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GENTRY, BUREAUCRACY AND PEASANTRY |
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In
Peter I's state only the gentry enjoyed class privileges
(privileges granted to the merchants pursued solely economic
goals). They could own land and serfs, and had easy access to
the state offices and military ranks, although the czar, as a
rule, did not care about the class origins of his courtiers.
The boyars ceased to
exist as an upper aristocratic class and as a title.
Only the
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gentry
remained, although, of course, diversified from the
point of view of material status, offices and titles.To a
certain degree the situation of the gentry had even worsened.
The main reason was introduction of the mandatory military
service for life for all the gentry males older than 15. Of
course, there was a way to substitute the military service for
civil service, but that applied only to the third and next
gentry sons. Moreover, the gentry had absorbed a mass of
people from lower classes, whom Peter nobilitated and awarded
with titles of counts and barons, and sometimes even dukes
(Alexander Menshikov).
The whole
system of state offices, civil and military, was since then
based on the hierarchy of 14 ranks, through which officers and
officials had to advance; advancement in another way was
excluded. That system, known as the Table
of Ranks, was introduced in 1722 and without changes
existed till 1917. The highest civil rank was that of the
Chancellor, followed by Senior Privy Councillor, Privy
Councillor, Senior State Councillor etc. down to the lowest
rank of the Collegiate Registrator. Military ranks, in the
army and navy, were respectively graded from General-Fieldmarshal
to Warranty Officer and from General-Admiral to Midshipman.
Reaching certain rank, civic or military, conferred hereditary
nobility. Apart from that existed court ranks, like Great
Majordomo, Majordomo, Master of the Horse, Master of the Hunt
etc. Court ranks, as a rule, had German nomenclature and so
the Great Majordomo became Ober-Kamerger,
Master of the Horse - Stahlmeister,
Master of the Hunt - Jägermeister
etc. Practical application of the Table
of Ranks caused numerous problems the Russians tend not
to notice, while they puzzle the foreigners. For example, the
Chancellor in Russia was not an office but a title, and on top
of that awarded extremely seldom and almost without exceptions
to the heads of the foreign policy (in the 19th century
ministers for foreign affairs). Last time that title was
awarded in 1867. As a mater of fact, provisions of the Table
of Ranks foresaw combination of the titles wit appropriate
offices, but in practice the rift between offices and titles
progressed very quickly, and the latter emerged, to some
degree, as a group of ranks of its own.
Sending the whole generation of gentry sons to the civil
service required that they possessed at least elementary
education: ability to read, write and count. And since the
contemporary youth did not show proper enthusiasm for
sciences, the czar invented a peculiar incentive for learning:
men, who did not demonstrate proficiency in aforementioned
skills, were forbidden to marry. In 1714 Peter issued the
decree that deprived the gentry of the right to free disposal
of the property after the death. Since then the inheritance
was going entirely only to one son, not necessarily the eldest
one. The decree pursued the obvious goal - to attract as many
noblemen to the state service. Of course, the noblemen
themselves were far from being happy about such innovations,
and after the death of Peter I they managed to extort from his
successors amendments of the laws in their favour. Peter's
decree had a very deep historic sense, but it was lost as soon
as he died, and towards the end of the 18th century Russia had
transformed slowly but surely into a truly gentry monarchy.
The whole burden of supporting the state was, as ever before
and after, entirely on the peasantry, enserfed, doing their
labour and other dues, overtaxed, and brought to the building
of fortresses, roads and canals. Peter was constantly in need
of money, and in the search for new sources of income he hired
special officials, whose duty was to invent new taxes. Taxes
were charged on windows and doors, chimneys, cellars, mills
and baths, on horse-collars and bee-hives in the apiaries. Big
revenues came from the state monopolies (for example on tar or
potash), and new taxes were imposed on the salt, tobacco and
some other products. As usual, an important share of the
revenues was made from the liquor monopoly. But such a state
of the matters could not continue, because state offices were
not able to handle such a complicates taxation system.
Therefore, in 1719 a new census (so-called first revision) was
made, after which the government introduced a new poll-tax (podushnaya
podat), which abolished all the taxes that existed
before. The poll-tax was charged on all the peasants,
including the state-owned ones, as well as out-of-town
settlers; as a matter of fact it was applicable only to men,
but without exceptions - from infants to elders. The poll-tax
also was charged on kholops;
this way the last difference between the serfs and kholops
practically disappeared. Neither gentry nor clergy paid the
poll-tax, which existed almost to the end of the 19th century. |
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