Service class people (russian: служилые люди, sluzhilyye lyudi) were a class of

free Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procur ...

people in the

Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I ...

in the 14th to the 17th centuries, obliged to perform military or administrative service on behalf of the state.

Background

There were two main groups of service people: * ''hereditary servitors'' ''("servitors by birth")'', included

Boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, Russia, Wallachia and Moldavia, and later Romania, Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. Boyars were s ...

s, noblemen and "Boyars' children". They served in the " Landed army", and received land and

serfs Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...

for their service. * ''chosen servitors ("servitors by contract"),'' included Streltsy, Cossacks and clerks. They served in the infantry or administration, and were paid in coin. ;In Siberia In early Siberia, service-men and ''promyshlenik''s (

promyshlenniki The ''promyshlenniki'' (russian: промышленники, singular form: russian: промышленник, translit=promyshlennik), were Russian and indigenous Siberian artel- or self-employed workers drawn largely from the state serf and ...

) were the two main classes of the Russian population. Service-men were nominally servants of the tsar, had certain legal rights and duties and could expect pay if they were lucky. ''Promyshlenik''s were free men who made their living any way they could. A minor group were sworn-men (''tseloval'niki'', literally

ross or bible Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of S ...

'kissers'). These men swore an oath and gained certain rights and duties. In practice the groups blended into each other, and the distinction was most important when dealing with the government. When petitioning the tsar, a service-man would call himself 'your slave' and a promyshlenik 'your orphan'. These people were often called Cossacks, but only in the loose sense of being neither landowners nor peasants.

References

Social history of Russia {{Russia-stub

Background

See also

References