The Russian nobility is a certain class of our country, which appeared in the XII century as the lowest representatives of the military and military, making up the court of a major boyar or prince. In the code of domestic laws, belonging to this estate was defined as a consequence of virtue, distinguished by noble merits. Literally, the word "nobleman" meant a person from a princely court or court. The nobles were taken into service by the prince with the goal of carrying out all kinds of judicial, administrative and other instructions.
Appearance story
The Russian nobility constituted the lower stratum of nobility, which was most directly connected with the prince and his economy, this was their fundamental difference from the boyars.
During the time of Vsevolod the Big Nest, the old Rostov nobility was defeated in 1174. After this, the Russian nobility, along with the townspeople, became the basis of the military and social support of the prince's power.
The rise of the estate
The situation began to change radically from the fourteenth century. It was then that the Russian nobility began to receive land for their service. From here a class of landowners-landowners arose. Over time, they were allowed to buy land, increasing the size of their holdings.
At the end of the 15th century, land was distributed to nobles under the condition of service after the annexation of the Tver Principality and Novgorod land, as well as the eviction of officials from the central regions of the country. In 1497, the Code of Law limited the right to transfer of peasants. In fact, after this, serfdom is officially established in the country.
The next important stage in the history of the Russian nobility is the first Zemsky Cathedral, which takes place in the Kremlin in early 1549. Tsar Ivan IV speaks at it, whom the nobleman Ivan Peresvetov inspired to build a centralized monarchy in the country, directly based on the nobility. This meant the beginning of a direct confrontation with the former aristocracy, that is, the boyars. At the same time, the ruler publicly accused them of abuse of authority and power, urging them to work together to strengthen a single country.
In the middle of the XVI century, the so-called chosen 1000 metropolitan nobles appeared, who settled within a few tens of kilometers from Moscow. In 1555, a service code appeared, which effectively equalized the rights of the nobles with the boyars. For the first time, they have the right to inherit. When the Kazan Khanate was annexed in the middle of the sixteenth century, the estates were evicted from the area of the oprichnins, all this was declared the property of the tsar, and the lands freed as a result of this were distributed by nobles who agreed to continue to serve the sovereign faithfully. Preserved summers appeared in the 1580s, and later the Council Code secured for the nobles the right to indefinitely search for runaway peasants and their eternal possession.
Land acquisition
Strengthening of this estate in the XIV-XVI centuries is based mainly on land acquisition. This, in essence, turns him into a major supplier of militias. There is a clear analogy with the Western European knights in the previous era.
The existing local system is introduced in order to strengthen the situation in the army, when the level of socio-economic situation in the country does not allow equipping soldiers and officers centrally. This situation is different from the situation in France at the same time. Since the 15th century, kings have been attracting knights to the army in this West European country on monetary terms. And at first periodically, and from the end of the XV century - on an ongoing basis. All this results in strengthening serfdom, limiting the influx of workers in the city. The development of capitalism is slowing down throughout the country.
Soon after the abolition of parochialism, the Velvet Book of the Russian Nobility was compiled, which contained the genealogies of the most noble families who lived at that time in the country. It included the "Sovereign Genealogist" of 1556, materials of the XVI-XVII centuries from genealogical murals.
Initially, it was assumed that there would be four Velvet Books of the Russian Nobility, but after the death of Fedor Alekseevich, work was temporarily suspended. They resumed only in 1685. As a result, two books on the Russian nobility were made.
The apogee of the nobility
The situation develops during the reign of the country by Peter I. He inherits a society that is divided into several classes. Among them are “taxable”, who owe duties and taxes to the state, and “servicemen”, who undertake to faithfully serve the king. In the existing system, virtually everyone is enslaved. For example, nobles are attached to the need to serve just like peasants to land.
In 1701, Peter I issued a decree according to which it is forbidden to own land for free. In 1721 he holds a general review with all the nobles. Allowed not to come only to those who lived in Astrakhan and remote areas of Siberia. In order not to slow things down in their absence, an order is issued to arrive in Moscow or St. Petersburg in two waves: first in December 1721, and the next three months later.
In 1718, the Russian ruler carried out the Tax Reform, in which nobles were exempted from the poll tax. A few years earlier, a decree was adopted on the procedure for inheritance of movable and immovable property by nobles, which further strengthens their position. The concepts of "estate" and "patrimony" are equalized, and the principle of uniform inheritance is introduced in the country.
Peter I decides to fight against aristocrats, making the nobles the main support. In 1722, the “Table of Ranks” appeared - a document that actually replaces the principle of childbirth in the public service with the principle of personal service. The ranks and classes are introduced, for example, the XIV class, assigned as part of military service, gives all its owners the rights of hereditary nobility. In the civil service, only representatives of the VIII class possess the same privileges. Initially, the correspondence of the pre-Petrine officials, who existed in the Russian state, with the specific ranks of this “Table of Ranks” was implied. But over time, the award of the old ranks ceased completely.
In accordance with the Table, the distribution of titles stopped, although they were not formally canceled. However, in fact, this nevertheless meant the end of the boyars. Since then, even the word "boyar" has been preserved only in everyday speech as a designation of an aristocrat.
Moreover, the nobility itself in the Russian Empire was not the basis for taking the rank. The rank was determined solely in connection with the length of service. Peter I separately noted that he doesn’t assign anyone special ranks by default until a person shows himself in the service of the Fatherland. This led to indignation among the individual boyars who still remained at that time. Representatives of the new nobility were not satisfied either. In particular, this particular dilemma is dedicated to one of the satyrs of Antioch Cantemir, in which this situation was clearly described.
At the same time, the Geroldmeister Office, which exists under the Senate, is being created. Its task is to record the nobles, their purification from impostors, which periodically appear. Employees of this office identify impostors who proclaim themselves nobles, inventing and drawing their own coats of arms.
In the future, the “Table of Ranks” undergoes repeated changes, but remains in general up to 1917.
Homeless nobles
The opportunity to get the title through the service created a whole class of homeless nobles who were completely and completely dependent on the service. At the same time, the nobility in the Russian Empire took shape in an extremely motley environment.
Among them were both carriers of wealthy families (by the end of the 19th century there were about 250 such clans), and a wide layer of small-local noblemen, to which noblemen who owned only 21 souls of male serfs could belong. They were not able to independently provide decent conditions for their existence, hoping only to obtain profitable and profitable posts.
As a result, ownership of serfs and estates alone did not provide unconditional income. There were even cases when the nobles themselves began to plow the land due to the insufficient number of serfs. This happened if they did not have other sources of livelihood.
Benefits for nobles
The Russian nobility in the 18th century began to significantly improve their position. This was facilitated by various benefits that were introduced by the rulers. For example, the landowners were allowed to collect taxes from the peasants, and five years later the new Russian Empress Anna Ioannovna signed a manifesto, which limited the service of the nobles for a quarter century and no more.
In 1746, Elizabeth Petrovna introduced a ban on the acquisition of land and peasants by anyone other than nobles. In 1754, the government establishes the Noble Bank, which receives the right to provide the heroes of our article with loans in the amount of up to ten thousand rubles at six percent per year.
In 1762, Peter III published a manifesto on the granting of liberties to the Russian nobility. In it, nobles are assigned exemption from service. As a result, over the next ten years, about ten thousand noblemen are dismissed from the army. This was one of the key legislative acts during the short reign of this emperor. As state adviser Jacob Shtelin noted, Peter, when he was in the status of heir to the Russian throne, was already developing a future manifesto on the granting of freedom to the Russian nobility. The king stated that he would definitely accept this document, allowing the nobles not to serve, as well as to freely leave the country.
When he became emperor, during his first official visit to the Senate, he announced that he would allow the nobles to independently determine the term and place of their service, only in wartime everyone would be required to. This was one of the highlights of the manifesto on the granting of freedom to the Russian nobility. He entrusted the senators to prepare his draft by February 1762, which was done. Officially, Peter III signed a manifesto of liberty to the Russian nobility on February 18 of that year.
In this legislative act, for the first time in Russian history, nobles were officially exempted from compulsory civil and military service, could, at their own discretion, resign and freely leave the country. Only during the war did the government reserve the right to demand that the nobles return to military service. In this case, they were obliged to return from abroad under the threat of confiscation of all land. These were the liberty provisions of the Russian nobility. Nobles who did not have time to receive the rank of chief officer were forbidden to resign until they served 12 years. The same provisions were actually repeated and confirmed by Empress Catherine II in a letter of award to the Russian nobility, signed in 1785. It completely frees them from the need for compulsory service, turning the nobility into a privileged estate that does not pay taxes, does not owe anything to the state, has exclusive rights to own peasants and land, is exempted from corporal punishment, is engaged in trade and industry, and has its own estate self-government.
Moreover, during the Provincial Reform, it transfers local authority to elected representatives from among the nobles, appointing the so-called county leaders of the nobility.
Estates self-government
After receiving this certificate, the nobleman turned into the main agent of the local government. He was responsible for the recruitment of soldiers, the collection of all necessary taxes from the peasants, monitored public morality, and performed other power functions and powers.
Established self-government was considered a special privilege. Moreover, the state treated him in two ways. For example, its fragmentation was artificially maintained. So, until the beginning of the 20th century, in principle, there was no all-Russian association for this estate.
The bill, signed by Catherine II, led to the formation of a huge gap between the nobles and the rest of the people. All this became the apogee of their power, after which the higher nobility began to turn into an idle class, estranging itself from political life, and the lower nobility slowly but surely went bankrupt.
Honorary Citizens
At the beginning of the 19th century, part of the nobles began to actively support republican ideas. Some began to join Masonic lodges, other anti-government organizations. The features of the noble front were the Decembrist uprising.
The state itself began to slow down the massive influx of non-nobles into the ranks of the nobility. This became possible only as a result of the service of certain ranks. To satisfy the ambitions of such non-nobles, even an intermediate estate of honorary citizens who possess similar privileges appears - they are exempted from recruitment, capitation, and corporal punishment.
Over time, there are more and more people who can count on obtaining honorary citizenship. Peasant riots that swept through the country during the Crimean War, led Alexander II to the conviction that serfdom should be systematically abolished, and do so from above, without waiting for a new uprising.
At sunset era
After the abolition of serfdom, the position of the nobility began to deteriorate rapidly. They manage to keep only half of the plots, and by the beginning of the 20th century, landowners are taking control of already 60% of the plots that belonged to them before 1861. At the beginning of 1917, about 90% of all land was concentrated in the hands of the peasants.
At the beginning of the last century, hereditary nobility lost administrative and economic dominance.
After the October Revolution, all estates are liquidated by special decree.
Types of Nobility
All existed two varieties of the Russian nobility - personal and hereditary.
Hereditary was inherited in one of four ways. He could be acquired with ranks in active service, he could be received by the descendants of especially distinguished eminent citizens and personal nobles, he could be awarded for receiving high awards and orders, and also welcome at the discretion of the supreme authority.
The concept of personal nobility appeared in parallel with the "Table of Ranks". It was acquired at the expense of ranks in the service, by the award of the order, or when a nobility was granted to any person at the special greatest discretion.
Hereditary nobility was allowed to be inherited, married by men. And everyone could pass it on to his wife and all the children. But the woman, marrying a representative of a lower class, could not transfer her rights to her children and spouse, but she herself remained a noblewoman.