] orders. 15. The lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] or lesser families, and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries and pages [zhil’tsy] and foreigners and undersecretaries ride into the Kremlin and dismount far from the tsar’s palace, in the square. {45v} 16. And upon arrival the boyars and Duma men and closest men go to the tsar’s upper chambers, into the Front Hall, and wait for the tsar to come out of his bedchamber while the closest boyars, at the proper time, enter the chamber. But the lords-inwaiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and colonels and commanders and secretaries and other serving ranks do not enter the tsar’s upper chambers, and remain on the middle portico in front of the public halls; and other ranks are not even allowed to go as far as the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and other high ranking men. 17. And when the tsar sets forth on a journey, the boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and chamberlains [spal’niki] go together with him, whoever he wishes to accompany him; and others are ordered to remain in Moscow to attend to chancellery affairs. And whenever he travels, on military campaign, or to the monasteries for prayer, or to nearby or remote places for diversion, he entrusts the security of his royal household {46} and [the city of] Moscow to a single boyar, together with two okol’nichie, two Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane], and a Duma secretary as associates. And if any matters should arise in the army or in the provinces, they examine these matters, except for the secret ones; and [some] they dispatch to the tsar on his travels, while others, over which they are given authority, they settle without writing to the tsar.

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And on his journeys the tsar is accompanied by lords-in-waiting [stol’niki], adjutants [striapchie], noblemen [dvoriane], secretaries, pages [zhil’tsy], and men of other ranks, as ordered, and also by the stirrup regiment of 1,000 musketeers on the tsar’s horses. 18. Likewise when the tsar goes somewhere on a journey for a week or more, or when he is in Moscow, and the boyars and Duma men and closest men and colonels and secretaries need {46v} to go to their villages for a day or two or for a week or for a month, either for diversion or on some business, they petition the tsar about this and the tsar allows them to go for a specified time; but without permission no boyar or Duma man or closest man or colonel or secretary dares to leave Moscow even for a single day; and when they are allowed to go for a specified time, and for some reason the tsar has need of them before the time is up, orders are sent, either with their own men who have remain in Moscow, or by special adjutants [striapchie] or pages [zhil’tsy] or undersecretaries, to return at once. And they must obtain permission not only to leave for diversion, but they must obtain permission in the same manner to visit each other’s homes, for a wedding or christening or saint’s day celebration. 19. And when it comes time to celebrate the saint’s day of a {47} boyar or Duma man or closest man, or one of their children, on that day they come to the tsar to make obeisance, and the tsar inquires of their health and congratulates them; and afterwards they present saint’s day ceremonial loaves [kalachi] to the tsar, and the tsar orders [someone] to accept those ceremonial loaves [kalachi] from them; and then they go to the tsaritsa, and the tsaritsa congratulates them in the same way and orders [someone] to accept the ceremonial loaves [kalachi]; then they go to the tsareviches and tsarevnas, and likewise receive their congratulations and present their ceremonial loaves [kalachi]; they do not visit the tsarevnas themselves, except for those boyars who are related to them. And later that day they hold feasts among themselves at each other’s houses. And the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas do not visit anyone at home or attend banquets; and they do not attend not only their banquets and festivities but even their burials. {47v} On the tsaritsa’s servitors and boyar women. 20. [The tsaritsa’s] servitors, who live in the upper chambers, include the widows and wives, and widowed and unmarried daughters, of boyars, okol’nichie, and men of various rank. 1. Boyar wives: a treasurer, butler [kravchaia], lady of the chamber, judge. 2. Lords-in-waiting [stol’niki]: the children of boyars and okol’nichie and closest men are taken as lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] at about the age of 10; and by the age of 15 or even 17 they leave those duties and are taken into the tsar’s service, likewise as lords-



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in-waiting [stol’niki] or as chamberlains [spal’niki]; and there are about 20 of these lords-in-waiting [stol’niki]. 3. Dressmakers, or seamstresses: the wives and widows are unmarried daughters of palace servitors of worthy and middle rank, who sew and embroider with gold and silver and silk and precious stones and pearls. {48} 4. Bed attendants, who make the beds for the tsaritsa and for the boyar women; and the women in this rank are the wives of palace servitors of various rank; and those bed attendants and dressmakers sleep in the tsaritsa’s upper chamber, in daily shifts. 5. Laundresses, who wash garments, likewise wives of palace servitors; and when they have to wash garments, they take the garments, both summer and winter, to the river on sledges, in a trunk which is locked and sealed and covered with red linen; and a boyar woman follows them to look after the garments. 6. Petty noblemen [deti boiarskie]: and the service of those petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] is such: the boyar women send them on various errands, and they accompany the tsaritsa on her travels, and they sleep in daily shifts in the tsaritsa’s upper chambers, on the lower floors, for her protection and security. 7. And when the tsaritsa goes on some journey, {48v} the boyar women sit with her and with the younger tsareviches and with the tsarevnas in coaches, or summer and winter carriages; and while they are riding through Moscow or through villages and hamlets the coaches and carriages are covered with Persian damask; and the dressmakers and bed attendants and laundresses ride horseback on pacers; and they sit on horseback not as women do in other states but in the same way as men; and there are about 100 of these dressmakers and bed attendants and laundresses, not counting unmarried dressmakers and others who live in the upper chambers; and although there are close to 300 of them. 8. In the same way the tsarevnas, young and old, have their own boyar women and other servitors, all the same ranks as the tsaritsa except for the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki]; and the tsarevnas are served at the table by unmarried girls. {49} 9. And when the tsaritsa eats together with the tsar in his apartments, and a boyar or okol’nichii or Duma man should come to report on some matter, they cannot enter without permission but only if ordered; otherwise they wait until [the tsar] has finished eating. Likewise when the tsar eats in the tsaritsa’s apartments, at such times only a few boyars and closest men are present, two or three at the most; and at such times the tsaritsa’s lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] serve at the table.

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10. And when the tsar sends someone to the tsaritsa to inquire of her health, or for some other matter, they announce their arrival through the boyar women, but do not enter themselves without [prior] announcement; likewise when the tsaritsa sends one of her boyar women to the tsar they likewise announce themselves. 11. And among the servitors of the tsar and tsaritsa and older tsarevnas {49v} there are janitors, who heat and sweep the halls and chambers and stand at the doors to open them; there are about 100 of them, worthy men who are granted service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny], and who live in Moscow for half the year, 50 men at time. 12. On the boyar women. When the widows and wives, and widowed and unmarried daughters, of boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men are sent for by the tsaritsa or tsarevnas for any purpose, or when they themselves want to see the tsaritsa and tsarevnas for some purpose, they ride in a covered sleighs [kaptany] in winter and in a closed carriages [kolymagi] in summer. And when they arrive at the tsaritsa’s courtyard, they get out of the closed carriage [kolymaga] or covered sleigh [kaptan] at the gates and do not ride into the courtyard; and when they come to the tsaritsa’s or tsarevna’s chambers they send boyar women {50} to tell the tsaritsa or tsarevnas of their arrival; and if it is convenient the tsaritsa or tsarevnas order them to be admitted, but if it is not convenient they refuse them; and they, the wives or daughters of boyars and closest men, return home without seeing them. And when they do see the tsaritsa and tsarevnas, upon appearing they bow to the ground before the tsaritsa and tsarevnas, and the tsaritsa or tsarevnas inquire of their health and why they have come to make petition; and they present the petition, and the tsaritsa and tsarevnas, and sometimes the tsareviches too, hear their petition and accept it in writing; and in accordance with their petition the tsaritsa or tsarevna or tsareviches petition the tsar, and the tsar deals with that matter upon which petition has been made in accordance with their entreaty. Thus if a prince or boyar or any other man of high or low rank should be in any kind of trouble, or should make petition {50v} on some matter, or should even be condemned to death, the tsar upon this entreaty can and does make everything well; and it has often happened that the tsaritsa and the tsareviches and tsarevnas have saved many men from deserved and undeserved misfortune and death, and have elevated others to high dignity and made them rich.11 13. And if the tsaritsa or tsarevnas need to take into the palace to live with them the widows or unmarried daughter of some boyar or okol’nichii or Duma man or closest men, they are free to do so, except for the daughters of the very greatest boyars. And the tsaritsa and tsarevnas give away in marriage, from among their palace servitors,

11 See Chapter 4, article 28.



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other unmarried and widowed daughters whose fathers are not rich, to lords-inwaiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries and pages [zhil’tsy], and give them a royal dowry and large hereditary estates [votchiny] or money from the tsar’s {51} treasury in place of hereditary estates [votchiny], and appoint them as commandants [voevody]; and those men enrich themselves through service as commandants [voevody]. 14. And when the wives and daughters of boyars and closest men visit the tsaritsa or tsarevnas and happen to dine with them, they dine together with the other boyar women who live with them, but at a separate table, and not together with the tsaritsa and the tsarevnas; but the boyars and closest men never dine with the tsaritsa and the tsarevnas, and the tsaritsa and tsarevnas never visit or dine with any of them in their homes. 15. Likewise when it comes time to celebrate the saint’s day of the boyar women and daughters, the boyar women and their children come themselves with ceremonial loaves [kalachi] to visit the tsaritsa and tsarevnas, just as their husbands and fathers visit the tsar; and they present those ceremonial loaves [kalachi], and the tsaritsa and tsarevnas order [someone] to accept them, and then the tsaritsa or tsarevnas congratulate them; and after paying the visit they return home. {51v}

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{52} Chapter 3, in which there are 17 articles. On titles: how the Muscovite tsar addresses each potentate. 1. To the Holy Roman Emperor: “Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high has visited us and had guided our feet into the way of peace, by the grace of our God glorified in the Trinity, we, the great sovereign and tsar,” then follows the tsar’s name and his full title, and after [his] title the emperor’s name and title, followed by the message. The letters are written on the largest Alexandrine paper. The flowered ornaments are large and drawn in gold. 2. To His Majesty the King of Sweden: “By the grace of God we, the great sovereign and tsar,” then likewise his name and full title, and after the tsar’s title His Royal Majesty’s {52v} name and full title, followed by the message. The letters are written on small or medium Alexandrine paper, depending upon the length of the letter; the flowered ornaments are likewise medium size and drawn in gold. 3. To the King of Poland: “By the grace of God glorified in the Trinity we, the great sovereign and tsar,” and then his name and title; then the title of the King of Poland: “To our beloved brother the most serene great sovereign,” and his name and title. The letters are written on large and medium paper; the flowered ornaments are of medium size and in gold. 4. To the King of England is written likewise; and he is styled in the same way as the King of Poland. 5. To the King of Denmark [the tsar] uses the same {53} title as to the kings of Poland and England; and the King of Denmark is addressed: “To our beloved brother and neighbor,” on medium or small paper, the flowered ornaments likewise of medium size in gold. 6. To the electors and princes and counts [of the Holy Roman Empire] and to the States-General of Holland is written: “By the grace of God, from the great sovereign and tsar,” then likewise his name and full title; and then: “From our tsarist majesty N. to the elector [or] prince [or] count [or] States,” and their titles. The letters are written on small Alexandrine paper; the flowered ornaments are in gold, at the top, above the text, and not along the sides. 7. To Lübeck or Hamburg, to the burgomasters and councilors, and likewise to the merchants who serve as agents in the tsar’s trade: “By the grace of God,” in the same



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way as to the electors and princes, on small {53v} Alexandrine paper, without any ornament but only the initial word of gold. 8. And the tsar’s title is written in gold through the word “Moscow”; and the other titles are written in gold [as follows]: the Emperor — through “August”; Sweden — through “Sweden”: Poland — through “Poland”; England — through “England”; Denmark — through “Denmark”; to the electors and princes and counts and the States-General of Holland in the same manner, according to each one’s dignity. And the rest of the title is written in ink. 9. With the king of France and Spain and Portugal there have been no embassies or relations and no letters have been sent on any matter, and [therefore] there is nothing to be written about this. And although in the past there were relations with the King of France, during the devastation of Muscovy and at the time of the fire all the documents were burned {54}, and there is no way of learning about former relations. 10. To the Sultan of Turkey the full title is not written in its entirety, but only through “ruler [of all the northern lands]”; and the [Sultan’s] title is written as he styles himself, on large Alexandrine paper. There are flowered ornaments from the top to the center of the page, with large [ornaments] along the sides to the bottom, and similar ornaments along the bottom; and along the top, amidst the ornamentation, the titles of the tsar and the Sultan of Turkey are written in three circles, all in gold; and the message begins from the middle of the sheet. And letters to the Shah of India are sent in the same way. 11. The Shah of Persia is addressed in the same way as the King of Denmark, as a brother and neighbor, with the [tsar’s] title through “ruler [of all the northern lands],” and then the Shah’s title, on large Alexandrine {54v} paper, in the Tatar language in gold but without ornaments. 12. The Crimean khan (tsar) and his tsareviches are likewise addressed using the [tsar’s] short title [and] as a brother and neighbor, although the tsareviches are not called brothers; and the short title of the tsar and the Crimean khan and tsareviches are written entirely in gold, in the Tatar language, because the Crimean khan’s title is short. 13. The great khan who lives beyond Siberia, and likewise the Kalmyk chiefs [taishi] and princes are addressed using the [tsar’s] short title; similarly their own names and titles are written entirely in gold, on small Alexandrine paper, in the Tatar language, without ornament.

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14. And all those letters, except those to the Crimea, are sealed with the great state seal. But the ones to the Crimea {55} are sealed with a seal on which are engraved the tsar on horseback slaying the dragon, and around this a legend: the tsar’s title in its shortest form, through “and others.” This is the true seal of the Muscovite principality; it is also engraved on the great seal, which is used as the seal for [writing to other] neighboring states, in the center of the eagle itself. And the seal is used for charters [granting] service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] to men of various rank, and conferring the rank of trading company man [gost’].12 15. And in his letters to neighboring great potentates the tsar writes their titles according to their dignity, as they style themselves, without abridgement; and as for the fact that in the past the title of His Majesty the King of Sweden was not written quite correctly, and not as he styles himself, this was the result of {55v} negligence and carelessness and misunderstanding on the part of the translators. See in this connection the treaties of Walliesari and Cardis: that the titles of both great sovereigns, on both sides, should be rendered according to their sovereign dignity, as each styles himself. And in the same manner the potentates of all neighboring states write the tsar’s title according to his own style, except for the King of Poland and the Crimean khan and the Kalmyk princes, because in the course of the present war the Polish king and the Muscovite tsar have not been accepting letters from each other with their full titles but have been using abbreviated titles. And the Crimean khan writes the tsar’s title in abbreviated fashion, as follows: “To our brother the Muscovite tsar,” with his name, and then writes his salutations {56} or greetings. And the Kalmyk princes write still more briefly: “To the White Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich of all Russia, our salutations”; while others write simply: “To the white tsar,” and do not write his name or title. And in their letters on various matters the Crimean khan and the Kalmyks write briefly, without requesting or mentioning [what they desire], since they communicate this orally through their ambassadors. 16. And if in the past letters have been sent to neighboring states on a particular kind of paper, or for many years have had flowered ornaments drawn in gold, they continue to this day to be written in the same way without any innovation, because it is held that a particular kind of paper or gold ornament confers a greater degree of honor upon one potentate and a lesser degree upon another; except that if a letter is so long that it cannot be written {56v} on small or medium paper, the order is to write it on large [paper]. And those letters are written by undersecretaries; and for confirmation they are signed in the tsar’s name by the Duma secretaries themselves, or by their assistants the ordinary secretaries.

12 On the seals, see Chapter 7, article 2.



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17. Question. Why does the Muscovite tsar write to Christian states using his full long title, [including] after “ruler [of all the northern lands]”: “sovereign of the Iberian lands of the Kartlian and Georgian tsars, and of the Kabardinian lands of the Circassian and Mountain princes, and heir through his fathers and forefathers, and sovereign and possessor, of many eastern and western and northern realms and lands”; whereas to the Mohammedan states he does not write these titles? What is the reason for this? {57} Answer. The Iberian, Kartlian, and Georgian states are under the authority of the Persian shah and [owe him] the greatest obedience; and the tsar writes to other [Christian] states [using these titles] in order to glorify himself, without good reason; and in those [Caucasian] states it is the custom, when writing to the tsar, to humble oneself and to exalt him, and to call oneself his slave, just as in other states it is the custom, when one lord writes to another, to refer to oneself as his obedient servant. But they [the Muscovites] interpret their humble language as if it were really true that they are eternal subjects; but this is not true, because the rulers of these states occupy the same position as does the prince [duke] of Courland in relation to the realms of His Royal Majesty [the Swedish king] and the Polish king and the Muscovite tsar. And the Persian shah used [these] eastern titles from early times, when Moscow {57v} was not yet heard of; and in the west there are many other states which are older and more distinguished than the Muscovite state. And except for those realms and lands which are included in the title used in writing to Christian potentates, [the tsar] has no other realm and lands in the east and in the west. For although in the east and in the west there are indeed many other realms and lands, yet they are not subject to him, but at times are even at war with him, and it goes without saying that he is not the heir through his fathers and forefathers or the sovereign or possessor of those many eastern and western lands, and the realms and lands in those two parts of the world will not readily yield to his rule and sovereignty. To be sure, it is true enough that in the north there can be found realms and lands that belong to him. As for the Circassian and Mountain princes of the Kabardinian land, they are indeed his subjects {58}, but it is awkward for him to use these titles in writing to the Shah of Persia without the others. And if he used all those titles with which he writes to the Christian states, all the Mohammedan states would make war on him on this account. And if the Shah of Persia learned truly about the sovereigns from those realms who address [the tsar] as his slaves, he would order them and their realms to be devastated and utterly ruined. And for this reason those titles are not used in writing to Mohammedan sovereigns.

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{58v} Chapter 4, in which there are 38 articles. On Muscovite ambassadors, what rank and dignity of men are sent to neighboring states as ambassadors, envoys, and couriers. 1. To the Holy Roman Empire no great ambassadors have been sent for a long time, because the journey is long and passes through many different states, and for great ambassadors the journey would involve great expenditures and costs. And to the Emperor are sent envoys — men of middle ranking families, who serve as Dumanoblemen [dumnye dvoriane] and okol’nichie; and with them as associates a secretary. 2. To His Majesty the King of Sweden are sent great ambassadors, okol’nichie from families of the second category, who do not serve as boyars; and with them as associates {59} Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane] or lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] of middle ranking families, and secretaries. And as ambassadors to congresses are sent boyars from families of the first category, who have been listed below, and with them the same kind of associates as sent to Sweden. 3. To the King of Poland are sent great ambassadors, boyars from great families of the first category who are below the rest, or boyars from families of the second category, or okol’nichie [from whose members] serve as boyars. And with boyars, as associates, are sent okol’nichie and Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane] and lords-inwaiting [stol’niki] and secretaries. And as ambassadors to congresses are sent boyars from families of the first category, men from the fifth- or sixth-ranking families; and with them, as associates, boyars of the kind {59v} who are sent to Poland, and likewise okol’nichie and Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane] and Duma and ordinary secretaries. 4. To the King of England are sent lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] from families of the first category, who from the rank of lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] are made boyars; and with them, as associates, noblemen [dvoriane] of good families and secretaries. 5. To the King of Denmark are sent lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and [Moscow] noblemen [dvoriane] from those families who serve as Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane] and okol’nichie; and with them, as associates, likewise noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries.



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6. To the electors and princes and counts [of the Holy Roman Empire] and to the StatesGeneral of Holland are sent lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries, of the same as to the King of Denmark. {60} 7. To the Sultan of Turkey are sent ambassadors of the same kind as to the King of Denmark. 8. To the Shah of Persia are sent ambassadors of the same kind as to the kingdom of Sweden. 9. To the Khan of the Crimea and to the Kalmyk chiefs [taishi] are sent envoys — noblemen [dvoriane] from middle-ranking families, with undersecretaries as associates. 10. And to [other] Christian potentates are sent envoys — lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] from worthy and middle-ranking families, with secretaries. And as couriers are sent adjutants [striapchie], secretaries, pages [zhil’tsy], undersecretaries, and [military] commanders. 11. And when boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men are sent to [foreign] states and to congresses {60v} as ambassadors or as envoys, they are accompanied, for the honor of their embassy, by lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy], their children and brothers and kinsmen, or men from other families whose fathers and grandfathers had served in the past under their own fathers and grandfathers, or who themselves should wish to serve under them. And to accompany those ambassadors and envoys, depending on their family and honor and [the importance of] the embassy, boyars can have 15 or 20 or 30 men, and okol’nichie or Duma men or lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] — eight or 10 or 15 men, and others — three or five men, and secretaries — one or two men. And with each ambassador are sent a translator [and] five or more undersecretaries; and they take along as many of their own servitors as they can and as their rank warrants {61}; and great ambassadors are accompanied by 40 or 50 or 60 or 80 or 100 or more men all told, depending upon the embassy and the rank of the ambassador. And with envoys are sent two and three undersecretaries and a translator and interpreters; and they are accompanied by 15 or 20 or 30 men all told. And couriers are likewise accompanied by interpreters and eight or 10 or more men, as many as each can take, for honor’s sake. 12. And when the tsar sends someone in his royal service as an ambassador or envoy or to a neighboring state or to a diplomatic congress, or to the provinces or to war as a commandant [voevoda], or to a Moscow chancellery as an administrator {61v}; a boyar is accompanied by a boyar or okol’nichii or lord-in-waiting [stol’nik], and an

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okol’nichii by a council nobleman [dumnyi dvorianin] or lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or [Moscow] nobleman [dvorianin], and a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or a Duma man by a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or nobleman [dvorianin], one serving under the other as an associate. And if a boyar or okol’nichii or lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] [who is appointed as the associate] of a boyar is of equal lineage to the boyar himself, and [the former’s] father and grandfather and great-grandfather were never subordinated to [the latter’s] father and grandfather and kinsmen in military service or in administrative posts or at the tsar’s table; and if a council nobleman [dvorianin] or lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or [Moscow] nobleman [dvorianin] [who is appointed as the associate] of an okol’nichii is of equal lineage, and no one in his family had ever served in any capacity under any kinsman of the okol’nichii; and if a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or nobleman [dvorianin] is of equal lineage to a Duma man, and a nobleman [dvorianin] to a lordin-waiting [stol’nik], and in the same manner no one in [the former’s] family had ever in the past been subordinated to [the latter’s] kinsmen {62} on embassies or in military service: then they refuse to serve in this manner as associates, and consider this to be shameful and dishonorable. And the boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] petition the tsar and present petitions that they have been dishonored by those who do not wish to serve under them according to the tsar’s decree. And in their petitions against one another they write that it is permissible for one to serve under another as ordered, because the [former’s] father or grandfather or great-grandfather, or someone in his family, had served under the [latter’s] father or grandfather or great-grandfather without dispute; or else because someone from a third family had been in military service or on some assignment under the [latter’s] father or grandfather or great-grandfather, and that [members of] the family against which the petition is being presented had been in military service or on some assignment under members of that [third] family without dispute {62v}: and therefore the sovereign should act upon their petition, order an investigation, and upon investigation issue a decree confirming that they have been dishonored. Meanwhile, those who have been ordered to serve under the others as associates petition the tsar in the same way, that they are not inferior in lineage and dignity to those men under whom they have been ordered to serve, and that their fathers and grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers never served as associates of anyone from that family. And acting upon their petition, the tsar orders the Ambassadorial Chancellery and the Military Service Chancellery [Razriad] to investigate [each family’s] dignity through their old records and documents, and upon investigation in those chancelleries a memorandum is drawn up regarding each family’s dignity, and the matter is heard {63} by the tsar with his boyars and Duma men. And if the investigation shows that it is permissible for one to serve under the other, he is ordered to do so without stubbornness; but if it is impermissible for him to serve, because he is equal [in dignity], then he is released and someone else, for whom it is permissible, is appointed. But if upon investigation someone is ordered to serve under another, and he disobeys the tsar’s decree, refuses to serve, and forcibly



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resists, then for his disobedience the tsar orders him put in prison for an indefinite time. And for dishonoring a boyar those men who had refused to serve under him are sent to the boyar’s house with their heads. And on the day that the tsar has ordered some boyar or okol’nichii or lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] to be sent with his head to a boyar, or some Duma man or lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] to an okol’nichii, because of dishonor, on that day the boyar {63v} or okol’nichii does not come to the tsar’s palace; instead he is given word that the man who did not wish to serve under him is being sent to him with his head, and he awaits [the other’s arrival]. And this person is sent to him accompanied by a secretary or undersecretary, and escorts [pristavy] take him by the arms and lead him to the boyar’s house and do not allow him to ride on horseback; and when they have arrived at the house of the person under whom he did not wish to serve, he is made to stand on the lower porch while the secretary or undersecretary orders that the boyar be informed of their arrival, that the man who did not wish to serve under him and dishonored him has been brought before him. And the boyar comes out on the porch to the secretary or undersecretary, and the secretary or undersecretary declares that the great sovereign has ordered and the boyars have confirmed that this man, who did not wish to serve under him, should be brought before the boyar with his head for having dishonored the boyar {64}. And that boyar thanks the tsar for his favor and orders the man who was brought to be released to his home; but in releasing him to his home [the boyar] forbids him to mount a horse in the courtyard or to bring his horse into the courtyard. And as the person who has been sent to the other with his head walks from the tsar’s palace to the boyar’s house, and as he stands in the courtyard, he swears at [the boyars] and dishonors him with all kinds of curses; but the latter does nothing to him for his angry and abusive words, and does not dare do anything: for the tsar has sent that man to him because he had been dishonored, and out of love for him, and for no other reason, and not so that he would have the other beaten or injured. And if he did do anything to a man sent to him in this way, and did inflict any malicious dishonor or injury, he would be ordered doubly punished, since the dishonor would in effect have been inflicted not upon the person sent to him {64v} but upon the tsar himself. And as for the secretary or undersecretary who brings such a man, the boyar to whom he is brought is given large presents. And the following morning the boyar goes to the tsar and upon arrival thanks the tsar for his favor, that he had ordered his adversary to be sent to him with his head for the dishonor. And afterwards the tsar orders some other men, for whom it is permissible, to serve under that boyar or okol’nichii, and releases the one previously [appointed]; and the tsar holds that man in his wrath, and it is long before he is again admitted to the tsar’s presence. 13. And when upon investigation and the tsar’s decree men not of Duma rank refuses to serve under another as ordered, they are punished by imprisonment, at the tsar’s discretion, for their disobedience and for the dishonor; while for similar {65} disobedience and for dishonoring the man under whom they refuse to serve, others

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are punished by a beating with switches in the chancellery [building] and in the palace [courtyard] in front of the tsar’s apartments; and for the dishonor others are fined a sum of money, corresponding to their emolument, which is given to the one dishonored; and for such disobedience others are punished by being deprived of their rank and service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny], by a beating with the knout or switches, and by lifelong exile to Siberia as Cossacks. 14. And among the boyars and Duma men and closest men and other ranks — lords-inwaiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries and adjutants [striapchie] and pages [zhil’tsy] — there is a custom: when the tsar wishes to send one of them on an embassy or on any other kind of assignment as another man’s associate, having learned in advance {65v} that he is to serve under him, he purposely makes himself ill, so that by appearing ill he can avoid such service. And the man under him he does not wish to serve petitions the tsar that he has purposely made himself ill because he does not with to serve under him. And upon such petitions those who are ill are examined by Duma and ordinary secretaries and undersecretaries; and if such a man is ill through no intent of his, he is released from service upon examination and another is sent in his place; but if in the course of the examination it is found that he has made himself ill on purpose, wishing to avoid serving under another as ordered, then he is assigned to serve under him even though ill, in anticipation of his recovery. And if he should die, or has not yet recovered by the {66} time that he is actually needed, then another is assigned in his place, and his own name is recorded [in the service registers] despite his illness, [to indicate] that he had been assigned to serve under that man as [originally] ordered. And among such men who in their anger make themselves ill, there are many who die rather than dishonor their family before another family. 15. Likewise when the tsar holds a banquet for the hierarchs and boyars, the hierarchs sit at a separate table, to the right of the tsar, and the boyars at their own special table to his left. And those boyars seat themselves at the table according to rank, boyars below [other] boyars, and okol’nichie below [other] okol’nichie and below the boyars, and Duma men below [other] Duma men and below the okol’nichie and boyars. But some of them refuse to seat themselves below others on the grounds that they are equal to them in lineage {66v}; and they leave for home, or ask the tsar’s permission to pay someone a visit that day; and the tsar lets them go. But if the tsar should learn that they have asked permission to pay a visit deceitfully, because they did not wish to sit below others, or if they should leave for home without obtaining the tsar’s permission, then he orders such men to be present and to sit at the table wherever required. But such a person will not sit down, and begins to plead that he cannot sit below that boyar or okol’nichii or Duma man, because his family is equal to their family, or more worthy, and heretofore neither in service nor at the table had his family ever been below the family of the one below whom he is ordered to sit.



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And the tsar then orders him to be seated forcibly; but he will not allow himself to be seated, and dishonors and curses that boyar. And if he {67} is forcibly seated, he will not remain seated below the other but tries to break loose from the table and he is restrained and persuaded not to incur the tsar’s wrath and to be obedient. But he cries “The tsar can have my head cut off if he wants, but I still won’t sit below him,” and slides under the table; and the tsar orders him to be removed and sent to prison, or forbids him to be admitted into his presence until ordered. And afterwards, for his disobedience, he is deprived of his rank of boyar or okol’nichii or council nobleman [dumnyi dvorianin]; and then he regains his old rank through service. And some are punished for their offense by imprisonment or by being sent with their head [to the person dishonored] or by a beating with switches or the knout; and this is recorded in the books, with the names [of the contending parties], for reference in future disputes. {67v} 16. And when men of whatever rank are appointed as boyars or okol’nichie or Duma men, deservedly or otherwise, and sit in the Duma together with the tsar, the seating is according to the family and honor, in order of most honorable lineage, and not in order of seniority in rank: [so that] even if someone were appointed today, he might be sitting above [others] tomorrow on the basis of his lineage. The seating at the tsar’s banquets is arranged in the same manner. And as for the boyars who are related to the tsar through his marriage to the tsaritsa, they do not sit in the Duma or at the tsar’s banquets, for it is shameful for them to sit below the other boyars and improper to sit above, since they are not of high birth; but as for the okol’nichie and Duma men who are related to the tsar through his marriage to the tsaritsa, these men do sit in the Duma and at the tsar’s banquets, wherever each belongs [by lineage]. Likewise these relatives of the tsar by marriage sit in the chancelleries in Moscow, or serve as ambassadors or as commandants [voevody] {68}, and the associates under them are men for whom it would have been permissible to serve under them when they were not yet related to the tsar by marriage. 17. And they, the boyars and Duma men and hierarchs, dine with the tsar on the Lord’s holy days, and other feast days, and on the saint’s days of the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, and likewise on each anniversary of the death of a tsar or tsaritsa or tsarevich or tsarevna, when a commemorative service is held for them, or when a banquet is given for ambassadors from other states; but on any other days the boyars and hierarchs never dine with the tsar. On the appointment of ambassadors, and how they are sent to neighboring states. 18. When boyars, okol’nichie, Duma men, lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] {68v}, adjutants [striapchie], noblemen [dvoriane], secretaries, pages [zhil’tsy], translators, undersecretaries, and interpreters are sent to congresses and to neighboring states as ambassadors and as envoys and as couriers, the tsar gives them two years’ wages in

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money, according to the norm, and one year’s [extra] wages, according to the norm, to equip themselves for such service; and for this service assignment they are also given sables, [in value but] not in money [as follows]: boyars — 500 and 700 and 800 and 1,000 rubles, okol’nichie — 200 and 250 and 300 and 400 rubles, lords-inwaiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries — 150 and 200 rubles, depending upon their rank and the [importance of the embassy]. And for the journey the ambassadors and envoys and couriers {69} and the embassy officers and other ranks are given as grants from the tsar a supply of grain and [other] edibles, meat and fish, and things to drink: vodka, various kinds of mead, and beer, as ordered, not in great quantity [but rather] for ceremony’s sake, following an old tradition. 19. And if a boyar or okol’nichii or Duma man or lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or nobleman [dvorianin] is new [to such service] and is not equipped with the necessary accessories and garments and horses’ harnesses for an embassy, the tsar gives him horses with full equipment and fastenings for his garments and hats; and he borrows the other accessories and service equipment to take to the congress from one of his brethren with whom he is on friendly terms. And upon returning from service he gives back what he as taken from the tsar, unless the tsar should grant him something to keep as a reward for his service. {69v} 20. And when the ambassadors, after taking the [tsar’s] grant, are fully prepared for their embassy to depart, and are sent to some [foreign] country or to a congress, they are ordered to go without waiting for [written] instructions, so as to save time, since often these instructions are not ready in time for the departure; and [those who draw up the instructions] decide what [the ambassadors] should say to the foreigners, and the most sensible responses to make, so as to bring honor to their sovereign; and those instructions are dispatched to them by courier along the way, when they are approaching the border. And if an ambassador is slow in leaving Moscow, he receives his instructions in Moscow. 21. And in addition to the new business which is to be discussed and conducted, the instructions to the ambassadors and envoys and couriers include the following. {70} 1. When they enter a great sovereign’s country, they must send to the governorsgeneral and commandants [voevody] someone intelligent from among the embassy officers, together with a translator, to obtain access to the [sovereign] to whom the tsar has sent them, and to obtain an escort [pristav] and food and drink and transport and guides, so that they may be given access without delay. 2. And while they are in that great sovereign’s country, they must travel in a quiet and orderly manner, and they, the ambassadors and embassy suite and retinue, must not engage in any disputes with the foreigners for any reason, nor damage or plunder



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their houses, nor take anything from anyone by force, lest anyone make complaint against them, the ambassadors, in the course of their journey, and lest they dishonor the tsar’s name. 3. And when they, the ambassadors, arrive before the sovereign — in the city where he {70v} lives, or somewhere in his travels — and that sovereign orders them to be greeted and quartered, on the second or third day following they, the ambassadors, must inform that sovereign, through the escort [pristav] that has been assigned to them, that they have been sent by their sovereign to that sovereign on important business and in amity, so that the sovereign would order them to his palace for an audience and hear their embassy. 4. And when that sovereign does give orders that they, the ambassadors, should appear at his palace on a particular day, they the ambassadors must speak with the escort [pristav] and send him to declare to that sovereign’s councilors that on the day that they appear at the sovereign’s palace and discharge their embassy no ambassadors or envoys or couriers from other countries should be present. And {71} if that escort [pristav] returns from the councilors and tells them, the ambassadors, that on the day that they appear before the sovereign there will be no [other] ambassadors or envoys or couriers, then they, the ambassadors, must proceed in the following manner: in front of the ambassadors should be carried the gifts from the tsar to that sovereign; then, likewise in front of the ambassadors, should ride the embassy officers, with an undersecretary bearing the tsar’s letter. And upon arriving at the palace they should enter that sovereign’s palace, removing their swords, without taking any of the retinue except the officers into the palace. 5. And if they, the ambassadors, should learn that ambassadors or envoys from other states will be present on the day that they are to appear before that sovereign, then they, the ambassadors, must communicate through the escort [pristav] and say that they cannot appear before that sovereign and discharge their embassy in the presence of foreign ambassadors and envoys, and because of these foreign ambassadors {71v} they may not leave their quarters and appear before that sovereign with their embassy. And if they, the ambassadors, should arrive at the sovereign’s palace and learn that along with them there will be other ambassadors with their missions, they must likewise make remonstrances and refuse to appear with their embassy in their presence. 6. And upon arriving at [the palace of] that sovereign, they must enter the palace in the following manner: first the gifts are carried, then follow the officers and the letter, carried [by an undersecretary], with the ambassadors themselves in the rear. And upon entering the hall and taking their places before that sovereign as diplomatic custom requires, and holding the letter, the first-ranking ambassador must speak as follows:

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“By the grace of God glorified in the Trinity, the great sovereign tsar,” and then the tsar’s name and long title, and following his title the name and title of that sovereign to whom they have been sent, and following the title, “has sent to Your Royal Majesty13 us, His Tsarist Majesty’s great and plenipotentiary {72} ambassadors, with the tsar’s letter, and has ordered us to bow before you and inform you of the tsar’s health and ascertain Your Royal Majesty’s health.” And they, the ambassadors, must bow to the waist, as is the custom. And then, when that sovereign inquires of the ambassadors as to the tsar’s health, the second man in the embassy, the [ambassador’s] associate, must say: “When we left the great sovereign,” [then follows] the tsar’s name and short title, and after the title, “our great sovereign, His Tsarist Majesty, in his most glorious and mighty realms of the Russian tsardom, was by God’s grace in good health.” And when the interpreter finishes this speech, the third man in the embassy must speak as follows: “By the grace of God the great sovereign tsar,” then likewise the tsar’s name and short title, “has sent to Your {72v} Royal Majesty His Tsarist Majesty’s letter of friendship.” And when the translator finishes that speech, the letter must be presented; and then the fourth man in the embassy, the [ambassador’s] associate, must make the following speech (and if there is no fourth man in the embassy then the first ambassador makes the speech): “The great sovereign tsar,” then his name and short title, “to you,” then the title of that sovereign, and following the title, “has sent His Tsarist Majesty’s gifts of friendship.” And then they, the ambassadors, must themselves, and individually, present the gifts of their own, they must likewise present them in a civil manner; and when that sovereign accepts the gifts from them and permits them, the ambassadors, to approach his hand, they must approach his hand in a courteous and civil manner; and they must again bow to that sovereign, having heard their embassy, dismisses {73} them to their quarters, and sends them a banquet of food and drink, they must speak courteously and in sensible fashion to the one who is sent with the banquet. And when it is time to drink toasts to the health of the sovereigns, then the ambassadors must drink the health first of the tsar and then of the other sovereign; and if over this a dispute should arise among them, they must make remonstrances and try to persuade them to drink the tsar’s health first. And if that sovereign should order them, the ambassadors, to dine with him, they must go in the same manner, and while at his table must sit politely, and not drink too much, and be cautious and thoughtful in their conversation. Likewise they must give orders of their own to their embassy officers not to drink too much, and to sit politely and quietly, and not to talk at all among themselves or with others. And when they, the ambassadors, are ordered to appear before the councilors {73v} for negotiations, they must likewise go to negotiate in a civil manner, and during the negotiations with the

13 In the Empire: “To Your Imperial Majesty”; in Persia, “To Your Majesty Shah ‘Abbas”; in the Crimea: “To Your Majesty Tsar Mohammed Girei,” or whatever the sovereign’s name may be; with the electors and princes and others: “To Your Electoral or Princely Honor.”



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councilors must discuss the business according to their instructions, sensibly and courteously, so that the tsar’s name might be glorified and exalted thereby. And when they, the ambassadors, are given their farewell audience, they must go to the farewell audience and in the same manner, and must stipulate that at their farewell audience, too, no ambassadors or envoys or couriers from other states should be present; and at the farewell audience they must likewise behave as ceremony requires, in a polite and orderly manner, just as upon their arrival, observing diplomatic custom in every respect. And when they are dismissed to their own country, they should return through that sovereign’s realm, or any other, in a similarly quiet and orderly manner, just as they had passed through originally. And in going there or during their stay or in returning, whatever gifts should be required for various purposes should be given without stint, so that the tsar’s name might be gloried and exalted thereby, and so that they, {74} the ambassadors, might travel there and back without delay.14 In the same manner, when envoys are sent to neighboring states, they are given written instructions with orders to do everything in the same way as the ambassadors. Likewise couriers are given orders of the same kind, except for the speeches made by ambassadors and envoys when they present gifts; and in addition they are not supposed to speak of any matters or engaged in negotiations, or sign any documents, and are given no orders other than to present the [tsar’s] letters. 22. And the ambassadors who go to diplomatic congresses to establish a Christian peace must [first] communicate in writing with the foreign ambassadors as to the closest {74v} and most convenient meeting place; and the ambassadors are given full authority to come to an agreement regarding the diplomatic congress, [acting] through their [embassy] officers, and through notes [sent] with these officers, and through swearing oaths and kissing the cross, to the end that the ambassadors would be free to meet together and to break off their meeting, even if no good result were obtained, without plotting any evil against one another and without allowing anyone else to seek out or plot anything evil. And when they have come together on the basis of these notes [sent] with their officers, the tsar’s tent must be put up along side the king’s tent, with their floors together, or wooden houses must be erected with a common vestibule, the ambassadors should come together; and upon coming together the Russian ambassadors should speak first, and they exchange their credentials, following which they should discuss the matters on which they have received instructions. And if the negotiations should lead toward a good outcome, they must make a written record of the agreement, as instructed {75}, and, after

14 And whatever gifts they, the ambassadors, receive from a sovereign at their farewell audience are shown to the tsar upon their return; and if the tsar should have need of any of these gifts he takes them from them, and in return gives them money from his royal treasury, according to their value.

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swearing an oath or kissing the cross and parting with the other ambassadors, must proceed to Moscow without delay. 23. But the ambassadors to diplomatic congresses are not given to know their real, true instructions and orders until they have come together with the other ambassadors and [it is known] what the foreign ambassadors have to say to them at the congress. And if [the foreign ambassadors] should take a stubborn stand on some matter, [the tsar’s ambassadors] write of this to Moscow, that the foreign ambassadors are taking a stubborn stand and are very arrogant and unyielding, and that [the tsar’s ambassadors] have no basis on which to act without [knowing] the real, true instructions; and then in answer they are sent secret instructions. 24. And when ambassadors and envoys discuss matters in negotiating with [foreign] negotiators while on an embassy, or with [foreign] ambassadors while at a congress, on the basis of instructions {75v} given to them from the Ambassadorial Chancellery and from the [Chancellery] of Privy Affairs, their speeches are written down by undersecretaries. And if anyone on an embassy should say things which go beyond their instructions, of fail to say what the instructions indicate, then all those speeches, whether they have been made or not, are written down in the reports not as spoken but eloquently and intelligently, deceitfully exalting their intelligence, so as to obtain great honor and compensation for themselves from the tsar thereby; nor are they ashamed to do this, for who is there to inform the tsar of what they have done? Question. Why do they do this? Answer. For this reason: The men of the Russian state are arrogant by nature {76} and untrained in all things, since in their country there is no proper instruction of any kind to be had and obtained, except in arrogance and shamelessness and hatred and deceit; and in their speech they say many contradictory things in their ignorance, or inconsistent things in their haste, and then later disavow those words of theirs and change their meaning; and as for the words which they have spoken and [now] disavow, they place the blame on the translators, alleging that they interpret treacherously. But if they ordered that all their words be written down, and stood by them, a decree would be issued regarding their service of the kind described below.15 Judicious reader! in reading this work do not be astonished. All this is true: for they do not send their children {76v} to foreign lands for their knowledge and customs, fearing that once they are acquainted with the faith and customs and blessed freedom of these lands they will renounce their own faith and adopt another, and that once they return they will have no care and thought for their homes and kinsmen. And as

15 See the same chapter, article 28.



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for travel [abroad] by Muscovites, except for those who are sent on the tsar’s orders and for trade, with passports, no one is allowed to go for any purpose. And although merchants do travel to other countries for trade, written sureties are obtained for them from eminent and distinguished men, with firm guarantees that they will not remain abroad with goods and possessions but will return home with everything. And if any prince or boyar or anyone, should [go] himself, or send his son or brother to another country for some purpose without informing and petitioning the sovereign {77}, such an act on his part would be considered treasonable, and his hereditary estates [votchiny] and service estates [pomest’ia] and possessions would be confiscated by the tsar; and if anyone should go himself and leave relatives behind, they would be tortured [to learn] whether they knew of their relative’s intention; and if anyone should send a son, or brother, or nephew, he would likewise be tortured [to learn] why he had sent [his relative] to a foreign country, whether it was for preparing an armed attack on the Muscovite state in order to seize power, or for some criminal purpose, upon another’s instructions; and he would be tortured in the same way as described above, on what is ordered for those who cross the tsar’s courtyard with weapons.16 25. And when ambassadors are sent to diplomatic {77v} congresses, and commandants [voevody] to war with their regiments, with them on such missions are sent icons of ancient authorship, covered in gold and silver, with pearls and precious stones; and the tsar and patriarch and metropolitans and all the clergy, and the boyars, and men of every rank, accompany these icons on foot, [bearing] many other icons and candles, from [the city of] Moscow to the place where foreign ambassadors are greeted. And while they accompany those icons a Te Deum is sung, and followin the Te Deum the patriarch and tsar and hierarchs and boyars and men of every rank bid farewell to those icons and then kiss the hand of the painted icon; and at this time the ambassadors or regimental commandants [voevody] approaches the tsar’s hand in farewell; and after making their farewells the tsar and patriarch and hierarchs and boyars return to the primatial cathedral [of the Dormition] with the other icons, and then disperse to their homes. In the same manner, when ambassadors return from their embassies, or commandants [voevody] from their regiments, the tsar and patriarch and hierarchs and boyars and other men greet those {78} icons in the same place to which they had accompanied them upon departure, similarly with icons and with candles, and the ceremony is like the one upon departure; and upon greeting those icons, they return them to the churches where they were previously kept. And those icons, of the Savior or of they Mother of God or of some saint, are painted on wood, the size of a sheet [of paper], but sometimes an arshin or more. Question. Why are these icons sent?

16 See Chapter 3, article 14.

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Answer. For this purpose: When in time of war there is a {78v} victory over the enemy, or an embassy [concludes] an eternal peace, they consider that such things happen not through God’s mercy, but through the aid and intercession and prayers of the Mother of God and the saints who are [portrayed] on those icons; and upon these considerations they revere those icons and shamelessly address an inanimate being and beg for intercession; for they are blind, the devil having darkened their eyes with the flame of the unquenchable fire. And when ambassadors go to diplomatic congresses with the Swedes, they are accompanied by a guard of 200 or more musketeers, and likewise 200 horsemen. And to congresses with the Poles ambassadors are accompanied, in addition to their officers, by a command [prikaz] of musketeers and 500 horsemen, with various military supplies and with cannon. 26. And when the ambassadors have completed their business as ordered, they return from their embassies to Moscow; and at this time the tsar sends lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and pages [zhil’tsy], depending on the rank of the ambassadors, to meet {79} them along the way and inquire of their health; and in return those ambassadors present gifts to those men. 27. And as ambassadors or regimental commandants [voevody] arrive in Moscow, when the tsar orders them to appear before him, or when he greets the icons, they approach his hand and present the letters and notes and reports from their embassy, for information; and when the tsar has heard the account of their embassy, and if their service has been meritorious, he elevates them in rank for their merit, as described above.17 And they, the ambassadors and regimental commandants [voevody] — boyars, okol’nichie, Duma men, lords-in-waiting [stol’niki], noblemen [dvoriane], and secretaries — are given sable furs, faced with gold velvet or satin, [valued] at 200 or 300 or 400 or 500 rubles {79v}, depending upon their service and rank.18 And they are likewise given hereditary estates [votchiny], or money to buy hereditary estates [votchiny], 2,000 or 3,000 or 5,000 or 6,000 or 7,000 or 10,000 [rubles], in Lübeck thalers, likewise depending upon the person’s service and rank, and also a supplement to their annual salary in money and to their service estate [pomest’e] norm.19 And the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy] and translators and undersecretaries and interpreters who are sent with the ambassadors, and not independently, are rewarded for their

17 See Chapter 2, article 5. 18 See Chapter 6, article 1. 19 See Chapter 7, the end of article 8, on the norms.



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service with cloth or damask or taffeta, depending upon the person,20 and also with a supplement to their annual salary in money and service estate [pomest’e] norm.21 In the same way envoys and couriers who go to neighboring states are likewise honored {80} for their service and given a supplement to their annual wage and service estate [pomest’e] norm. 28. But some ambassadors and envoys and couriers, or regimental commandants [voevody], are given [the following] reward for their service: they are beaten with the knout on the square in front of the Ambassadorial Chancellery, while others are put to death and others are deprived of their rank and service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] and exiled into lifelong exile in Siberia, with their wife and children, as petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] or Cossacks or into whatever manner of service may be appropriate. And when a decree is issued to punish boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and other ranks for their transgressions, their wives and children and kinsmen petition the tsaritsa or tsareviches or tsarevnas on their behalf; and upon such petitions [the royal family] pleads before the tsar {80v} for forgiveness, and upon their entreaty the tsar forgives these men their transgressions and does not punish them; likewise they are released from prison and from exile, and their service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] are restored to them, and they regain their rank through service.22 On the gifts which are sent with the ambassadors to each potentate, and in what quantity 29. To the Holy Roman Emperor, 1,000 rubles in gifts are sent with the envoys, and 300 and 400 or more rubles to distribute on the tsar’s business, sable pelts in groups of 40 or in pairs. 30. To His Majesty the King of Sweden, 2,000 rubles are sent with the great ambassadors, and 1,000 rubles on business. {81} 31. To the King of Poland, 3,000 or 5,000 rubles are sent with the great ambassadors, and 2,000 rubles to distribute on business. 32. To the King of England, in the past [gifts] were sent as to the Polish king, 3,000 rubles, and half as much on business.

20 See Chapter 6, article 1. 21 See Chapter 7, article 8, on the norms. 22 See Chapter 2, article 20, sub-article 12.

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But in the preceding year of 1663 the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches sent with Prozorovskii and the [other] great ambassadors various gifts to the king and queen of England: over 20,000 rubles in sable and black fox [pelts], and sable and ermine furs, and live sables and martens, and birds, gyrfalcons and falcons and hawks; and such great gifts were sent to confirm the old brotherly friendship and love of the [two] sovereigns, and to establish free trade in the town of Archangel {81v} as had existed before, under former kings and tsars. And such gifts were sent for this reason too: that at this time the King of England was to be married; but those Muscovite ambassadors did not reach the King of England in time for the nuptials. But following this royal nuptials they presented themselves before him and the queen and discharged their embassy, and presented to them the gifts from the tsar and from the tsaritsa and from the tsareviches, as ceremony required; likewise they, the ambassadors, presented their own gifts, sable [pelts] and sable and ermine furs, to the king and queen; and after repaying them, the Muscovite ambassadors, with great honor and [many] gifts, and likewise with presents in return for their own gifts, [the king] dismissed them with honor to their own country. And soon afterward the English king sent his own ambassador to the Muscovite tsar, accompanied by his wife and children, and with great presents, in proportion {82} to the Muscovite gift; and he ordered the embassy to be discharged in his and the queen’s name to the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches, and gifts to be presented in the same manner as had been [presented] to him. And when the ambassador of the King of England arrived in Moscow, we can assume that his reception and embassy and the entire matter was conducted in the same way as described below with regard to the Polish ambassadors. When the King of Poland, Władysław, was no more, upon his death his brother the present King of Poland Jan Casimir was elected to the Polish throne, and at that time ambassadors from the Streshnev family were sent from Moscow to confirm the old brotherly friendship and amity; and at that time the King of Poland was to marry his brother’s queen. And while at the King of Poland’s wedding those Muscovite ambassadors discharged an embassy {82v} and presented gifts to the king and queen from the tsar and tsaritsa; and in the same manner the King of Poland sent his ambassadors to the tsar, and ordered them to discharge an embassy and to present gifts from himself and from the queen to the tsar and tsaritsa, in the same manner. And when those ambassadors appeared before the tsar they discharged their embassy and presented the gifts; but they were not allowed to discharge an embassy before the tsartitsa or to see her, under the pretext that the tsaritsa was ill, although she was well at that time; and the tsar himself heard the embassy and received the gifts from the ambassadors in the tsaritsa’s place. Question: Why do they act in this way? Answer: For this reason: In the Muscovite state those of the female sex are unlettered, such being the custom, and are by nature simple in mind and foolish and bashful in speech: since from childhood {83} until marriage they live in their fathers’ house



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in private apartments, and no one but the closest relatives can see them or be seen by them; and from this one can deduce how little chance there is for them to be very intelligent or bold. And even when they are married, men see little of them. And if at that time the tsar had allowed the Polish ambassadors to appear before his tsaritsa with their embassy, and if she had heard the embassy and failed to make any reply, this would have brought shame upon the tsar himself. 33. To the King of Denmark in former times, 2,000 rubles were sent to ambassadors, and 1,000 rubles to distribute were sent to the King of Denmark with gifts of various kinds: sable and black fox {83v} [pelts], and sable and ermine furs, and live sables and martens and ermines, and birds, gyrfalcons and falcons and hawks and others, to [the value of] 15,000 rubles, and two shipments of grain from Archangel, 5,000 chetverti, without cost. And such great gifts were sent for this reason: when enmity and war broke out between the Muscovite tsar and His Majesty the King of Sweden, the tsar then wrote to the King of Denmark that he might give aid against His Royal Majesty and make common cause with [the tsar]; and the King of Denmark acted upon this letter. And when Almighty God aided His Royal Majesty, and brought him victory over the King of Denmark and [instead] concluded a peace treaty with His Royal Majesty at Walliessari; and thus the tsar’s letter served to deceive the King of Denmark. {84} And recognizing his injustice, the Muscovite tsar sent him presents as a consolation, that he would bear him no hatred but would forgive all that had happened. 34. To the electors and princes and counts and to the States-General of Holland, 1,000 rubles are sent with the ambassadors, with 500 rubles to distribute. 35. To the Sultan of Turkey, 5,000 rubles or more sent with the ambassadors, and 10,000 or more rubles to distribute on business, for the distant journey and for freeing Russian captives. 36. To the Shah of Persia, animal pelts and live animals {84v} and birds to [the value of] 50,000 and 100,000 rubles and more are sent with the ambassadors, more with each [successive] embassy, because the Shah of Persia himself sends large gifts to Moscow, many jeweled ornaments and various merchandise. And in the previous year of 1663 over 200,000 rubles in gifts were sent to Persia with an embassy: two silver carriages, one of them gilded, and twelve horses for them, with additional horses, sables, martens and various [other] furs, various live birds and animals, and silver, wooden, and ivory vessels. And many extra live birds and animals are sent to him, because [many of] the birds and animals die from the long journey and from some disease, and then others are added to their number. And Muscovite ambassadors do not return to Moscow from the Sultan of Turkey and the Shah of Persia until the fourth year [after their departure], for the journey is very arduous, and many men die from the climate {85}.

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37. To the Crimean khan and to his tsaritsa and tsareviches and to their wives and their children, and to the pashas and princes and mirzas and to their closest men, with the envoys are sent each year fur coats of sable or marten or squirrel faced on the outside with gold [cloth], and fur coats of fox or arctic fox and rabbit faced on the outside with colored damask, cloth capes [odnoriadki], damask caftans, hats, boots, sables, ermine, and foxes in greater quantity with each passing year, for this reason: if [the Crimeans] do not like any of the gifts, they exchange them for others, or add to them, while if anyone should not receive what he was scheduled to, those envoys are tortured and beaten and kept in prison. And these gifts are sent to them so that they would not attack the border towns or pillage {85v} the cities and towns; none the less, though they take these gifts they discharge this and do as they please. And such gifts exceed 20,000 rubles a year. And the one who began giving such gifts was the Metropolitan of Moscow Alexis, after his imprisonment in the Crimea many years ago. Likewise he, the metropolitan, adjured the Muscovite state not to attack the Crimeans but to appease the impious ones with gifts; and if despite his adjuration they should attack the Crimea, God would not grant them victory in their war, or bring forth fruits from the earth; but if they, the Crimeans should themselves attack, they should stand against them. And the Muscovite tsar acts upon that adjuration: he does not attack the Crimeans himself, but buys them off with such yearly gifts {86}; and when he does send his army against the Crimeans, then the Muscovite army can never find victory over the Crimean army, because no one is more feared by the Muscovite troops than the Crimeans. And after they, the Crimeans, attack the border towns and devastate them and kill people and take prisoners, they take those prisoners to the border for exchange, as agreed upon; and some prisoners are exchanged by the two sides, but others remain [captive]; and [for the former] the Muscovites pay in money, as agreed upon: 15 and 20 and 50 and 100 rubles and more for each man, depending on the person, in addition to those gifts. 38. Likewise when the Muscovite tsar sends envoys elsewhere, with them are sent 1,000 rubles or 500 rubles in gifts, depending upon the dignity of the potentate. {86v}



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{87} Chapter 5, in which there are 18 articles. On the ambassadors and envoys and couriers of other states, and the honors paid to each. 1. When ambassadors of His Majesty the King of Sweden arrive at the border, the boyars and commandants [voevody] of the border towns send a nobleman [dvorianin] to welcome them, some elderly man from a worthy family; and orders are given to welcome the ambassadors with honor, and food and drink are sent with him to welcome them. And after welcoming the ambassadors he accompanies them to the [nearest] town. And when they are approaching the town, that nobleman [dvorianin] sends word to the commandants [voevody] that they will enter the town on a particular day; and the boyars and commandants [voevody] arrange to welcome those ambassadors, and at the welcoming are present noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] and serving men of various rank and settlement [posad] {87v} men. And the nobleman [dvorianin] accompanies those ambassadors into the town and to the court where it has been arranged for the ambassadors to stay. And after accompanying them he reports to the boyar, and the boyar sends that same nobleman [dvorianin] or someone else to the ambassadors with a banquet of food and drink, to honor them — and on the first day the food and drink is double the daily norm — and orders him to act as their escort [pristav] until they reach Moscow. And after the ambassadors’ food and drink and transport for their journey are prepared, they are sent off to Moscow without delay. And when the ambassadors are approaching Moscow, the nobleman [dvorianin] has orders to halt with those ambassadors some 20 versty before reaching Moscow, and to report the arrival of the ambassadors; and upon [the receipt of] his letter he is ordered to continue toward Moscow with those ambassadors to the temporary camp, seven versty [from the city], and to await a decree ordering him to accompany them into Moscow. {88} And in Moscow, on the day of the welcome, horses are prepared in the tsar’s stables for the ambassadors’ reception, and chambers or rooms are prepared in the court where they are to stay, and food and drink for the ambassadors and the embassy officers and men of every rank, and fodder for horses, and firewood, are all made ready for the arrival of the embassy. And likewise on the day the ambassadors arrive in Moscow, chamberlains [spal’niki], lords-in-waiting [stol’niki], adjutants [striapchie], Moscow noblemen [dvoriane], secretaries, pages [zhil’tsy], trading company men [gosti], undersecretaries, stirrup, field and stable grooms, palace servitors, and trading men [arranged] by guild [sotnia], are ordered to be present at the welcome, dressed as is customary for [welcoming] ambassadors, whatever dress each has available; and inside the city in the [Kitai] walled district [gorod] and in the [Red] square and as far as the Ambassadors’ Court musketeers are stationed in military fashion. {88v}

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And for meeting and greeting the ambassadors a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] is sent, a man of middle-ranking family whose members serve as okol’nichie, together with a secretary; and the ambassadors are met in a field beyond Zemlianoi walled district [gorod]. And the instructions written for the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] and secretaries are [as fellows]: when they meet the great ambassadors they must make their speech, as instructed, before the ambassadors do, and they must not remove their hats or dismount before the ambassadors do. And when the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] and secretary have greeted the ambassadors and have delivered their speech as instructed, and have said that the tsar’s horses, with saddles and equipment, have been sent for the ambassadors to ride on, then disputes break out between the ambassadors and the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] and secretary: when Muscovite ambassadors come to their own sovereign, they are received in carriages and not on horseback. And the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] and secretary argue that when in the past ambassadors from all the neighboring states including Sweden have come, they have been greeted on horseback and have entered {89} the city without dispute, and that in their country it is not the custom to greet foreign ambassadors in carriages. And after mounting, great disputes break out between the ambassadors and the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] as to who should be on the right side; and after much dispute the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] rides into the city with the ambassadors, on the right of the ambassadors, with the secretary on their left. And after accompanying the ambassadors to the Ambassadors’ Court where they are to stay, the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] and secretary go to the tsar and report to the tsar that they have met and accompanied the ambassadors to the Ambassadors’ Court; and the tsar sends the same lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] and secretary to inquire of the ambassadors’ health, and orders them to tell the ambassadors that they have been assigned to the ambassadors as escorts [pristavy]. 2. And on that day when the tsar has ordered the ambassadors to appear before him for an audience, at this time musketeers with banners and firearms are stationed in the Kremlin, in front of the tsar’s {89v} palace and in the [Cathedral] square, and in the [Kitai] walled district [gorod] in front of the market-stalls on the [Red] square and as far as the Ambassador’s Court, lining both sides of the street along which the ambassadors will ride; and horses are sent from the tsar’s stables for the ambassadors and for their officers, and musketeers who are to carry the king’s and the ambassadors’ gifts, and welcomers — undersecretaries and grooms — who are to accompany the ambassadors into the Kremlin. And when the tsar has entered the [audience] hall, the escorts [pristavy] are informed that it is time for them to accompany the ambassadors to the tsar; and they leave the Ambassadors’ Court, the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] riding on the right of the ambassadors, with musketeers in front of the ambassadors carrying the king’s gifts and their own, and likewise in front of the ambassadors, at the head, the welcomers and the embassy officers ride into the city. And as the ambassadors approach the tsar’s palace, they dismount before reaching the palace; and having dismounted the ambassadors and their officers {90} remove their swords,



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and enter the tsar’s palace without swords. And in front of the ambassadors walk the musketeers and the embassy officers with the gifts, past the church through its vestibule, and along the portico to that hall where they are to appear before the tsar, and enter the hall in the same manner. And at the entrance to the hall a Duma secretary and an [ordinary] secretary greet the ambassadors, and inquire as to the ambassadors’ health, and enter the hall together with the ambassadors. And at this time the tsar is seated on his throne, in all his royal garments; and to the right of the tsar on a tray on the window-ledge is placed a stand, and to the left, at a distance, sit the boyars; and at this time the tsar is supported by the Siberian tsareviches or by boyars. And next to the tsar on both sides stand four bodyguards [ryndy], dressed in white damask garments lined with ermine, in tall white hats and boots and each holding an axe {90v} decorated with gold and silver; and the garments and axes of these bodyguards [ryndy] come from the tsar; and they are sons of boyar families of the first and second and third category. And when the tsar orders them to serve as bodyguards [ryndy], alongside one another, and to remove their own clothing and put on the tsar’s garments, they argue among themselves in the same manner23, and do not wish to serve with each other; and if it is permissible for one of them to serve with the others as the tsar has ordered, and he will not do so and will not remove his own clothing and put on the tsar’s garments, the tsar gives orders to tear off the clothes of the disobedient one and dress him in [the tsar’s] garments; and when the ambassadors have been dismissed, or before the ambassadors [arrive], they remove the tsar’s garments from him and beat him with switches outside the tsar’s windows, in front of all the people, for disobeying the tsar’s orders. And when the ambassadors have entered the hall, they begin to speak as they have been instructed {91}, and greet the tsar and inquire as to his health; and at the time the tsar rises and removes his crown, and while standing himself asks the ambassadors of the king’s health; and his words to the ambassadors are repeated by an okol’nichii; and then the tsar sits down on his throne. And the ambassadors, after making reply about their sovereign’s health, say that they have brought a letter to him from His Royal Majesty, and after saying this they present the king’s letter to the tsar; and the tsar, arising and removing his crown, personally accepts the letter from the ambassadors; and then the ambassadors say that they bring gifts to him from His Royal Majesty; and after announcing those gifts they present them, and the tsar personally accepts the gifts from the ambassadors. And during the audience the tsar’s crown is removed by his father-in-law, or by another leading boyar. And after accepting the gifts he orders the ambassadors to approach his royal hand, and a Duma secretary makes a speech to the ambassadors; and following the ambassadors the embassy officers approach his {91v} hand. And then the tsar orders his bounty, a banquet of food and drink, to be declared to the ambassadors, and a speech is made

23 See Chapter 4, article 13 or 12.

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by the same Duma secretary; and the ambassadors give thanks for the tsar’s bounty. And after the banquet is declared, they are dismissed to their quarters, and a Duma secretary and an [ordinary] secretary accompany the ambassadors from the hall; and in front of the tsar’s palace the ambassadors mount their horses and ride to the Ambassadors’ Court where they are staying, and they are preceded by the welcomers and their embassy officers. But no one in the ambassadors’ retinue except the officers is allowed into the hall where the tsar sits. And the gifts sent include various goldplated silver vessels, and all kinds or remarkable objects from abroad. {92} 3. And on the same day the tsar orders a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] to be sent to the ambassadors with the banquet, with food and drink; and that lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] is from a family whose members serve as okol’nichie; and in the instructions to the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] is written [the following]: when he is with the ambassadors he should sit at the table to the right of the ambassadors, and drink the first toast to the tsar’s health and then to the king’s. And when the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] arrives at the Ambassadors’ Court, he dismounts in front of the porch and is followed by palace servitors with food and drink; and the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] is met by the embassy officers. And after he enters the ambassadors’ chambers and begins to deliver the tsar’s message as instructed, and declares that he has been sent to the ambassadors with a banquet, with food and drink, the ambassadors express their thanks for the tsar’s bounty; and the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] orders a tablecloth to be spread and the food placed on the table. And then the ambassadors and the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] and the escorts [pristavy] {92v}and the embassy officers sit down at the table and begin to eat in the usual manner. And soon the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] rises from the table and begins to speak and to drink the first toast to the tsar’s health, and then to the king’s. And over this toast there are great disputes between the ambassadors and the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik], and after much dispute the ambassadors drink the first toast to the tsar’s health, and then to the king’s. And after drinking the toasts and eating, the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] gets up and bids farewell to the ambassadors, and leaves the Ambassadors’ Court for the Ambassadorial Chancellery, and reports to the Duma secretary that he has gone to the ambassadors with a banquet and has acted according to instructions, and has been presented with gifts by the ambassadors in return, and shows the gifts — although some ambassadors stipulate that they will present these gifts later; and the Duma secretary reports this to the tsar; and the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] is ordered to give the Chancellery a written record of his conversation with the ambassadors. {93} 4. And then on the second or third day, or a week later, the tsar orders the ambassadors to come to his palace for negotiations with the boyars. And on the day that the ambassadors are to be in the palace, horses are sent from the tsar’s stables for the ambassadors and for their suite, and grooms as welcomers; and musketeers are stationed in the [Kitai] walled district [gorod] and the Kremlin, from the tsar’s palace



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to the Ambassadors’ Court; and the ambassadors, accompanied by escorts [pristavy] and the embassy officers and the welcomers, ride into the Kremlin and dismount in front of the tsar’s palace, and after removing their swords appear before the tsar in the hall as at their first audience. And when they enter the hall they express their thanks to the tsar for the banquet which was sent to them, and the tsar inquires as to the ambassadors’ health, speaking through a Duma secretary. And then he orders the ambassadors to be told that as they, the ambassadors, have been sent from His Royal Majesty {93v} and at the [first] audience have discharged His Royal Majesty’s embassy, he, the tsar, upon hearing that embassy has graciously ordered them, the ambassadors, to appear for negotiations, and has boyars (here follow the names of the boyars) to listen to those matters, and [has ordered] them, the ambassadors, to make known to the boyars those matters for which they were sent. And then the ambassadors take their leave of the tsar and go from that hall into another hall which is for negotiations. And the benches in that hall where the boyars and ambassadors are to sit, and outside that hall where the officers are to sit, are covered with damask and linen cloth, and all is arranged as is customary for ambassadors. And when the boyars come to the negotiating hall, upon greeting the ambassadors the boyars sit down at the table facing the long side of the table, while the ambassadors sit down at the table to their left, facing its narrow side; and the embassy officers remain in the adjoining hall. And the {94} boyars ask the ambassadors to tell them, the boyars, why they have been sent; and the ambassadors begin to discuss these matters with them, and the speeches on both sides are translated by interpreters, and secretaries and undergraduates stand by for writing down the speeches on both sides; and except for these men no one is present in the hall. And there is much discussion and argument between the boyars and the ambassadors about those matters. And after talking with the ambassadors the boyars tell the ambassadors that they have heard their embassy and will make these matters known to the tsar, and that the tsar will issue orders concerning these matters which will be announced to them. And the boyars go to the tsar and tell the ambassadors to wait in the negotiating hall while the boyars go to the tsar to make these matters known; and the ambassadors wait for an answer in the negotiating hall. And when the boyars make these things known to the tsar, the tsar {94v} sends the Duma secretary who was with the boyars during the negotiations with the ambassadors with orders to tell the ambassadors that the matters about which they had spoken to the boyars and closest men had been made known to the tsar, and that His Tsarist Majesty had ordered them to be told that an answer concerning these matters would be given when they came for negotiations on the following day, or on some other day, or an answer would be sent to them in writing; but for the moment they, the ambassadors, should return to their quarters. And the ambassadors, taking their leave of the Duma secretary, return home as before. 5. And the boyars who negotiated with those ambassadors include one boyar who is from the third- or fourth-ranking family of the first category; a [boyar] below him

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[in lineage], who is either from the first or second category of families; one or two okol’nichie; and the Duma secretary of the Ambassadorial Chancellery. {95} 6. And when further negotiations with the ambassadors are necessary, they take place in the same way as before. And if they, the ambassadors, wish to negotiate [further] and discuss any matters with the boyars and Duma men, and request such negotiations, this is reported to the tsar, and the tsar orders the ambassadors to come for negotiations with the boyars and Duma men as before. 7. And on the days when the ambassadors appear before the tsar, or negotiate with the boyars, or see the tsar in processions or in other places, they are sent twice the daily amount of food and drink; and in addition the tsar sends someone to inquire as to their health. 8. And when the ambassadors have discharged their business and their embassy as their sovereign had ordered, and are dismissed {95v}, they appear before the tsar for their dismissal in the same way as for their [first] audience. And the tsar, arising and removing his crown, transmits through them, the ambassadors, his friendly greetings and felicitation to His Royal Majesty, and presents to the ambassadors the tsar’s letter [to their sovereign], and an okol’nichii makes the speech for the tsar. And then he orders the Duma secretary to tell the ambassadors to approach the tsar’s hand. And after the ambassadors and their embassy officers have approached his hand the tsar orders them to be informed of his bounty, a banquet of food and drink; and the ambassadors, after expressing their thanks to the tsar, return to their Court as before. And on the same day a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] — either the same one as before or some other of similar [lineage] — is sent to the ambassadors with a banquet; and he remains with the ambassadors and offers them food and drink as before. And whatever gifts he receives from the ambassadors the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] reports to the Duma secretary, and the Duma secretary to the tsar. {96} 9. And when the ambassadors are about to leave Moscow, food and drink and transport are prepared for their journey; and letters are sent to the towns through which they will pass to prepare food and drink and transport for the ambassadors and the embassy officers and their retinue, and to allow no delay of any kind anywhere on the ambassadors’ journey. And the original nobleman [dvorianin], or someone else if he is for some reason not available, is assigned to be their escort [pristav] as far as the border. And when the food and drink for the journey had been prepared, and the ambassadors are ready to depart, they, the ambassadors, are accompanied from Moscow to the place where they were welcomed by the same escorts [pristavy] and welcomers who rode with them [from the Ambassador’s Court] into the Kremlin to the tsar; and the ambassadors ride out on the tsar’s horses. And any conversation



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they have with the escorts [pristavy] on their departure, and any gifts presented, are reported by the escorts [pristavy] to the Duma secretary. {96v} 10. And when the ambassadors of His Royal Majesty come to Moscow, in summer or in winter: in the summer they are met and taken before the tsar and accompanied on horseback, and in the winter in sleighs. 11. And when the ambassadors appear before the tsar for their audience or dismissal, at such times the hall is arranged as is the custom for ambassadors, and the floor is covered with Persian rugs, and the boyars and Duma men and closest men and lordsin-waiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries and trading company men [gosti] appear in gold-colored garments. 12. And upon their dismissal the ambassadors are sent the tsar’s bounty in sable furs: to the first ambassador, 1,000 rubles in sets of 40 and in pairs; to the second, his associates, 700 rubles in sets of 40 and in pairs; {97} to the third, 500 rubles; and to the fourth, if there is one, 400 rubles, in sets of 40 and in pairs. And the sets of 40 are valued at the tsar’s true decreed price, at 300 or 250 or 200 or 150 or 100 or 80 rubles for a set of forty, and 20 or 15 or 10 rubles for a pair. The embassy officers and the retinue are divided into three categories: the officers of the first category [receive] 50 rubles in sets of 40; of the second category, 40 rubles in sets of forty; of the third category, 30 rubles in sets of forty, or in pairs. Members of the retinue of the first category [receive] a pair valued at 10 rubles; of the second category, a pair valued at seven rubles; of the third category, a pair valued at five rubles {97v}; the rest, a pair valued at three rubles. And those sable furs are brought by undersecretaries, and presented to the ambassadors according to a roster. And for the gifts of their own which the ambassadors have presented to the tsar, they are likewise sent sables of the same value. And the gifts from the king and from the ambassadors are valued according to their value by weight, without taking their craftsmanship into account. On envoys. 13. When envoys are sent from His Royal Majesty, they are met at the border by a nobleman [dvorianin], or by a [military] commander, or a captain [of infantry] or captain of musketeers; and when he arrives at a border town, the welcoming delegation from the town is half as large as for an ambassador; and they ride into the town {98} and to the court where the envoy is to stay. And the boyar and commandant [voevoda] of that town sends the envoy a banquet of food and drink, and daily subsistence, and orders the person who met him to remain with him as an escort [pristav]. And after preparing food and drink and transport for that envoy’s journey to Moscow they allow him to proceed without delay. And when the envoy and the escort [pristav] are approaching Moscow, word is sent from Moscow to the escort [pristav] to enter the city with that envoy; and when the

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envoy has reached the outskirts of the city he is met beyond Zemlianoi walled district [gorod] by a colonel or lieutenant-colonel of musketeers, and an undersecretary, and they make a speech, and the ceremony of welcome and the horses sent are the same as for an ambassador; and palace servitors and undersecretaries and grooms are present at the welcome in large numbers; and after welcoming {98v} the envoy they accompany him to the Ambassador’s Court where he is to stay, and are ordered to remain with him as escorts [pristavy]. And the Court, and the food and drink, have been prepared for his arrival. And while traveling and in Moscow the envoy is provided with food and drink in amounts corresponding to a second- or third-ranking ambassador, and the envoy’s officers and retinue [are given] correspondingly less than an ambassador’s officers and retinue. And when the tsar orders that envoy to appear before him for an audience, horses from the tsar’s stables are sent for him, and grooms as welcomers, and he rides into the Kremlin and appears before the tsar in just the same way as an ambassador. And if he has gifts from His Royal Majesty, he presents these likewise. {99} And when he appears before the tsar, at this time the tsar is dressed in rich, festive garments, but wears an ordinary crown, unlike the one worn in the ambassador’s presence. And the boyars and other ranks likewise are dressed in rich garments, and there are four men serving as bodyguards [ryndy]. In the same way a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] of middleranking family is sent to him with the banquet, and the lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] conducts himself as instructed, just as with an ambassadors; but musketeers are stationed only in the Kremlin, where the tsar dwells. And an envoy conducts negotiations with okol’nichie and Duma men in the Ambassadorial Chancellery; and his dismissal is like his audience and like an ambassador’s dismissal; and the same lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or someone like him is sent with the banquet. And upon dismissal an envoy receives the same bounty from the tsar as a third ambassador {99v}, and his officers and men receive half as much as an ambassador’s officers and men; and his departure from Moscow is like that of an ambassador, and escorts [pristavy] accompany him to the same place as an ambassador, and he is accompanied by the stable grooms who welcomed him; and the same man, or some else, accompanies him as an escort [pristav] on his journey to the border, as is proper and customary. 14. On couriers. Couriers are received in the same manner are envoys, and a captain or musketeers meets them at the border and accompanies them to Moscow; and their food and drink along the way and their welcome are more modest; and they appear before the tsar for the audience and the dismissal in the same way as envoys, but a lesser banquet is sent than to envoys {100}; and instead of a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik], an escort [pristav] is sent with the banquet; and undersecretaries or commanders are assigned to them as escorts [pristavy]; and their daily food and drink is like that given an ambassador’s secretary; and upon their dismissal the tsar gives them a bounty of



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100 rubles in sable furs, and the same to their men, at his discretion; and they depart from Moscow with the same escort [pristav] who met them at the border; and from Moscow they are accompanied by escorts [pristavy], with a small number of men, to the same place as envoys. 15. And in those ambassadors’ courts where ambassadors, and envoys, and couriers are quartered, guards are posted for the honor and protection of the embassy: for an ambassador, a captain with 100 {100v} and 50 musketeers, depending upon the number of men with the ambassador; for an envoy, 20 or 30, likewise depending upon his men; for couriers, 10 or 12. And if the embassy officers or their men should buy something in the market-stalls for the ambassador or for themselves, or if they should go somewhere for diversion, they are accompanied by musketeers to protect them from the Russians, lest anyone inflict upon them any dishonor and injury. 16. And when ambassadors come to Moscow from the [Holy] Roman Emperor, or from the kings of Poland or England or Denmark, or from the Turks or the Persians, they are received and honored in the same way as the Swedish ambassadors {101}, except that the Persian and Polish and English ambassadors are given more food and drink than the Swedish, and there are six bodyguards [ryndy]24; and for the envoys and couriers of all the above-mentioned states, and of electors and princes and counts, all the arrangements are as described above. 17. And when ambassadors arrive from the Crimean khan, and the Nogai [Horde], and the Kalmyks, no welcome is arranged for them; instead the escorts [pristavy] who met them at the border accompany the Crimean ambassadors to their own Crimean Court, and the Kalmyk and Nogai [ambassadors] to those places where they will be quartered; and in Moscow, a nobleman [dvorianin] is appointed to them as an escort [pristav]. And garments are prepared for those ambassadors and their men, whatever their number may be, for them to wear when {101v} appearing before the tsar at the audience and at the dismissal: for the ambassadors, gold satin robes lined with marten and squirrel fur, embroidered capes [odnoriadki] of red linen, damask caftans, high-coned hats of fox fur, and boots; for their men, likewise embroidered capes [odnoriadki] of red linen, damask caftans, hats, and boots.25 And on the day when the tsar orders those ambassadors to appear before him, horses are sent for those ambassadors from the tsar’s stables, and clothing — capes [odnoriadki], caftans, hats, and boots — is sent to them; and they are ordered to come into the Kremlin, to the Ambassadorial Chancellery. And the ambassadors, dressed in the tsar’s clothing, ride with the escort

24 On the ryndy see article 2. 25 See Chapter 6, article 1.

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[pristav] to the Chancellery, and in the Chancellery a Duma secretary asks them why they were sent, and while discussing matters with them examines their {102} documents, and goes to inform the tsar. And the tsar sends for those ambassadors and orders them to appear before him, and an escort [pristav] accompanies them on foot from the Ambassadorial Chancellery to the tsar’s palace, and into the palace to the tsar. And at this time the tsar is in the hall in his ordinary garments. And when the ambassadors enter the hall, upon seeing the tsar, seated and wearing his crown, inquires of the ambassadors as to the health of the Crimean khan (or prince); and a Duma secretary makes this speech in the tsar’s name. And the ambassadors discharge their embassy by presenting the letter [from their sovereign]; and the tsar orders the Duma secretary to accept this letter; and the letter is not sealed, and in a gold pouch. And after accepting the letter the tsar orders the capes [odnoriadki] to be removed from the ambassadors, and gold-colored robes to be put to them in his presence, the capes [odnoriadki] being sent back to their court. {102v} And then the tsar orders the ambassadors to approach his hand, and when they have approached his hand the tsar places his hand on their hands and does not allow them to kiss it; and then the tsar gives the ambassadors goblets of burgundy to drink, and a dipper of cherry mead to each, and then dismisses them to their court. But some of those ambassadors, after drinking the burgundy and the mead, take the vessels for themselves and conceal them in their bosom; and these ambassadors say: “Since the tsar has favored us with garments and drink, these vessels should be ours as well”; and the tsar does not order these vessels to be taken away from them, since it is shameful to quarrel with a heathen. And for such shameless ambassadors special copper vessels, plated with gold or silver, are made in England. And if it is necessary to carry on any discussion with those ambassadors {103}, they come for discussions to the Ambassadorial Chancellery and to the house of the Duma secretary [of the Ambassadorial Chancellery], or else secretaries and undersecretaries are sent to question them. And these ambassadors appear before the tsar for their dismissal just as for their audience, and the tsar likewise offers them drink. And the daily food and drink given to them is not the same as to the ambassadors and couriers of the other states, but less, as is the custom. 18. And when the great ambassadors of His Majesty the King of Sweden, and likewise of Poland, come to Moscow to confirm and ratify a Christian peace, they appear before the tsar for the audience and the dismissal just as described above in every way. And on the day that they are to appear before the tsar for the ratification, the ambassadors appear before the tsar and {103v} then before the boyars for negotiations; and when the boyars have discussed the matter with the ambassadors they go to inform the tsar, while the ambassadors remain in the negotiating hall. And at this time the tsar orders an archpriest, his spiritual father, and deacons to put on church vestments and to bring a Gospel and crucifix to [another] hall, and to place them on a high place, on an alter, and to place a candle in front of them. And after this is prepared he sends the



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Duma secretary for the ambassadors and orders them to appear before him. And when the ambassadors appear, the tsar orders them to approach the Gospel and the crucifix, and his hand; and the archpriest begins to chant, and reads a written adjuration on swearing to maintain eternal peace, and the tsar reads it along with him. During this time the treaty has been placed {104} under the Gospel. And when the adjuration has been completed the tsar takes the oath by making obeisance before the crucifix and kissing the crucifix at the Savior’s feet. Then, taking the treaty, the tsar hands it to the ambassadors and makes a speech, and following his speech dismisses the ambassadors to their quarters. And no treaties are concluded with other Christian states, since there are no common frontiers; with the Persian state there have been no wars; and with the Crimean and Turkish states, although there have been wars, no treaties and agreements have been concluded; instead hostilities come to an end through an exchange of letters.

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{104v} Chapter 6, in which there are 6 articles. On the tsars’ courts: Treasury, Liquor, Provisions, Bread, Granary, and Stables. 1. The Treasury Court; and in it there is a chancellery, and a treasurer sits in that chancellery and two secretaries with him; and that treasurer is a Duma man, and sits in the Duma above the Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane]. And in that court is located the tsar’s treasury of gold and silver vessels and velvets and moirés and satins and damasks and taffetas, and gold and silver [threaded] rugs, and likewise [plain] velvets and linens and moirés and satins and damasks and taffetas and oriental taffetas and oriental cottons and silks, and various household goods. And from that treasury they take whatever is needed by the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, as the tsar orders {105}, and they distribute bounty to men of every rank. And in that chancellery there are about 100 furriers and tailors. And the monetary revenue of that chancellery is not large, only about 3,000 rubles, [taken] from the settlement [posad] trading men who are under the jurisdiction of that chancellery, about 500 in number; and that money is distributed in salaries to the undersecretaries and artisans. And if anything is bought for the tsar’s needs, in addition to what is bought in the town of Archangel, to buy such goods, then those silver vessels which have been sent as gifts from neighboring states are sold from that treasury to men of various rank; and then the boyars and hierarchs and monasteries and trading company men [gosti] and men of other ranks who present [gifts] to the tsar on his children’s birthday or on many other occasions buy these vessels {105v} in the market-stalls and once again present them to the tsar on holidays or at other times. And various other foreign goods are bought in the town of Archangel with customs money collected in the town from foreign merchants of various rank, and likewise with the money obtained from the sale of goods in the town of Archangel.26 There follows a list of those who are given bounty from the tsar’s treasury, by category: Boyars, okol’nichie, Duma men, and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries, for their service: coats of gold velvet and gold satin, lined with sable fur.27 Noblemen [dvoriane] and adjutants [striapchie] and pages [zhil’tsy], and translators, and undersecretaries: quantities of linen and damask and taffeta. {106}

26 See Chapter 12, article 1. 27 See Chapter 4, article 27.



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Greek hierarchs — patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, archimandrites, abbots, stewards, and ordinary monks who come for alms — are given church vestments and alter cloths and palls and silver vessels for furnishing churches which have been devastated by enemy attack or pagan profanation, or [have been] newly [built]; and likewise the hierarchs and their monks and servitors [are given] garments for themselves. Likewise monastery churches and the tsar’s cathedrals and ordinary churches throughout the Muscovite state, or monasteries and churches which have burned down and have no means for rebuilding, [are given] church vestments and altar cloths and palls, and silver and lead vessels, and censers. {106v} And Greek hierarchs come for alms in designated years, every three of four or five years or more, individually, year by year, in whatever years have been designated for each. And the priests and deacons and clerks and sacristans of the tsar’s cathedrals and ordinary churches in Moscow and in the provinces [are given] the tsar’s bounty on linen cloth for vestments each year, or in other cases every two or three or five years. And there are close to 40 cathedrals in Moscow, and in the provinces each town has a cathedral church; and in Moscow and in the towns and villages there are close to 1,500 tsar’s churches; and the cathedrals are given this name because they stand at the head of all the other churches. And in all those churches there are more then 18,000 servitors of various rank. {107} Stirrup grooms, falconers, and choirists [are given] linen and satin and damask cloth each year, and velvet tops and sables for hats, and likewise oriental cotton linings and morocco leather for boots; other categories of grooms [are given] linen each year, or every two years.28 The janitors [in the apartments] of the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches, and the dressmakers, seamstresses, women of the bedchamber, and other wives and widows and maidens who serve the tsaritsa and tsarevnas [are given] quantities of linen and satin and gold and silver and plain damask and taffeta and oriental taffeta each year.29 The musketeers in all the Moscow commands [prikazy], and European-trained soldiers [soldaty] — the palace infantry — [are given] linen for garments each year.30 And the provincial musketeers, in Novgorod, Pskov, {107v} Astrakhan’, Terek, and other towns, are sent linen for garments every three or four years. And when the Don Cossacks come from the Don on various business, 20 or 30 men at a time, three or four times a year, they are given linen and sables and damask and taffeta for their service, as determined; and every fifth year linen for garments is

28 On the falconers see Chapter 7, article 1; on the stirrup grooms, article 6 of the present chapter. 29 See Chapter 2, article 20, sub-articles 1, 3, 4 and 5. 30 On the musketeers see Chapter 7, article 5, and Chapter 9, article 3.

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sent to the Don, to all the Cossacks. And there are close to 20,000 of these Cossacks on the Don to protect the borders.31 Ambassadors from the Crimea and the Kalmyks and the Nogai [are given] readymade garments when they are received and dismissed by the tsar.32 Likewise each year clothing is made and sent with Muscovite ambassadors to the Crimea, {108} for the tsar and his tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, and for their wives and children, and for other men, as has been described above.33 2. The Liquor Court is given this name because drink is kept there; and in it are [the following] officials: A senior and four travel stewards; and in dignity they are equal to noblemen [dvoriane]. And that senior steward is in charge of the tsar’s cellars with their drink, and the receipt and disbursement of this drink, and likewise the store of silver and copper and lead vessels; and he has a chancellery to record the receipt and consumption of drink and to investigate and administer justice to the servitors of that Court; and he is obligated to supervise the Court and the drink and the cellars each day {108v}; and when the tsar or tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas begin to eat, at dinner or in the evening, he then enters with a serving table and orders drink to be brought out, as ceremony requires, to the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, and to the boyars and closest men and boyar wives, or whoever is present. And the travel stewards are in charge of the same office on [the tsar’s] journeys, similarly in every respect; and the travel stewards serve in shifts on journeys and in chancelleries in the [crown] villages. Cup-bearers; their office is such: when the tsar eats, at dinner and in the evening, they bring the drink before him, and it is taken from them by the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and chamberlains [spal’niki], and they are likewise sent to chancelleries in the crown villages; and in dignity they are equal to the lower category of noblemen [dvoriane]. {109} Adjutants [striapchie]; their office is such: when the travel or senior steward enters with the serving table, or in his absence, they stand by the serving table and pour out every kind of drink as ceremony requires; and they spend the night in the Court in daily shifts, and sit by the cellars to distribute drink to men of various rank, as ordered; and they are in charge of the silver, lead, copper, and wooden vessels, and keep a record of what they take in and give out; and there are about 40 of these adjutants [striapchie]. Liquor-bearers; their office is such: in Moscow and on the tsar’s journeys they carry the vessels with drink, and when the tsar walks or rides anywhere in the evening

31 See Chapter 9, article 7. 32 See Chapter 5, article 17. 33 See Chapter 4, article 37.



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they accompany him with candles; and there are about 50 of them. And all these ranks described above are worthy {109v} men, and are paid in money and with service estates [pomest’ia]. Distillers, brewers, guards, coopers: those who distill vodka and brew beer and ferment mead and make the casks and go about the cellars and draw and distribute the drink; and there are about 200 of these men. And that drink is distributed as follows: to ambassadors, envoys, and couriers, and to the embassy officers, daily, as ordered; to Greek merchants and Greek hierarchs, and Persian merchants; to the palace servitors of the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, who live at court; to the tsar’s artisans of various rank, daily; to the {110} Don Cossacks and the Ukrainian Zaporozhian Cossacks, also daily; likewise on holiday when the tsar has a banquet for the hierarchs and boyars, to those who eat at the table; and on holidays also to the priests and deacons of the tsar’s cathedrals and ordinary churches; and to the musketeers, as ordered. And that drink is given to men of various rank according to the books, and this is recorded in the books; and memoranda are extracted from those books regarding the amount which each is to receive daily and weekly and monthly; and these memoranda are used to take drink from the adjutants [striapchie] in the cellars; and the adjutants [striapchie] collect these memoranda and check them against the books, to prevent any thievery. And every day, in addition to what is brought before the tsar and tsaritsa {110v} and tsareviches and tsarevnas, there are consumed close to 100 vedra of vodka — ordinary, fortified [s makhom]34, double-distilled, and triple-distilled — and 400 or 500 vedra of beer and mead; and when there is not enough mead, a corresponding amount of vodka is given out instead. And some days, in celebrating a holiday or a saint’s day or a birth, 400 or 500 vedra of vodka and 2,000 or 3,000 or more vedra of beer and mead are given out. And sugared and raspberry and other beer, and brewed and red berry or apple mead, and burgundy and Rhine and French wine, and other foreign liquors, are given out as ordered, daily and weekly. And it is impossible to say how much is given out for the tsar’s use. {111} And in that Court there are altogether over 30 liquor cellars, in addition to the one for foreign liquors. And in all these cellars the various liquors are kept on ice, and that ice remains unchanged for a year, from one March to the next. And when they brew and ferment mead, wax deposits remain from the mead, and that wax is used for candles in the tsar’s churches and in the tsar’s chambers; and over 100 berkovtsy of that wax is used up each year. And that mead is brought from the lower and middle Volga towns and rural communities which are under the jurisdiction of the Chancellery of the Great Palace.

34 That is, vodka s makhom — two parts ordinary to one part double-distilled vodka.

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And malt for beer is obtained from the tsar’s granaries, from the Granary Court; and hops are bought in the market-stalls from the tsar’s treasury; and in the towns and in the hamlets {111v} berries for beer and for mead — raspberries, currants, stonebramble berries, strawberries, and cherries — are taken from the peasants of the crown villages which are close to Moscow; and apples and cherries and pears and plums are gathered from the tsar’s orchards in Moscow and in the villages. And contractors — trading men and tavern farmers — contract to deliver vodka for the palace, to a value of 30,000 or more rubles per year; and they are given money from the palace for purchasing and operating expenses, and a number of rubles corresponding to the amount that has been contracted for delivery. And surety notes are collected for them, guaranteeing that they will deliver, by the due date and as contracted, the full amount of vodka of good quality, full-strength and not bitter. And if anyone should fail to make delivery according to his contract, then the money given to him from the treasury {112} for purchasing and operating expenses shall be exacted from his guarantors; and for his offense the contractor who contracted to make delivery and failed to do so has his house and possessions confiscated for the tsar, and is punished by being beaten with the knout, so that others should not be tempted to practice dishonesty. And contracts for delivery to the tsar’s palace in Moscow are made at eight altyny per vedro; and in local measures two altyny will purchase one kanna; but when there is a poor harvest and grain is dear, then the rate is 10 altyny per vedro. 3. The Provisions Court; and in it are a senior and two travel stewards, about 20 adjutants [striapchie], and about 15 assistant stewards; and the rank of those stewards and adjutants [striapchie] and assistant stewards corresponds to that {112v} of stewards and adjutants [striapchie] and liquor-carriers of the Liquor Court. And whatever dishes are to be cooked and prepared and distributed each day to the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, and to those men who live day and night in the tsar’s palace; and what is given out when there are banquets for the tsar’s palace; and what is given out when there are banquets for the hierarchs and boyars; and what is sent each day from the dinner and supper tables of the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas to the boyars and Duma men and closest men; and what is distributed to palace servitors and priests and deacons and musketeers and artisans, and likewise to the Greek hierarchs and to men of other ranks, in fish and fish dishes and fresh or cured or cooked meat: all this is distributed according to the books and the yearly registers, which indicate what is to be cooked and distributed each day, in the same way as was done [in past years]. {113} And they, the stewards and the adjutants [striapchie], supervise and distribute those dishes and the various provisions, just as is done with drink in the Liquor Court. And they have charge of the silver, lead, copper, wooden, and iron vessels. And a chancellery has been established in that Court for distributing the food and for distributing and receiving various provisions, and for investigating and administering justice to the servitors.



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And in that Court there are over 150 masters, journeymen, apprentice cooks, dishwashers, water carriers, and guards. And they prepare various dishes for the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, and for distribution, and carry them to the palace, individually, to the person for whom each dish has been prepared. {113v} And when the tsar sits down to eat dinner or supper, or whenever hierarchs or boyars are present at dinner, then the majordomo or okol’nichii or Duma men or the secretary of the [Chancellery of the Great] Palace sits at the serving table, and releases the dishes to the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, tasting each one; and he distributes the dishes [to the others] according to the register; and while eating the tsar indicates what dishes are to be served to the various boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men and others. And while the tsar is eating, there is a distribution made to all the boyars and Duma men and chamberlains [spal’niki]: janitors are sent to their houses with the daily servings from dinner and supper, one dish to each, according to the register. And in the morning, or in the evening of the same day, the boyars come to thank the tsar for the serving. And if on a particular day {114} a boyar or closest man is not sent a serving, or if a janitor takes it for himself and does not bring the serving which had been stipulated for him that day, and if he is unaware of any wrath on the part of the tsar for which it would not be sent [to him] as to his brethren, the other [boyars]: then he denounces the majordomo or blames the secretaries and travel stewards for failing to send it to him, and considers himself dishonored, and petitions the tsar that although he is unaware of any offense on his part he has been dishonored before his brethren in [not receiving] the serving. And the tsar or majordomo orders this to be investigated in the registers and memorandum books [to determine] if the serving was sent and the name of the person with whom [it was sent]; and if it is discovered that it was sent, and that the man with whom it was sent did not deliver it but [took it] for himself or accidentally dropped it in the dirt along the way or spilled it; then the man who did this {114v} is punished, and beaten in front of the tsar’s chambers with switches; and if it is discovered that it was not sent through oversight, then those men who send out the servings petition repeatedly that boyar or Duma man or closest man not to complain to the tsar against them. But if they complain against the majordomo or okol’nichii, the tsar becomes angry and sends the secretaries and travel stewards to prison for a day. Likewise the tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas send servings to boyars and Duma men and closest men, and to their wives and children, and to other men upon whom they wish to bestow their favor, or because they are related. And each day over 3,000 dishes are distributed to the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, and to the boyars as servings, not including the other distributions described above {115}, or days of birth and holidays. And all provisions for the tsar’s use and for distributions — the fresh or cured meat of various animals, and various fresh and cured game, and cheese and eggs and butter and linseed oil and hempseed oil and walnut oil, and buckwheat and millet grouts, and other appropriate provisions — are contracted for by contractors for

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delivery to the palace, just as with liquor, to the sum of 30,000 or 40,000 rubles and more, not including what comes in from the peasants of the crown rural communities. And in any year when there are not enough of these provisions in the tsar’s palace, such provisions are bought in the market-stalls out of the tsar’s treasury. And for sour cream and milk and cheese there is a dairy farm with about 200 cows outside Moscow, and there are similar dairy farms in nearby villages; {115v} and these cows produce cheese and butter which is turned over for the tsar’s use. And various other edibles are bought in the town of Archangel and in Moscow from Europeans and in the market-stalls. And supplies of fish are brought in winter and in summer from the lower and middle Volga region, from the tsar’s fisheries in the region of Nizhnii-Novgorod and Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ and the Terek; and whatever supplies of fish are left over from the tsar’s use are sold.35 And the supplies of fish brought from the Volga region [include]: salted beluga and sturgeon, large and medium and small; beluga and sturgeon spines and bellies, dried and cured; sterlets likewise salted in barrels; beluga and sturgeon roe and livers; {116} boxes of beluga and sturgeon caviar, fresh and pressed; isinglass; white salmon split and dried. And from Novgorod the Great and from Ladoga come about 400 barrels a year of fish supplies — lumpfish, and salmon and lumpfish caviar. And from Vologda and from the town of Archangel and from the Kola fort come about 20,000 berkovtsy of salmon and smoked salmon. And it is estimated that the supply of fish distributed for the tsar’s use each year comes to a market value of over 100,000 rubles. And live fish for the tsar’s use are kept in Moscow, in the streams and ponds of [the tsar’s] orchards; and that fresh fish [includes] sturgeon, white salmon, sterlets, salmon, pike, bream, pike-perch, and various others of good quality which are fit to place before the tsar. {116v} And the best fish is caught in the Volga River, and other [fish] in [other] rivers and lakes, by crown fishermen and household tax [tiaglo] bearing men. And upon the receipt of these various provisions the fresh and salted meat and fish are placed in cellars on ice, there being about 15 cellars in that Court; and other provisions, meat and fish, are hung out to be cured. 4. The Bread Court: and in it are also a senior and two travel stewards, and about 20 adjutants [striapchie] and assistant stewards, and about 50 master bakers and pastry-cooks and piemen and guards; and there dignity is equal to that of the men of the Provisions Court. And that steward likewise has a chancellery for recording the receipt and disbursement of grain stores and for investigation and for administering justice; and the distribution is made {117} to men of various rank in the same way as described above concerning the Liquor Court. And the tsar’s wages are paid each year to the various ranks of servitors and the undersecretaries of the Court, out of the court fees [collected] by the Chancellery of the Great Palace. And the tsar’s wages in bread

35 See Chapter 12, article 2.



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— 15 or 20 chetverti of rye and oats per man — are given to all the distillers and guards and cooks and bakers and other ranks in each court. And in the tsar’s palace, for distribution to various men, are baked bread and pastries, which are unsalted, not to save on salt but because this is the customs. And rye and wheat for the tsar’s use are taken from the Granary Court and delivered for threshing to the tsar’s mills in Moscow and in the villages. And meat dishes are prepared for the tsar’s use and for distribution on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. {117v} And on fast days — Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays — and during periods of fast, fish and pastry dishes are prepared for the tsar’s use using olive-oil and walnut-oil and linseed-oil and hempseed-oil; and during Lent, except for Annunciation Day, and during the Dormition fast [the following] dishes are prepared: raw and cooked cabbage, pickled and raw and cooked mushrooms, and berry dishes, without oil. And throughout those periods of fast, on Sundays and Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays the tsar eats once a day and drinks kvas; and throughout each period of fast, on Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays he eats and drinks nothing, except on his own saint’s day or those of the tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas. And when the hierarchs and boyars dine with the tsar on holidays which are days of fast, they are served the same dishes as the tsar. Likewise when the ambassadors and envoys and courtiers of other states are received or dismissed by the tsar {118} on fast days or during periods of fast, they are likewise sent, as the tsar’s banquet, lenten dishes of fish and pastry cooked in oil; but the daily subsistence given them on fast days and during periods of fast is not made up of lenten food but includes meat and fish, as ordered. In the same way, the dishes prepared during periods of fast and on fast days for the tsaritsa and tsareviches and older tsarevnas are like those for the tsar; but for the younger tsareviches and tsarevnas, fish dishes and pastries cooked in oil are prepared on fast days and during periods of fast, since they are still too young to observe the fast. And during those two periods of fast, on those days when the tsar and tsaritsa do not eat, [that is] except for Saturdays and Sundays, no servings of food are sent to any of the boyars or closest men. And it is not only the tsar who fasts and eats and drinks nothing except kvas on fast days and during periods of fast, for the patriarch and hierarchs {118v} and monasteries and boyars and men of every rank and peasants follow the same custom: he who wishes to be abstentious fasts in the same way, and eats whatever lenten food he may have. But others do not wish to fast, and eat fish and drink vodka and other liquors to excess, and cannot be stopped from doing this; although in some cases the hierarchs and priests do stop them and force obedience and excommunicate them from God’s church and impose a penance. And wood for the tsar’s palace, for various uses, is cut in the tsar’s forests by crown peasants, and floated down the Moskva River to Moscow; and close to 8,000 rubles worth of timber is used up each year.

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5. The Granary Court; in charge of it are a nobleman [dvorianin] and an undersecretary, to receive and distribute grain of every kind; and there are about 300 granaries in that court for storing grain. {119} And that grain is obtained from the tsar’s crown villages and from the lower and middle Volga region, and from the fields which are sown for the tsar; and that grain is distributed for the tsar’s various uses, and as salaries to the priests and deacons and clerks of the tsar’s cathedral and ordinary churches, and to palace servitors and men of other ranks, and to musketeers. All the income and expenses and personnel of all these courts — the Liquor and Provision and Bread and Granary — are under the jurisdiction of the Chancellery of the Great Palace, as is described below.36 6. The Stable Court; and in it there is a chancellery. In former reigns there was a boyar [with the rank of] master of the horse holding office in charge of that chancellery and court altogether with an equerry and a nobleman [dvorianin] and two secretaries as associates. And he who is master of the horse is first among the boyars in dignity and honor; and if the tsar should die {119v} without leaving an heir to become tsar, no one other than that master of the horse would become tsar, and he would be made tsar even without election. And in the reigns of Tsar Vasilii Ivanovich and Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich there was no master of the horse, nor has there been one in the present reign, because as described above37, once in the past the master of the horse Boris Godunov, who became tsar, schemed to obtain the tsardom by killing the Tsarevich Dmitrii; so now they are afraid of elevating anyone to this rank. And now the Stable Chancellery and Court and all that is in it are headed by an equerry and a nobleman [dvorianin] and secretaries; and in dignity that equerry is above the Duma-noblemen [dumnye dvoriane], and sits in the Duma together with the tsar and the boyars. And under the jurisdiction of that chancellery are [the following] officials: Head stewards; their rank is such: they are ordered, one at a time, to watch over the store of sleighs, carriages, and closed carriages [kolymagi], {120} and to take in and distribute oats and hay, and look after the horses; and each year they are sent in turn to chancelleries at the horse-markets in the towns and villages. And when the tsar goes on a journey they ride in front of the tsar’s horses, for protection. And there are about 15 of these men. Stirrup grooms; their rank is such: when the tsar goes on a journey or visits monasteries and churches, they ride and walk behind him with whips, and take the tsar’s horses when he dismounts and hold them and bring them forward, and walk alongside the stirrup, or near the sleigh or carriage [in which the tsar is riding]; and they likewise look after the horses, and are sent to chancelleries at the horse-market. And there are about 50 of these men, and they spend half the year in Moscow, being

36 See Chapter 7, article 4. 37 See Chapter 1, article 2.



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divided into two groups; and they remain in the stables day and night in daily shifts or four or five men. {120v} Field grooms; their rank is such: they serve as assistants to the head stewards, and take in and distribute various equipment and oats and hay, with or without [the stewards], and walk behind the tsar when he travels, and are likewise sent to chancelleries at the horse-market, and look after the tsar’s meadows and hay and horses, and when the tsar is visiting monasteries and churches in Moscow they carry blankets with which to cover the horses, and a velvet-covered wooden footstool for the tsar to use in mounting and dismounting. And there are 40 men of this rank. Stable grooms; their rank is such: in the stables in Moscow, and on journeys, they curry and feed and water and shelter the horses, and saddle horses for the tsar, and equip the carriages and sleighs. And there are about 200 of these stable grooms, among whom there are also coachmen. {121} All the ranks described above are worthy men, who are granted yearly wages in money, and service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny]. Herdsmen, who herd horses in Moscow and in the towns and villages; and there are close to 200 of these men. Artisans: carriage-makers, harness-makers, saddle-makers, furriers, blacksmiths, tanners, wheelwrights; there are about 100 of these men. And in the tsar’s stables in Moscow there are about 150 horses for him to use riding and to draw his carriages and sleighs; and about 50 horses which are suitable for the tsaritsa’s and tsarevna’s closed carriages [kolymagi] and covered sleighs [kaptany]; and about 100 good horses which are used for ambassadors, and given to boyars for [diplomatic] congresses and for weddings, and for officials of the Stable Court to ride {121v}; and about 3,000 good and carefully groomed horses; and over 40,000 ordinary and diverse horses which are used by servitors of the palace and the Stable Court and falconers and musketeers for accompanying the tsar on his journeys, and by those who perform all kinds of work in Moscow and in the towns and in the villages. And fodder — oats and hay — for all those horses is gathered from the peasants of the stable and crown villages, and from the tsar’s meadows, and from monastery hereditary estates [votchiny] around Moscow, in oats and in money; and if there is not enough in a given year oats are taken from the Granary Court, and hay is bought in the towns and in the hamlets with the tsar’s money, and that money is taken from the Chancellery of the Great Treasury. And that [Stable] Chancellery receives monetary revenues only from a single district [sloboda], {122} from the trading men who are under the jurisdiction of the chancellery; and they number about 500 households, and the household tax [tiaglo] collected from them amounts to close to 300 rubles each year. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over the bath-house in Moscow and in the towns; and they are farmed out or money is collected from them on oath; and about 2,000 rubles are collected from these bath-houses. And in Moscow and in the towns and villages there are horse-markets, and from the registration of horses [which are sold], by age and coat, a tax is collected: [from

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the buyer] at the stipulated rate, and [from the seller] at the rate of three den’gi per ruble [of the sale price]. And the tax was instituted for this reason: if someone lay claim to that horse, call it his own, and bring suit for the recovery of that horse against the person from whom he claims it, on grounds of brigandry or robbery or some other [offense]; and if that person cannot prove his innocence and cannot bring forward the man from whom he bought it, and if the sale was not registered in the books: then such suits can lead to {122v} much bloodshed and torture. So those who want to buy a horse from another should for their protection register this in the books, in Moscow or in the towns; and those who do not register are fined one ruble per person, both buyer and seller; and that money is used for the wages of the officials and undersecretaries of the Stable Court. And this tax yields about 10,000 rubles each year. And for the tsar’s processions and journeys, on those days when there is a procession or journey, they dress and prepare horses and sleighs and carriages and closed carriages [kolymagi] and covered sleighs [kaptany] for the tsaritsa and tsarevnas, according to the registers [which show] what equipment was used each day in previous years, or according to newly-issued orders. And the same chancellery is in charge of the tsar’s summer and winter hunt for game: elks, deer, {123} bears, wolves, foxes, and hares, using traps and hounds; and forest groves with lodges have been set aside for hunting around Moscow, seven or 10 or 15 or 20 or more versty from Moscow. And for trapping and hunting these animals there are about 100 huntsmen and trappers and houndsmen, and likewise about 100 hounds. And those animals are caught with traps at night; and within about 30 versty from Moscow in each direction no one is allowed to trap or kill such animals in his forests and on his land, and this is forbidden on pain of severe punishment and fines; and if anyone should be caught cutting trees in those forest preserves for his own use, he shall likewise be severely punished and fined.



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{123v} Chapter 7, in which there are 48 articles. On the chancelleries. 1. The Chancellery for Privy Affairs; and it is headed by a secretary and about 10 undersecretaries; and they have jurisdiction over and administer various public and privy affairs for the tsar; and the boyars and Duma men do not enter that chancellery and have no jurisdiction over its affairs, for this is reserved to the tsar himself. And undersecretaries of that chancellery are sent with ambassadors to [other] states and to diplomatic congresses, and with commandants [voevody] in time of war, because ambassadors who are sent on embassies do many things in the course of their journey and in conducting negotiations to dishonor their sovereign, as is written above in the article on ambassadors38, and commandants [voevody] do much injustice to the soldiers in their regiments; and those undersecretaries keep the ambassadors and commandants [voevody] under surveillance and inform on them to the tsar upon their return. And those ambassadors or commandants [voevody] who are aware that they have been negligent in their duties and fear the tsar’s wrath {124} give presents to these undersecretaries and pay them greater honor than is their due, so that they would praise rather than denounce them, the ambassadors, in the tsar’s presence. And that chancellery was established in the present reign, so that the tsar’s will and all his affairs would be carried out as he desires, without the boyars and Duma men having any knowledge of these matters. And that chancellery is in charge of master grenade-makers and everything to do with grenade works and manufacturing; and the money for equipping grenade works and for their manufacture, for purchases and for the masters’ salaries, is taken from various chancelleries, wherever the tsar orders. And the same chancellery is in charge of the tsar’s summer hunt, with its gyrfalcons, falcons, sparrow-hawks, hawks, and other birds; and those birds are used for hunting swans and geese and ducks and cranes and other game, and hares; and for this hunt a hunting court has been established {124v} outside Moscow. And for this hunt and for training there are about 100 falconers, and they remain in that court with the birds at all times, winter and summer, spending the day and night in shifts of about 20 men; and those falconers are equal in dignity to the pages [zhil’tsy] and stirrup grooms, and are granted yearly wages in money and in clothing, and service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny], and while they remain with those birds they eat and drink at the tsar’s expense. And the tsar has over 3,000 hunting birds of various kinds, and pork and lamb is sent from the tsar’s palace to feed those birds; and in Moscow and in the provinces and in Siberia there are over 100 gamekeepers and their assistants,

38 See Chapter 4, article 24.

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similarly recompensed, to catch and train those birds; and those birds are caught with pigeons and nets, over lakes and over large rivers and on sandy shores {125} outside Moscow and in the provinces and in Siberia; and after catching those birds they bring them to Moscow to the amount of over 200 each year; and those birds are sent with ambassadors to Persia and wherever necessary, and the Persian shah accepts those birds from the tsar as great presents, and places a value of 100 or 200 or 500 or 1,000 or more rubles for each bird, depending on the bird. And to feed and catch those birds the gamekeepers and their assistants take pigeons from anyone who may have them, throughout the Muscovite state, and after taking them bring them to Moscow; and a court has been established in Moscow for those pigeons, and there are over 100,000 nests of such pigeons; and they are given rye and wheat bran to eat from the Granary Court. 2. The Ambassadorial Chancellery; and it is headed by a Duma secretary and two secretaries and 14 undersecretaries. {125v} And that chancellery has jurisdiction over relations with all neighboring states, and over the reception and dismissal of foreign ambassadors; likewise when Russian ambassadors and envoys and couriers are sent to other states as necessary, they are dispatched from the chancellery; and for translating and interpreting from Latin, Swedish, German, Greek, Polish, Tatar, and other languages, there are about 50 translators and about 70 interpreters. And there is work for those translators to do in Moscow each day, when various documents arrive from neighboring states, or else they are ordered to translate old documents and books to test each one’s skill at translating, which determine their wages; and they do the translating in the chancellery, and are not allowed to translate the most important documents at home, {126} out of fear of damage from fire and for other reasons. And their yearly wages from the tsar are [as follows]: translators — 50 or 60 or 80 or 100 rubles, depending on the person; interpreters — 40 or 30 or 20 or 15 or less, depending on the person. And daily subsistence: translators — half a ruble or 15 altyny or four grivny or 10 altyny or two grivny per day, depending on the person; and interpreters — two grivny or five or four or three or two altyny or 10 dengi per day, likewise depending on the person. And the interpreters remain in the chancellery day and night in twenty-four hour shifts of 10 men each, and conduct business and are sent on various errands; {126v} and likewise they are attached to foreign ambassadors who come to Moscow, for interpreting and for collecting their food and drink. And the same chancellery has jurisdiction over foreigners from every country who are residing or visiting in Moscow — tradesmen and men of every rank; and foreign tradesmen are tried and justice is administered to them in that same chancellery, in those cases when Russian men are involved. And the same chancellery has jurisdiction over five towns, and money is collected each year from the taverns and customs duties in those districts which are under the jurisdiction of that chancellery, for the operation of the chancellery and for expenditures on various purchases, and for salaries to the undersecretaries and



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guards; and each year the money collected totals over 2,500 rubles. And for ransoming prisoners who are in the Crimea and Turkey that same chancellery collects money from the entire Muscovite state — from the tsar’s crown and black counties [volosti] and from the peasants and landless peasants [bobyli] on service estates [pomest’ia] {127} and hereditary estates [votchiny] — each year, as decreed, the true text of the article decreeing this levy being written in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie]39; and about 150,000 rubles of this ransom money is collected each year, and is not used for any expenditures other than ransoming.40 And that same chancellery has jurisdiction over seals41: the great state seal which is used on documents sent to neighboring states, and the other seal used on charters granting hereditary estates [votchiny] to men of various rank, this seal being used likewise on documents to the Crimean khan and to the Kalmyks, as described above.42 And that same chancellery has jurisdiction over the Don Cossack43, and over the baptized and unbaptized Tatars {127v} who in past years were taken prisoner from the tsardoms of Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ and Siberia and Kasimov, and given hereditary estates [votchiny] and service estates [pomest’ia] in the districts around Moscow. The Greek ecclesiastics and Greek merchants who come for alms and for trade are also under the jurisdiction of this chancellery. 3. The Military Service Chancellery [Razriad]; and that chancellery is headed by an okol’nichii and a Duma secretary and two secretaries. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over various military matters, and the construction of fortification and repair of fortresses, and their weapons and serving men44; likewise it has jurisdiction over boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and Moscow nobleman [dvoriane] and secretaries and pages [zhil’tsy] and provincial nobleman [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] {128} and Cossacks and musketeers, in all matters relating to their service; and when someone is sent on service, to war or to the provinces in the commandant’s [voevoda] administration or on various missions, the decree concerning the appointment and rank and increase in monetary wages for such service [is issued] from that chancellery, as are [decrees] concerning the investigation of precedence system [mestnichestvo] cases involving honor and dishonor and punishment, as is described above.45 And when the tsar sends a man somewhere in his service, whatever honor and compensation or dishonor follows from such service is recorded in the

39 See the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie]. 40 See Chapter 4, article 37, on the expenditure of this money. 41 See Chapter 3, article 14. 42 Chapter 3, article 14. 43 See Chapter 9, article 7. 44 See Chapter 8, articles 10 and 8. 45 See Chapter 4, articles 12 and 27.

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books. And each year that chancellery collects a little over 1,000 rubles in revenue from some small towns and from court fees. 4. The Chancellery of the Great Palace; and it is headed by a boyar [with the title of] majordomo, and an okol’nichii, and a Duma man, and two and three secretaries {128v}; and that boyar is second in dignity only to the master of the horse; and when there is no majordomo, then the okol’nichii is in charge. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over Liquor, Provisions, Bread, and Granary courts and their servitors; and it directs and supervises those courts in all matters.46 And that chancellery has jurisdiction over [the following]: in over 40 towns the obligations and taxes of settlement [posad] men, and the yearly revenues from houses and waters and windmills and fisheries, whether farmed out or controlled by sworn agents; crown villages and black counties [volosti], and the tsar’s fisheries and beaver habitations and apiaries and hayfields, and taxes paid to the crown in grain and in money and in various taxes and hay from these villages and counties [volosti], and money {129} from farmed-out fisheries and other articles for revenue and from farmed-out tolls collected at fords and bridges; and eight districts [slobody] in Moscow and their trading men and artisans: kettle makers, tinsmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters, fishermen, tentmakers, potters, stovemakers, and brickmakers, from whom taxes are collected in the same manner as from other settlement [posad] men, but who are also obligated to do whatever work is required for the tsar’s household, without compensation. And from the towns and villages and counties [volosti] and districts [slobody], and from the various articles of revenue and enterprises, about 120,000 rubles a year are collected in monetary revenues, in addition to other taxes. And that chancellery has charge of a seal, and collects a stamp tax from charters and other documents which are sent upon petition by men of various {129v} rank to towns and crown villages and counties [volosti], in the same way as in the Chancellery for Seals47; and each year about 2,000 rubles are collected from this tax; and there is a unicorn engraved on that seal. And in Moscow that chancellery farms out the [sale of] ice from the Moskva and Iauza rivers in winter, and the washing of clothes through holes in the ice, and the tolls from fords [across the rivers] in the spring; and such farmed-out revenues bring in about 3,000 rubles a year. And that money is given out [as follows]: for the maintenance of churches, and during the tsar’s visits to monasteries and churches and prisons and poorhouses, and to the needy and wretched as alms and for their burial48, and for various palace

46 See Chapter 6, articles 2 and 3 and 4 and 5. 47 See this chapter, article 33. 48 See Chapter 1, article 10, and other places in the same chapter.



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expenses49 and for the purchase of supplies for the palace, and for salaries to undersecretaries and trumpeters and laborers. And altogether there are about 100 trumpeters and drummers and fifers in the tsar’s palace {130}; and they remain in the chancellery day and night for various errands, in shifts of about ten, and are sent to serve in the regiments and on embassies with ambassadors; but as for real, genuine, skilled trumpeters, there are [only] about six, or a few more, to be found in the tsar’s palace. And when the tsar goes on journeys or to visit monasteries and churches, for such trips and processions coins are wrapped in paper, in sums of two grivny and a quarter-ruble and a half-ruble and one and two and five and 10 and 20 and 30 rubles, so that whatever amount the tsar orders to be distributed to each person would be ready. Likewise when the tsaritsa travels or goes in procession, money is carried or borne behind her in the same manner, and is distributed to various men, in whatever amount she orders for each. {130v} 5. The Musketeers Chancellery; and it is headed by a boyar and two secretaries. And that chancellery is in charge of the commands [prikazy] of musketeers in Moscow and in the provinces; and it collects the wages for those musketeers from the landowners’ peasants of the entire Muscovite state, but not including the peasants of the tsar’s crown villages and counties [volosti] and in the realms of Novgorod and Pskov and Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ and Siberia, in the same way as the ransoming [of prisoners] from the Crimea.50 And grain provisions for the musketeers are collected from the same peasants, as decreed, and they are ordered to bring these provisions to Moscow each year; and when these musketeers are on [active] service, those musketeers’ provisions must be brought to their place of duty, to the appropriated town; but in the case of peasants living in distant regions a corresponding amount of money is collected in place of the provisions and their delivery. {131} And in Kazan’ and in Astrakhan’ and in Novgorod and in Pskov and in Smolensk and in Archangel and in other places, money and various provisions for the musketeers are likewise collected locally each year, by each town from the population under its jurisdiction, in the same way as in the Muscovite state. And except in time of war there are always in Moscow more than 20 commands [prikazy], in those commands [prikazy] there are 1,000 or 800 or slightly fewer musketeers in each command [prikaz]. And among those commands [prikazy] the first and most select is called the stirrup command [prikaz], because it always accompanies the tsar and tsaritsa on all their journeys, for protection, and is never sent on any other service or mission, except for guard duty. And among the musketeers in these

49 See Chapter 6, articles 2 and 3. 50 On the Crimean ransoming, see the same chapter, article 2.

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commands [prikazy] there are many rich trading men and artisans of various kind. {131v} The officers of those musketeers are [called] heads, colonels, assistant heads, hundredmen, fiftymen, and tenmen; and the heads and assistant heads and hundredmen are chosen from among noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie], and fiftymen and tenmen from among [rank-and-file] musketeers. And these officers receive monetary wages [as follows]: 100 rubles each to colonels, 80 or 100 rubles to lieutenant-colonels, 40 or 50 rubles to hundredmen; but for those who have many service estates [pomest’ia] or hereditary estates [votchiny] a deduction is made from their monetary wages in accordance with the number of their peasant homesteads. Tenmen and fiftymen and musketeers [receive] yearly wages of 10 or 12 or 13 or 15 rubles each; and they also [receive] yearly amounts of grain: 18 or 20 cheti for tenmen {132} and fiftymen, and 15 chetverti for musketeers, in equal amounts for those in the same rank; and they likewise [receive] yearly amounts of salt: five pudy for fiftymen, three pudy for tenmen, and two pudy for musketeers. And each year they are all given cloth from the tsar’s treasury for their garments.51 And those commands [prikazy] take turns in twenty-four hour shifts of guard duty, with 500 musketeers and the head [of the command] on guard in the tsar’s palace and near the treasury, and the remainder at the gates on the city [walls] in groups of 20 or 30 or in some places five men; and if a command [prikaz] does not have enough men for guard duty additional men are taken from other commands [prikazy]. And on holidays the command [prikaz] that is standing guard is given ample amounts of food and drink from the tsar’s palace. {132v} And when the tsar or tsaritsa go on a journey, those musketeers who are standing guard in the tsar’s palace accompany the tsar and tsaritsa as far as Zemlianoi walled district [gorod], and meet them [there]; they walk next to the tsar or tsaritsa, on both sides, without muskets but with whips, to clear the way through the crowd of people. These musketeers likewise are sent on military service with the regiments commanded by boyars and commandants [voevody], in groups of two or three or more commands [prikazy], depending upon the nature of the war. And if their number diminishes, either while in Moscow or while on military service, new recruits are enrolled from among the free men to make up for the losses; and they serve as musketeers in perpetuity, and their children and grandchildren and nephews — the members of musketeers’ families — serve in perpetuity after them. And when there is a fire in Moscow, the musketeers are all obligated to go to put out the fire with axes and buckets {133} and copper fire-pumps, and firehooks with which to tear down the wooden houses. And after they are inspected to see that no one has seized and carried away any valuables from the fire; and any who do not appear at the inspection are severely punished with switches.

51 See Chapter 6, article 1.



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In the same way, in those large towns which are administered by a boyar and commandant [voevoda] with secretaries, there are two or three commands [prikazy] of musketeers, and in other places only one; and their wages are a little lower than in Moscow, and cloth for garments is sent every three or four years. 6. The Chancellery of Kazan’ Palace; and it is headed by a boyar and a Duma secretary and two secretaries. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over the tsardoms of Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ and the towns on the lower and middle Volga [belonging] to them {133v}; and in these towns the commandants [voevody] and all their orders are sent from this chancellery. And monetary levies are collected yearly from those Volga towns which are close to Moscow, from the Russian settlement [posad] men, and from baptized and unbaptized Tatars and Mordva and Cheremis, and likewise from the farmed-out customs houses and taverns — close to 30,000 rubles each year; and furs and honey from the honey-producing apiaries and from the trapping of animals: foxes and martens and ermines and squirrels. But from Kazan’ and from Astrakhan’ and from other towns in that region no revenues are sent, because they are expended in those towns in wages to soldiers and serving men and those who receive subsistence payments and those who pay tribute [iasak], and for operating shipyards and for various expenses, and for salterns and fisheries. And from those towns and tribute [iasak] paying men send no small amount of furs: from foxes and martens and squirrels and ermines {134} and arctic foxes and rabbits and wolves. Likewise fish and various fish products [are sent], as described above52, from the tsar’s fisheries, and salt which is extracted for the tsar beyond Astrakhan’. And after that fish is brought to Moscow it is turned over to the Chancellery of the Great Palace, and the salt to the Chancellery of the Great Revenue.53 And the same chancellery has jurisdiction over military affairs and the defense of the frontiers with Turkey and Persia, and against the Kalmyks and Bashkirs. And in the tsardoms of Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ there are altogether close to 30 towns with their dependent towns. And that same chancellery has jurisdiction over [the following]: when herds of Nogai and Tatar horses are sent each year from Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ to Moscow to be sold, 30 and 40 and 50,000 horses each year and more, the commandants [voevody] in Kazan’ and {134v} Astrakhan’ select for the tsar’s use 5,000 or 6,000 or 8,000 horses from among the herds of horses belonging to those Nogai and Tatar men, and after registering and branding send them to Moscow together with their herdsmen; and when they get to Moscow these horses are taken, evaluated in the tsar’s palace according to local prices, and paid for with money out of the tsar’s treasury; and permission is given for the rest of the horses to be sold to serving men of various rank

52 See Chapter 6, article 3. 53 See this chapter, article 10.

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and to other men, and the tax from the sale of those horses and the registration fee from the buyer are collected by the Stables Chancellery; and the horses from these herds are bought and sold at five and seven and 10 and 15 rubles each, and after feeding them for a month or two the Russians sell these horses to their brethren at a high price. And when the Nogai and Tatar men have sold their entire herd of horses, they appear before the tsar for dismissal, just like the Kalmyk ambassadors, and an abundant banquet is prepared for them in the tsar’s palace{135}; and each year 200 or more of these men come with their horses, and are given clothing from the tsar’s treasury, depending upon the person, just like the Crimean ambassadors. And these men are the tsar’s subjects, from the realms of Kazan’ and Astrakhan’; and they are provided, free of charge, with vessels and guides to travel by water from Moscow to Kazan’. 7. The Siberian Chancellery; and that chancellery is headed by the same boyar who heads the Kazan’ Palace, with two secretaries. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over the tsardom of Siberia and its town, in the same manner in all respects as in the tsardoms of Kazan’ and Astrakhan’. And in that tsardom there are over 40 large and medium-sized towns, not counting the dependent towns. And no monetary revenues are [sent to Moscow] from the local towns, {135v} [since] they are expended there in wages to the serving men, in the same way as in Kazan’ and Astrakhan’. And the chief city of Siberia is called Tobol’sk. And for their offenses men of various rank are sent from Moscow and from the provinces into lifelong exile by those chancelleries of Kazan’ and Siberia; and in the local towns those exiles are enrolled in service, as noblemen [dvoriane] or petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] or Cossacks or musketeers, depending upon the person. And each year furs are sent to the tsar from Siberia: sables, sable furs, martens, black and white foxes, ermines, squirrels in individual pelts or in groups, beavers, lynx, black and white arctic foxes, rabbits, wolves, tigers, and leopards. And the amount of those furs which is received each year is beyond recall, but can be estimated at over 600,000 rubles each year. {136} And for evaluating and receiving and distributing this treasury of sables and various furs trading men are selected each year: a head who is a trading company man [gost’], together with sworn officials [tseloval’niki] and guards as assistants54; and they are chosen for this treasury by their brethren, trading company men [gosti] and trading men; and they take an oath and kiss the cross that they will not steal from the tsar’s treasury, and will not buy and exchange their own inferior sables and other furs from that treasury, and likewise that whoever is ordered to sell [furs] from that treasury or to give them for service or in exchange for goods, will not increase the price for their own profit or out of friendship give someone good furs in exchange

54 On the trading company men [gosti] and trading men, see Chapter 10.



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for inferior ones; and they are ordered to set the value of all animals, both for the tsar’s use and for purposes of distribution and retail sale, according to the true Moscow prince, which is a little below the market price. Likewise that treasure is sent to neighboring states {136v} as gifts to potentates and to pay Persian and Greek merchants and traders for their goods, to give to whomever the tsar orders.55 And when that treasure increases and little is given out, [furs] are sold to trading men and men of every rank and given on credit with sureties, at the decreed price, and the price is set on each item according to its value; and in those years when for some reason fewer animals as compared with other years are caught and sent, then sables are not sold and, upon the tsar’s orders, a higher value than before is set. And whatever furs are sent into the Kazan’ Palace are likewise transferred to the Siberian Chancellery; and if anything from that treasury is sold, the money is given out for various expenses and for wages to the undersecretaries and guards. And those animals are caught with nets and killed with bows {137} and harquebuses and in other ways, by tribute [iasak] paying men, Tatars and Chuvash and Votyaks and others; and except for those people no one is allowed to catch and kill them. In the same way the commandants [voevody] and serving and trading men are not allowed to buy or bring out of that [Siberian] state or sell those sables which are of the highest quality and suitable for the tsar’s treasury, and toll-gates are established for this purpose; and if anyone is discovered with sables of good quality — a pair worth over 20 rubles or groups of 40 worth over 300 rubles, in Moscow prices, such men’s sables are taken for the tsar without compensation. And if anyone should wish to bring out such costly sables and makes a coat out of them, he is free to bring them out for his own use in the form of a coat; but if anyone should wish to conceal them and lie, then whatever is over the fixed value shall be taken away from him, and for doing this men of middle rank are punished and heavily fined. {137v} And currently in the regions closest to Moscow the trapping of sables of the highest quality has fallen into decline, and sables of medium and poor quality are caught, because many animals have been frightened away and have decreased in number; and sables and other animals of the highest quality are obtained from the most distant regions of Siberia, on the Lena; and for this reason sables have become more expensive than before. 8. The Service Estate [Pomest’e] Chancellery; and it is headed by an okol’nichii and a Duma secretary and two secretaries. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over all the landed estates of the Muscovite state, and for each service estate [pomest’e] and hereditary estate [votchina] which anyone had been given [in the past] or which anyone has bought from another, or which has been newly given to anyone, the decree and the registration books are kept in that chancellery. And as revenue that

55 See Chapter 4, article 29, on gifts, and other articles on the same.

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chancellery receives duties from the sale of hereditary estates [votchiny] {138} and from new service estate [pomest’e] grants, according to the number of chetverti, and the yearly revenue from this is not very great: 1,500 or 2,000 rubles. And that money is spent on purchases for the chancellery and wages for the undersecretaries. Question. What are service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] and landed estates? Answer. Whenever a boyar or okol’nichii or Duma men or closest man or lord-inwaiting [stol’nik] or some other rank of serving men earns a service estate [pomest’e] through service, he is then given, upon his petition or even without petition, a service estate [pomest’e] which may be either inhabited or uninhabited, and previously belonging either to a deceased relative or to someone else who has died without leaving an heir to this pomest’e, or taken from the tsar’s own land, inhabited or uninhabited; {138v} or else fisheries and forests and apiaries and beaver habitations and hunting grounds and hayfields or whatever he might petition for. And [the service estate [pomest’e] is given] for life, and to his wife and children and grandchildren after him; and upon his death it is given to the survivors — wife or children and brothers and nephew — and is divided as decreed: to the widow and unmarried daughters for their subsistence and to the sons in perpetuity; and whatever remains from the distribution is given to petitioners from other families. And if a service estate [pomest’e] has been given to someone for service, and after him to his wife and children or to someone else, none of them may sell that service estate [pomest’e] or mortgage it or bequeath it to a monastery or church for the commemoration of his soul. But if two men should wish to exchange one service estate [pomest’e] for another, or a service estate [pomest’e] for a hereditary estate [votchina], {139} they are permitted, upon petition, to make the exchange with one another, whether it be inhabited land for uninhabited, or uninhabited land for inhabited, or the same kind; and that exchange shall be recorded in the books for future reference and in case of dispute. And if someone should exchange a hereditary estate [votchina] for a service estate [pomest’e], the service estate [pomest’e] becomes his hereditary estate [votchina] and he is henceforth free to sell and mortgage it; but he who has exchanged a service estate [pomest’e] for a hereditary estate [votchina] is not allowed to sell and mortgage that hereditary estate [votchina] because that hereditary estate [votchina], being exchanged for a service estate [pomest’e], itself becomes a service estate [pomest’e]. And when a service estate [pomest’e] is left in escheat, a part of it is given as subsistence for the lifetime of the mother and the unmarried daughters and the widow, as decreed and written in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie]56; while to the sons it is given as a service estate [pomest’e] in perpetuity according to the norm. And if those wives or daughters should marry {139v}, that service estate [pomest’e] land which was given for their subsistence is registered in their husbands name in

56 See the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie].



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perpetuity, provided there will be children [from the new marriage]; but if there are no children and their wives die childless, then those service estates [pomest’ia] are taken away from [the husbands] and given to members of the family which has previously held those service estates [pomest’ia], or to other men. Hereditary estate [votchina] land. When in former years, long ago, inhabited and uninhabited land was distributed and assigned as service estates [pomest’ia] to boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and other ranks of serving men, and granted as hereditary estates [votchiny] for [exceptional] service, whatever surplus inhabited and uninhabited land remained after [the distribution of] these service estates [pomest’ia] was granted for service and sold to serving men of various rank in the form of hereditary estates [votchiny]; and those who have brought such land {140} are accordingly free to sell and mortgage and give it as a dowry to their daughters. And if anyone is given a service estate [pomest’e], and he subsequently petitions that his service estate [pomest’e] be sold to him as a hereditary estate [votchina], that service estate [pomest’e] will be sold to him as a hereditary estate [votchina] from the tsar’s treasury, and the money shall be taken for the tsar, as ordered; and then he is likewise free to sell and mortgage that service estate [pomest’e]. And such is the description of how a service estate [pomest’e] is distinguished from a hereditary estate [votchina], and a hereditary estate [votchina] from a service estate [pomest’e]. And if anyone who has bought a hereditary estate [votchina] should leave no heirs or family upon his death, such a hereditary estate [votchina] shall be taken for the tsar and given to someone else as a service estate [pomest’e] for service; and upon his death the tsar’s treasury gives money for that hereditary estate [votchina], whatever the value of the hereditary estate [votchina], to monasteries and churches for the commemoration of his soul. {140v} And if a boyar or Duma man or other rank of man should beget children by a concubine — a widowed or unmarried woman — and should afterward marry such a concubine or else die without marrying her, and upon his death should leave children who were born in wedlock along with the other bastard children, or should leave only those bastards: then upon his death his service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] and possessions are given [only] to those sons and daughters who were born in wedlock, while those who were born out of wedlock do not receive a share of the service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] and possessions and are given nothing, and those bastards are not regarded as worthy men, no matter whose children they are, and are not taken into any form of the tsar’s service. And if a bastard is given a service estate [pomest’e] or hereditary estate [votchina] through ignorance of his bastardy, {141} and others make complaint against him that he is a bastard and present evidence against him, then that which the bastard was given is granted to the men who presented evidence against him and that bastard is beaten with the knout and sent into exile to Siberia, for lying and making himself out to be a worthy man.

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Boyars, okol’nichie, Duma men and closest men, lords-in-waiting [stol’niki], adjutants [striapchie], noblemen [dvoriane], secretaries, petty noblemen [deti boiarskie], palace servitors, stirrup grooms, translators, undersecretaries, interpreters, falconers, and Cossacks receive [the following] norms for wages in money and service estate [pomest’e] land when they are first registered for service: boyars, okol’nichie, and Duma men — a yearly wage in money of 200 rubles each, and 1,000 cheti of service estate [pomest’e] land; lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] — 100 rubles; adjutants [striapchie] — 80 rubles {141v}; Moscow and provincial noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries — 80, 70, 60, and 50 rubles each; provincial noblemen [dvoriane] of the second and third categories, and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie], and the other above-mentioned ranks — 50 and 45 and 40 and 35 and 30 and 25 and 20 and 15 and 10 and eight and seven and six rubles each, depending upon the person’s rank and dignity. And all these ranks are given a norm for service estate [pomest’e] land corresponding to the wage in money for each ruble, five chetverti in one field and the same amount in the other two. And for their [subsequent] service the norms for service estate [pomest’e] land and wages in money are increased, depending upon the nature of their service. And in registering them with those service estate [pomest’e] norms, those who had fathers or relatives with service estates [pomest’ia] are given these, while those who did not, and for whom no land of the tsar is available, must wait {142} until there is a surplus from the distribution of service estates [pomest’ia] left in escheat upon someone’s death; and some men petition for land in the forest or in the wild field or for fisheries to be given them as pomest’ia; and they receive this according to their petition. And a monetary norm has been established for all these above-mentioned ranks for this reason: while someone is serving on an embassy or in the army or on some other mission, he receives wages according to the norm; but when he is not in service on a mission he does not receive a yearly wage and lives off his service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny]. But boyars and Duma men and secretaries and palace servitors and undersecretaries and palace servitors and undersecretaries and stirrup and other grooms and the tsaritsa’s petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] and falconers and janitors receive a wage in money each year, because they are in permanent service at the tsar’s palace. {142v} 9. The Chancellery of the Great Treasury; and this chancellery is headed by the same boyar who heads the Musketeers Chancellery, with a council nobleman [dumnyi dvorianin] and two or three secretaries as associates. And this chancellery has jurisdiction over the trading company men [gosti] and the trading [gostinaia] and cloth workers’ [sukhotnaia] guilds [sotni]57, and the master silversmiths, and the trading men of many towns; and from the trading company men [gosti] and trading men and, in the districts which are under the jurisdiction of this chancellery, from

57 See Chapter 10.



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the peasants and landless peasants [bobyli] of those regions, are collected obligations and taxes, and farmed-out revenues, and other requisitions, each year; and those receipts amount to almost 300,000 rubles. And that money is distributed for various expenditures, as required. And that same chancellery has jurisdiction over the mint, which is headed by a nobleman [dvorianin] and secretary, to supervise the coinage. {143} And each year small silver coins are made from silver obtained from thalers: the kopek, with the figure of the tsar on horseback on one side and the inscription “tsar and grand prince,” the tsar’s name, and his abbreviated title on the other; the den’ga, half a kopek, with the figure of a man on horseback with a sword on one side, and the tsar’s title just as on the kopek on the other side; the polushka, one-quarter of a kopek and half a den’ga, with the figure of a dove on one side, and [the word] “tsar” on the other. And thalers and silver in bars and rods are brought to the town of Archangel from Holland and Venice and Lübeck and Hamburg; and various goods from the tsar’s treasury are bought with these thalers, or the silver is exchanged for various goods; and those thalers or corresponding amounts of silver are taken from them in exchange for goods at the rate of four {143v} grivny or fourteen altyny to the thaler, and a high price is set on the tsar’s goods. And from those thalers or that silver the tsar obtains a great profit in silver coins, because the thalers and silver are obtained at a low rate of exchange, while in making Muscovite coins each thaler produces twenty-one altyny and two den’gi, so that the tsar makes a profit of seven altyny and two den’gi or of eight altyny from each thaler. Likewise customs duties in the town of Archangel and in other border towns are collected from foreigners in thalers, at the same low rate of exchange. And master coiners are selected for this work from among free men and trading men who volunteer, with surety and upon oath and after kissing the cross that while they are engaged in the tsar’s business they will not commit any crime with regard to the silver, and steal coins, or adulterate the silver with copper or lead {144} or anything else, or make counterfeit coins at home, or steal dies, or cut imitation dies for criminal purposes. And there are about 200 such moneyers — coiners, melters’ assistants, engravers, rod-makers, and annealers. And when they arrive for work at the mint or leave the mint, they are stripped naked and examined, lest they bring in copper or tin or lead, or carry something away from the mint. And if upon investigation it is revealed that they have been coining money criminally in the tsar’s mint or at home, or have cut imitation dies and have sold those criminal dies elsewhere to others, such men, upon investigation, are tortured to learn how often the crimes were committed and to whom the sales were made, and who plotted these things together with them; and whoever is denounced during such torture is likewise investigated {144v} and tortured severely; and whoever confesses is punished by pouring lead down his throat, or, in other cases, depending upon the guilt, by chopping of his hands and cutting off his ears and beating him with the knout and taking away his property and possessions and sending him into exile in Siberia. The same orders are given regarding all master silversmiths who mix copper and lead and

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tin into gold or silver.58 And in the Muscovite state there are no deposits of gold and silver; although the chronicles say that the Russian land is rich in gold and silver, none can be found, or else it is found in small quantity, and Muscovites are not skilled in such work; while men from other counties would be able to find those places where there are deposits of gold and silver, but they do not want to involve themselves in this business, because they would lose much money in organizing it, {145} and as soon as they had displayed their ability they would then find their enterprise and equipment devalued and find themselves removed from the business. And some years ago, when the Muscovite tsar became involved in hostilities and war with the Polish king Jan Casimir and then with His Majesty the King of Sweden, in the course of the war with Poland, in order to replenish the treasury and to help pay the wages of the soldiers, money was coined — silver ruble pieces of the same size as Lübeck [thalers], and quarter-ruble pieces equal to five altyny and two den’gi in weight; [likewise] the tsar’s seal was superimposed on Lübeck thalers and those thalers were distributed from the tsar’s treasury at their full value, twenty-one altyny and two den’gi, instead of the value at which they had been taken into the tsar’s treasury and were circulating in the market-stalls. And those thalers and ruble pieces {145v} and quarter-ruble pieces were taken back into the tsar’s treasury and for various goods in the market-stalls at the fixed price; and whoever paid money into the tsar’s treasury in Lübeck thalers which did not have the tsar’s seal on them had those thalers taken from them at the exchange rate of four grivny. And at the same time copper half-ruble pieces the size of a thaler were being coined, and the peasants, suddenly seeing poorly minted coins, crooked and adulterated, stopped bringing hay and wood and foodstuffs into the towns, and those coins caused the prices on all kinds of goods to rise very high. And [although] the serving men were paid the tsar’s wages in full, they bought various provisions and food and goods at double the [old] price, and as a result their yearly wage did not suffice and great need arose. There were strict decrees and punishments concerning these coins, that the price of goods and provisions not be raised for them, but no one heeded this. And the tsar, {146} seeing that theses coins were not bringing a profit, and that much unrest was appearing, ordered the coining of copper money — altyn pieces, grosh pieces, and kopek pieces corresponding to the old silver kopeks — in the mints in Moscow and Novgorod and Pskov and later in Kokenhusen; and these coins likewise led to unrest among the peasants; and the tsar ordered the previous coins and the altyn and grosh pieces to be taken into the treasury and recoined into small kopek pieces. And subsequently small copper coins were minted, and for a long time those small coins circulated on a par with silver; and these coins were in favor throughout the state because everyone accepted them and gave them out for goods. But soon many counterfeit coins appeared among the copper coins in Moscow and in

58 On punishments see article 34 of this chapter.



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the provinces, and those men were seized and tortured in every way to learn where they got these coins; and they {146v} did not confess to counterfeiting but testified that they had gotten them from others, being ignorant about coins. And then suspicion fell on master coiners and silversmiths and coppersmiths and tinsmiths and other men who in the past, before there were any copper coins, had lived in modest circumstances but since the appearance of copper coins had built stone and wooden houses for themselves and had made clothing like that of the boyars for themselves and for their wives, likewise had begun to buy various goods and silver vessels and foodstuffs in the market-stalls at high prices, spending money freely. And such men were spied upon and seized, and any counterfeit coins that they had made were taken from them; likewise with those who were coining money in their cellars at home in secret, at night, and [whose activities] were overheard: those counterfeit {147} coins and the dies with which they coined them were taken away and they were likewise seized and tortured. And upon torture those men confessed and testified that they had paid for various goods with large numbers of coins of their own making, and had made dies and had sold them to many settlement [posad] men and priests and monks and peasants and beggars; and they indicated to whom the sales were made, although sometimes they did not know; and upon this testimony those men were likewise seized and tortured, and they also confessed, and depending upon what each had done they were put to death or their hands were cut off and nailed to the walls of the mints, and their homes and possessions were taken for the tsar without compensation. However, men did not pay heed to such great torment and death and ruin, and continued counterfeiting as long as those coins were in circulation; and many such counterfeiters were not caught or punished. And those counterfeiters who were rich {147v} bought themselves off from misfortune, and in Moscow gave large bribes to the boyar Il’ia Danilovich Miloslavskii, the tsar’s father-in-law, and to the council nobleman [dumnyi dvorianin] Matiushkin, who was the husband of the sister of the previous tsar’s wife, and to secretaries, and in the provinces bribed the commandants [voevody] and officials; and in return for these bribes they helped those counterfeiters and delivered them from misfortune. Likewise in the mints, both in Moscow and in the provinces, sworn heads and sworn officials [tseloval’niki], chosen from among the trading company men [gosti] and the trading men, worthy and prosperous men, were appointed for supervising and receiving and distributing copper and coins.59 But the devil clouded their reason [to think] that they were still not rich enough. They bought copper in Moscow and in Sweden, and brought it to the mints together with the tsar’s copper, and ordered coins to be minted, and when this was done removed them from the mint together with the tsar’s coins, and turned {148} the tsar’s coins into the treasury and carried away their own to their homes. And musketeers and master coiners and men who saw how

59 On the trading men see Chapter 10 regarding their service.

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[coins] were carried away informed against them to this effect; and upon such denunciations these men were all tortured, and they confessed and said, upon torture, that the tsar’s father-in-law the boyar, and the council nobleman [dumnyi dvorianin], and secretaries and undersecretaries had taken large bribes from many people who were counterfeiters and had saved them from misfortune and death, and encouraged by this had themselves engaged in crime, and the tsar was free to do what he wished concerning their offense. And those secretaries and undersecretaries were individually interrogated under torture, and they confessed even without torture that they had taken bribes together with the boyar and the Duma man. And the tsar held that boyar in his wrath for a long time after, while the Duma man was dismissed from the chancellery, but they were not punished in any way; as for the secretaries and undersecretaries and heads and sworn officials [tseloval’niki] and counterfeiters, they were punished by having their hands or feet or fingers or toes cut off, {148v} and by being sent into exile in distant regions. And the accomplices of these counterfeiters, seeing that the boyar and the Duma man had not been punished for their offense, plotted to compose false documents directed against that boyar and against three others, denouncing them so as to create a disturbance in Moscow to use for plundering houses, with the allegation that those boyars have been in correspondence with the Polish king, wishing to bring the Muscovite state to ruin and to subject it to the Polish king; and those false documents appeared at night, in many places along the gates and walls. And at that time the tsar, with his entire household and with boyars and Duma men and closest men, was away in the village of Kolomenskoe, seven versty from Moscow. And on the following morning men of various rank, going to the center of the city, read and took with them those documents; and when they came to the Lobnoe Mesto on [Red] Square, {149} near the market-stalls, they began to read those documents aloud to all the people. And a multitude of people of various rank gathered at that place and decided to go into the Kremlin, to the tsar, and ask that the tsar turn those boyars over to them so they could kill them; and, learning that the tsar was not in Moscow, they gathered together, about 5,000 men, and set forth to go to the tsar; and meanwhile the boyars sent word from Moscow to the tsar that a disturbance had broken out in Moscow and houses were being plundered. And at that time the tsar was in church, attending the liturgy, [for] they were celebrating the saint’s day of the tsar’s daughter; and from the church the tsar saw that many men were coming toward him, into the village and into the palace grounds, unarmed but noisy and tumultuous. And the tsar, seeing these men’s evil intent, ordered those boyars whom they were calling for to keep themselves concealed in the tsaritsa’s and tsarevna’s chambers, and themselves tried to remain in attendance until the end of the liturgy; {149v} and meanwhile the tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas locked themselves in their chambers and sat there in great fear and trembling. And at the time that those men appeared and petitioned the tsar to investigate those traitors, and called for him [to turn over] those boyars to be killed the tsar tried to persuade them quietly to return and go back to Moscow, while he, the tsar, would come to Moscow as soon as the



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liturgy was over and would initiate an investigation and issue a decree with regard to this matter. And those men spoke to the tsar and held him by the buttons of his coat, [asking] “What are we to believe?” And the tsar swore to them before God and offered them his hand in pledge of his word, and one man among them clasped the tsar’s hand, and they all set off for Moscow, and the tsar ordered that nothing be done to them on this account, although there were men available to take action. And the tsar sent to Moscow one of his closest men, the boyar Prince Ivan Andreevich Khovanskii, and ordered him to persuade [the people] in Moscow {150} not to create a disturbance or plunder anyone’s house; and as for the documents which had appeared telling of treason by boyars and Duma men, the tsar would come himself that same day for investigation. And when Khovanskii arrived and began to speak to all the people, many of those men replied: “You’re a good man, Khovanskii, and you’ve seen a lot of service for the tsar against the Polish king, and we have nothing against you; but have the tsar turn over to us the boyar traitors that we’re calling for.” And after speaking with them Khovanskii rode back to the tsar. And meanwhile in Moscow they were plundering the house of the trading company man [gost’] Vasilii Shorin, who collected the fifth-money60 from the entire Muscovite state; and the fifteen-year old son of this trading company man [gost’], fearing that he would be killed, threw off his rich garments and put on peasant garb and fled from Moscow in a cart; and those criminals who were plundering {150v} houses seized him, brought him into the city, and instructed him to say that his father had fled to Poland the day before with letters from the boyars; and after they had brought him into the city over 5,000 of those criminals gathered there and they set forth from Moscow with Shorin’s son to go to the tsar. And as for the men who had plundered his fathers’ house, the boyars sent a commands [prikazy] of musketeers with orders to cut them down and seize them and bring them into the Kremlin with the stolen goods; and over 200 of those who were doing the plundering were caught, and as a result the plundering died down. And when those men left Moscow with Shorin’s son the boyars ordered all the gates in Moscow to be closed shut, so as to let no one in or out of the city, and they sent to the tsar all the commands [prikazy] of musketeers and the palace regiment of European-trained soldiers [soldaty], about 3,000 men, with full equipment. And when those evil men {151} who were on their way from the tsar to Moscow met those men who were on their way to the tsar with Shorin’s son, they joined together to go to the tsar. And when they forcibly entered the tsar’s palace grounds and brought Shorin’s son before the tsar, the tsar was just about to mount a horse and ride to Moscow, and he interrogated the youth; and he, fearing those men, spoke as he had been ordered, that his father had fled to Poland with letters from the boyars; and the tsar ordered him to be put under guard. And they, on the basis of the lad’s words, started asking the tsar [to turn over] the boyars to be killed; and the tsar tried to dissuade them [by saying] that he was

60 See Chapter 9, article 8.

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going to Moscow himself to investigate the matter; but they began to speak to the tsar in an angry and rude manner threatening that if he did not turn over those boyars to them voluntarily they would take them from him themselves, in their own way. The tsar, seeing their evil intent, that they had come for no good and were speaking in a rude manner, with threats, {151v} and learning that the musketeers had arrived at the village for assistance, shouted and ordered the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy] and musketeers and boyars’ servitors who were with him to beat and slash them to death and to seize [others] alive. And when they began to beat and slash and seize them, they were unable to resist, since none of them was armed. They started running toward the Moskva River and began drowning, and over 100 men were drowned in the river, and over 700 were cut down or seized, while the others scattered and fled. And on that day about 150 men were hanged around that village, and orders were issued for the rest to be tortured and burned, and upon investigation their hands and feet or fingers or toes were cut off for their offense, and others were beaten with the knout, and were branded on the right side of the face, the iron being heated red-hot and stamped with the letter {152} “R” for “rebel,” so as to identify them for all time to come; and after the punishment had been inflicted they were all sent into lifetime exile to distant regions, to Kazan’ and to Astrakhan’ and to the Terek and to Siberia; and afterwards, in accordance with each person’s testimony as to his residence and family, their wives and children were likewise sent to join them; but as for certain of the worst criminals, orders were issued that same day, in the evening, to tie their arms behind them, put them in large barrels, and drown them in the Moskva River. And as for those men who had come to the village before the turmoil began, to make petition concerning their own affairs, and who could be identified, and whose petitions could be found, such men were set free. But those who were executed and drowned and exiled were not all criminals, for there were no more than 200 real criminals; and those innocent men had followed those criminals to see how they would act in front of the tsar; but the presence of such a multitude of people gave the criminals {152v} hope that they could say and do whatever they wished, and therefore they all perished, the guilty and the innocent alike. And involved in that turmoil were trading men and their children, and cavalrymen [reitary] and bakers and butchers and piemen and villagers and itinerant men and slaves; but although many Poles and other foreigners live in Moscow, none but Russians was implicated in this affair. And on the following day the tsar came to Moscow and ordered those criminals who had plundered houses to be hanged, four or five men in front of each of the gates around Moscow; and the orders concerning the rest were the same as for those [who had been at Kolomenskoe]. And none of the trading company men [gosti] or prosperous trading men joined with these criminals; instead they gave assistance against those criminals and received praise from the tsar. And the lords-inwaiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy] {153} and commanders and palace servitors and undersecretaries, for their service in opposing these criminals and protecting the tsar’s person, were given a



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bounty from the tsar’s treasury, damask and satin and taffeta for clothing, and a pair of sables for each, and velvet for the top of a hat, depending upon the person, and a supplement to their norm in monetary wages and service estate [pomest’e] land61; and the musketeers and slaves were each given a quantity of linen, cloth for the top of a hat, and two or three rubles in money. And the tsar bestowed his bounty upon the trading company man [gost’] whose home had been plundered; he exempted him from the payment of the fifth-money, despite the fact that over 15,000 rubles would have been collected from him; and his son was returned to him since he was innocent; and during those events, to save his life, the father had concealed himself in the Kremlin, in the house of the boyar Cherkasskii. And afterwards the tsar ordered samples of handwriting to be taken from all those people, in Moscow and in the provinces, who knew how to write, {153v} and these handwritings were compared with those false documents; but not a single sample of writing was found to correspond with the false documents. And the tsar saw that the [new] coins had led to much counterfeiting and bloodshed, and that the copper coins had depreciated from year to year, for at first they had circulated on a par with silver but had later dropped to two and three and four and five and six and seven and 10 and 15 and 17 copper rubles to the silver ruble, and that the tenth-money and fifth-money were being collected for the treasury from the trading men and peasants in silver coins, while the soldiers were being paid in copper coins in the same amount as they had previously received in silver, and that there was now a shortage of silver coins in the country, while prices in copper were high and many were dying of hunger. And the tsar, {154} fearing lest something still worse should happen among the people because of these coins, ordered those copper coins to be withdrawn and taken out of circulation and brought to the tsar’s treasury in Moscow and in the provinces; and the exchange rate was set at 10 den’gi in silver for every ruble in copper coins. And those who did not want to turn the copper coins into the tsar’s treasury were ordered to melt those coins and turn them into kettles or whatever they wished; but they were forbidden on pain of death to use those copper coins as money, lest they plate those coins with silver and whiten them and mix them up with the silver coins. So the poor exchanged these coins and rich melted them down. Likewise the soldiers began to receive their yearly wages and subsistence money from the tsar’s treasury in silver. And thus those coins passed out of circulation. {154v} And for those men who had engaged in counterfeiting and created turmoil while those coins were in circulation, in Moscow and in the towns and in the countryside, over 7,000 men of various rank were punished by death in those years, and over 15,000 had their hands or feet cut off and were punished and sent into exile and had their houses and possessions taken for the tsar; and in this way many worthy and illustrious and rich men perished. And as a result of the turmoil

61 On the service estate [pomest’e] norms see article 8 of this chapter.

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that arose when the criminals came to the tsar and caused turmoil and bloodshed, the tsaritsa took alarm at the great fright and lay sick for more than a year. And the same chancellery had jurisdiction over an iron foundry 90 versty from Moscow, outside the town of Tula, where iron is forged and cannon and cannonballs are cast for the tsar. And those cannon and cannonballs are sent to all the towns, and the iron which is left over from making muskets {155} and other things for the tsar is sold to men of every rank; and that iron is forged crudely, not so soft as Swedish iron, and when the tsar needs Swedish iron for any purpose, such iron is bought from tradingmen. And the manufacture of this iron is managed by men from foreign states while workers are tradingmen and hired men from that town. 10. The [Chancellery of the] Great Revenue; and it is headed by an okol’nichii and two secretaries. And revenue comes into that chancellery from Moscow and from the other towns, from shops and bazaars and cellars, and from the measures with which various goods and liquids are measured, and likewise from customs duties and customs tax [myto] and ferry tax [perevoz] and highway tax [mostovshchina]; and each year over 500,000 rubles in such revenue are collected. And where those revenues are spent is described {155v} below. On ambassadors from neighboring states or Greek ecclesiastics and Persian and Greek merchants who come to Moscow and whose entire subsistence is provided for — bread and meat and fodder for their horses, hay and oats, and firewood, or else the equivalent in money; of foreigners who receive subsistence, and their widows and unmarried daughters, and translators and interpreters, Cherkasy, Zaporozhian Cossacks and those from the Don, [who are given] daily subsistence, as decreed; on the Muscovite ambassadors and envoys and couriers who are sent to foreign countries and are given a grant for the journey and sometimes also on their return; on the operation of vessels which sell on the Moskva River and the Volga for carrying on trade in grain and fish and salt and other goods, {156} and for the purchase of goods which are bought and transported and sold in the town of Archangel; on wages for the undersecretaries of the chancellery and for shipworkers and those in the tsar’s Salt Court. 11. The Artillery Chancellery; and that chancellery is headed by a boyar and two secretaries. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over the cannon works in Moscow and in the provinces, and a treasury, and artillery men, and artillery supplies and stores. And the towns over which that chancellery has jurisdiction are small, and about 2,500 rubles a year are collected. And money for operating and manufacturing purposes is taken from the Chancellery of the Great Treasury. And there are about 600 artillerymen, and harquebusiers and masters of various kinds in Moscow, in addition to the provinces. And for the manufacture of cannon, copper is brought from Archangel and from Sweden, while other cannon {156v} are contracted to be made by men from Holland and Lübeck and Hamburg and are brought to the town of Archangel. And for



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the manufacture of powder, works and mills have been established in Moscow and in other places; and the masters of this trade are both foreigners and Russians, while the workmen are Russians. 12. The Tsar’s Wardrobe Chamber; and it is headed by an adjutant [striapchii] with the keys and a secretary, and that adjutant [striapchii] is equal in dignity to an okol’nichii but does not sit in the Duma. And that chancellery is in charge of the tsar’s garments and various clothing and artisans; and each day the Wardrobe gives out the various garments and headwear that the tsar will need, and examines and records them upon their return; and no other duties are assigned to it. And he supervises other adjutants [striapchie]. And no one but these men and the tsar himself dares enter that chamber. {157} 13. The Tsaritsa’s Wardrobe; and it is headed by a secretary, and that chancellery is supervised by a boyar woman as treasurer. And that chancellery is in charge of the garments of the tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas, and of artisans, in the same way as in the Tsar’s [Wardrobe] Chamber. And that same chamber has jurisdiction over the Kadashevo district [sloboda] in Moscow, over 2,000 homesteads, and the Breitovo district [sloboda], about 150 versty from Moscow, with over 1,000 homesteads. And these districts [slobody] do not bring any monetary revenue into that chancellery; instead, the revenues, [in the form of] linens and tablecloths and napkins and other things, as ordered, go for the use of the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas; but most men pay money into the tsar’s treasury from their trade and from their shops. And for the receipt of the linens a court has been established in the district [sloboda] in Moscow, and those linens are received and justice is administered among these men by a boyar widow. {157v} And there are only a few artisans, Russians and Poles, who make the linens for the tsar’s use, and these masters are also hired by others to make [linens]. 14. Foreign Chancellery; and that chancellery is headed by the same boyar as the Musketeers Chancellery, with a nobleman [dvorianin] and two secretaries as associates. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over foreign men of various rank; and promotions in reward for their service are made by the boyar himself to those ranks for which the tsar’s decree is not necessary, but promotions to high ranks cannot be granted except by the tsar’s decree. And they are given monthly wages for their subsistence, out of the [Chancellery of the] Great Revenue and out of other chancelleries. And that chancellery takes in little revenue, only enough for its chancellery expenses. 15. The Cavalry [Reitary] Chancellery; and it is headed by the same boyar {158} as the Musketeers and Foreigners chancelleries, with a nobleman [dvorianin] and two secretaries as associates. And cavalrymen [reitary] are recruited from among those

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noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] who have no service estates [pomest’ia] or small pomest’ia, and from minors [nedorosli] and free men62; and their wages are paid from that same Cavalry [Reitary] Chancellery. And the money for these soldiers’ wages is collected as part of the military levy from the entire state for military purposes.63 16. The Chancellery of the Novgorod Tax District [chetvert’]; and that chancellery is headed by a Duma secretary of the Ambassadorial [Chancellery] and a secretary. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over the [following] towns: Novgorod the Great, Pskov, Nizhnii-Novgorod, Archangel, Vologda, and other towns in the region of the White Sea and the Swedish border; and from the trading men and customs houses and taverns and salterns and ironworks and other {158v} enterprises in those districts about 100,000 rubles in monetary revenues are collected each year, in addition to what is spent in those districts on various expenses. And that money is spent in wages for the boyars and closest men, and other ranks, according to their wage scales, and is distributed in other ways as required.64 17. The Chancellery of the Ustiug Tax District [chetvert’]; and it is headed by a boyar and two or three secretaries. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over Ustiug the Great with all its taxes from the settlement [posad] men and county [volost’] and district peasants, and from taverns and customs houses, and from farmed-out taxes of various kinds; and each year over 20,000 rubles in such revenues are collected. And they are disbursed in wages to boyars and other rank who are sent on various missions, according to their wage scales and to the commanders of cavalrymen [reitary] and European-trained soldiers [soldaty].65 {159} 18. The Chancellery of the Kostroma Tax District [chetvert’]; and it is headed by a council nobleman [dumnyi dvorianin] together with a secretary. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over the towns of Rostov, Iaroslavl’, Kostroma, and others; and the revenues from settlement [posad] men and customs houses and taverns and other items of revenue in these districts come to around 30,000 rubles; and they are disbursed for various expenses, as in the Nogorod Tax District [chetvert’].66 19. The Galich Tax District [chetvert’]; and it is headed by a boyar and two secretaries. And it has jurisdiction over all the revenues from the town of Galich with its district;

62 See Chapter 9, article 2. 63 See Chapter 9, article 8. 64 On the wage scales see article 8 of this chapter. 65 See article 8 of this chapter. 66 See article 16.



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and each year close to 12,000 rubles are received, and the expenditures are similar to those in the Kostroma and Novgorod Tax District [chetverti].67 20. The Chancellery of the New Tax District [chetvert’]; and that chancellery is headed by an okol’nichii and armorer, and two secretaries. {159v} And that chancellery has jurisdiction over the liquor stores in Moscow and in many towns and counties [volosti] and villages [which are operated] on oath or farmed out; and over 100,000 rubles of such tavern revenues are collected each year, in addition to the tavern revenues which are under the jurisdiction of other chancelleries; and the money is disbursed for various expenses, just as in other chancelleries, whatever required. And that same chancellery has jurisdiction over those who are brought before it with illegally distilled liquor, who have sold it illegally and secretly, without the tsar’s authorization; the same with tobacco. And their sentence and punishment is meted out in that same chancellery, as is truly written in the Book of Laws.68 21. The Armory Chancellery; and that chancellery is headed by the same okol’nichii as the New Tax District [chetvert’], together with a secretary. {160} And that chancellery has jurisdiction over the works where firearms are made, and the crown’s armament chamber, and the master gunsmiths who make barrels and stocks and bolts and other things. And master smiths are taken each year by turn for this work, from Moscow and from the provinces and from among the various craftsmen of that trade, and they are given daily subsistence from the tsar’s treasury for their work; and the coal used for this enterprise, and for the mint and the Provisions Court, is taken from monastery and patrimonial peasants of the Moscow district, as ordered; and for operating this enterprise, and for various expenses, and for the wages of the craftsmen, money is obtained from the New Tax District [chetvert’]; and the firearms — carbines and pistols with their holsters and muskets and bandoleers — for the tsar’s use are likewise bought in other countries, whatever suitable. 22. The Chancellery of Gold and Silver; and it is headed {160v} by the same okol’nichii as the New Tax District [chetvert’], together with a secretary. And masters of high quality are taken from Moscow and from the provinces into that chancellery for permanent service, and are given a yearly salary; and they make vessels of various kinds for the tsar’s use, and church utensils; and for carrying on this work silver and gold are taken from the Chancellery of the Great Treasury and from the Treasury Court. 23. The Apothecaries Chancellery; and it is headed by the same boyar as the Musketeers Chancellery, and a secretary. And that chancellery is in charge of an apothecary,

67 See article 18 and 16. 68 On the illegal sale of liquor and tobacco, see the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie].

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and physicians and surgeons, men from foreign countries, and about 20 Russian apprentices; and there are about 30 of these physicians and surgeons, and each year they are paid a yearly salary and monthly [subsistence] as agreed upon. {161} {161v} 24. The Monastery Chancellery; and it is headed by an okol’nichii and two secretaries. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over all the ecclesiastics of the entire Muscovite state, metropolitans and archbishops and monasteries and priests, in all matters, and the taxes [paid] by episcopal and monastery peasants to the tsar; and each year over 20,000 rubles are collected in such taxes, and that money is distributed in the same way as from the other chancelleries, wherever it is needed and wherever the tsar indicates. 25. The Grain Chancellery; and it is headed by a nobleman [dvorianin] and a secretary. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over the revenues and taxes from the towns and counties [volosti] and villages and taverns and customs houses which had formerly belonged to the boyar Nikita Ivanovich Romanov; and about {162} 20,000 rubles are collected from the trading men and peasants and taverns and customs houses of those towns and counties [volosti] and villages, in addition to income in the form of provisions; and in those regions plowland has been set apart for the tsar, and noblemen [dvoriane] are appointed as stewards for supervising the grain and for administering justice; and whatever amount of grain is harvested each year is delivered to the Granary Court in Moscow.69 26. The Postal Chancellery; and it is headed by a boyar and a council nobleman [dumnyi dvorianin] and two secretaries. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over the postriders of the entire Muscovite state; and each man receives a yearly salary of 20 rubles or more from the tsar, and each man is ordered to keep three post horses, while others have six, depending upon the number needed; and they also receive a travel allowance from the tsar’s treasury for each journey, three den’gi for every 10 versty, no matter what or whom they may be transporting or whatever [transported goods] are [the passenger’s] {162v} own or the tsar’s. And they transport couriers and men of every kind and goods, in accordance with the tsar’s travel orders. And the money for the postriders’ wages is collected from the peasants of the entire Muscovite state, just as for the musketeers70, as decreed, from each according to his assessment; and close to 50,000 rubles in such money are collected each year; and in Novgorod the Great and Pskov and Smolensk and Kazan’ and Astrakhan and in other large towns the money for the postriders is collected from the local district peasants, and the same salaries are paid to the Moscow [postriders]. And postriders’ districts [slobody] are

69 On the Granary Court see Chapter 6, article 5. 70 On the musketeers see the same chapter, article 5.



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established with 30 or 40 or 50 or 80 or 100 homesteads in each, and the districts [slobody] are 30 or 40 or 60 or 90 or 100 or more versty apart from one another. {163} 27. The Stonemasonry Chancellery; and it is headed by a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or nobleman [dvorianin] and two secretaries. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over stonemasonry and stonemasons throughout the Muscovite state, and whenever the tsar requires such craftsmen for construction work they are gathered from all the towns and given money for their daily subsistence from the tsar’s treasury, enough to provide them with food. And that chancellery likewise has jurisdiction over quicklime and brick yards and manufactories; and where deposits of limestone are found and quicklime is made, the taxes and revenues from those regions are under the jurisdiction of that chancellery. And about 5,000 rubles in such revenues are collected each year; and limestone, finished and rough-hewn, is brought to Moscow from those regions by the district peasants, as much as is assigned to deliver in place of some other form of tax [obrok]. {163v} 28. The Petitions Chancellery; and it is headed by a okol’nichii and two secretaries. And it is in charge of the petitions which men submit to the tsar in his travels or on holidays; and the tsar himself and the boyars hear these petitions, and the order or rejection which results from each petition is noted on the bottom of the petition by a Duma secretary; and after hearing those petitions the tsar dispatches them to this chancellery; and from the chancellery undersecretaries are sent with those petitions and ordered to read them before all the people in the square before the tsar’s palace, and to return them personally to those who had submitted the petitions, while others receive their petitions in the chancellery; and those who made petition regarding some matter, depending upon the notation, go to the chancellery which the notation indicates and where the matter is to be dealt with. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over court cases involving chancellery officials — secretaries and undersecretaries {164} and guards and messengers — and over the monetary revenue from [such] court cases, which are not very large. 29. The Chancellery for Little Russia; and it is headed by the same boyar as the Galich Tax District (chertvert’), together with a secretary. And this chancellery has jurisdiction over Little Russia, the Zaporozhian Cossack Host, and the districts of Kiev and Chernigov with their companion [districts] since the time that they broke away from the Polish king and became subjects of the tsar. And no revenues come from Little Russia, for this reason: when the tsar received them under his rule as subjects, he promised them and took an oath that they would remain eternally under his rule as subjects with the same liberties and privileges which they enjoyed as subjects of the Polish king, without any change, or any deprivation of their liberties. And the host has been ordered to have 60,000 men ready at all times {164v} against the tsar’s enemies, and to defend their districts; and the wages for that host are collected from

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the local population, settlement [posad] men and peasants. And envoys are sent from Little Russia on various business: the hetmans send colonels, and the colonels send hundredmen and lieutenants, 20 or 30 or 50 or 100 men at a time; and in Moscow they are given food and drink and fodder for their horses each day at the tsar’s expense; and in the tsar’s presence they approach his hand and present the messages from those who sent them, and those messages are transcribed, and then orders are issued and the dismissal is arranged; and at the dismissal they approach the tsar’s hand as at their reception; and documents sent to the hetmans and colonel and hundredmen bear the great state seal, in the center of which is the tsar’s short title, written in ink. {165} And at the dismissal they are given bounty: to colonels — a quantity of linen and satin or damask for a coat, 40 sable skins worth 100 rubles, a pair of sable skins worth 20 rubles for a hat, and 50 rubles in money; to hundredmen and atamans and lieutenants — a quantity of linen and taffeta, 40 sable skins worth 50 rubles, a pair [of sable skins] worth 10 rubles for a hat, and 20 rubles in money; to [rank-and-file] Cossacks — a quantity of linen, a pair of sable skins worth five rubles, and five rubles in money; and for the journey they are given subsistence in the same amount as in Moscow. And each year there are about 20 such embassies from the hetmans and from all the colonels; and there are over 20 regiments altogether. Likewise, lords-inwaiting [stol’niki] are dispatched with gifts to the hetmans and to the colonels and commanders with gifts for their service: cloth and damask and taffeta and sables, in large quantity. {165v} And with them come monks and priest and various men from these districts, to make petition concerning hereditary estates [votchiny] and mills and meadows and the erection or repair of churches; and they are given grant charters for these things and money for building churches and for church vestments; and they are likewise given food and drink and bounty, depending on the person, and they are given bounties and daily subsistence so that, having but recently become subjects, they might thereby be more firmly drawn into eternal allegiance; but once they have grown old in their allegiance, then honors and bounties will be reduced. 30. The Land Chancellery; and it is headed by the same council nobleman [dumnyi dvorianin] as the Kostroma Tax District [chetvert’], together with two secretaries. {166} And it has jurisdiction over the settlement [posad] men in Moscow and [some] small towns. And it also has jurisdiction over tax-liable and tax-exempt homesteads and districts [slobody] in Moscow and in the towns, with regard to court fines and customs duties; and likewise over paving and cleaning the streets and collecting the paving tax from inhabitants of various rank; and when the tsar walks or rides in public, sweepers from the Land [Chancellery] are employed to clean the streets, about 50 men. And the revenues of that chancellery, from trading men in Moscow and in the towns, and from registering the sale of homesteads, are about 15,000 rubles a year, which are distributed for various matters. And that same chancellery has jurisdiction over cases of brigandage and theft and all kinds of crimes in Moscow which are brought before it.



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31. The Bondsmen Chancellery; and it is headed by a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] and a secretary. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over servitors in the households of boyars {166v} and closest men and men of every rank, on the basis of bondage contracts, deeds of servitude, and indentures; and if someone petitions to serve as a slave in another’s household, he is registered in the books, and bondage contracts for service and deeds of servitude in perpetuity, or indentures for a designated term of years, are given out on that slave to those to whom petition has been made; and registration fees are collected from registering these men, and about 500 rubles a year are collected in such fees. And if men belonging to some boyar or man of any other rank should commit crimes or run away or cause turmoil, the decree concerning such men shall be issued in that same chancellery, according to the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie]. And if anyone petitions [to serve] in another’s household, either in his own name or for his wife or children, the contracts given out for such slaves are in perpetuity, for their lifetime, and not for a designated term of years; but settlement [posad] men and monastery servitors and priests and boyars’ bondsmen are given indenture on servitors {167} for periods of five years, and are forbidden to keep them in their service for over five years. And likewise if anyone is in debt to another and cannot pay, he is turned over [to the creditor] as a servitor, to serve a designated term of years for that debt; or if anyone wishes to redeem [a slave for his debt], the latter shall become his slave in perpetuity, for his own lifetime and [the lifetime] of his wife and children. And as for the ranks which can legally be turned over as servitors for debt, this truly described in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie].71 32. Two Judicial Chancelleries: Moscow and Vladimir; and each of them is headed by a boyar and a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik], and one or two secretaries. And those chancelleries have jurisdiction over court cases of every kind involving boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and service estate [pomest’e] and hereditary estate [votchina] owners of every kind. And it has no revenues except for court fees, totaling 500 rubles each year in each chancellery. {167v} 33. The Chancellery for Seals; and it is headed by a Duma secretary of the Ambassadorial Chancellery, and a secretary. And that chancellery seals the documents and instructions which are sent to all the towns of the Muscovite state, [both] on the tsar’s orders and in response to the petitions of men of various rank; and stamp taxes are collected from documents and instructions [issued] to petitioners of every rank except for certain ones, boyars and Duma men, as decreed, for each petition, and from the sums of money and possessions which are indicated in the documents and instructions; and likewise when someone is given a document of appointment as a

71 On the slaves see the true description in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie].

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commandant [voevoda] or to a chancellery; and likewise [from documents] conferring a service estate [pomest’e] or a hereditary estate [votchina], according to the number of chetverti of land, as decreed; and it is truly written in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie] in what cases and from whom the tax should be collected.72 And the tax is recorded in the books upon collection, and that record is signed and sealed by a secretary {168}; and each year 6,000 and 8,000 and 10,000 rubles are collected, depending upon the year; and that money is distributed for various expenses. And that seal is to be found at all times suspended from the Duma secretary’s neck or in his house; and on that seal is engraved a double eagle, in the center the tsar on horseback slaying the dragon, and around that the tsar’s name and abbreviated title; and in size that seal is a little larger that a Lübeck thaler in circumference. 34. The Brigandage Chancellery; and it is headed by a boyar or okol’nichii, and a lord-in-waiting [stol’nik] or nobleman [dvorianin], and two secretaries. And that chancellery has jurisdiction over all cases of brigandage and theft and all arraignment and executioners throughout the Muscovite state; and there are about 50 of these executioners in Moscow and they are given a yearly salary. {168v} Likewise in the provinces police district [guba] chancelleries have been established for cases of brigandage and theft, and those matters are under the jurisdiction of elected noblemen [dvoriane] who have sworn an oath and kissed the cross— men who are too old to serve with their [provincial] regiments. And prisons have been established for criminals of every kind; and in Moscow there are guards for those prisons and for the chancellery — men chosen from among the inhabitants of the Moscow districts [slobody]; and in the provinces the undersecretaries and guards and bailiff are chosen from among the urban and rural inhabitants, whoever their masters may be, who have sworn an oath and kissed the cross and have provided surety; and men of various rank are taken on a voluntary basis to serve as executioners in Moscow and in the provinces. And whatever rank of man, be he prince or boyar or ordinary man, is caught in brigandage or theft or [any other] evil act — murder or arson {169} or some other crime — he is brought to Moscow to the Brigandage or Land Chancellery, and in the provinces to the local government offices or the police district [guba] chancellery; and if men have been engaged in brigandage and have committed murder or arson and theft, and their accomplices have scattered and escaped, such evildoers are interrogated and tortured without mercy, on holiday just as on any other day, on the grounds that they are criminals and themselves committed their crimes and murders without caring what day it was, and likewise so as to search out their accomplices through their testimony. Likewise other evildoers are similarly tortured once or twice or three times, depending upon the circumstances, and following the torture, the appropriate orders are issued. And when a man denounces others and indicates their

72 On the stamp tax see the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie].



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hiding places, those men, upon being apprehended, are all brought for a face-to-face confrontation; and then that criminal is severely tortured to learn if they are truly the men whom he had denounced {169v} and who had assisted or concealed or protected him in that crime, or if they have been falsely denounced out of hatred; and if upon torture he testifies that they truly assisted or concealed or protected him, then they are all likewise subjected to torture. And the tortures employed for various criminals are [such]: the criminal’s shirt is removed and his hands are tied behind his back, by the wrists, with a rope, and that rope is covered with felt, and he is lifted up to a place constructed like a gallows, and his feet are tied with a strap; and a single executioner places his foot on the strap between his feet and pulls him down, so that the criminals arms are pulled straight above his head and are pulled out from their sockets; and then the executioner begins to beat him on the back with the knout, slowly, 30 or 40 blows an hour; {170} wherever he hits him on the back, that spot looks literally as if a large strip has been cut out with a knife, almost to the bone. And [the handle of] that knout is made of thick plaited straps, with a thick strap, one finger wide and about five elbows long, attached to the end. And if they do not confess after the initial torture they are tortured a second and a third time, at intervals of a week, and are burned with fire: their hands and feet are tied and beams are placed between their arms and between their legs, and they are raised up over a fire; while others have their ribs broken with red-hot pincers. And if they still do not confess after these tortures, they are put in prison until they can obtain surety that they will henceforth not engage in evil acts and will henceforth not plot any evil against anyone; and if they obtain surety they are released. {170v} But if they have been in prison for two years or more, and have not obtained surety, they are released from prison and sent into lifetime exile to distant regions, to Siberia or Astrakhan’; and those who confess are likewise put in prison and appropriate instructions are issued, depending on the crime. And as for those criminals who engage in brigandage, and have even been caught twice but have not been guilty of murder or arson: such men, for the first offense, are publicly beaten with the knout, their left ear is cut off, and they are sent into exile; while for the second offense, if they are caught in the same act, they are beaten with the knout, their right ear is cut off, and they are again sent into exile; and for other offenses other punishments and penalties are imposed, upon consideration of what each man deserves. And for less serious and minor offenses the punishment is to be beaten with the knout and with switches, depending upon the offense, after which he is released. {171} And various forms of the death penalty are imposed upon males: they are beheaded with the axe for murder and other evil acts; they are hanged, likewise for murder and other evil acts; they are quartered alive and then beheaded, for treason — surrendering a fortress to the enemy or entering into friendly relations with the enemy through correspondence, or whatever other evil treasonous and repugnant acts may be discovered; they are burned alive for blasphemy, for church robbery, for sodomy, for sorcery, for black magic, for falsifying [church] books by new, evil, and blasphemous interpretations of the Apostles and

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Prophets and Holy Fathers; they have lead and tin poured down their throats for engaging in counterfeiting — silver and gold coiners who criminally {171v} add copper and lead and tin to the gold and silver, while others for lesser crimes of this kind have their hands and feet cut off, or their fingers and toes73; their hands and feet or fingers and toes are cut off for rebellious conspiracy or causing turmoil, if their guilt in the matter is less serious, while others are put to death; likewise if someone in the tsar’s palace or elsewhere should raise a sword or knife against another, whether he injures him or not74, and likewise for minor offenses against the church, and if someone threatens to strike his mother and father but does not do so, the punishments are similar; for an offense against the tsar’s dignity, if someone should speak shameful or other abusive words about him when not in his presence, he shall be beaten with the knout and his tongue shall be cut out.75 Females are tortured in the same way as males, except for being burned over a fire and having their ribs broken.76 And females {172} are put to death as follows: for blasphemy and church robbery and for sodomy they are burned alive; for witchcraft and murder they are beheaded; for murdering children and for other similar evil acts they are buried alive in the ground breast-high, including their arms, and the ground is trampled down, and they die from this on the same day or the second or third day; and for dishonoring the tsar the punishment is the same as for men. And those men who commit crimes with married or unmarried women and are caught, on that same day or a subsequent day both of them, man and woman, whoever they might be, are led naked through the market-square and through the streets and are beaten with the knout. 35. The Requiem Chancellery; it is headed by a secretary. And that chancellery is in charge of the commemoration of deceased {172v} former Russian grand princes and tsars, and tsaritsas and tsareviches and tsarevnas; and for those days on which someone is to be commemorated, instructions are sent out from the chancellery to churches and monasteries in Moscow and in the provinces. 36. The Accounting Chancellery; and it is headed by two secretaries who for many years have supervised and managed the [financial] affairs of the entire Muscovite state: the records of revenues and expenditures and surpluses. And its own revenues come from surplus money which had not been collected into the tsar’s treasury in some previous year, or surpluses remaining from the year’s expenses; and some money, after being collected in Moscow and from the provinces, is not given out for any expenditures without the tsar’s decree. {173}

73 See the same chapter, article 9, on the moneyers. 74 See Chapter 2, article 14; then see in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie]. 75 See in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie]. 76 See in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie].



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And there are altogether forty-two chancelleries in Moscow, in addition to the provincial and patriarchal chancelleries and the customs houses; and in these chancelleries and with the commandants [voevody] in the provinces there are about 100 secretaries and about 1,000 undersecretaries. And the following chancelleries are located on the ground of the tsar’s palace: the [Chancellery for] Privy Affairs, the Chancellery of the Great Palace, the Wardrobe Chamber, the Apothecary, the Silver and Gold Work, the Armory, and the Monastery [Chancelleries]; but all the other chancelleries are located at a distance from the tsar’s palace, in the square behind the churches. 37. And if anyone wishes to petition for anything, or bring suit against another, he is ordered to make petition whatever the matter, and to bring suit in any case involving investigations or contracts or anything else into that chancellery under whose jurisdiction and judicial authority he is registered. {173v} 38. And the boyars and okol’nichie and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries in the chancelleries are instructed to hold trials, whoever has been assigned jurisdiction in each chancellery, either all together or all but one or one alone, with justice following the commandants of the Holy Gospel of Christ, without fearing the mighty — for it is written in Divine Scripture: “rich and poor, together” — and without showing favor to friends or seeking revenue on enemies, and without taking bribes and gifts; and if any judge should take a bribe and judge the case on the basis of the bribe, and this is discovered, the punishment for such a judge is truly written in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie].77 But although a punishment is prescribed in such cases, and although with regard to such bribes [the judges] kiss the cross with solemn vows that they will not take bribes and will act justly, in accordance with the tsar’s decree and the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie], {174} their oaths and vows are for naught, nor do they fear punishment; they cannot keep their eyes and thoughts from temptation, and soon allow their hand to take bribes, if not directly, then on the back stairs, through their wives or daughters or through a son or brother or slave, pretending that they know nothing about it and are not taking bribes at all. Nonetheless, through such temptation, their evil grasping draws their souls into the abyss of unquenchable fire and injures not only their own souls but the tsar’s as well; they take the bribe and slander the other party [in the lawsuit] with evil words, without any fear of acting thus: for what ordinary man can always approach the tsar and see him often! Even the judges themselves see him but infrequently and rarely have the opportunity to discuss matters with him. {174v}

77 On trials and judges see what is truly written in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie].

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39. And if a defendant should make a petition against a judge, that the judge is his enemy or involved in his own litigation with him, and that he cannot defend himself or obtain satisfaction in that chancellery, he is allowed, before the trial begins, to petition the tsar, and in accordance with that petition orders will be given for the trial to be held in another chancellery with other judges, and the decision and disposition of that trial shall stand, whatever it may be; and no further trial shall be held in addition to that trial at which the decision has been handed down. And if someone should bring suit against another in any chancellery and, knowing that a judge or undersecretary in that chancellery is his enemy, fails to petition the tsar concerning this in advance of the trial, and the trial having been held and the case having been decided justly, and not on the basis of enmity or bribery, he afterwards makes petition against his adversary the judge, that the judge was his enemy and did not hold an honest trial: then his petition shall be disregarded, no new trial shall be held {175}, and the decision of the original trial shall stand, on the grounds that knowing the judge to be his enemy, he failed to make petition prior to the trial and was tried by that court of his own free will. 40. And if someone brings suit against another, a bailiff’s instruction is drawn up regarding this matter and presented to the judges in the chancellery; and the secretaries sign and seal this instruction and make a copy of it in the book, and send a bailiff after the defendant, with orders to find and bring into the chancellery the defendant himself or his wife or son or the slave who is in charge of his affairs. And when the defendant or one of his people is found, the chancellery obtains surety bonds for the plaintiff and for the defendant, that they will both appear for trial at the appointed time, as determined by the judges or as agreed upon between themselves, the plaintiff and the defendant. And if no guarantors are available for the plaintiff, he is not allowed to bring suit against the defendant if the case concerns a debt; and if no guarantors are available for the defendant, he remains shackled in the chancellery until surety is obtained or the trial is concluded, or else he is consigned to the personal care of the bailiffs. And if a plaintiff or defendant should petition that for whatever reason he cannot appear at the appointed time {175v}, a more distant date will be set for the trial, when he is able to appear. And if the plaintiff or defendant should fail to appear at that [new] appointed time, the case will be decided against him on that basis, without trial: if it is the plaintiff who does not appear, he will lose his case, and if it is the defendant who does not appear, he will be found guilty without trial and will be required to pay the amount of the plaintiff’s claim in full, for he had himself agreed upon that date but failed to appear. And when two parties are in litigation, and surety bonds have been obtained from the plaintiff and the defendant in the case that they will not leave Moscow until the trial is concluded, and the plaintiff or defendant does leave: then the plaintiff loses his case and the tsar’s court fees shall be collected from his guarantors; and if the defendant leaves, his guarantors must pay the plaintiff’s claim and the fees;



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for even if the plaintiff or defendant is in the right, he must not leave Moscow {176} without waiting for the decision or without petitioning the tsar. And if the trial finds the defendant guilty, [the judges] order that the money be taken or exacted from him and given to the plaintiff, and in addition to the plaintiff’s claim that the tsar’s fees, 10 den’gi from each ruble [of the claim] be collected from him, the defendant, and that [compensation for] the plaintiff’s maintenance and delays and loses be collected from him and turned over to the plaintiff. And if the defendant has no money to pay the plaintiff’s claim, he is beaten as exaction and consigned to the plaintiff as a servant, to repay the money through serving for a stipulated time, as decreed, and the tsar’s fee are taken from the plaintiff himself; and the decree concerning such men, and how long each is to serve for a given sum, is truly written in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie].78 And in consigning such men to pay their debt by working, [the creditor] is ordered to maintain them in his household well-clothed and fed, and not to abuse or beat them for no reason, {176v} lest any petitions be brought forward by them; and guilty parties are likewise ordered to serve their masters faithfully as restitution and do no evil and be obedient in every respect, as is proper for slaves before their masters. And if a servant thus consigned should make a petition against his master for abusing him harshly or beating him without cause or when drunk, for no reason, or for doing some evil thing to his wife or children, then upon investigation that master shall be deprived of that servant, without compensation. And if he, the master, should abuse that man, and in a fit of anger break his arm or leg or put out his eye or cut off his lips or nose or ears or something similar, orders will be issued to deal with him likewise: an arm for an arm, a leg for a leg, an eye for an eye, {177} and anything else accordingly; and compensation will be made from the master’s property to the injured man for his injury, as ordered. And if the injured man should die from that abuse, then the master shall himself by put to death, and maintenance will be provided from that master’s property for the dead man’s wife and children, whoever he might be, as ordered. In similar cases between masters and their subjects — household servants and peasants — the orders are exactly the same and do not in any way differ; while cases involving fornication are decided in the patriarch’s palace or by the metropolitans and archbishops and bishops. And if anyone, wishing to escape service, should make false petition against his master or invent a story that his master is involved in some crime against the state, such a man, upon investigation, is punished with the knout and returned to his master as a servant, [that he might learn] not make false petitions {177v} and invent stories against his master. And when those who have been found guilty have completed the designed period of service to their masters as repayment for their debt, their masters are ordered, after the designated period of service has been completed, to bring them into the

78 See the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie].

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chancellery which had consigned them; and no one is allowed to keep such men in bondage to them beyond the designated period; and from the chancellery such men are set free, to live where they please. 41. And when there is a lawsuit involving dishonor rather than debt, in such lawsuits from the defendant who has dishonored the plaintiff is exacted a sum of money corresponding to the wages which [the plaintiff] receives from the tsar each year; and if he has dishonored another man’s wife and children, for dishonoring the wife the guilty party is fined twice {178} as much as for dishonoring the husband, and for dishonoring an unmarried daughter, four times as much as for the father, and for an unregistered son who is not in service, half as much as for dishonoring the father; and when the money has been collected it is turned over to those people who have been dishonored, and the tsar claims no part of that money. And [compensation for] dishonor is likewise stipulated for other men, who are not in the tsar’s service, by category, according to rank and dignity. And those who are unable to pay compensation for dishonor are punished with the knout, depending upon the dignity of the person who was dishonored. 42. And on the day that the plaintiff and defendant appear before court, the plaintiff presents a petition to the judge, and the judge, upon examining the petition, asks the defendant if he is ready to present his defense; and if he is not ready he is given an extension of time, but the plaintiff’s petition {178v} is not read to him or given to him to examine; and if the defendant says that he is ready to present his defense, the plaintiff’s petition is read to him and he is ordered to present his defense accordingly. And when the trial begins, the proceedings are recorded by undersecretaries, and when the court adjourns, the plaintiff and defendant are ordered to sign the transcript of the trial, in which their speeches were written down; and if one of them is illiterate, someone else whom he trusts is allowed to sign in his place; and then they are released on surety. And afterwards an undersecretary makes a summary of what each party said in the trial transcript and when this has been done, in those cases which the judges are competent to decide but not in important cases, they conclude the trial and determine who is guilty without reporting to the tsar; but if for whatever reason they are not competent to decide a case, that case is brought before the tsar and before the boyars, and whatever the tsar decrees {179} concerning the case will be carried out. Likewise they, the chancellery officials, are ordered to administer the various affairs of the state and of the land honestly, in accordance with the tsar’s decrees and the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie]; and if there is anything that they are not competent to do, they must consult with the boyars and the Duma men, and with the tsar himself. 43. And trials in various cases involving money and loans and goods and other matters are held on the basis of written loan agreements and contracts; and if there is no written loan agreement or it has been lost or torn up or destroyed in some other



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way, in such litigations where there is no written loan agreement no trial shall be held and no testimony shall be admitted: even if 20 witnesses appear in the case it makes no difference if there is no written loan agreement. And it is decreed that all lawsuits concerning monetary and other loans, on the basis of written loan agreements and contracts and other deeds {179v}, shall be presented within a period of 15 years; and if the fifteen-year period has elapsed even by a single day, no deed shall be considered and no trial shall be held. 44. And whenever anyone brings a lawsuit of any kind against another, in the Moscow chancelleries or in the provinces, wherever the proper jurisdiction may be, it is decreed that the trial shall in every case be held without delay; and after the trial, if the defendant should remain and bring a counter-suit against the plaintiff for any reason, it is decreed that the suit brought by the defendant against the plaintiff, or two or three if more than one petition is presented, shall be heard without leaving the chancellery; but it is forbidden to involve or give equal jurisdiction to other courts in that lawsuits. 45. And in no case is a trial held and justice administered for anyone save in the tsar’s chancelleries which were listed above {180}, and in the provincial chancelleries, and in the tsar’s crown villages and counties [volosti], and in the [chancelleries of] the patriarch and metropolitans and archbishops and bishops. And the patriarch and hierarchs hold trials over men and women of every rank in spiritual matters and last wills and testaments and various other matters in the same way as in the tsar’s courts, except for cases of brigandage, theft, and arson; but if anyone deserving such punishment is condemned to death by them for spiritual matters involving a criminal offense, they extract the sentence from the trial transcript and send it along with the condemned men to the tsar’s tribunal, and the tsar’s tribunal orders the punishment to be carried out without delay, according to the sentence, whatever he deserves; but in no case do the hierarchs punish such men themselves, without reporting to the tsar. {180v} 46. And these chancelleries, for transmitting various documents, and for bailiffs’ instructions and written sureties, there are interpreters in the Ambassadorial Chancellery, and trumpeters in the [Chancellery of the Great] Palace, and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie], bailiffs, orderlies and cannoneers in all the other chancelleries; and there are around 500 of these men. And in addition to the tsar’s wages, they are allowed to collect the walking-fee from both the plaintiff and defendant, 10 den’gi from each, in addition to the imprisonment-free. 47. And whatever criminals — brigands, thieves, and all others — are brought to prison and imprisoned there, in Moscow and in the provinces, those who have fathers and mothers or other kinsmen or a wife and children are fed by their families. But as for

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those who have no kinsmen and have no means of subsistence: the criminals who are in prison for minor offenses are let out of prison each day, in pairs, shackled {181} and guarded, to beg for alms in money and bread from people in the market-places and the courtyards; and whatever they collect each day, whether it is a large or a small amount, they and their fellow-prisoners together divide it all up among themselves, and feed themselves in this way. And when a man brings suit against another to recover a debt, or for some other reason, and [the defendant] is held in confinement in the chancelleries: if he has no means of subsistence, the bailiffs are ordered to feed him until such time as the trial is concluded; and the bailiff then collects the money [spent] on subsistence from that person found guilty, whether it is the plaintiff or the defendant; but until the trial is concluded the plaintiff is not obliged to feed [the defendant] even if he should die of hunger. 48. And in each chancellery all the various monetary revenues from the towns and settlements [posady] and counties [volosti] and villages and hamlets and customs houses and taverns {181v} and various farmed-out taxes, in each chancellery from those towns and districts [slobody] and counties [volosti] and villages which are under its jurisdiction, are received and distributed on a monthly basis by the senior undersecretaries. And the total monetary revenues taken into the tsar’s treasury each year by all the chancelleries, from the entire state, not including what is spent locally, come to 1,311,000 rubles, not including the revenues from Siberia. {182}



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Chapter 8, in which there are 11 articles. On the administration of the tsardoms and realms and lands and cities which are a part of the Russian tsardom, and on the commandants [voevody] of those realms. 1. Novgorod the Great, the tsardoms of Kazan’, Astrakhan’, and Siberia, the realm of Pskov, and the principalities of Smolensk and Polotsk: the commandants [voevody] sent to the chief towns of those realms are boyars and okol’nichie, and as associates the boyars have okol’nichie and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and secretaries, and the okol’nichie have lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and secretaries, and the okol’nichie have lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] as secretaries; and they have jurisdiction over those realms with their dependent towns and districts, in all affairs of the state and of the land, in the same way as the boyars and Duma men are in charge of the chancelleries in Moscow. And they have jurisdiction over various affairs of the state and of the land and issued orders {182v} regarding all those matters which they are competent to deal with and decide, in accordance with the instructions which have been given to them by the Military Service Chancellery [Razriad] and in accordance with the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie], without reporting to the tsar; but when they are important and disputed matters which for whatever reason they are not competent to decide, they write the tsar in Moscow for his instructions concerning such matters, and do not dare to deal with and conclude important matters without his instructions. And the instructions regarding criminals — brigands and thieves and other evildoers — are the same as in Moscow. But it is forbidden to put them to death for their crimes, no matter what they may be, without reporting to the tsar and without his instructions, and no one dares to do this except in Siberia and Astrakhan’ and Terek, because it takes too long for messages to reach the tsar in Moscow from those regions, or for the tsar’s instructions regarding various matters to arrive in response to the messages; {183} and in those distant regions it is permitted to put to death Russians of ordinary rank, and Tatars and Chuvash and Cheremis, even without the tsar’s instructions; but it is forbidden to put to death noblemen [dvoriane] and mirzas and princes and important and eminent men except on the tsar’s instructions; and when they do put someone to death the commandants [voevody] must write to Moscow explaining why and how that person was put to death. 2. And as for the towns which are subordinated to those realms and large cities with regard to various kinds of jurisdiction and administration and taxation, noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] are sent from Moscow and by the commandants [voevody] of those cities to those dependent towns. And they are

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ordered to conduct affairs in accordance with the instructions which have been given to them by the boyars and the commandants [voevody] of those cities and to write and report various matters to the chief {183v} commandants [voevody] and not to Moscow; and they, the chief commandants [voevody], in response to those messages likewise send their instructions to the commandants [voevody] of the dependent towns, to handle those matters which they are competent to handle themselves; but when they are not competent to handle a matter, they write about it to Moscow, to the tsar. 3. Likewise in other large and medium-sized towns, lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] serve as commandants [voevody] together with secretaries, or undersecretaries in place of secretaries; and they are ordered to conduct all affairs in those towns according to instructions and according to the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie]. And if there are important matters which they are not allowed to handle or which are not under their jurisdiction, they must likewise write to Moscow regarding such matters. And in large towns where there are secretaries with the commandant [voevoda], they are allowed to hold trials in lawsuits over loan contracts concluded by noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] and serving men of various rank and settlement [posad] men and peasants {184}, and involving loans of 100, 500, 1,000, and 10,000 rubles. But in other towns, where there are commandants [voevody] alone or with undersecretaries, but where there are no secretaries, they are allowed to hold trials in lawsuits involving loans of 10 or 20 rubles, but are not allowed to hold trials in any lawsuit in which the sum is over 20 rubles; and if a commandant [voevoda] or chancellery official should hold a trial in which the sum involved is over 20 rubles, and [then the] trial shall be null and void, and the judge shall be fined by the tsar. And in medium-sized and small towns men of every rank must have their lawsuits for large amounts of money tried in Moscow, in that chancellery in which [the defendant] is registered and which has judicial authority over him. And in the very largest cities, although trials are held involving large claims of 1,000 and 10,000 rubles, no one can be found guilty except on the tsar’s instructions. {184v} 4. And when instructions regarding various matters are sent to the towns, to the boyars and commandants [voevody] and chancellery officials, the documents are written in the following fashion: “From the Tsar and Grand Prince Aleksei Mikhailovich, autocrat of all Great and Little and White Russia, to our boyar and commandant [voevoda] Prince Iakov Kudenetovich Cherkasskii,” or “to Prince Ivan Alekseevich Vorotynskii and his associates”; and then the business at hand. And likewise in corresponding fashion to commandants [voevody] of the second rank: if he is a prince or lord-inwaiting [stol’nik] or adjutant [striapchii], first his rank and then his name is given; and if he is an ordinary nobleman [dvorianin], merely his name and patronymic and surname.



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And the title “Autocrat of all Great and Little and White Russia” was not {185} used of old but is an innovation of the present reign, from the time that Little Russia, the Zaporozhian Host — Hetman Bogdan Khmel’nitskii with the Cossacks and all the Ukrainian towns — became the tsar’s eternal subjects. Great Russia is the name given the Muscovite state; White Russia — to the Belorussians who live near Smolensk and Polotsk and other towns. Question. Why is the title “autocrat” used? Answer. When former tsars, following Ivan Vasil’evich, were elected to the tsardom, written documents were taken from them that they would not be cruel and wrathful, nor punish anyone for any reason without trial and without cause, and deliberate all matters together with the boyars and Duma men, and do nothing secretly or openly without their knowledge. {185v} But when the present tsar was elected to the tsardom, he gave no written document on his behalf, as previous tsars had done; nor was one demanded of him, for he was thought to be very gentle; and this is why he uses “sovereign” as his highest [title] and rules his realm according to his own will. And when he wishes to wage war or make peace with any [state], or upon concluding peace to make some concession to it in friendship, or come to its assistance, or when he wishes to decide any other great or small affair of his realm as he sees fit, he takes little counsel with boyars and Duma men; it is in his power to do what he wishes. However, on various matters the tsar does seek the advice and counsel of these boyars and Duma men and ordinary men whom he likes and favors. But his father, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich of blessed memory, although he used the title {186} “autocrat,” could do nothing without the boyars’ counsel. In the same manner messages are sent to ambassadors on embassies: “From the tsar and grand prince N.,” followed by his titles; and then, “to our great and plenipotentiary ambassadors,” writing the name [of the head of the embassy] and “with his associates,” or sometimes each name separately. And are likewise sent to the boyars and commandants [voevody] when they have reported a surplus for the year from taxes and various activities and enterprises, when in wartime the boyars and commandants [voevody] have won a victory over the enemy, or when ambassadors at a congress have concluded an eternal treaty or armistice; they are sent documents with gracious words for their zeal and service, written in the following manner: “They, the boyars and commandants [voevody], have written {186v} that in the course of the year they have shown a surplus and other [evidence of] zeal”; or “The commandants [voevody] [have written] from the regiments that with God’s help, and through the intercession of the Virgin and all [the saints]79, and through the tsar’s prayers and good fortune, they have won a victory over the enemy”; or “The ambassadors have discharged their embassy according to the tsar’s commands, and we, the great sovereign, for their faithful service and zeal,

79 On icons see Chapter 4, article 25, the answer.

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graciously bestow our bounty and praise, and they may depend upon the tsar’s favor in everything, and he, the great sovereign, will not forget their service.” 5. And when a boyar or commandant [voevoda] or chancellery official or ambassador or envoy or courier or anyone assigned to any task writes reports to the tsar concerning any matter, he writes in the following manner: “To the sovereign tsar {187} and grand prince,” the tsar’s name and title in the same manner as in the documents written by the tsar to them, and following the title: “your slave Ianka Cherkasskii, [or] Ivashko Vorotynskii,” or whoever it be, “with his associates” (or alone) petition (petitions); then the matter at hand; and they do not use their princely titles and do not mention their rank. 6. And if anyone should make petition regarding any matter to the tsar himself, or the judges in a chancellery, or the commandants [voevody] or ambassadors or the towns and in the army, in their petitions to boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and serving men of various rank write: “To the tsar, sovereign, and grand prince,” with the tsar’s name and titles in the same way as in a report, and then “your slaves, prince or boyar” or ordinary man, using his diminutive without princely title or rank; {187v} while settlement [posad] men and peasants refer to themselves in their petitions as “slaves and orphans” and not as slaves. Likewise the wives and daughters of men of various rank refer to themselves in petitions as “slaves and orphans,” also using their diminutives; but in their petitions they refer to their fathers and husbands by their full name including the surname and rank. And if any boyar or closest man or man of any rank should make petition on any matter to the tsaritsa or tsareviches or tsarevnas, they refer to themselves in the same way as to the tsar, as “slaves and slave and orphan,” writing their titles: “To the sovereign tsaritsa and grand princess N.”; to the tsarevnas: “To the sovereign tsarevna and grand princess N.”; and no further title is used; but to the tsareviches they write {188}: “To the sovereign tsarevich and grand prince,” then his name and the same titles as the tsar, without writing “autocrat.” And the hierarchs, the patriarch and metropolitans and others, and ordinary monks and nuns and priests, use their full name and rank in writing letters of any kind to the tsar and tsaritsa and tsareviches and tsarevnas. 7. And in all those towns all the tsar’s revenues and taxes from the settlement [posad] men and district peasants, and customs duties and tavern and other revenues which are collected on oath or are farmed out, must be collected in all the towns according to the assessment, in the same way as in Moscow, so that whatever yearly assessment has been made for each town and district and from customs houses and taverns and other farmed-out taxes shall all be collected, without favoring anyone in any respect, and all sent to Moscow in full; {188v} and if for any reason a commandant [voevoda] and chancellery official fails to collect some amount from anyone, it will be ordered to exact it from the commandant [voevoda] himself. And if money is needed for any



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purpose in those towns, they are ordered to write to Moscow about this, and to keep records of what is disbursed for various expenses. 8. And for the protection and safety of the town, in the large towns musketeers and Cossacks are permanently settled, and cannoneers and gunners and gatekeepers, and in other places European-trained soldiers [soldaty]; and they are stationed near the [local] treasury, and throughout the city, and as guards at the gates, and are sent on various missions. And in other towns which are not near the frontier only cannoneers and gunners and gatekeepers are stationed for the protection of the town. {189} And in each town the keys to the citadel, to its gates, are kept by the commandants [voevody] and chancellery officials. 9. And when the Muscovite state goes to war with another state, siege quarters are set up for the duration of the war by the monasteries and by the noblemen [dvoriane]; and for the duration of the war the people live in those quarters with all their possession and supplies and wives and children. And the peasants are ordered out of the villages and hamlets and into the citadels, with all their possessions; and those peasants stand guard in the citadel while it is under siege, together with the settlement [posad] men, using either their own firearms or the tsar’s. {189v} 10. And if a citadel should be damaged or is falling into ruin because it is old, revenues for the maintenance of citadels, either their repair or erection, are collected from the settlement [posad] trading men of that town and from the district peasants, from each tax district [vyt’], depending upon the maintenance required; and if the revenues collected do not suffice for maintainance, the tsar orders [money] to be taken from his own revenues. And master stonemasons and carpenters and other workers are taken from same town and district and from other towns. And cannon, and munitions for cannon, and various military and siege weapons, depending on the citadel, are sent to those citadels from Moscow. Likewise monasteries with large stone [walls] are provided by the tsar with cannon and all kinds of munitions for cannon and all kinds of siege weapons, and in some monasteries musketeers and cannoneers are stationed to protect the citadel from [enemy] soldiers; and those monasteries where there are no musketeers have trading men and peasants organized in districts [slobody]. 11. And in the Muscovite state there stand about 20 stone citadels, or a few more, not including monasteries; and all the rest {190} are made of wood, resting on earthworks or simply on the ground; and in time of war sand and gravel embankments are build up around those citadels, and to protect those citadels deep moats are dug around them and wooden palisades are constructed, and some of the moats are filled with water. {190v}

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Chapter 9, in which there are 12 articles. On military levies. 1. When enmity and war break out with neighboring states, the tsar takes counsel with the patriarch and with the metropolitans and archbishops and bishops, and with other hierarchs from the great monasteries, and tells the boyars that there is enmity between him and the other sovereign, and because of that enmity he wishes to take vengeance upon that sovereign by going to war; and the hierarchs and boyars give their assent together with the tsar to such action, and fix a levy of soldiers from the entire state: lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and Moscow noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy] and provincial noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] and Cossacks, and musketeers and European-trained soldiers [soldaty] and Tatars. And if the tsar should go to war himself, {191} then the tsar reviews all the soldiers and selects for himself a regiment made up of men of every rank and from [the other] regiments; then he assigns the [regular] regiments to boyars and okol’nichie and closest men, at his discretion. But when the tsar does not go to war in person, he sends boyars and closest men, and soldiers with them, in regiments formed [for this purpose], and likewise sends additional [soldiers] taken from his own regiment, at his discretion. And serving in the tsar’s and the boyars’ [regiments] are lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy], organized in hundreds; and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] or noblemen [dvoriane] are assigned as heads of each hundred, with lieutenants and standard-bearers, men of the same rank or lower rank. And their banners are large, of damask or taffeta, unlike those used {191v} by cavalrymen [reitary]; and the trumpeters and drummers are the heads’ own household servants. And they do not receive any military training, as do cavalrymen [reitary], nor do they move in formation; instead everyone advances with that banner under which he is enrolled. And from among the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy] in his own regiment the tsar chooses about 1,000 good men to be always at his side in and out of battle and to protect the tsar’s banners, and also about 60 adjutants for carrying various massages; and the boyars and commandants [voevody] likewise chooses 100 men from each of their regiments, whomever they wish, for their honor’s sake and for the protection of the tsar’s banners which the tsar has given to them, the commandants [voevody], {192} and likewise about 20 valiant young men as adjutants for carrying various military messages. And the tsar’s banners which are borne with his own regiment and with boyars are large, with the image of the Savior, or of some victory-bringing miracle, embroidered and painted in gold and silver on damask; while the boyars’ banners are like those of the Polish hussars, many-colored and elongated.



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And at the same time that the tsar holds a review of all his soldiers, before going to war, a register is drawn up of the number of peasant households held by each of the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and Moscow noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy], and on the basis of the peasant households is listed the number of fully equipped men each is to take into battle with him, five and six or eight or 20 or 30 or 40 men, depending upon his {192v} possessions and hereditary estates [votchiny], in addition to the men who are with their supplies. And when a battle takes place, those men are not detached from him for the battle, but stay together with him under a single banner. 2. Cavalry [reitar] regiments; and cavalrymen [reitary] in those regiments are chosen from among the pages [zhil’tsy] and provincial noblemen [dvoriane] and the unregistered sons of noblemen [dvoriane], and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] who have small service estates [pomest’ia] or no service estates [pomest’ia] and have not been enrolled to receive the tsar’s wages in money and service estates [pomest’ia]; likewise they are recruited from among the free men who wish to enter this service; and they are given the yearly wages of 30 rubles by the tsar. And they are likewise given firearms — carbines and pistols and powder and lead — from the tsar’s treasury, {193} but must buy clothing and horses themselves; and if in the course of a year these wages do not suffice, because of the high price of bread, supplementary wages are sent to them in the regiments. And those noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy] and unregistered sons who have peasant households are not given the tsar’s wages in full; deductions are taken out of their wages in accordance with the number of peasant households each has, and they are likewise required to appear for service with their own firearms. And if anyone’s horse should be killed or die while in service, such men are duly given money in the regiments to buy horses, and if something goes wrong with a firearm or it is damaged in battle, the same day a new firearm is duly issued in the regiment, though some affluent men are ordered to buy one with their own money. {193v} And they take cavalrymen [reitary] from the patriarch, the metropolitans, the archbishops and bishops, and from the monasteries; and likewise from the boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men who remain in Moscow and are not on military service or on embassies anywhere; and likewise from the lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and Moscow and provincial noblemen [dvoriane] who have been retired from service for reasons of age or sickness or injury and are unable to carry on service themselves; and likewise from widows and unmarried daughters who have peasants: depending on their hereditary estates [votchiny] and service estates [pomest’ia], according to the number of peasants each hereditary estate [votchina] or service estate [pomest’e] owner has, at the rate of one cavalryman [reitar] — a monastery servitor or a slave — from every 100 peasant households. And the hierarchs and monasteries and boyars and Duma men and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and retired noblemen [dvoriane] and widows and unmarried daughters must send full equipment and good horses and

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their supplies, {194} seeing to it that the supplies are not in any way inadequate for such service, and with one man for every five of these men and their supplies, in addition to those stipulated above. And if any cavalryman [reitar], be he the servitor of a boyar or a monastery, should attempt to flee from service, upon capture he shall be beaten with the knout and sent back into service; or if he is caught on the road, he shall be likewise punished in his regiment; and if some are not apprehended, other men are taken in place of such fugitives, and a large fine for them is imposed [upon their masters], so that they would send good and faithful men into service and provide adequate supplies of everything, thus giving others no reason for being tempted to flee from service. And when a regiment of those cavalrymen [reitary] has been fully recruited, it is turned over to foreign {194v} or Russian colonels for training. And men from various foreign states serve as officers of the cavalrymen [reitary]; colonels and lieutenantcolonels and majors and captains and other ranks, and Russian lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy] who have been trained as cavalrymen [reitary] and as officers in similar regiments of foreign type [also] serve as cavalry [reitary] officers. 3. The old musketeers regiments in Moscow and in the provinces are as was described above80; and new musketeer regiments are recruited from among free men, and they are given the same wages as the old musketeers; and they are in lifetime service as musketeers, and their children and grandchildren are musketeers after them. 4. The old European-trained soldiers [soldaty] regiments were formed long ago to live {195} in forts along the frontier, in two places along the Swedish border, Olonets and Somro, in settlements and hamlets, with all their possessions and with land; and in time of war they are taken into service and colonels and other officers are assigned to them. And for protecting the border regions and the forts and homes, one-quarter of their number is left behind; and no taxes are collected from them for the tsar. But when there is not war, the same taxes are collected from them as from the other peasants, as decreed, according to the assessment. And there are a large number of these European-trained soldiers [soldaty]. New regiments; and into those regiments are recruited European-trained soldiers [soldaty] from among the free men, and from petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] of the Ukrainian and middle and lower Volga regions who have little or no service estate [pomest’e] land; and likewise one European-trained soldier [soldat] from every 100 peasant households belonging to the patriarch {195v} and hierarchs and monasteries and boyars and men of every rank, hereditary estate [votchina] and service estate [pomest’e] owners.

80 On the musketeers see Chapter 7, article 5.



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And peasants are taken as European-trained soldiers [soldaty] from the entire Muscovite state except for Siberia and Astrakhan’ and Kazan’: if a father has two or three children, or three brothers live together and not separately, one of the three is taken; and if there are four sons or four brothers together, two of these are taken; and if someone has two or three sons or brothers who are young and unable to serve as European-trained soldiers [soldaty], none of these will be taken until they have grown up and are fit for service. And Tatars and Cheremis and Mordva are recruited from Kazan’ and the lower and middle Volga region, likewise one man from every 100 households. {196} And after the various regiments of European-trained soldiers [soldaty] have been recruited, they are turned over for training to officers in the same way as cavalrymen [reitary]; and they each are given wages of 60 altyny each month for their subsistence. And European-trained soldiers [soldaty] are given firearms, muskets, powder, fuses, halberds, swords, and short pikes from the tsar’s treasury; while others are given swords and muskets and long pikes; and those muskets are transported behind them on horses, until they are needed. And during the present time of service, from the year 1651, in the course of the Polish war, many cavalrymen [reitary] and European-trained soldiers [soldaty] have died in battle and in assaults, or have died from hunger while under siege or while besieging many and various towns for long periods of time; and each year cavalrymen [reitary] and European-trained soldiers [soldaty] have been recruited from the hierarchs and monasteries and boyars and men of various {196v} rank who are owners of service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny], one mounted cavalryman [reitar] with a firearm and one European-trained soldier [soldat] from every 100 peasant households; and in addition in several of these years there has been a second levy of cavalrymen [reitary] and European-trained soldiers [soldaty], one cavalryman [reitar] from every 100 peasant households and one European-trained soldier [soldat] from every 20 households. And those cavalrymen [reitary] and European-trained soldiers [soldaty] are recruited from every 100 peasant households; and when there are owners of service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] who do not have that many peasants, money is collected from two or five or 10 of them, as calculated, 30 rubles for each cavalryman [reitar] and 20 rubles for each European-trained soldier [soldat]. And in any year when there are no service expeditions for cavalrymen [reitary] and European-trained soldiers [soldaty], they are ordered to appear as before, on a designated day, in Moscow {197} or in the place of service. 5. Dragoon regiments; the old dragoons were organized to live permanently in the Ukraine near the [Crimean] Tatar frontier, just like the European-trained soldiers [soldaty] of the Swedish frontier; but new dragoons are taken from the Ukrainian towns and counties [volosti], from the trading men and peasants who are dependents of the tsar and of the monasteries, in the same manner as cavalrymen [reitary] and

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European-trained soldiers [soldaty]; and after the regiments have been fully mustered they are attached to cavalry [reitary] regiments. And they serve both on horseback and on foot, like the European-trained soldiers [soldaty], with muskets and halberds and short pikes and drums, and they have two types of banners: European-trained soldiers’ [soldaty] banners when in dismounted formation, and half the size of European-trained soldiers’ [soldaty] banners when on horseback; and they are given {197v} twelve rubles each as wages; and they have the same ranks of officers as cavalrymen [reitary]. 6. Old Cossack regiments; these Cossacks were organized to guard the regions along the Polish frontier; and before the war there were about 5,000 Cossacks, but now there are not many of them; and those who have been appointed Cossacks were serving men, cavalrymen [reitary] and European-trained soldiers [soldaty], who had already been in service and who were given homesteads and farmyards and plowland; and they pay no quit-rent or taxes to the tsar. And while they are in service they are paid a yearly wage like the dragoons; and their battle equipment is like that of the cavalry [reitary]; their banners are similarly small, of their own design; their officers are heads {198}, atamans, hundredmen and adjutants, and are [chosen from the] noblemen [dvoriane] and cavalry [reitary] officers. 7. Don Cossacks; and these Don Cossacks are taken from the Don [River] for military service, to be sent on patrol, to reconnoiter and to carry off enemy guards; and they are given the same wages as the other Cossacks. And on the Don there are about 20,000 of these Cossacks, organized to protect the regions of the lower and middle Volga from the approach of Turks and Tatars and Nogai and Kalmyks. And these men are by origin from Moscow and other regions, and newly baptized Tatars, and Zaporozhian Cossacks, and Poles; and many of them are [slaves] of Muscovite masters and trading men and peasants who were sentenced to be punished for brigandage {198v} and theft and other offenses, and after robbing and stealing from their masters went to the Don; and after being on the Don for a month, or even a week, if they should for any reason come to Moscow no one may henceforth take any action against them for any reason, no matter what their crime, since the Don frees them from all harm. And it has been granted them to live on the Don in freedom; and they choose their own leaders, atamans and others, from among their own number; and they administer justice in all matters according to their own will, and not according to the tsar’s decree. And when someone is to be put to death for a criminal offense or for some other matter or for faithless service, they stand him up in a square or in a field and shoot him themselves with bows and arrows or with harquebuses; likewise if anyone should commit a crime while in Moscow or in the regiments, he is not punished and put to death by the tsar but by [the Cossacks] themselves. {199} And when they come to Moscow, they are given the same honors as eminent foreigners; and if they did not have their freedom they would refuse to serve on the Don and remain in obedience;



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and were it not for those Don Cossacks the tsardoms of Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ with their towns and lands would not have long since passed under the possession of the Muscovite tsar and become subject to him. And monetary wages from the tsar are sent to them on the Don in great amounts, or regularly; and those Cossacks on the Don obtain their livelihood from various military expeditions against the Turks, on land and sea, and likewise against the Persians and Tatars and Kalmyks; and as for those who failed to obtain anything from some military expedition they divide everything among themselves into shares, even among those who were not there. {199v} And they, the Don Cossacks, are likewise sent wages in grain from Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ lest they be hungry; while some obtain it for themselves. 8. The monetary wages, yearly and monthly, for all those soldiers are collected from the entire Muscovite state, from the settlement [posad] trading men and artisans, and from the tsar’s villages and counties [volosti], and from the peasants and landless peasants [bobyli] of hierarchs and boyars and service estate [pomest’e] and hereditary estate [votchina] owners, as decreed, in accordance with their commerce and business, as it is levied and as they apportion among themselves how much should be collected from each person on the basis of his commerce and land. And for the present war with Poland and Sweden, there was collected from the entire Muscovite state, from the various trading men and the peasants and landless peasants [bobyli] of hereditary estate [votchina] and service estate [pomest’e] owners, {200} first twentieth-money and then tenth-money, more than once, and in the years 1662 and 1663 fifth money was collected in silver coins from the various ranks of men listed above. And if the money collected is not sufficient for the soldiers’ wages, [the rest] is taken from the tsar’s chancellery and provincial revenues. In previous times of war, tenth-money was similarly collected from the entire Muscovite state, from the same ranks of men. And when that tenth-money, or twentieth- or fifth-money, is levied upon them, those who wish to be godfearing and do not wish to bring harm to their souls give true testimony, as commanded by the holy incorruptible gospel of Christ, {200v} that from his business and possessions or land he should give such-and-such an amount in twentieth- or tenth- or fifth-money, and state the figure; and when it is known from their commerce and business that such people are telling the truth, this is the amount that, in accordance with their testimony, is taken from them. But if any man, fearing neither God nor the tsar’s decrees, should disobey and give false testimony, concealing much [of his wealth], that he should give such-and-such an amount, stating a low figure which does not correspond with his commerce and business, and if his fellow trading men or peasants, knowing his commerce and business, should testify and inform against him that the amount that should be taken from him is such-and-such: then the amount taken from him will be in accordance with their judgement, and his false testimony, concealing much in his soul, shall be given no credence. {201}

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And in time of war, service grain supplies — rye, flour, biscuits, dried oatmeal, groats — are collected for the soldiers from the peasant homesteads of the patriarch and hierarchs and monasteries and boyars and various hereditary estate [votchina] and service estate [pomest’e] owners, in the same way, as decreed, in appropriate amounts from each household. And after these supplies are collected these same service estate [pomest’e] and hereditary estate [votchina] owners’ peasants are ordered, as required, to transport them to those border regions where the war is being fought; but from the most remote areas the supplies and transport duty are replaced by monetary payments, the amounts being calculated to correspond to the value of the supplies and transport duty. And meat and salt and wine are brought in wagons from the tsar’s household in Moscow. And those grain supplies — rye and flour and biscuits {201v} and dried oatmeal and grouts — and the meat and salt and wine are distributed to the musketeers and European-trained soldiers [soldaty] and dragoons who are in service in the towns and the regiments on a monthly basis, in accordance with decrees [stating] how much each needs to subsist for the month, and whether they are to receive [the supplies] through purchase or loan from the tsar and boyars, or without any charge or loan. 9. And the boyars and commandants [voevody] and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and pages [zhil’tsy] and commanders and cavalrymen [reitary] and Cossacks equip themselves for service out of their own domestic supplies, whatever each may have; and none of them is given supplies from the tsar while in service, unless there is great need and hunger, in which case the poorer ones are given supplies from the tsar’s treasury in small quantity and as a loan. But when cavalrymen [reitary] and Cossacks are needy and hungry they are given an increase in their monetary wages, as available, for their time of need. {202} 10. And when the tsar goes to war himself, about 30,000 men of various rank accompany him in his regiment; and in the regiments of the various boyars and commandants [voevody] there are 20,000 and 15,000 and 10,000 and 7,000 men in each regiment. And in the tsar’s and boyars’ regiments, for battles and assaults there are likewise siege and field cannon and mortars, with all their equipment and ammunition; in the tsar’s regiment about 200 pieces of various kinds, and in the boyars’ regiments 50 or 80 pieces of various kinds, as are found in musketeer and European-trained soldiers [soldaty] and dragoon regiments. And these pieces and their ammunition and all the supplies of military firearms are transported on the tsar’s own horses {202v}; and in the infantry’s rear, for assaults and tunneling and sieges, are transported axes, spades, picks, and other equipment which is useful for military purposes. And bakers, piemen, butchers, and kvas-brewers are taken into the regiments, from Moscow and from the provinces, 50 or 70 to each regiment, with all their supplies, for sale and for the maintenance of the troops; and they do not receive any



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wages. And while they are in service they have orders to sell all those goods which they have brought from Moscow, and which they bring or obtain for nothing while at war, to serving men of various rank at a price which is not excessively high, so that they might themselves make a living thereby without too great a cost to the soldiers. 11. And when the war is over, {203} then the soldiers — cavalrymen [reitary], Europeantrained soldiers [soldaty], dragoons, Cossacks and atamans, Mordva, and Cheremis — are all dismissed to their homes, wherever each formerly lived. And as for those men — boyars’ slaves and monastery servitors and peasants of men of every rank — who were taken as cavalrymen [reitary] or European-trained soldiers [soldaty] or dragoons and served in the tsar’s service and suffered various privations for many years, and also those who, although in service for less than a year, were taken prisoner and were held prisoner for at least one year: those who served for many years and who were imprisoned, in return for their service and their hardships, are all free to live wherever each wishes, and their former masters have no claim on them as slaves or as permanently [bound] peasants, unless they should themselves wish to return to them as before. Still others upon petition are enrolled as Cossacks and dragoons, and are given homesteads and plowland. {203v} 12. And the orders issued for foreign commanders upon completion of their service are: if anyone wishes to remain in permanent service he shall be given wages [in the form of] monthly subsistence for his lifetime; while if anyone wishes to leave for his own country, he is discharged after receiving a discharge payment. And as for those foreigners who have been wounded and are unable to continue in service and wish to remain in Moscow, and likewise those foreigners who have been killed leaving behind wives and children: those wounded men and the wives and children of those who have been killed are given monthly payments for their lifetime subsistence, half the amount of the wages which the men who were wounded and killed had received when they were still in good health; and if a wife upon her husband’s death or a daughter upon her father’s death should marry, {204} she shall no longer receive subsistence payments. Likewise if Russians, men of various rank, should be severely wounded, and be unable to serve and have no means of subsistence, such men are turned over to monasteries, wherever they themselves should want to go, for the rest of their lives, with instructions that they be given food and drink and clothing for the rest of their lives, free of charge. And as for those men who were wounded, severely or lightly, while in service: such men, either foreigners or Russians who receive subsistence money, and likewise cavalrymen [reitary] and dragoons, are to be healed by the tsar’s doctors and surgeons

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free of charge81; and in compensation for their wounds those Russians and foreigners who are poor are likewise given five rubles of the tsar’s bounty, for each one’s wounds and service. {204v}

81 On the doctors and surgeons see Chapter 7, article 23.



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Chapter 10, in which there are seven articles. On trading men. 1. Trading company men [gosti]; and those trading company men [gosti] come from trading men of the trading [gostinaia] and cloth workers’ [sukhotnaia] guilds [sotni] and from the settlement [posad] men. And they are granted the title of “trading company man” [gost’] for managing the tsar’s affairs and in the customs houses and liquor stores; and they carry on their own trade and engage in various enterprises; and they are free to keep liquor and to brew and distill it in their homes for their own use, the whole year round; likewise they are free to buy hereditary estates [votchiny] and keep and mortgage them. And while they are trading company men [gosti] they likewise take turns in carrying out the tsar’s service as heads and secretaries in the sable treasury and in the collection of monetary revenues. And there are close to 30 of these men; {205} and each of them carries on trade to the amount of 20 and 40 and 50 and 100,000 rubles a year. 2. The trading [gostinaia] and cloth workers’ [sukhotnaia] guilds [sotni] have been organized in this way: [their members] serve as sworn officials [tseloval’niki], associates of the trading company men [gosti] in the collection of the tsar’s revenues in Moscow and in the provinces, and they likewise carry on their own trade and engage in various enterprises, and they are allowed freely to keep various kinds of liquor in their homes; but they are forbidden to buy or keep peasants. And there are about 200 of these men. 3. Trading men in Moscow are organized in guilds [sotni] and districts [slobody]; likewise in all the towns the settlement [posad] men are organized in districts [slobody]; and they are selected on a yearly basis to serve the tsar as {205v} sworn heads and sworn officials [tseloval’niki] in the customs houses and taverns and other enterprises; but in other cases customs houses and taverns and various levies are farmed out to them from the tsar’s treasury for money. 4. And these trading men of various rank engage in trade in Moscow and in the towns and while traveling, in various commercial enterprises. And the tsar’s obligations are imposed yearly upon each town, assessed in accordance with their trade and enterprises, in whatever amount may be obtained; and all those ranks described above, upon whom the assessment has been made, calculate among themselves, on the basis of their enterprises and possessions, how much to take from each and themselves apportion it among themselves; and those who lack the resources are allocated smaller payments, with [corresponding] increases for others; and elders are chosen among them for these matters. And after the money is collected as ordered

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and as assessed, {206} [in Moscow] it is turned over to the chancelleries, and in the provinces it is either [turned over] to the commandants [voevody] or else brought directly to Moscow. And none of the settlement [posad] men except for trading company men [gosti] and the trading [gostinaia] and cloth workers’ [sukhotnaia] guilds [sotni] is allowed to keep liquor in his home. And when they buy liquor or brew beer or prepare mead for their own needs, they petition the tsar, and then they are allowed to keep it for a specified number of days and weeks, and from such liquor they pay duties to the tsar’s treasury, as decreed. And they are forbidden to keep liquor [freely] lest they sell it on the side by stealth and maintain taverns and brothels in their homes. And if they need to brew kvas or prepare mead, or else grind rye or some other [grain] {206v} or slaughter an ox or a cow or a pig or a sheep for [their own] consumption, and not for sale; that is permitted, and they do not pay any duties to the tsar therefrom. 5. And if a trading company man [gost’] or a trading or settlement [posad] man should be a plaintiff or defendant in a case involving someone else, he must bring suit before the boyars and commandants [voevody] and chancellery officials in Moscow and in the towns, in that place which has administrative and judicial jurisdiction over him; but they do not have their own courts for lawsuits or any kind. 6. And if any trading company man [gost’] or trading man, while in charge of a customs house or of some other levy or of selling [state property] or of the sable or some other treasury, should in a given year collect an amount larger than in previous years, for such service he shall receive the tsar’s praise and bounty {207}: a silver goblet or vessel, and a quantity of linen and a quantity of damask; and his associates the sworn officials [tseloval’niki] shall also [receive] a silver vessel and a quantity of linen and a quantity of taffeta, depending upon the amount of profit and upon the person. 7. And if any trading company man [gost’] or other man, in charge of a levy or of selling, should at the end of the year collect less profit than in years past, due to lack of zeal or negligence or drunkenness, then that profit which should have been obtained in that year, on the basis of profits obtained in previous years, is taken from him personally; and in addition he is punished with the knout. And if, as sworn heads and sworn officials [tseloval’niki], they fail even to recover the capital in full, not because of lack of zeal but because of high prices or some other reason: in such cases nothing is done to these men.



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{207v} Chapter 11, in which there are six articles. On the peasants of the tsar and the hierarchs and the hereditary estate [votchina] and service estate [pomest’e] owners. 1. The peasants of the tsar’s crown villages and counties [volosti] are brought to trial and justice in the [Chancellery of the Great] Palace in Moscow82, and by stewards in the villages and counties [volosti], in all matters except for cases of murder and brigandage and theft and arson. But in the other, black counties [volosti] of the tsar, where there are no stewards, peasants elected from these same counties [volosti] are instituted as judges, about 10 men; and they hold their own trials in accordance with the tsar’s charters or without charters, except for cases of murder and brigandage. And they collect the monetary and other revenues among themselves, as required from each, in accordance with the enterprises and possessions {208} and in accordance with their landholding — the amount of land each has and the grain that is sown and the hayfields that are mowed. 2. The patriarch and metropolitans and archbishops and bishops and monasteries have jurisdiction over the peasants subject to them in the same way as the peasants in the tsar’s household, in all matters and taxes except for brigandage and other major crimes. 3. Boyars and Duma men and closest men and men of every rank, service estate [pomest’e] and hereditary estate [votchina] owners, have jurisdiction over and judge their peasants in all their peasant affairs, except for brigandage and other criminal cases. And they order elders and their own men to collect the tsar’s taxes from their peasants and turn them over to the tsar’s treasury, in accordance with the tsar’s decrees; and they impose their own obligations upon the peasants themselves, whatever is to be taken. {208v} And when those boyars and other above-mentioned ranks are given service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny], it is written in their grant charters that they must protect and defend their peasants from every kind of injury and oppression on the part of outsiders, and must impose obligations upon them according to their capacity [to pay], whatever can be taken from each one, and not beyond their capacity, lest by this they drive their peasants away from the service estates [pomest’ia] and hereditary estates [votchiny] or turn them into beggars; and

82 See Chapter 7, article 4.

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they must not take forcibly their cattle or other animals or grain of any kind of [other] possessions; and must not transfer them from service estate [pomest’e] villages to live in hereditary estate [votchina] villages, depopulating the one while enriching the other. And if any service estate [pomest’e] or hereditary estate [votchina] owner, not wishing his peasants to remain with him, should wish to sell the peasants in his hereditary estate [votchina], and should as a first step begin to demand heavy exactions from them which are beyond their capacity, {209} and drive them into need and poverty, and should himself accumulate [money] for the purchase of other hereditary estates [votchiny]: if a petition should be brought against such a service estate [pomest’e] or hereditary estate [votchina] owner, that he did such things to them, and if there are outsiders who know about this and who upon investigation speak the truth, then the service estates [pomest’ia] or hereditary estates [votchiny] which that service estate [pomest’e] or hereditary estate [votchina] owner received from the tsar will be returned to the tsar; and as for the exactions which he seized by force and violence, they will be taken from him and returned to those peasants; and in the future a man who has done such things shall not be given any service estate [pomest’e] or hereditary estate [votchina] for the rest of his life. And if anyone should act in the same way toward peasants whom he has bought for his hereditary estate [votchina], those peasants shall be taken away from him without compensation and turned over without cost to relatives who are good men, and not to such despoilers. {209v} 4. And if any boyar or Duma man or closest man or any service estate [pomest’e] or hereditary estate [votchina] owner should kill one of his peasants or abuse them in an unchristian manner, and if they make petition against him: the punishment for such evildoers is truly described in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie]. And in a case of murder, if there is no one to make petition against him, in such cases the tsar himself shall act as plaintiff for the deceased. And if they engage in fornication with their subjects, peasant wives and daughters, or by beating a women cause her to miscarry, or by torturing and beating a women with child cause her to die, and a petition is brought against such evildoers: in accordance with their petitions such cases, along with the plaintiffs and defendants, are referred to the patriarch in Moscow and to the metropolitans and archbishops and bishops in the provinces, {210} and they try such cases and pronounce the appropriate sentence in their palaces, and the tsar’s courts have no jurisdiction over them. 5. And if criminals — brigands, thieves, arsonists, and other evildoers — should appear in the tsar’s villages and counties [volosti] and in the service estate [pomest’e] and hereditary estate [votchina] owners’ villages and hamlets, such men upon investigation are to be sent [as follows]: Moscow [criminals] to the Brigandage Chancellery in Moscow; provincial [criminals] to the commandants [voevody] and



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police district [guba] elders in the towns83; and the hereditary estate [votchina] and service estate [pomest’e] owners themselves are forbidden to investigate and pass sentence in such matters. 6. And the tsar himself has about 30,000 {210v} peasant households, not including landless peasants [bobyli], in his crown counties [volosti] and villages near Moscow and in the provinces. And in the tsar’s black villages and districts [slobody] there are about 20,000 peasants households. The patriarch has over 7,000 peasant households in villages and counties [volosti] near Moscow and in the provinces. The four metropolitans — Novgorod, Kazan’, Rostov, Krutitsa — have all together about 12,000 peasant households in their diocesan hereditary estates [votchiny] in villages and hamlets, near Moscow and in the provinces. The 10 archbishops —Astrakhan’, Siberia, Pskov, Smolensk, Tver’, Viatka, Riazan’, Polotsk, Vologda, Suzdal’ — and the single bishop of Kolomna have all together about 16,000 peasant households in their diocesan hereditary estates [votchiny] near Moscow and in the provinces. {211} The monasteries which are listed in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie] have all together about 80,000 peasant households in the villages of their monastery hereditary estates [votchiny]. And the monasteries which are not listed in the rankings and in the Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie] have about 3,000 peasant households. The boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men and lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and secretaries and pages [zhil’tsy] and provincial noblemen [dvoriane] and petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] and mirza and Tatars and palace servitors and equerries and translators and undersecretaries and interpreters and widows and unmarried daughters each have two and three and four and five and 10 and 15 and 20 {211v} and 30 and 40 and 60 and 80 and 100 and 150 and 200 and 300 and 500 and 700 and 1,000 and 2,000 and 3,000 and 5,000 and 7,000 and 10,000 and 12,000 and 15,000 households, depending on each one’s service; and one boyar has close to 17,000 peasants and another only 100 or 200 households. Those who are fortunate in their service and in inheriting from their kinsmen have many [peasants], while others inherit nothing from their kinsmen and have little to live on: for their way of life is determined by their hereditary estates [votchiny] and service estates [pomest’ia]. And it is impossible to record the [total] number of peasant and landless peasant [bobyl’] households belonging to all these ranks of men.

83 See Chapter 7, article 34.

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{212} Chapter 12, in which there are four articles. On the tsar’s trade. 1. In the town of Archangel there is trade in grain, hemp, potash, resin, raw silk, and rhubarb. And such grain is collected in the regions of the littoral and the lower and middle Volga, from the district peasants of black districts [slobody], and such grain and hemp is likewise bought in many towns, with money from the tsar’s treasury, from the Chancellery of the Great Revenue; and it is exchanged with visiting foreigners for various goods and sold for money.84 Potash and resin works; these have been established in the tsar’s wild forests in the Ukraine; likewise [such enterprises] have been leased to boyars and okol’nichie and Duma men and closest men and trading company men [gosti] and trading men in these same forests or in others belonging to the tsar {212v}; and in addition to the [payment for the] lease every tenth barrel of potash and resin is taken for the tsar. And these goods — grain, hemp, potash, resin — are brought to the town of Archangel by the tsar’s post transport, and by hired [transport]. Rhubarb is sent from Siberia, where it is collected from local inhabitants. 2. On the lower Volga there is trade in fish which is caught with weirs, whatever remains after the needs of the palace [are supplied]; likewise they quarry and boil and transport salt up the Volga River to Kazan’ and to Nizhnii [-Novgorod] and to Moscow.85 And whatever fish and salt remains from the tsar’s own use is sold in Moscow and in the provinces to men of various rank. {213} 3. With Persian merchants [there is trade] in raw and processed silk, and in various local goods, in Astrakhan’ and Kazan’ and Moscow. And those Persian goods are evaluated according to the local prices which have been paid for them in Persia; and in Moscow sables and other furs are given from the tsar’s treasury for those goods, and those furs and evaluated at a premium as compared with their distribution [value]. And when those merchants come to Astrakhan’ and Kazan’ and Moscow, they are given the tsar’s bounty of food and drink for the duration of their stay, and vessels in which to go by water, and rowers, without cost. 4. Greek merchants; they come to Moscow each year and bring various goods with them: gold and silver vessels for food and drink with precious stones and diamonds and sapphires and emeralds and rubles, {213v} and gold garments and horses’

84 See Chapter 7, article 10. 85 See Chapter 6, article 3.



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equipment — saddles and bits and bridles and horsecloths with various precious stones, and diadems and bracelets and earrings and rings, likewise with various precious stones, for the tsaritsa and tsarevnas, in large number. And upon arrival they present these goods to the tsar as gifts; and afterwards these goods are evaluated by trading men, foreigners and [native] masters, on the basis of local Turkish prices; and in return they are likewise given sables and [other] furs. And each year a large quantity of such goods is bought, because no one of boyar or any other rank, but only the tsar, is allowed to buy [them], and they come into the tsar’s treasury without cost, as it were. And there are 50 or 100 of these Greek merchants each year, and for selling [their goods] they remain in Moscow for many years’ duration, and are given sufficient quantities of food and drink. {214} For if the goods which they present to the tsar are not suitable for the tsar’s treasury, these goods are returned to them and they are free to sell them to men of every rank.

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{214v} Chapter 13, and in it are 16 articles. About the Lives of Councilor and Familiar Boyars and Other Ranks of People. 1. The boyars and closest men live in their houses, [made] of stone or wood, with few conveniences or comforts; and they live with their wives and children in separate apartments. And a few of the great boyars have their own churches on their premises; while those who do not have churches, boyars of the first and second categories who are allowed to have their own priests in their homes, hold matins and hours and Te Deums and vespers at home, in their own houses, but attend the liturgy in their parish churches, or where they like; for the liturgy is never celebrated in their homes but only in a church. And they, the boyars and closest men, give their priests a yearly salary, {215} as agreed upon; and [in addition] married priests are given a monthly subsistence of food and drink, while widowed priests eat at the table together with their boyars, [sharing] whatever each may have. 2. And on the Lord’s holy days and other major holidays and saint’s days and the days on which someone is born or christened: on such days they often feast with one another. It is customary to prepare food in plain fashion, without condiments, without using berries or sugar or pepper or ginger or other preparations, with little salt and no vinegar. And when the meal is to begin, at that time the food is set on the table one dish at a time; while other dishes are brought from the kitchen and held by the servants; and if any dish needs vinegar {215v} or salt or pepper, these are added to the dishes at the table; and the dishes number 50 or 100. There is the following custom: before the dinner [is served] they order their wives to come out to greet the guests. And when the wife comes out to the guests, she stands in the place of honor, while the guests remain near the door; the wife bows to the guests from the waist and the guests all bow to the ground before the wife; then the master of the house welcomes the guests and likewise bows to the ground, that the guests would be pleased to kiss his wife. And first, at the request of the guests, the master kisses his wife, and then the guests, one by one, bow to the ground before the wife and approach and kiss her, and after kissing her withdraw and likewise bow to the ground, while she who has been kissed bows to the guests from the waist {216}. And then that master’s wife presents each guest with a cup of double- or tripledistilled vodka with herbs; the cup is about one-fourth of a kvartar’ in size or a little larger, and that master then welcomes the guests and likewise bows to the ground, bowing to each one separately, however many there are, that they be pleased to drink the vodka presented by his wife; and on the request of the guests the master orders his wife to drink the vodka first, and then drinks himself, and then presents it to the



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guests; and the guests likewise bow to the ground both before drinking the vodka and after drinking and returning the cup; and if anyone does not drink vodka he is offered a goblet of burgundy or Rhine wine or something else to drink; and after all have drunk that master’s wife bows to the guests and retires to her apartments, likewise to her guests the boyar women, and wives of those guests. And neither the master’s wife nor the guests’ wives ever dine together with the male sex except at weddings {216v}; only if the guests are very closely related to her, and there are no outsiders, do they dine together. In the same manner during dinner the master and guests drink a cup of vodka or burgundy or Rhine wine or sugared or ordinary beer or various kinds of mead with each course. And likewise during dinner when platters of round pies are brought to the table, just ahead of the pies enter the master’s daughters-in-law or his married daughters or his relative’s wives, and those guests arise, get up from the table, go toward the doorway, and bow to those wives; and these wives’ husbands likewise bow and request that the guests kiss their wives and drink the vodka and return to the table, while those wives go back, as before, to where they were. {217} But they do not bring out their unmarried daughters to the guests and do not display them to anyone; and those daughters live in special apartments which are at a distance. And when the dishes have been cleared, following dinner the master and guests likewise make merry and drink each other’s health and then disperse to their homes. In the same manner the boyar wives eat and drink together, according to rank, in their own apartments; and no male is ever present but only married and unmarried women. 3. And if a boyar or closest man decides to marry himself or his son or brother or nephew, or to give his daughter or sister or niece in marriage, after having determined among one another who has a [marriageable] bride, he sends his friends, male or female, to the father or mother or brother {217v} of that bride to say that they have been sent with orders to speak and inquire if he wishes to give his daughter, or someone else, in marriage to that man himself or to another person [in the family], and what dowry that girl would bring in clothing and money and hereditary estates [votchiny] and household servitors. And if he wishes to give his daughter, or someone else, in marriage, he says in answer to those words that he would be glad to give the girl in marriage but must discuss it with his wife and relatives, and after discussing it will give them a reply as soon as possible; but if he does not want to give her in marriage, knowing that [the suitor] is a drunkard or crazy, or knowing that he has some other bad quality, then he will refuse those men, [saying] that he cannot give her in marriage to such a person, or will refuse on some pretext. {218} And if he decides to give her in marriage to him and his wife and relatives give their constant, he prepares an itemized list of the dowry that he will give to the girl — money and silver and other vessels and clothing and hereditary estates [votchiny] and household servitors — and sends it to those people who had come to him from the bridegroom, and those people turn it over to the bridegroom; but the daughter or whoever the girl may be is not told and does not know until she is married. And if that

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bridegroom is satisfied with that bride as far as her dowry is concerned, he sends the same people to the bride’s father and mother to ask that the bride be shown to him; and when those people who have been sent arrive and begin to speak about this, the father or mother of the bride says that they would be glad to show their daughter, only not to the bridegroom himself but to his father or mother or sister or some female relatives whom the bridegroom himself trusts. And the suitor accordingly sends his mother or sister {218v} to look at [the bride] on the appointed day. And the father and mother of the bride prepare for that day and array the bride in good clothes and call relatives to come as guests and seat the bride at the table; and when the observer arrives she is greeted with honor and seated at the table beside the bride; and while sitting at the table during dinner that person who has been sent to look discusses various matters with the bride so as to ascertain her intelligence and her manner of speech, and scrutinizes her face and eyes and features so as to tell the bridegroom upon return what she is like; and after staying for a long or short period she goes back to the bridegroom. And if that observer does not favor the bride, she tells the bridegroom that he should give up the match, for she has found her to be stupid or ugly or weak-eyed or lame {219}, or unable to speak properly; and that bridegroom abandons that bride and gives up any match with her; but if the observer favors the bride and tells the bridegroom that she is good and clever and not deficient in speech or anything else, then that bridegroom sends the original [emissaries] back to the bride’s father and mother [to say] that he has taken a liking to the bride and wishes to conclude an agreement and draw up a contract with them that he will marry her on an appointed day and that they will likewise give her to him in marriage on the same day. And the father and mother of that bride request the bridegroom, through those people whom he has sent, to come to them for the agreement, with a few people whom he trusts in such matters, either before or after dinner on a specified day; and they indicate the day on which he is to come, and prepare for that day. And when that day arrives the bridegroom arrays himself and sets out, with his father {219v} or with relatives or with close friends, to see the bride’s father and mother; and upon their arrival they are met and greeted with due honor by the bride’s father and relatives, and all enter the house and sit down as ceremony requires; and after being seated a while the father or another relative says on behalf of the bridegroom that they have come to do what is good, as requested; and the master of the house answers that he is glad that they have come and wishes to conclude an agreement with them. And both sides begin to discuss the various aspects of the wedding and set a date for the wedding which will allow everyone enough time for the preparations — a week or a month or half a year or a year or more; and they all begin to sign their names and the names of witnesses, and the bride’s name, to the contract, and write down that [the bridegroom] must, according to the agreement, take that bride on the duly {220} appointed day, without alteration, and that [the bride’s father] must give her to him in marriage on the same day, without alteration; and a pledge is inserted in the contract between them: that if [the father] does not give the girl in marriage on that day, the



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offending party must pay 1,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 rubles in money, whatever amount is written into the contract. And having paid the visit and after eating and drinking they return home, and the bride is not shown to him and the bride does not see him, the bridegroom; but her mother or married sister or some married female relatives come out at the time to present the bridegroom with a handkerchief from the bride. 4. And if, following this agreement, the bridegroom learns of the bride (or else an outsider, wishing to take that bride for himself or for his son, purposely {220v} defames her to her suitor) that she is not chaste in her maidenhood or is deaf or dumb or crippled, and learns or is told something bad about her, and that man refuses to take that bride to himself, then the bride’s father or mother petitions the patriarch about this, that he did not take that bride on the due date according to the agreement and the pledge, and does not wish to, and has thus dishonored her. Or else, if the bride’s father and mother, upon learning that the bridegroom is a drunkard or a gambler or disfigured, or upon learning something else that is bad, fail to give her in marriage to him and refuse to do so, then the bridegroom likewise petitions the patriarch about this. And the patriarch orders the matter to be investigated, and on the basis of the investigation and the pledge written into the contract, which is given to the injured bridegroom or bride; and after that he {221} is free to marry as he wishes, and the bride is free to be given in marriage as she wishes. 5. And if both parties carry out their contracts and prepare for the wedding on the appointed day, the bridegroom invites to his wedding relatives and friends from outside the family to be members of the wedding party and seated boyars and boyar women, as written above concerning the tsar’s wedding86; and likewise on the day of the wedding banquets are prepared in the homes of the bridegroom and the bride87, and when word is sent that the time has come for the bridegroom to go to the bride, they set forth as ceremony requires: first the bread-bearer, bearing bread on trays; then — in summer riding on horseback and in winter on sleighs — the priest with a cross, followed by the boyars and chiliarch [tysiatskii] {221v} and the bridegroom. And upon arriving at the bride’s home they enter the house, as ceremony requires, and the father of the bride and the guests greet them with honor, and the wedding ceremony is similar to the description of the tsar’s wedding.88 And when the time comes for them to go to the wedding, the groomsmen [druzhki] ask the bride’s father and mother to bless the bridegroom and bride as they leave for the wedding, and they bless them with words, and on their departure the father and mother bless the bridegroom and bride with icons, and then, taking their daughter by the hand, gave her into the hands

86 See Chapter 1, article 7 and 8. 87 See Chapter 1, article 11. 88 See Chapter 1, article 11.

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of the bridegroom. And then the wedding party and the priest and the bridegroom together with the bride, taking her by the hand, leave the house, and the father and mother and guests accompany them into the courtyard, and the bridegroom, seating the bride in a closed carriage [kolymaga] or covered sleigh [kaptan], seats himself on horseback or in a sleigh {222}, as does the entire wedding party; and they go forth from the courtyard to the church where they are to be wed; and the father of the bride and the guests return to the house and eat and drink until such time as there is word from the bridegroom; and the bride is accompanied by one of her bridesmaids [svakhi] and one from the bridegroom’s side. And following the wedding the entire train accompanies the bridegroom to his home, and sends word to the father of the bridegroom that they have been wed in good health. And when they arrive at the bridegroom’s house, the bridegroom’s father and mother and the guests greet them, and the father and mother — his real parents or sponsors — bless the bridegroom and the bride with icons and present bread and salt, and then [all] seat themselves at the table and begin to eat, according to ceremony; and at that time the bride’s head is unveiled. And following the third course the groomsmen [druzhki] ask the father and mother to give the newlyweds their blessing to retire, and they give them their blessing {222v}; and after dismissing and accompanying them they return and begin eating and drinking as before; and after the bridegroom and bride have come to the apartments where they are to sleep, the groomsmen [druzhki] remove the bridegroom’s clothes and the bridesmaids [svakhi] — the bride’s, and after putting them to bed return to the table. And when an hour by the clock has gone by, the father and mother and chiliarch [tysiatskii] send a groomsman [druzhka] to inquire of the health of the bride and bridegroom; and the bridegroom says that they are in good health89, and then the females, the boyar women, enter the apartments and congratulate them and drink toasts to their health; and at the time the chiliarch [tysiatskii] sends a groomsman [druzhka] to the brides’ father and mother to tell them that the bridegroom and bride are in good health; and upon returning the groomsman [druzhka] says that for bringing the good news they honored and presented the groomsman [druzhka] with a handkerchief, and that their guests were now departing {223}; and after being in the bridegroom’s apartments those women leave, and the bridegroom and bride resume their rest as before; and all the guests depart. 6. And on the following morning the bridegroom and bride go each to a separate bathhouse. And then the bridegroom pays visits with a groomsman [druzhka] to invite guests, both his and the bride’s, to his house for dinner.90 And after coming to the bride’s father and mother, he salutes them for having cared for their daughter while she was growing up and for giving her away in marriage in purity and good health;

89 See Chaper 1, article 13. 90 See Chapter 1, article 15.



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and after inviting the guests he returns home. But if the bride entered into marriage with him not having preserved her virginity, then he reproaches them, the father and mother, in private. And when the guests have all gathered at his house, the newlywedded bride presents gifts to the members of the wedding party. And before dinner he, the bridegroom, goes with the entire train to pay his respects to the tsar. {223v} And when they arrive and enter the tsar’s chambers, they all bow to the ground; and during this time the tsar is seated and inquires about the health of the bridegroom and bride while seated and with covered head; and the bridegroom bows to the ground; and then the tsar congratulates them on entering into a canonical marriage, and blesses the bride and groom with covered icons, and bestows his bounty — to each, 40 sables and a quantity of velvet and satin and gold moiré for garments, and a piece of satin and damask and ordinary taffeta, and a silver vessel weighing one and a half or two funty each; but the bride does not herself appear before the tsar; and the tsar presents the chiliarch [tysiatskii] and the bridegroom and the wedding party with a goblet of burgandy for each to drink, and then a cup of cherry mead; and when they have drunk the tsar dismisses them to their homes. And when the bridegroom returns home {224}, he begins to eat and drink with all the guests, and after eating the father and mother and guests bless the bride and bridegroom with icons and present whatever gifts they have; and after eating and drinking they disperse to their homes. And on the third day the bridegroom and bride and guests come to the house of the bride’s mother and father, with all their guests, for dinner; and after dinner the bride’s father and mother and guests likewise present gifts to the bridegroom and bride, and after eating and drinking they depart for their homes; and no further festivities take place. And if the bride comes to that man not having preserved her virginity, that bridegroom, upon knowing his wife, does not go to the tsar to pay his respects, because the tsar will be informed prior to his visit and will not allow him to be admitted before his eyes. And at the same time that the bridegroom goes to the tsar, {224v} the bride sends a boyar woman with gifts from herself to the tsaritsa and the tsarevnas — kerchiefs or taffeta sewn with gold and silver with pearls; and the tsaritsa and tsarevnas accept these gifts from them and themselves send [messengers] to inquire of that bride’s health. And while the festivities are being held, no [dancing] girls or music is allowed, except for blowing horns and beating drums. In the same manner whosoever gives his widowed or maiden daughter or sister or niece in marriage, the wedding ceremonies and festivities are similar to this in every way. 7. And at the time that the festivities are being held, the priest who is to marry the bridegroom and bride is given a sealed writ from the patriarch and the hierarchs that he is to marry the bridegroom and the bride [only] upon dully determining that the bridegroom and bride are not related either through christening {225} or by marriage

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or a joint godparents or by consanguinity to the sixth or seventh degree, and that it is not the husband’s fourth wife or the wife’s fourth husband; and if he discovers that [they are] related as godparents or in baptismal brotherhood or in the other abovementioned forms, he is forbidden to marry such people. And if the priest is cognizant of this and marries them, or even if he is ignorant, that priest will be suspended from his priestly functions, and if he was cognizant, a large fine shall likewise be imposed on him and he shall be placed in confinement by the hierarchs for a year, as penance. And the bridegroom shall be divorced from his bride, and their marriage shall count for naught except as their sin, and when they have been separated, if the husband or the wife has not been married thrice, he or she shall be free to marry someone else. 8. And if any widower wishes to take a maiden for his second wife, {225v} their marriage ceremonies are held in the same manner, except that during the wedding of a widower who is taking a maiden for a second wife, the church crown is placed on the right shoulder of the bridegroom, while the church crown of the maiden bride is placed on her head; and if a widower is taking a maiden for his third wife, his marriage ceremonies are held in the same manner except that during the wedding the church crown is placed on the left shoulder of the bridegroom, while still being placed on the head of the bride. Likewise if a widow should take a second or third husband, the marriage ceremonies are held in the same way as in the case of a widower bridegroom. And if a widower bridegroom takes a widow for his second or third wife, no wedding is held for them; in place of a wedding a prayer is said; {226} and the marriage ceremonies do not resemble those held for unmarried persons. 9. In the same manner marriage agreements and weddings and ceremonies among lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] and adjutants [striapchie] and noblemen [dvoriane] and men of other ranks are similar to what has been described above; and everyone tries to arrange the marriage in the most splendid and worthy fashion, as his means permit, except for going to the tsar to pay his respects on the day after the wedding: for only Duma men and chamberlains [spal’niki] and their children, from the most important families, go to the tsar to pay their respects. Likewise among trading men and peasants the marriage agreements and ceremonies are arranged in the same manner in every respect; except that there is a difference in arrangements and garments as compared with the ceremonies among the nobility, depending upon what each can provide. {226v} And they live in such houses as befit each man’s dignity and rank, but which are poorly ordered. And the very lowest ranks [of men] cannot build substantial houses for themselves, lest it be supposed that they have considerable wealth; and if some chancellery official should build such a house, he will be slandered before the tsar and much falsehood will be spread alleging that he took bribes and acquired possessions by evil means and failed to care for the tsar’s treasury or stole from the treasury in criminal fashion; and as a result of such evil words that man will



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experience undeserved pain and grief; or else out of hatred he will be sent on some other assignment in the tsar’s service which he will be unable to carry out properly, and he will be given instructions which he will be unable to understand, and he will be at fault in carrying out that assignment and will be punished, with his house and possessions and hereditary estates [votchiny] taken for the tsar and sold to anyone who will buy them. And if a trading man or peasant builds himself [a house] of the very best kind, his annual taxes will be increased. And as a result men of the Muscovite state live in poorly ordered houses and their towns and districts [slobody] are likewise poorly ordered. {227} 10. And if a father or mother has two or three unmarried daughters, and the eldest daughter has something wrong with her eyes or arm or leg, or is deaf and dumb, and the other sisters are not wanting in stature and beauty and speech and are healthy in every way, and if someone wishes to make a match with that person’s daughter and sends his mother or sister or someone whom he trusts to look at her, then those people display the next oldest or youngest daughter in place of that crippled daughter, calling her by the name of that daughter with whom, {227v} unwittingly, the match is being made, and the person who has been sent examines the girl, favors her, and tells the bridegroom that she is suitable and that he can marry her. Then, on the basis of these words, the bridegroom favors her and an agreement is concluded between him and her father and mother that he shall marry the girl who is named [in the contract] on a designated day, and that [the father] shall give that daughter of his to him in marriage on the same designated day, and a substantial pledge is written into the agreement, too large for an offending party to pay. And when the marriage ceremonies are held, on the basis of the agreement, at that time they give to the bridegroom in marriage their crippled and ugly daughter whose name has been written into the contract, and not the one who had originally been shown to the observer; and on the day of the wedding the bridegroom does not see by her face that she is blind or deformed or that something else is wrong {228}, or that she is hard of hearing or is deaf and dumb, because during the marriage ceremonies she is veiled and does not speak; likewise if she is lame or her arms are crippled he does not learn this either, because during this time the bridesmaids [svakhi] lead her by supporting her arms; but when the wedding is over and he leaves the table to go to sleep with her, and then by candlelight sees what sort of a beauty she is, to live with for a lifetime in constant mourning and torment: then he decides to arrange for her to take monastic vows, and if she will not do so of her own free will and does not take vows, then he beats and torments her in various ways, and does not sleep with her, until she finally agrees herself to take vows. And if a wife should resist and refuse to endure his beatings and tortures and complain to her relatives that he does not live with her in harmony and beats and torments her, {228v} then those relatives make petition to the patriarch or great hierarchs against that person, and on the basis of that petition the hierarchs order that truthful evidence be taken from the household servitors and neighbors; and if it

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is true, then that man is sent to do penance in a monastery for half a year or a year, and his wife remains at home; and when he has spent the designated period in the monastery, or if before the due date his wife petitions that he be freed, then he will be released and ordered to live with her as the canons prescribe; and if he does not heed this they shall be divorced, and their possessions shall be equally divided between them, and for seven years neither party is allowed to marry another. And some men, seeing that their wives are crippled or feeble-minded, leave them and become monks themselves; while other husbands or wives go further still and order [the spouse] to be poisoned. {229} 11. And if a man is deceived and given a girl in marriage other than the one shown to the observer, he makes petition regarding this to the patriarch and hierarchs; and on the basis of his petition the pledge contracts are collected from them and the neighbors and household servitors are interrogated to say truly: was the girl who was given in marriage really the same one whose name is in the agreement? And if it was, then it shall stand as indicated in the agreement and in these people’s testimony; the observer’s word shall not be accepted, or these ground: that one should not marry without ascertaining the truth. But if the neighbors and outsiders and household servitors testify that the daughter given in marriage was not the one named in the agreement, then the husband and wife shall be divorced, and in addition a large fine and the bridegroom’s losses shall be collected from the one who gave his daughter falsely in marriage; {229v} and for his crime he shall likewise be beaten with the knout, or sometimes punished still more severely, as the tsar chooses. 12. Likewise if a father has a single unmarried daughter, and she has something wrong with her, an unmarried or widowed servant is purposely and deceitfully displayed in her place under different name and wearing different clothing [than her own]. And if a girl is short of stature, a stool is placed under her so that she might appear statuesque, the stand being concealed from view. 13. And as for maidens who are crippled and old, and whom no one wants to take in marriage: such maidens are sent to monasteries by their mothers and fathers to take vows, and never marry. {230} 14. And if a bridegroom wishes to observe the bride himself, on his request the father or mother, in the knowledge that there is no reason to be ashamed of displaying his daughter in front of people, gives his assent to that bridegroom; and if that bridegroom, after seeing that bride, does not favor her and begins to cast scorn on that bride and to abuse her with evil and shameful words, and drives other bridegrooms from her; then upon learning of this the father or mother of that bride, or some other person, makes petition concerning the matter to the patriarch or hierarchs, that this person observed the bride himself and has subsequently been abusing and dishonoring her



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and is driving other persons away, so that they might issue orders concerning the matter. And upon investigation the patriarch and hierarchs order that person, who after observing the bride was abusing and dishonoring her, to be forced to marry her; and if he had already married another prior to that petition {230v}, then a payment for dishonor shall be taken from him for that bride. 15. And if a man gives his daughter or sister in marriage and gives her many possessions and hereditary estates [votchiny] as a dowry, and if in a short time the daughter or sister who has been married should die childless or if her children have not survived, then all those possessions [given] as a dowry shall be taken from her husband and returned to those who gave them. But if upon her death she leaves a daughter or son, those possessions shall not be taken from the husband, because of the children. Judicious reader! Do not wonder at this: it is the honest truth that nowhere in the world is there such deception regarding unmarried girls {231} as in the Muscovite state. And in contrast to other states, they do not have the custom of sometimes observing and coming to an agreement with the bride herself. 16. And the boyars and Duma men and closest men keep slaves in their home, men and women, 100 and 200 and 300 and 500 and 1,000 people, as many as each can, depending on his dignity and possessions; and they give these men yearly wages, the married ones [receiving] two and three and five and 10 rubles a year, depending on the man and his service, and likewise whatever clothing is available, and bread and various provisions on a monthly basis; and they live in their separate apartments in the same courtyard as the boyar or elsewhere. And they, the boyars, {213v} also send their trustworthy married slaves to the chancelleries in their hereditary estates [votchiny], to their villages and hamlets, for a year at a time in turn, and order them to collect their wages and various requisitions from the peasants, in sufficient amount to live on. And bachelors of the upper category are given a small amount of monetary wage, but the lower category receives no wages; and likewise the bachelors are given all their clothing and headwear and shirts and boots; and the bachelors of the upper category live in the farther apartments on the first floor, and the lower category live in apartments on the second floor, and they eat and drink out of the boyars’ kitchen; and likewise on holidays they are all given two cups of vodka each. And as for the female sex, widows live in their husbands’ quarters and are given yearly wages and monthly subsistence; while other widows and unmarried women live in the apartments of the boyar’s wife and daughters, {232} and are given clothing, and likewise eat and drink out of the boyar’s kitchen. And when those unmarried girls have come of age, the boyars give those unmarried girls and widows in marriage, with a portion, to their household servitors, whomever they choose, though it sometimes happens that they are given away against their will; and the weddings are celebrated in the boyar’s house, with the same wedding ceremonies as are found among men of various ranks; and the food and drink and festive clothing all come from the boyar; and unmarried

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girls and widows are not given in marriage to outsiders from other households, because those people, male and female, are permanent and contractual slaves. And chancelleries are established in the boyars’ household for various household matters and receipts and expenditures, and for carrying out investigations and dispensing justice among the household servitors and peasants. {232v} In the same manner other ranks of men likewise keep permanent and contractual slaves in their households, as many as each is able to feed; but no one is allowed to keep non-contractual slaves in his household.

Appendix 1. Weights, Measures, and Currency in Kotoshikhin Marshall Poe

Weight Funt Pud Chet’ Chetvert’ Berkovets

= 1 lb. = 36 lbs. = 216 lbs. = 216 lbs. = 360 lbs.

Length Arshin Versta

= 28 inches = 3,500 feet

Area Chet’ Chetvert’

= 1.35 acres = 1.35 acres

Liquid Kvartar’ Kanna Vedro

= 1 pint = .667 gallon = 5 gallons

Currency Polushka Den’ga Grosh Altyn Grivna

= ¼ kopek = ½ kopek = 2 kopeks = 3 kopeks = 10 kopeks

= .0025 ruble = .005 ruble = .02 ruble = .03 ruble = .10 ruble

Appendix 2. Glossary of Russian Terms Marshall Poe Uroff left a number of Russian terms untranslated because he believed their meaning was controversial or because he could find no good equivlent in English. In an effort to make the text more readable, I have provided translations as per the table below. In each instance, I have given the the original Russian term in square brackets.

Russian Term Translation Bobyl’ Landless peasant Chetvert’ Tax Collection District91 Deti boiarskie Petty nobility Druzhka Groomsman Dvorianin Nobleman Gorod Walled district Gost’ Trading company man Gostinaia sotnia Trading guild Guba Police district Iasak Tribute Kalach Ceremonial loaf Kaptan Covered sleigh Kolymaga Closed carriage Kostel Catholic church Kravchii Butler Kutiia Memorial dish Mestnichestvo Precedence system Mostovshchina Highway tax Myto Customs tax Nedorosel’ Minor Obrok Tax Odnoriadka Cape Perevoz Ferry tax Podruzh’e Groomsman’s assistant Pomest’e Service estate Posad Settlement

91 Versus chetvert’ = 1.35 acres.



Appendix 2 

 173

Prikaz Command92 Pristav Escort93 Razriad Military Service Chancellery Referendarius Polish councilor Reitar Cavalryman Rynda Bodyguard Sloboda District Soldat European-trained soldier Sorochiny Forty Days Sotnia Guild Spal’nik Chamberlain94 Stol’nik Lord-in-Waiting Striapchii Adjutant Sukonnaia sotnia Cloth workers’ guild Syn boiarskii Petty nobleman Taisha Kalmyk chief Tiaglo Household tax Tseloval’nik Sworn official Tysiatskii Chiliarch Ulozhenie Law Code of 1649 Vodka s makhom Fortified vodka Voevoda Commandant Volost’ County Votchina Hereditary estate Vyt’ Tax district Zhilets Page

92 Versus prikaz = chancellery. 93 Versus pristav = bailiff. 94 Oddly, Uroff did not venture a translation of spal’nik but translated the closely related term postelnichii as “chamberlain”. Spal’nik clearly should be rendered in English by the cognate “chamberlain”. I have translated postelnichii throughout the text as “lord chamberlain” in light of the fact that it was more prestigious than though similar to spal’nik.

Index A abbots 31, 39, 40, 45, 93 abusive words 67, 132 Accounting Chancellery 25, 132 address (forms of) 60-61 adjutants [striapchie] 19, 32, 35, 40, 42, 48, 50-51, 55-56, 59, 65, 68-69, 76, 81, 92, 94-96, 98, 101, 105, 113-114, 120, 123, 129, 144-145, 150, 157, 166 affairs of the state 33, 136, 139 Aleksei Mikhailovich, Tsar 8, 11, 13-14, 17-18, 31, 140 alms 18, 40, 42, 44, 46-47, 93, 105-106, 138 alter cloths 93 altyny 96, 104, 115, 116, 147 Ambassadorial Chancellery 11, 24, 43, 48-49, 66, 74, 77, 84, 86, 88, 90, 104, 129, 137 ambassadors 20-23, 33, 36, 50, 53, 62, 64-65, 69, 70-79, 81-90, 94-95, 99, 101, 103-104, 107, 110, 122, 141-142 ambassador’s associates 50 ammunition 150 animals 79, 97, 102, 109, 111, 156 annealers 115 Annunciation Day 99 apartments 19, 32, 37-38, 41, 43-44, 53, 57, 68, 79, 93, 160-161, 164, 169 apiaries 106, 109, 112 Apothecaries Chancellery 125 Apothecary 24, 133 Apothecary Chancellery 24 appanages 29, 44 apples 95-96 apprentice cooks 97 apprentices 126 appropriated towns 107 Archangel 27, 46-47, 78-79, 92, 98, 107, 115, 122, 124, 158 Archangel Mikhail 46 archbishops 31, 39, 42, 45, 93, 126, 135, 137, 144-145, 155-157 archimandrites 31, 39, 45, 93 archpriests 33-38, 90-91 arctic fox 80 armament chamber 125 Armory 24, 125, 133 arms 12, 52, 67, 120, 131, 135, 167

army 14, 21, 29, 55, 80, 114, 142 arrows 148 arson 130, 137, 155 Artillery Chancellery 24, 122 artillerymen 122 artisans 92, 95-96, 106, 108, 123, 149 Ascension Monastery 47 assistant heads 108 assistant stewards 96, 98 associates 21, 50, 55, 64-66, 69, 87, 100, 114, 123, 139-142, 153-154 Astrakhan’ 25, 29, 44, 93, 98, 105, 107, 109, 110, 120, 131, 139, 147, 149, 157-158 atamans 128, 148, 151 audiences 22-23, 71, 73, 82-83, 85-90 autocrat (title) 25, 31, 140-142 axes 17, 83, 108, 131, 150 B bachelors 28, 169 bailiffs 25, 130, 134, 137-138, 173 bakers 99, 120, 150 banners 82, 144, 148 banquets 18, 21-22, 28, 33-34, 39-40, 42, 44-46, 50, 56, 68-69, 72, 81, 83-88, 95-96, 99, 110, 163 baptism 51, 105, 109, 148 Barckhusen, Olaf 13-14 barrels 98, 120, 125 Barsukov, A. 10 Bashkirs 109 bastards 113 bathhouses 18, 28, 101, 164 baths 38, 41-42 bazaars 122 beams 131 beards 49 bears 102 beating 68, 69, 115, 135, 156, 165 beatings 39, 46, 83, 120, 131, 135 beaver habitations 106, 112 bed attendants 57 bedchambers 53, 55, 93 beer 42, 70, 95-96, 154, 161 beggars 46, 117, 155 beheading 131-132 bells 36, 45

Index  Belorussians 141 beluga 98 berries 39, 45, 96, 160 birds 78, 79, 103 birth 19, 28, 41, 43, 48, 95, 97 birthdays 42, 44, 92 bishops 31, 39, 42-45, 93, 135, 137, 144-145, 155-156 black fox 78-79 black magic 131 blacksmiths 101, 106 blankets 101 blasphemy 131 blessings 18, 34-37, 39-40, 42, 163-165 blindness 76, 167 bodies 14, 17, 30, 45-46 bodyguards [ryndy] 83, 88-89 bolts 125 bondage contracts 129 bondsmen 53, 129 Bondsmen Chancellery 129 books 8-11, 13-14, 32, 69, 95-97, 102, 104, 106, 111-112, 129-131, 134 boots 49, 80, 83, 89, 93, 169 borders 11-12, 14, 22-23, 70, 80-81, 86-89, 94, 115, 124, 146, 150 Boriatinskii family 48 bowing 160, 161 bows 50, 53, 58, 72, 111, 148, 160-161, 165 Boyar Council [boiarskaia duma] 14 boyars 14, 16, 19-23, 26-35, 38-39, 41-59, 64-69, 75-77, 81, 83, 84-88, 90, 92, 94-97, 99-101, 103, 105, 108, 113-114, 117-118, 124, 127, 129, 133, 136, 139, 140-142, 144-147, 149-151, 154-155, 157-158, 160, 163, 169 boyar wives 20, 34, 94, 161 boyar women 20, 33-35, 39, 56- 59, 161, 163 bracelets 159 bran 104 branding 120 bread 23, 32, 34-35, 40, 98-99, 122, 138, 145, 169 bread-bearers 33-35, 163 Bread Court 23, 98 bream 98 breast plates 50 Breitovo district [sloboda] 123 brewers 95, 150 brewing 95, 153-154 bribes 117-118, 133-134, 166

 175

brick-makers 106 brick yards 127 bridegrooms 28, 33, 35, 161-168 brides 18, 28, 33-36, 161-166, 168-169 bridesmaids [svakhi] 33, 34, 36-38, 164, 167 bridges 106 bridles 159 brigandage 102, 128, 130, 137, 148, 155 Brigandage Chancellery 130, 156 brigands 27, 137, 139, 156 brothels 154 brothers 61, 65, 112, 147 buckets 108 buckwheat 97 Buinosov family 48 burgomasters 20, 60 burgundy (wine) 90, 95, 161 burial 19, 30, 34, 44-47, 56, 106, 132 burning (punishment) 30, 61, 93, 120, 131, 132 business 54, 56, 70-71, 73, 76-79, 86, 93, 104, 115, 128, 140, 149 butchers 120, 150 butler [kravchii] 16, 50 butter 97, 98 buttons 119 Buturlin family 48 C cabbage 99 caftans 89 candlebearers 33, 36 candlelight 167 candles 46, 75, 95 cannoneers 137, 143 cannons 76, 122, 143, 150 capital punishment 11, 54, 55, 77, 120, 131-132, 135, 139, 148 captains 146 carbines 125, 145 carpenters 106, 143 carpets 35 carriage-makers 101 carriages 43, 54, 57-58, 79, 82, 100-102, 164, 172 caskets 45 casks 95 cathedrals 31, 34, 40, 75, 93, 95, 100 cattle 156 cavalry 51, 146, 148

176 

 Index

cavalrymen [reitary] 26, 51, 120, 123, 124, 144-148 150, 151 Cavalry [Reitary] Chancellery 24, 123 caviar 98 celebrations 42 cellars 42, 94, 95, 98, 117, 122 censers 93 ceremonial loaves [kalachi] 56, 59 ceremonies 18, 23, 28, 31-39, 47, 70, 73, 75, 78, 88, 94, 162-167, 169 chamberlains [spal’niki] 19, 49, 50, 55, 57, 81, 94, 97, 166 chambers 32, 38, 41, 45, 55, 58, 81, 84, 118 chancelleries 16, 23-26, 41, 46, 48, 50, 53, 55- 66, 68-69, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100-118, 122-143, 149, 154, 166, 169, 173 Chancelleries of Judicial Affairs 24 Chancellery for Criminal Affairs 25 Chancellery for Little Russia 24, 127 Chancellery for Privy Affairs 103 Chancellery for Seals 106, 129 Chancellery of Gold and Silver 24, 125 Chancellery of Kazan’ Palace 109 Chancellery of Privy Affairs 24 Chancellery of the Galich Tax District [chetvert’] 24 Chancellery of the Great Palace 24, 95, 98, 100, 106, 109, 133 Chancellery of the Great Revenue 24, 109, 158 Chancellery of the Great Treasury 24, 114, 122, 125 Chancellery of the Kazan’ Palace 24 Chancellery of the Kostroma Tax District [chetvert’] 24, 124 Chancellery of the New Tax District [chetvert’] 24, 125 Chancellery of the Novgorod Tax District [chetvert’] 24, 124 Chancellery of the Tsaritsa’s Wardrobe Chamber 24 Chancellery of the Tsar’s Wardrobe Chamber 24 Chancellery of the Ustiug Tax District [chetvert’] 24, 124 Chancellery Seals 25 chanting 45 charters 53, 62, 105-106, 128, 155 cheese 36, 97, 98 Cheremis 109, 139, 147, 151 Cherkasskii family 48, 121 Cherkasskii, Prince Ia. K. 12

Cherkasy 122 Chernigov 127 cherries 96 children 19, 22, 26, 28, 41, 43-44, 49-52, 56, 59, 65, 74, 77-78, 80, 92, 94, 97, 108, 112-113, 120, 129, 132, 135-136, 137, 143, 146-147, 151, 160, 166, 169 children of boyars 51 chiliarch [tysiatskii] 33, 36, 38-39, 163, 165 choirists 93 choirs 45 christening 42, 43, 56, 165 Christianity 20, 23, 29, 31, 51-53, 63, 65, 73, 90, 91 church 19, 32, 34, 36, 40-43, 45-47, 50, 52-53, 83, 90, 93, 99, 112, 118, 125, 128, 131, 160, 164, 166, 172 churches 28, 30, 36, 39, 40, 42, 45, 47, 75, 93, 95, 100-101, 106-107, 113, 128, 132-133, 160 Church of the Archangel Mikhail 47 Chuvash 111, 139 Circassia 63 citadels 26, 143 cleaning 58 clergy 31, 43, 75 clerks 11-12, 16, 45, 93, 100 closed carriages [kolymagi] 43, 58, 100-102 closest boyars 49, 55 closest men 32-33, 41-48, 50, 52-53, 55-59, 68, 77, 80, 85, 87, 94, 96-97, 99, 105, 112-114, 118, 124, 129, 142, 144, 155-158, 160-161, 169 cloth 27, 32, 34, 40, 43, 77, 80, 85, 93, 108, 109, 114, 121, 128, 153, 154 cloth capes [odnoriadki] 80 clothing 21, 23, 33, 35, 38-39, 45-47, 52, 57, 70, 81, 83, 87-90, 93-94, 103, 108-110, 117, 119, 121, 123, 145, 151, 158, 161, 165-166, 168-169 cloth workers 153 coaches 44, 57 coal 125 coats 52, 80, 92, 101, 111, 119, 128 coats of arms 52 coiners 115, 132 coins 24, 107, 115-117, 149 colonels 32, 35, 44, 48, 50, 55-56, 108, 128, 146 commandants [voevody] 21-22, 25-26, 41-42, 44, 50-51, 59, 69-70, 75-77, 81, 103, 108-109, 111, 117, 133, 139-144, 150, 154, 156

Index  commanders 35, 48, 50-51, 55, 65, 88, 120, 124, 128, 150-151 command [prikaz] 76, 107-108 commemoration 45, 112-113, 132 commerce 27, 149 common people 14, 29, 31, 54 concubines 113 confiscation 121 confiscation (of property) 33, 75, 96 congresses 20-21, 53, 64-65, 69-70, 73-76, 101, 103, 141 conscription 26 construction 26, 131, 143 contracts 25, 96, 129, 133, 136, 140, 163, 168 contractual slaves 170 cooks 99 coopers 95 copper 24, 90, 94, 96, 108, 115-117, 122, 132 copper coins 24, 116, 121 coronations 31-32, 35 Cossacks 26, 68, 77, 93, 95, 105, 110, 114, 122, 127-128, 141, 143-144, 148, 150-151 cotton 92, 93 council nobleman [dumnyi dvorianin] 12, 14, 16 councilors 20, 48, 60, 71-72 council ranks 16 council secretary [dumnyi d’iak] 14, 16 counsel (advice) 26, 32, 141, 144 counterfeiters 117-118 counterfeiting 115-117, 121, 132 counties [volosti] 25, 105- 107, 125-126, 137-138, 147, 149, 155-157 count (title) 52, 60, 166 couriers 20- 23, 64-65, 70-71, 73, 77, 81, 88-90, 95, 104, 122, 126 Courland 63 court fees 98, 106, 129, 134 Court Registers [boiarskie knigi] 16 courts 89, 92, 100, 106, 137, 154, 156 courtyards 39, 42-43, 53-54, 58, 67-68, 75, 138, 164, 169 cows 98, 154 craftsmen 125, 127 cranes 103 credit 17, 111 creditors 129, 135 crime 55, 115, 118, 130, 135, 148, 168 Crimea 20-23, 52, 61-62, 65, 72, 80, 89-91, 94, 105, 107, 110, 147

 177

criminals 19, 25, 27, 31, 40, 46, 119, 130, 137, 139, 156 cripples 28, 163, 167-168 crosses 33-37, 41, 54, 73-75, 91, 110, 130, 163 crowns 12, 31, 35, 37, 39, 45, 50, 53, 83, 86, 88, 90, 94, 96, 98-101, 105-107, 125, 137, 155, 157, 166 cup-bearers 94 cups 38-39, 169 currants 96 currency 10, 171 cursing 67, 69 cursus honorum 16 customs houses 124, 126, 133, 138, 142, 153 D dairy farms 98 damask 32, 39, 57, 77, 80, 83, 85, 89, 92-93, 121, 128, 144, 154, 165 damask caftans 80, 89 dancing 39 Danilovich Miloslavskii, Il’ia 117 daughters 27-28, 30-32, 35-36, 41, 52, 56-59, 112-113, 118, 122, 133, 136, 142, 145, 151, 156-157, 161-165, 167-169 deacons 40, 42, 44-45, 90, 93, 95- 96, 100 deafness 163, 167 death 7, 17, 27, 29, 30-31, 33, 46, 51, 54, 58, 68-69, 78-79, 80, 100, 112-114, 117-118, 132, 135, 137-139, 145, 151, 156, 169 debt 12, 129, 134-136, 138 decrees 25, 105, 116, 136, 149, 150, 155 deeds of servitude 129 deer 102 defendants 25, 27, 134-138, 140, 154 deformity 167 De la Gardie, Jacob 13 De la Gardie, Magnus Gabriel 12 deliberation 49-50, 141 den’ga 115 Denmark 20-23, 60-61, 64-65, 79, 89 denunciation 12, 97, 118, 130 departure 22, 70, 75, 80, 87-88, 163 dependent towns 109, 110, 139 devils 29, 32, 76, 117 diadems 159 diamonds 158 dignity 20, 22, 40, 43, 48, 52, 54, 58, 61-62, 64, 66, 80, 94, 98, 100, 103, 106, 114, 123, 132, 136, 166, 169

178 

 Index

diminutives (of names) 142 dinner 28, 38, 39, 53, 94, 96-97, 160, 162, 164 diplomatic custom 71, 73 dishonor 25, 28, 66-69, 71, 89, 97, 103, 105, 132, 136, 163, 168, 169 dishwashers 97 dismissal 22-23, 26, 86-90, 104, 110, 128 disobedience 21, 33, 67, 69, 83 disputes 21, 34, 66, 69, 71-72, 82-84, 90, 112 distilling 95, 125, 160 districts [slobody] 106, 123, 128, 130, 138, 143, 153, 157-58, 167 Divine Scripture 133 divorce 166, 168 Dmitrii, Tsarevich 18, 29-31, 100 documents 17, 49, 53, 61, 66, 73, 90, 104-106, 118, 128-129, 137, 140-142 Dolgorukii, Prince Iurii A. 12 Dolgorukov family 48 Don river 26, 93- 95, 122, 148-149 doves 115 dowries 28, 59, 113, 161-162, 169 dragons 62, 130 dragoons 26, 147-148, 150-151 dressmakers 57, 93 drink 22-23, 34, 36, 38-40, 42-44, 50, 52, 70, 72, 81-84, 86-90, 94-96, 99, 103-104, 108, 128, 151, 158-161, 163-165, 169 drummers 107, 144 drums 39, 148, 165 drunkenness 135, 161, 163, 165 dry-nurses 43 ducks 103 Duma men 21-22, 31, 33, 43-45, 47-58, 65-70, 76-77, 86-88, 92, 96-97, 103, 105-106, 112-114, 118, 129, 136, 139-142, 145, 155-158, 166, 169 Duma noblemen [dumnye dvoriane] 19, 48-49, 55, 64, 92, 100 Duma secretaries [dumnye d’iaki] 48 dumbness 163, 167 duties (tax) 48, 50, 56, 103-104, 112, 115, 122-123, 128, 142, 154 E eagles 62, 130 earrings 159 ears 115, 131, 135 earthworks 143 Easter 49

Ebers, Adolf 12 ecclesiastics 105, 122, 126 education 19 eggs 97 elders 40, 46 election, of tsars 18, 32, 100 electors 20-22, 60-61, 65, 72, 79, 89 Elizarov, Prokofii K. 12 elks 102 embankments 143 embassy 21-22, 53, 65, 68, 70-74, 76, 78-79, 81-87, 89, 90, 95, 114, 141 embroidered capes [odnoriadki] 89 emeralds 158 England 7-10, 17, 20, 22-23, 60-61, 64, 78, 89, 90, 173 engravers 115 enterprises 14, 20, 26-27, 106, 116, 124-125, 141, 153, 155, 158 envoys 20-23, 64-65, 70-71, 73-74, 77, 80-81, 87-89, 95, 99, 104, 122, 128 equerries 33-34, 36, 38, 100, 157 ermine furs 78-79 escorts [pristavy] 22, 50, 67, 82, 84-86, 88-89 Europe 98 European-trained soldiers [soldaty] 26, 51, 53, 93, 119, 124, 143-144, 146-148, 150-151 evil acts 131 evildoers 130, 139, 156 examination (medical) 28, 68 excommunication 99 executioners 130-131 exile 55, 68, 77, 110, 113, 115, 118, 131 expenditures 23-25, 64, 104, 115, 125, 132, 170 eyes 135 F face-to-face confrontation 131 falconers 93, 101, 103, 114 falcons 78-79, 103 False Dmitrii 18 false tsars 31 families 7, 14, 16, 19, 21, 31, 33, 40, 44, 48, 52-53, 55, 64-66, 68, 69, 77-78, 81-86, 88, 108, 112-113, 120, 137, 161, 163, 166 farmed-out customs houses 109 farmed-out fisheries 106 farmed-out taxes 124, 142 farmyards 148 fasting 37, 41, 99

Index  fathers 12, 16, 28-29, 31, 33-40, 43, 51, 59, 63, 65, 66, 79, 83, 90, 114, 117-119, 121, 132, 136-137, 141-142, 147, 151, 161-165, 167-168 feast days 42, 49 Fedor Ivanovich, Tsar 29 feeble-mindedness 168 fees 129, 134 feet 60, 91, 118, 131, 171 Feodor Ivanovich, Tsar 18 ferry tax [perevoz] 122 festivities 18, 32, 40, 56, 165 fifers 107 fiftymen 108 Filaret, Patriarch 31 fines 68, 102, 111, 128, 136, 140 fingers 118, 132 fire 30, 61, 76, 104, 108, 131, 133 firearms 26, 82, 125, 143, 145, 147, 150 firehooks 108 firepumps 108 firewood 81, 122 fish 27, 70, 96, 98-99, 109, 122, 158 fisheries 98, 106, 109, 112, 114 fishermen 98, 106 Fisher, Ralph T. Jr. 7 fodder 23, 81, 101, 122, 128 food 18, 22-23, 32, 34-35, 38-39, 40, 42-44, 46, 50, 52, 57, 59, 69, 70, 72, 81, 83, 84, 86-90, 96-97, 99, 104, 108, 116, 127-128, 151, 158-161, 163-165, 169 footstools 101 fords 106 foreign ambassadors 21, 71, 73-75, 82 foreigners 26, 54, 55, 70-71, 104, 115, 120, 122-123, 148, 151, 158-159 Foreigners Chancellery 24, 123 foreign liquors 95 foreign traders 20 foreign tradesmen 104 forests 99, 102, 112, 114, 158 forgiveness 17, 77 fornication 135, 156 fortresses 105 foxes 80, 102, 109-110 fox fur 89 France 20, 37, 61 French wine 95 free lord (title) 52 free men 108, 115, 124, 145-146 frontiers 91, 109, 143, 146-148

 179

furnishing 23, 52 furriers 92, 101 furs 76, 78-79, 87, 89, 109, 110-111, 158-159 fuses 147 G Galich 24, 124, 127 Galich Tax District [chetvert’] 124 gallows 131 gamblers 163 game (food) 97, 102-103 gamekeepers 103 games 39 gatekeepers 143 gates 58, 108, 111, 118, 143 geese 103 Georgia 52, 63 Germans 13, 43, 104 gifts 18, 22, 28, 32, 34, 36-37, 39, 40, 42, 46, 67, 71, 73, 76-80, 82- 84, 86-88, 92, 103-104, 111, 128, 133, 136, 159-160, 165 ginger 160 glory 29, 32 goblets 38-39, 90 godfathers 42 godmothers 42 godparents 166 Godunov, Boris 18, 29, 30, 100 gold 20, 32, 34-35, 39, 57, 60-62, 75-76, 80, 83-84, 87, 89, 92-93, 116, 125, 132, 144, 158, 165 goldsmiths 24 Golytsyn family 48 Gospels 91, 133, 149 governesses 43 grain 23, 26-27, 70, 79, 96, 98, 100, 106-108, 122, 126, 149, 150, 154-156, 158 Grain Chancellery 24, 126 granaries 96, 100 Granary Court 23, 96, 99-101, 104, 126 grandchildren 52, 108, 112, 146 grandfathers 31, 66 grand princes 52 great-grandchildren 52 great-grandfathers 66 great-great-grandfathers 66 Great Russia 140, 141 Greece 28, 30, 93, 95-96, 105, 111, 122, 158, 159 Greeks 43, 104 greetings 22-23, 62, 71, 75, 82, 85-86, 162

180 

 Index

grenade-makers 103 grenade works 103 grivny 104, 107, 115-116 grooms 28, 81-82, 84, 88, 93, 100-101, 103, 114, 165 groomsmen [druzhki] 18, 33-35, 163-164 grosh 116 grouts 97, 150 guarantors 96, 134 guards 23, 54, 76, 89, 95, 97-98, 105, 107-108, 110-111, 119, 127, 130, 143, 148 guests 28, 34, 160, 162-164 guilds 27, 32, 40, 114, 153-154 gunners 143 gunpowder 123, 145, 147 gyrfalcons 78, 79, 103 H hair 34, 36 halberds 147-148 Halperin, Charles 10 Hamburg 20, 60, 115, 122 hamlets 27, 57, 96, 101, 138, 143, 146, 156, 157, 169 handkerchiefs 163-164 hands 17, 36, 50, 90-91, 115, 117-118, 131, 163 hand of the tsar 86, 90 hanging (punishment) 120, 131 hares 102-103 harness-makers 101 harquebuses 111, 148 harquebusiers 122 hats 70, 80, 82-83, 89, 93, 121, 123, 128, 169 hawks 78, 79, 103 hay 100-101, 106, 116, 122 hayfields 106, 112, 155 hemp 27, 158 hempseed oil 97, 99 herdsmen 101 hereditary estates [votchiny] 24, 27, 33, 41, 51-53, 58-59, 62, 68, 75-77, 101, 103, 105, 108, 112-114, 128, 145, 147, 153, 155, 157, 161, 167, 169 hereditary status 33 Hetman Bogdan Khmel’nitskii 141 hetmans 128 hierarchs 18, 21, 25, 27, 32, 39, 42, 44-47, 50, 68, 69, 75, 92-93, 95-97, 99, 137, 142, 144-147, 149-150, 155, 165, 167-168 high birth 69

high-ranking families 16 hired men 122 holidays 28, 92, 95, 97, 99, 108, 127, 160, 169 Holland 20-22, 60-61, 65, 79, 115, 122 holsters 125 holy days 37, 41, 45, 52, 69, 160 Holy Roman Emperor 20, 60, 77 Holy Roman Empire 22, 60, 64-65, 89 holy water 34 homesteads 108, 123, 127-128, 148, 150, 151 honey 45, 109 honor 19, 22-23, 28-29, 32, 39, 48, 51-53, 62, 65, 69, 70, 74, 78, 81, 89-100, 103, 105, 144, 160, 162-163 horns 39, 165 horsecloths 159 horse-markets 101 horsemen 76 horses 23, 29, 38, 44, 53-57, 62, 67,70, 79, 81-82, 84-89, 100-102, 106, 109, 115, 119, 122, 126, 128, 130, 145, 147, 148, 150, 158, 163-164 hounds 102 houndsmen 102 households 27, 101, 129, 145-147, 157, 170 household servants 135, 144 household servitors 168, 170 household tax 98, 101 houses 28, 30, 54, 56, 71, 73, 97, 101, 106, 108, 117-118, 124, 126, 153, 160, 166 hundredmen 108, 128, 148 hunger 121, 138, 147, 150 hunting 50, 102, 103, 112 hunting court 103 huntsmen 102 husbands 37, 43, 59, 112, 117, 136, 142, 151, 161, 166, 168, 169 hussars 144 I Ianka Cherkasskii 142 Iaroslavl’ 124 Iauza river 106 Iberia 63 ice 95, 98, 106 icons 18, 21, 32, 34-35, 39-40, 42, 75-76, 141, 163, 165 illiteracy 17, 49, 79, 136 illness 21, 68, 78 indentures 129

Index  India 61 infantry 51, 87, 93, 150 infantrymen 42 infants 41-42 injuries 67, 89, 135, 145, 155 ink 61, 128 insanity 161 instructions 21, 25, 28, 54, 70, 73-75, 82, 84, 129, 131-132, 137, 139-140, 151, 167 intercession 76, 141 investigations 21, 28, 50, 66-67, 98, 105, 115, 119, 120, 133, 135, 156, 163, 169, 170 ironworks 124 isinglass 98 Islam 20, 52, 63 Ivan Vasil’evich, Tsar 18, 29-31, 44, 141 Izmailov family 48 J Jan Casimir, King 12, 78, 116 janitors 58, 93, 97, 114 journeymen (chefs) 97 judges 7, 25, 56, 133-136, 140, 142, 155 Judicial Chancelleries 129 jurisdiction 24, 92, 95, 100-101, 103-107, 109-111, 114-115, 122-130, 133, 137-140, 154-156 justice 14, 33, 94-96, 98, 104, 123, 126, 133, 137, 140, 148, 154-155, 170 K Kadashevo district [sloboda] 123 Kaiser, Daniel 10 Kalmyks 23, 53, 62, 65, 89, 94, 105, 109-110, 148, 176 Kartlia 63 Kasimov 19, 51, 105 Kazan’ 24-25, 29, 44, 98, 105, 107, 109-111, 120, 126, 139, 147, 149, 157-158 Kazan’ Palace 110-111 Keenan, Edward 10 kerchiefs 50 kettle-makers 106 khans 20-22, 52, 61-62, 80, 89-90, 105 Khilkov family 48 Khovanskii family 48, 119 Khovanskii, Ivan Andreevich 119 Kiev 127 kings 20-22, 61-63, 73, 78, 82-84, 87, 116, 118-119, 127

 181

kinsmen 19, 39, 47, 65-66, 75, 77, 137, 157 kissing 28, 34, 37, 39, 75, 90, 110, 160-161 kissing the cross 115, 130, 133 Kitaigorod 81-82, 84 kitchen 160, 169 knife 131 knout 54, 68-69, 77, 96, 113, 115, 120, 131, 135-136, 146, 154, 168 Kokenhusen 116 Kola fort 98 Kolomenskoe (village) 118, 120 Kolomna 157 kopeks 115-116, 171 Kostroma 24, 124-125, 128 Kotoshikhin, Grigorii Karpovich 7-14, 16-18 Kremlin 47, 55, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 118 Kurakin family 48 kvas 99, 150, 154 L laborers 107 ladies of the chamber 56 Ladoga 98 lamb 103 Land Chancellery 24, 128, 130 landed estates 24, 111-112 landless peasants [bobyli] 105, 115, 149, 157 languages (foriegn) 104 Lapland 13 Latin 43, 104 laundresses 57 Law Code of 1649 [Ulozhenie] 105, 112, 125, 129-130, 132-133, 135-136, 139-140, 156-157 lawsuits 25, 133, 136-137, 140 lead 54, 67, 73, 93-94, 96, 102, 115, 132, 145, 167 legs 135, 167 Lent 99 lenten food 99 leopards 110 lesser families 49, 53 letters 11, 13, 17, 20, 30, 49, 52-53, 60-62, 71-73, 76, 79, 81, 83, 86, 90-91, 119-120, 142 levy 105, 144, 147, 154 liberties 127 lieutenant-colonels 108, 146 lieutenants 128, 144 limestone 127 lineage 33, 49, 51-52, 66, 68-69, 86 linen 36, 39-40, 57, 85, 89, 92-93, 121, 128, 154

182 

 Index

linseed oil 97, 99 lips 135 liquor 95-96, 98-99, 125, 153-154 liquor-bearers 94 Liquor Court 23, 94, 96, 98 Lithuania 11-12, 14, 17, 31 litigation 134 Little Russia 127, 140-141 liturgy 46, 118, 160 livers 98 loans 25, 136-137, 140, 150 Lobanov family 48 Lobnoe Mesto 118 lodges 102 lord chamberlains 19, 38, 53, 173 lords-in-waiting [stol’niki] 19, 28, 32, 34-35, 40, 42-44, 48, 50-51, 55-57, 59, 64-66, 68-69, 76-77, 81, 87, 92, 94, 105, 113-114, 120, 128-129, 133, 139-140, 144-146, 150, 157, 166 low-ranking families 16 Lübeck 12, 20, 60, 76, 115-116, 122, 130 lumpfish 98 Lutheranism 17 Lvov family 48 Lynxes 110 M maidens 28, 32, 93, 168 majordomos 33-34, 36, 97, 106 manufactories 127 manufacturing 103, 122 market-places 138 market-stalls 82, 89, 92, 96, 98, 116-118 marriage 17-18, 28, 32, 34, 36, 41, 52, 58, 69, 79, 113, 161, 163-164, 165-169 martens 78, 79-80, 89, 109, 110 master bakers 98 master coiners 24, 115, 117 master gunsmiths 125 master of the horse 100 masters 11, 24, 29, 98, 100, 103, 106, 114-115, 117, 122-123, 125, 130, 135, 143, 148, 160-162 masters (chefs) 10, 12, 14, 97, 103, 135, 146, 148, 151, 159 master smiths 125 mead 42, 70, 90, 95-96, 154, 161, 165 meadows 101, 128 measures 10, 171 meat 70, 96-99, 122, 150

melters’ assistants 115 memoranda 66, 95, 97 memorial dish [kutiia] 45 merchants 28, 60, 75, 92, 95, 105, 111, 122, 158-159 messages 25, 40, 42, 45, 128, 139, 140-141, 144 messengers 127, 165 metropolitans 27, 31, 39, 42, 44-45, 75, 93, 126, 135, 137, 142, 144-145, 155-157 midwives 41 Mikhail Fedorovich, Tsar 18, 31, 100, 141 military levies 26, 142, 144 military service 66, 108, 145 Military Service Chancellery [Razriad] 24, 66, 105, 139 milk 43, 98 millet 45, 97 mills 99, 123, 128 Miloslavskii family 48 minors [nedorosli] 124 mint 115-117, 125 mints 24, 116, 117 mirzas 22, 80, 139 moats 143 Mohammed Girei 72 moirés 92 monasteries 19, 27, 40, 42-43, 45-47, 55, 92-93, 99-101, 106-107, 113, 126, 132, 143-147, 150-151, 155, 157, 168 Monastery Chancellery 24, 126, 133 monastery peasants 126 monastery servitors 129 money 26, 40, 43, 45-47, 59, 68, 70, 73, 76-77, 80, 92, 95-96, 101-107, 109, 111-116, 119, 122-129, 132, 135-136, 138, 140, 142-143, 145, 147, 149, 151, 153, 156, 158, 161 moneyers 115, 132 monks 18, 30, 40, 42, 44, 46, 93, 117, 128, 142, 168 Mordva 109, 147, 151 morocco leather 93 Morozov family 48 mortars 150 mortgages 112-113, 153 Moscow 14, 16, 19, 21-25, 29-32, 35, 40-42, 44-47, 49-50, 52, 54-58, 61, 63-65, 69-70, 74-76, 78-81, 86-90, 93-94, 96, 98-111, 114, 116-117, 122-123, 125-130, 132-134, 137, 139, 140, 142-148, 150-151, 153-159

Index  Moscow noblemen [dvoriane] 19, 32, 35, 40, 50, 81, 144-145 Moskva river 99, 106, 120, 122 mothers 28-30, 32-39, 41, 44, 52, 112, 132, 137, 161-168 mourning 47, 167 mourning clothing 47 munitions 143 murder 17-18, 29-31, 40, 54, 80, 100, 111, 118-119, 130, 151, 155-156 Muscovite state 13-14, 18, 29-31, 43, 51, 53, 63, 75, 79-80, 93, 104-105, 107, 111, 116, 118, 126-127, 129-130, 132, 141, 143, 147, 149, 167, 169 mushrooms 99 music 39, 165 musketeers 23, 26, 42, 44, 50, 54, 56, 76, 81-82, 84, 87-89, 93, 95-96, 100-101, 105, 107-110, 117, 126, 143-144, 146, 150 Musketeers Chancellery 24, 107, 114, 123, 125 muskets 108, 122, 125, 147-148 N napkins 123 Narva 12 negotiating hall 85, 90 negotiations 22, 72-73, 84, 86, 88, 90, 103 nephews 108 nets 104, 111 New Tax District [chetvert’] 125 New Year’s Day 49 Nikita Ivanovich Romanov 126 Nizhnii-Novgorod 124 noblemen [dvoriane] 31, 48, 50-52, 55-56, 59, 64-66, 68-69, 76, 81, 87, 92, 94, 108, 110, 114, 120, 124, 126, 129, 130, 133, 139-140, 143-146, 148, 150, 157, 166 Nogai 23, 89, 94, 109, 148 Nogorod Tax District [chetvert’] 124 noses 135 notes 9, 73, 76, 96 Novgorod 24-25, 44, 93, 98, 107, 116, 126, 139, 157, 158 Novgorod Tax District [chetverti] 125 nuptials 18, 28, 33, 38-40, 78 O oaths 23, 73-74, 91, 101, 110, 115, 125, 127, 130, 133, 142 oats 99, 100-101, 122

 183

obeisance 52-53, 56, 91 Odoeveskii family 48 officers 70-71, 73, 76, 81-89, 95, 108, 146-148 official correspondence 26 officials 13, 19-20, 23, 25-26, 48, 50, 94, 100-102, 110, 117, 127, 136, 140, 143, 153-154 oil 99 okol’nichie 14, 19, 31, 33, 48-53, 55-56, 58, 64-66, 68-69, 76-77, 82, 84, 86, 88, 92, 97, 105, 113-114, 129, 133, 139, 142, 144-145, 157-158 olive-oil 99 Olonets 146 orchards 96, 98 orderlies 137 orders 22, 26, 28, 35, 38, 42, 49-50, 53, 56, 66, 68, 71-76, 81-90, 92, 94, 97, 102-103, 107, 109, 111, 115, 119, 126, 128-130, 134-135, 137, 139, 143, 151, 160-161, 163, 169 ordinary secretaries 50, 62, 64, 68 ornamentation 61 ornaments 20, 60-62, 79 orphans 142 Otrep’ev, Grishka 30 oxen 154 P pages [zhil’tsy] 19, 32, 40, 42, 48, 55-56, 59, 65, 68-69, 76, 81, 92, 103, 105, 120, 124, 144-146, 150, 157 palaces 19, 32, 34, 36, 38-40, 42-43, 45-46, 48, 50-55, 57-58, 67-68, 71, 81-85, 88, 90, 93, 95-101, 103, 106-110, 114, 118-120, 127, 132-133, 135, 157, 158 palls 93 paper 20, 46, 60-62, 75, 107 pashas 22, 80 passports 75 pastry 98-99 pastry-cooks 98 patriarchal chancelleries 133 patriarchs 27-28, 31, 32, 34, 36, 39-40, 42, 44-46, 75, 99, 135, 137, 142, 144-146, 150, 155-157, 163, 165, 167-169 patrimonial peasants 125 payment 21-23, 27, 42, 83-89, 92-93, 121, 128, 142, 152, 154, 158, 165 pearls 36, 57, 75, 165 pears 96

184 

 Index

peasants 26-27, 51, 53-54, 96, 98-99, 101, 105, 107, 108, 115-116, 119, 121, 124, 126-128, 135, 140, 142-143, 145-151, 153, 155-158, 166-167, 169, 172 pedigree 16 pelts 77-79, 110 penance 99, 166, 168 Pennington, Ann 8-11 pepper 160 Persia 20-23, 28, 35, 57, 61, 63, 65, 72, 79, 87, 89, 91, 95, 104, 109, 111, 122, 149, 158 petitions 12, 17, 21, 25-26, 28, 41, 56, 58, 66, 68, 75, 77, 97, 106, 112-114, 120, 127, 128-129, 133-137, 142, 151, 154, 156, 163, 167, 168-169 Petitions Chancellery 24, 127 Petreus, Petr 13, 29, 30, 32 petty noblemen [deti boiarskie] 19, 31, 51, 52, 57, 77, 81, 105, 108, 110, 114, 124, 137, 139, 140, 144-146, 157 physicians 126 picks 150 piemen 98, 120, 150 pigeons 104 pigs 154 pike 98 pike-perch 98 pikes 147-148 pincers 131 pipes 39 pistols 54, 125, 145 plaintiffs 25, 134-138, 154-156 Pleshcheev family 48 plowland 126, 148, 151 plums 96 Poe, Marshall T. 7-8, 10 poison 31, 168 Poland 11-12, 14, 17, 20, 22-23, 30-31, 48, 60-64, 76-79, 89-90, 116, 118-120, 123, 127, 144, 147-149, 173 police district [guba] chancelleries 130 Polotsk 139, 141, 157 polushka 115 poorhouses 19, 40, 42, 44, 46, 106 porches 67, 84 pork 103 porticos 54-55, 83 Portugal 20, 61 Postal Chancellery 24, 126 postriders 126

postriders’ districts [slobody] 126 potash 27, 158 potters 106 poverty 156 Pozharskii family 48 prayer 29, 32, 35, 41, 46, 55, 166 prayers 35, 40, 42, 45, 76, 141 precedence system [mestnichestvo] 105 precious stones 36, 39, 57, 75, 158 prices 87, 102, 110-111, 115-116, 145, 151 priests 18, 28, 36, 40, 42, 44-46, 53, 93, 95, 96, 99-100, 117, 126, 128-129, 142, 160, 163-166 Prince Iakov Kudenetovich Cherkasskii 140 Prince Ivan Alekseevich Vorotynskii 140 princes 20-22, 29, 33, 41, 45, 48, 52, 60-63, 65, 72, 79-80, 89, 132, 139 prisoners 51, 80, 105, 107, 138, 151 prisons 25, 40, 42, 44, 46, 53-55, 67, 69, 77, 80, 97, 106, 131, 137-138 privy affairs 103 processions 86, 102, 107 profit 27, 110, 115-116, 154 Pronskii family 48 provinces 31-32, 40-45, 47, 50, 55, 65, 93, 103, 105, 107, 110, 117, 122, 125, 130, 132-133, 137, 146, 150, 153-158 provincial administration 21 provincial commandant [voevoda] 43 provincial noblemen [dvoriane] 19, 32, 50, 52, 114, 144-145, 157 provisions 23, 26, 96-98, 107, 116, 126, 169 Provisions Court 23, 96, 98, 125 Prozorovskii family 48, 78 Pskov 44, 93, 107, 116, 124, 126, 139, 157 public halls 55 punishment 11, 21-22, 27, 33, 37, 46, 54, 67, 68-69, 77, 80, 96-97, 102, 105, 108, 111, 113, 115-118, 120-121, 125, 131-133, 135-137, 141, 146, 148, 154, 156, 167, 168 Pushkin family 48 Q quarters 71-72, 84-85, 91, 143, 169 quicklime 127 quit-rent 148 quivers 50

Index  R rabbits 80, 109-110 ransom 105, 107 raspberries 95-96 rate of exchange 115 raw silk 27, 158 reading 7, 9, 13, 17, 43, 118, 127, 136 receptions 22-23, 78, 81, 104, 128 records 25, 66, 68-69, 74, 84, 94-95, 98, 105, 112, 123, 130, 132, 136, 143, 157 recruitment (of soldiers) 14, 16, 26, 123, 145-147 red berries 95 regiments 26, 50-51, 56, 75, 103, 107, 108, 119, 128, 130, 141, 144-148, 150 registers 68, 96-97, 102, 145 registration fees 110 relics 34 Repnin family 48 reports 22, 49, 53, 74, 76, 81, 84, 86, 142 Requiem Chancellery 25, 132 resin 27, 158 retinues 21, 70-71, 84, 86-88 revenues 23, 26-27, 40, 101, 106, 109-110, 115, 122-124, 126-129, 132, 138, 142-143, 149, 153, 155 Rhine wine 95, 161 rhubarb 27, 158 Riazan’ 157 ribs 131 rings 39, 159 riots 33, 118-121 robbery 102, 131 robbing 148 robes 89 rod-makers 115 roe 98 Romanov family 31 Romodanovskii family 48 rope 16, 131 rosters 33-34, 36, 87 Rostov 124, 157 rowers 158 royal rank 51 rubles 40, 46, 70, 76-80, 87, 89, 92, 96, 98-99, 101-102, 104-112, 114-116, 121-122, 124-130, 135, 138, 140, 145, 147-148, 152-153, 158, 163, 169, 171 rugs 87, 92 Russian captives 79

 185

Russian land 29, 32, 116 Russians 12, 14, 17, 26, 89, 110, 120, 123, 139, 151 rye 99, 104, 150, 154 S sables 32, 34, 39, 70, 76-80, 87, 89, 92-93, 110-111, 121, 128, 153, 154, 158-159, 165 saddle-makers 101 saddles 82, 159 saints 34, 37, 76, 141 saint’s days 19-20, 44, 56, 59, 69, 95, 99, 118, 160 salaries 12, 43, 52, 76-77, 92, 100, 103-104, 107, 114, 116, 124-126, 130, 141, 148, 160, 169 salmon 98 salt 27, 32, 35, 99, 108-109, 122, 150, 158, 160, 164 Salt Court 122 salterns 109, 124 Saltykov family 48 salutations 28, 62 Sandomierz 30 sapphires 158 satin 32, 39, 76, 89, 92-93, 121, 128, 165 scepters 50 seals 20, 33, 49, 52-53, 57, 62, 90, 105-106, 116, 128-130, 134, 165 seamstresses 57, 93 secretaries [d’iaki] 14, 16, 19, 32-33, 35, 44, 48-51, 55-56, 59, 62, 64-65, 67-69, 76, 81-87, 89-92, 97, 100, 103, 104-107, 109-111, 114-115, 117-118, 122-130, 132-134, 139-140, 153, 157 seniority 14, 49, 69, 94, 96, 98, 138 serfdom 51 service 12, 16, 19, 22, 26, 27, 32-34, 41, 46, 49, 50-52, 56-59, 62, 65, 68-70, 74, 76-77, 9293, 95, 101, 103, 105, 107-108, 110-114, 117, 119, 121, 123-125, 128-130, 135-136, 141, 145-151, 153-157, 167, 169 service estate [pomest’e] 27, 76, 77, 111-114, 121, 129-130, 145-146, 149-150, 155-156 Service Estate [Pomest’e] Chancellery 24, 111 service estate [pomest’e] norm 76-77 service estates [pomest’ia] 24, 33, 41, 51-53, 58, 62, 68, 75, 77, 95, 101, 103, 105, 108, 112-114, 124, 145, 147, 155, 157 serving (food) 10, 19, 32, 43, 47-49, 50, 55, 66, 68, 81, 88, 94, 97, 99, 105, 109-114, 116, 135, 140, 142, 148, 151

186 

 Index

serving men 19, 32, 47, 48, 50, 81, 105, 109-110, 112-113, 116, 140, 142, 148, 151 servitors 14, 28, 40, 43, 48, 51-52, 56-58, 65, 81, 84, 88, 93-96, 98, 100-101, 106, 114, 120, 129, 151, 157, 161, 167-169 setttlements [posad] 32, 40, 43, 53-54, 81, 92, 106, 109, 117, 124, 128-129, 140, 142-143, 149, 153, 154 settlement [posad] men, 106 sewing 57 shahs 20-22, 61, 63, 65, 72, 79, 80, 104 shame 52, 66, 69, 90, 132, 168 sheep 154 Shein family 48 Sheremetev family 48 shifts (work) 49, 51, 57, 94, 101, 103-104, 107-108 shipworkers 122 shipyards 109 shirts 38, 169 shops 122, 123 Shorin, Vasilii, 119 Siberia 19-20, 24-25, 29, 44, 51, 55, 61, 68, 77, 83, 103, 105, 107, 110-111, 113, 115, 120, 131, 138-139, 147, 157-158 Siberian Chancellery 24, 110-111 sickness 145 siege quarters 26, 143 siege weapons 143 signitures 33, 49, 62, 73, 130, 134, 136, 162 silk 32, 36, 57, 158 silver 32, 36, 39, 57, 75, 79, 83-84, 90, 92-94, 96, 115-116, 121, 125, 132, 144, 149, 154, 158, 161, 165 Silver and Gold Works 133 silversmiths 24, 114, 115, 117 silver vessels 32, 39, 84, 92, 93, 117, 158 sin 37, 166 singing 45, 75 sisters 32, 34, 41, 167 skins 128 slander 133 slavery 51 slaves 41, 63, 120, 129, 133-135, 142, 145, 148, 151, 169, 170 Slaves Chancellery 24 sleep 19, 41, 49, 51, 53, 57, 164, 167 sleighs 43, 54, 58, 87, 100-102, 163, 164, 172 sleighs [kaptany] 43, 58, 101-102 Smolensk 107, 126, 139, 141, 157

sodomy 131 soldiers 26, 44, 51, 53, 93, 103, 109, 116, 119, 124, 143-151 Somro 146 sons 28-31, 52-53, 75, 119, 121, 133-134, 136, 161, 163, 169 sorcery 131 sour cream 98 spades 150 Spain 20, 61 speeches 21, 34, 72-74, 79, 82-83, 85-86, 88, 90-91, 136, 162, 167 spiritual advisors 34-37, 41 spoons 46 squares 10, 46, 55, 77, 81-82, 127, 132-133, 148 squirrels 80, 89, 109, 110 Staatsbeschreibung 13-14 Stable Court 100-102 stables 17, 23, 81-82, 84, 88-89, 101 Stables Chancellery 100, 110 Stables Court 23 standard-bearers 144 Statistik 13 status 21, 33, 52 stealing 95, 148 sterlets 98 stewards 39, 40, 42, 93-94, 97, 98, 100-101, 126, 155 Stockholm 11-13 stocks 125 stone-bramble berries 96 stonemasonry 127 Stonemasonry Chancellery 24, 127 stonemasons 127, 143 stove-makers 106 straps 44, 131 strawberries 96 streets 46, 128, 132 Streshnev family 48 sturgeon 98 sub-council ranks 16 subsistence 22-23, 26, 41, 87, 99, 104, 109, 112, 121-123, 125-128, 138, 147, 151, 160, 169 sugar 39, 45, 95, 160-161 suits 25, 27, 102, 133-134, 137-138, 154 Sukin family 48 sultans 20-22, 61, 65, 79, 80 summer 8, 23, 43, 57-58, 87, 98, 102-103, 163 supper 97 supplies (military) 76, 98, 107, 122, 143,

Index  145-146, 150 surety 25, 55, 96, 115, 130, 134, 136 surgeons 126, 151-152 surnames 140, 142 Suzdal’ 157 swans 103 Sweden 11-14, 17, 20, 22-23, 60-65, 77, 79, 81-82, 89-90, 104, 116-117, 122, 124, 146-147, 149 Swedes 9, 12-13, 76 sweepers 128 switches (beating with) 68-69, 83, 97, 108, 131 swords 38, 50, 54, 71, 82, 85, 115, 132, 147 sworn officials [tseloval’niki] 118, 153-154 T tableclothes 84 tablecloths 35, 123 tables, seating order 10, 21, 33-40, 50, 57, 59, 66, 68-69, 72, 84-85, 94-95, 97, 160-162, 164, 167 taffeta 36, 39, 43, 77, 92-93, 121, 128, 144, 154, 165 tanners 101 Tatars 22, 61, 105, 109, 110-111, 139, 144, 147-148, 157 tavern farmers 96 tavern revenues 125 taverns 104, 109, 124, 126, 138, 142, 153-154 taxes 27, 43, 101, 106, 110, 115, 122, 124, 126-129, 130, 138, 141-143, 146, 148, 155, 167, 172-173 Te Deum 18, 34, 42, 75 tenmen 108 tenth-money (tax) 121, 149 tent-makers 106 Terek river 55, 93, 98, 120, 139 testaments 137 testimony 54, 117, 120, 130, 137, 149, 168 thalers 76, 115-116 theft 110, 115, 128, 130, 137, 148, 155 thieves 137, 139, 156 thrones 35, 39, 78, 83 tigers 110 timber 99 Time of Troubles 13 tin 115, 132 tinsmiths 106, 117 titles 11, 20, 25, 52, 60-63, 72, 106, 115, 128, 130, 141-142, 153

 187

toasts 22, 44, 72, 84, 164 tobacco 125 Tobol’sk 110 toes 118, 132 tombs 34 tongue 132 torture 11, 54-55, 75, 80, 102, 115, 117, 118, 120, 130-132 towns 25, 27, 30, 44, 46, 80-81, 86, 93, 95-96, 100-101, 104, 106, 109, 110, 114-116, 121122, 124-129, 138-143, 147, 149, 150, 153, 154, 157, 158, 167 trade 14, 60, 75, 78, 105, 122-123, 125, 153, 158 trading men [gosti] 27, 31, 54, 81, 92, 96, 101, 106, 108, 110-111, 114-115, 117, 124, 126, 128, 143, 147-149, 153, 158-159, 166 traditions 12, 17, 70 translators 62, 65, 69-70, 72, 74, 76, 85, 92, 104, 114, 122, 137, 157 transportation 22-23, 70, 81, 86-87, 126, 150, 158 trapping 102, 109, 111 travel allowance 126 travelling 12, 21, 50, 55-57, 64, 70-71, 79-81, 86-88, 100-103, 107-108, 122, 126-128 travel stewards 96 treason 75, 131, 135 treasurers [kaznachei]16, 56, 92, 123 treasury 23, 30, 40, 46-47, 59, 73, 92, 96, 98, 101, 108-111, 113, 115-117, 123, 125-127, 132, 138, 143, 145, 147, 150, 153-155, 158- 159, 166 Treasury Court 23, 125 treaties 79, 91, 141 trials 25, 27, 51, 133-138, 140-141, 155 tribute [iasak] 109, 111 Trinity 30, 42, 60, 72 Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery 30, 42 Trubestskoi family 48 trumpeters 107, 137, 144 tsareviches 18-19, 22, 26, 29, 31, 43-45, 47, 51-52, 56-58, 61, 69, 77-78, 80, 83, 92-97, 99, 118, 123, 132, 142 tsarevnas 18-20, 26, 31, 36, 39, 41, 43-45, 47, 56-59, 69, 77, 92-97, 99, 102, 118, 123, 132, 142, 159, 165 tsarinas 18, 29 tsaritsas 18-20, 22, 26, 34, 37-41, 43-47, 53, 56-59, 69, 77-80, 92-97, 99, 101-102, 107-108, 114, 118, 123, 142, 159, 165

188 

 Index

tsars 18-19, 29, 34, 45-47, 63, 78, 92, 132, 141 tsar’s chambers 49, 95, 97, 165 tsar’s presence 69, 67, 90, 103, 128, 132 tsar’s tribunal 137 Tsar’s Wardrobe Chamber 123 tsar’s wrath 69, 103 Tula 122 Turkey 20-23, 35, 61, 65, 79, 80, 89, 91, 105, 109, 148-149, 159 tutors 43 Tver’ 157 U Uglich 29 Ukraine 95, 141, 146-147, 158 undersecretaries [pod’iachie] 11, 16, 43, 46, 48-51, 53, 56, 62, 65, 67-69, 71, 74, 76, 81-82, 87-88, 90, 92, 98, 100, 102-104, 107, 111-112, 114, 118, 122, 127, 130, 133-134, 136, 138, 140, 157 unicorns 106 uniforms 54 unmarried girls 57, 169 upper chambers 32, 55-57 Uppsala 10, 13, 17 Uroff, Benjamin P. 7-8, 17-18, 172-173 Urusov family 48 Ustiug the Great 124 V Vasilii Ivanovich, Tsar 18, 31, 100 veils 36, 164, 167 velvet 32, 34-35, 39, 43, 45, 76, 92-93, 101, 121, 165 vespers 160 vessels 37, 79, 90, 92-94, 96, 110, 122, 125, 154, 158, 161, 165 vestibules 36, 73, 83 vestments 37, 45, 90, 93, 128 Viatka 157 villages 20, 25, 27, 50, 54, 56-57, 93-94, 96, 98-101, 106-107, 125-126, 137-138, 143, 149, 155-157, 169 vinegar 160 virginity 165 visiting 19, 40, 43, 52, 56, 59, 68, 107, 163, 165 Vladimir (city) 24, 44, 129 vodka 42, 70, 95, 96, 99, 160, 169, 173 Volga River 27, 95, 98, 100, 109, 122, 146-148, 158

Volkonskii family 48 Vologda 98, 124, 157 Vorotynskii family 48 vows 133, 167-168 W wages 26, 70, 98, 101-105, 107-112, 114, 116, 121-127, 136-137, 145-151, 169 wagons 150 walking-fees 137 walls 108, 117-118, 143 walnut oil 97, 99 war 21, 26, 29, 31, 51, 62-63, 65, 75-76, 79-80, 103, 105, 107-108, 116, 141, 143-151 Wardrobe Chamber 133 washing 41, 57 water carriers 97 wax 46, 95 weapons 54, 75, 105 weddings 18-19, 28-29, 33-39, 56, 78, 101, 161-167, 169 weights 10, 171 wet-nurses 43 wheat 45, 99, 104 wheelwrights 101 whips 100, 108 White Russia 140-141 White Sea 124 White Tsar 62 widowers 28 widows 26, 28, 56-58, 93, 122, 145, 157, 169 wills 137 windows 83 wine 37, 95, 150, 161 winter 23, 43, 57-58, 87, 98, 102-103, 106, 163 witchcraft 132 witnesses 137, 162 wives 12, 16-17, 26-28, 33-34, 37, 43, 45-47, 56-59, 77-78, 80, 93-94, 97, 112, 117, 120, 129, 133-137, 142-143, 151, 156, 160-161, 165-169 Władysław, King 78 wolves 102, 109-110 women 17, 28, 33-35, 38-39, 41, 43, 45-46, 5759, 79, 93, 132, 137, 156, 161, 164, 169 wood 45, 75, 99, 116, 143, 160 wooden palisades 143 workmen 123 wounded (soldiers) 16, 26, 30, 151 wreaths 35, 36

Index  writing 8-9, 11, 13-14, 20-21, 24-26, 30, 43-44, 49, 55, 58, 60-63, 66, 70, 73-75, 82, 84- 85, 91, 103, 105, 112, 121, 125, 128, 130, 133, 135-137, 139-143, 155, 162-163, 167

Z Zaporozhian Cossacks 95, 148 Zaporozhian Host 141 Zemlianoigorod 82, 88, 108

 189