Estates are groups formed in society, endowed with the rights and obligations prescribed by law and inherited. The estates structure of society implies that a person depends on his belonging to a particular class. This dependence provides a certain range of duties, communication, norms of behavior and even clothing. In this case, the transition in the vertical direction is impossible: a person is born and dies in the same rank belonging to his ancestors. The same title is passed on to future generations.
General concept
The estate structure of society in Russia began to take shape in the 16th century. The process was parallel to the concentration of land around Moscow.
Attention should also be paid to the type of society inherent in the class structure of society. The type of the latter in this case refers to the traditional, that is, one that is based on traditional values. It is in such a society that persistent groups of people or classes are formed.
The estate structure of society included privileged estates and dependent. The first of these should include servants and the clergy. Yet the rest were dependent.
Let us consider in more detail which estates existed in earlier times, and how they differed from each other.
Service people
Servants meant everyone who served the state. They were divided into two groups:
- Servicemen “in the homeland” - their service was inherited.
- Servicemen “on the device” - all free people could fall into this category.
The class of servants “in the homeland” had many gradations inside. It was divided into:
- Reasonable ranks. This is the boyars, devious and dummy nobles.
- The ranks of Moscow. These are sleeping bags, centurions, solicitors, tenants, Moscow nobles.
- The ranks are city service . These are elected nobles, as well as boyar children.
The smart ranks made up the Boyar Duma. Moscow ranks were called "close people", their names indicated the responsibilities of their owners. The sleeping men undress the king, the stolniks serve royal feasts, the solicitors hold a scepter, the tenants leave with parcels. Moscow nobles received estates under Ivan the Terrible, they were obliged to fulfill royal orders.
The ranks of the urban servants are the provincial nobility. Elected nobles carried a difficult military service. Children of the boyars were also engaged in public service.
Any free person could fall into the category of servants “by instrument”. Archers belonged to them. A special subdivision was made up of gunners and minders. Reitars, dragoons, border Cossacks also belonged to this estate. The servants “on the device” were given land ownership, however, collectively.
Clergy
The estate of the clergy was divided into black (monasticism) and white (its representatives could have a family). The entire estate totaled about a million people.
In 1589, the Russian Church became autocephalous, that is, independent of others. Her first patriarch was Job. His choice belonged to the church council, but in reality the candidacy was determined by the king.
In the 17th century, there were 12 bishops in the Russian Orthodox Church. Bishops were chosen by lot. They had their yards, servants, archers. Bishops paid rent, the size of which was determined by the wealth of the parish. The most prosperous at that time was considered the Novgorod diocese.
In the described time period in Russia there were about 500 monasteries. Some of them were known thanks to miraculous icons and ascetics. These include Trinity-Sergiev, Miracles, Sergiev, Novodevichy. Often they played a political role, turning into centers of opposition to foreign invaders. Thanks to large land holdings, many monasteries became economic centers.
If we consider the estate structure of society of the 17th century, then the following groups stood out among the white clergy:
- Deacons. They were priests of the lowest rank.
- Priests are ministers of higher churches.
- Protopopes. They were rectors of the temples. In our time, archpriests correspond to them.
So, we looked at privileged groups of people in class structure of society. Traditional society of that time included the dependent population.
Posad people
Speaking about the estate structure of Russian society, it should be called a group of posad people. This category was divided as follows:
- the ranks of Posad Moscow - guests, hundreds, black hundreds, black settlements;
- Posad city people are the best, middle and young people.
The first group was the merchant elite. This group included various merchants, to whom the king granted the title of "guest". These people had various privileges, they could freely travel outside the Moscow state, acquire estates. But apart from privileges, there were duties. The guests were supposed to be kissers, appraisers, and procured materials for state needs.
Posad people paid "sovereign tax" and many other taxes, called taxes. And the population itself was called draft. It was divided into black hundreds and white settlements. The first included ordinary townsmen engaged in craft, trade, and crafts.
And white settlements settled in cities, their occupations were the same as those of the black hundreds, but they were feudally dependent on their owner, who was paid to file. Posad people caused serious unrest because of their difficult situation, therefore, in 1649, white settlements were liquidated.
According to the property, Posad people were divided into the best, middle and youngest.
People are county tax
This category of persons included peasants. They made up the majority of the country's population and were divided:
- on black-mowed, possessing personal freedom, founding households on state land, which could be inherited, living in communities and paying huge taxes;
- possessive or feudal dependent.
Among historians, there are two theories about the enslavement of peasants. The first, a decree, suggests that enslavement began after the decree of Fyodor Ioannovich. The unsubstantiated theory claims that there was no such decree, and the enslavement of the peasants took place gradually due to debt bondage. Proponents of both theories are still arguing, a consensus has not yet emerged on this issue.
Slaves
This category of population was personally dependent. Serfs depended on their masters, were legally powerless. The estate shared:
- on reporting slaves - they usually served as housekeepers, that is, managers of feudal farms;
- combat - carried military service;
- bonded, who from free people turned into service;
- backyard - they lived "outside the yard" of the landowner, worked on his land, received food from him;
- business people - they led an independent economy.
Gradually, serfdom and peasants merged, turning into one estate group.
Walking people
This is the most diverse category of people in the class structure of society. They were also called free. This group went beyond the class boundaries, and people from any layer could get into it. Walking people did not have their allotments. Some of them went to work hard people. Such workers were called neighbors, neighbors, and burials. Others did not have specific occupations or place of residence. The state struggled with this category of the population, as free people took part in the riots.
So, we examined the social class structure of society in Russia in the 17th century and characterized all the estates existing at that time.