Boyars and nobles are representatives of the privileged classes that arose in Rus' during the period of princely rule. They were part of the prince's inner circle and formed the basis of his squad, but they had different powers and had different positions in feudal society. According to historians, the boyar class was formed by the beginning of the 11th century and retained leadership for six centuries. The first information about the nobles was recorded in the Laurentian Chronicle; more detailed ones are found in birch bark documents of the 12th – 13th centuries.

Who are the boyars and nobles
Comparison of boyars and nobles
The difference between a boyar and a nobleman

Who are the boyars and nobles

Boyars are close associates of the prince, the highest layer of feudal lords in ancient Rus'. Until the end of the 12th century, the boyar title was granted; later it was inherited. The boyars consisted of the senior princely squad, which controlled the army and disposed of the lands that came into princely possession as a result of military seizures.

Nobles were people from the junior squad taken into service at the prince’s court, who carried out military, economic and monetary assignments for the right to use the land plot together with the peasants assigned to it. Since the 15th century, the nobility began to be inherited, as well as the land granted to the nobleman by the prince for personal merit and military valor.
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Comparison of boyars and nobles

What is the difference between a boyar and a nobleman?

The boyars were descendants of the tribal nobility, had their own lands, and often their own squad, which, in conditions of feudal fragmentation, allowed them to compete with the princely power. The richest and most influential boyars took part in the princely Duma as advisers to the prince; the solution of important state and judicial issues, as well as the settlement of internecine conflicts, often depended on their opinion.

At the prince's court, there were boyars accepted into the select circle, who managed the affairs of the prince and his palace household. Depending on their duties, they received the position of butler, steward, treasurer, groom or falconer, which was considered especially honorable and brought considerable income to the boyar. Payment for such service was called “feeding”, since it was issued for the maintenance of the boyar’s family and his servants.

The difference between a boyar and a nobleman

The boyars, who disposed of his distant lands on behalf of the prince and controlled the collection of taxes, were called worthwhile. From the princely treasury they received funds “on the road”, intended for travel expenses and encouraging boyar zeal.

The introduced and respectable boyars were the main managers of the princely court and belonged to the top of the feudal hierarchy. They were called senior boyars, distinguishing them from those who were part of the younger princely squad, but were not distinguished by their birth and wealth.

In addition to performing the service, the duties of the boyars included the creation of a militia in the event of hostilities and its full maintenance at their own expense. This applied not only to introduced and worthwhile boyars, but also to sedentary zemstvo boyars who did not serve at the princely court.

Boyar service was voluntary. Serving boyars from the senior squad had the right to move to another prince.

With the growing influence of the boyars on public administration, already in the 12th century, at the princely courts, the most devoted small boyars and boyar children began to be recruited from among the junior squad for military service and to carry out the personal orders of the prince. From the word dvor comes the name of a new class that for several centuries played an important role in the fate of the Russian state - the nobility.

The princely charters of the 13th-14th centuries contain the first mentions of service people who were at the prince’s court and were rewarded with land plots and gold treasury for their work. The land was given to the nobleman for temporary use, but remained the property of the prince. Only in the 15th century did nobles gain the right to transfer land by inheritance or as a dowry.

In the 17th century, during the reign of Peter I, the most important privilege was established for the nobles - ownership of inherited property, regardless of service. The class of boyars was abolished, and the rights of the nobles were officially proclaimed on February 18, 1762 by the manifesto of Peter III. They were finally secured by a charter from Catherine II in 1785.
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The difference between a boyar and a nobleman

Boyars are representatives of the highest service class, formed from large feudal lords who owned their own lands. The nobles were in the service of the prince or senior boyar. Until the 15th century, they could not inherit the granted lands.
The boyars had the right to vote in the princely Duma. In the pre-Petrine period, the influence of the nobles on public administration was not so noticeable.
The boyars could move to the service of another prince. Nobles accepted into service had no right to leave it without the permission of the prince.
In the feudal hierarchy that developed in Rus', the boyars occupied a dominant position from the 10th to the beginning of the 17th century. The positions of the nobility were finally established during the period of state reforms begun by Peter I. Read more:
stages of formation of the noble class in Rus'

The emergence of the nobility

The historian Buganov believes that the origins of the nobility must be sought back in the era of military democracy, when the Eastern Slavs developed - under tribal, clan elders, then princes, military leaders - groups of people close to them: senior and junior warriors, the bravest, the most efficient, and gradually and richer due to military booty and princely awards.

They treated the prince as a comrade, were his advisers and therefore shared power with him. But “in relation to the prince, the squad was extremely fickle. The warriors moved from prince to prince, disappeared, and new ones appeared. There was no connection between the warrior and the prince and the zemstvo boyars, independent of the prince.”

Since in ancient times, public service was no different from personal service to the prince, this explains that a variety of categories of the population were included in the prince’s servants, including warriors. A number of servants-combatants helped the prince in various areas of his activity. Along with free people, slaves also served the prince, of whom there were even a majority. These are tiuns, housekeepers, treasurers, and villagers. They, as not free, cannot leave the service or refuse this or that assignment. As a result, they are closely associated with their prince, who valued the loyalty of his servants, trusting them more than free servants. Such a different attitude with the strengthening of princely power led to the fact that the free service began to gradually be restructured according to the involuntary type.

Another name for them is yard people. From the above it is clear that from the first moment this term arose, nobles were both free servants and slaves. At first their position was low. They fight, judge, collect taxes, but their powers do not extend beyond that. Proximity to the prince attracted noble people to the court staff. The children of the boyars began their careers at the princely court as part of the junior squad, since living near the prince meant living “close to mercy.” Among the children and youths there could also be young people of boyar origin, as well as children of boyars. From the 13th century, for example, there are direct indications that among the ranks of court servants were the children of boyars.

In addition to the vigilantes, the localities had their own landowning nobility. Kievan Rus already knows the great princes, simply princes, who sat not in Kiev, but in less significant centers: then - the princely and zemstvo boyars (from about the 12th century they merged into a single class), “greater” and “lesser”. They constitute the service elite of the emerging class of feudal lords, descendants of the tribal nobility.

All these princes, great, “light”, “great” and “lesser”, boyars, also with the corresponding gradations, are nobles, or more precisely, their highest layer, nobility. Representatives of this service elite, according to chronicles, Russian Pravda and other sources, act as princely men - senior warriors, senior officials of the princely administration. They constitute his highest council, the Boyar Duma, receive from him part of the tributes and other fees, land and smerds, and have the right to leave from one overlord to another.

Lower down the service hierarchical ladder were free and unfree, who served the prince's court and his household, both domain and national. These are youths - junior warriors, princely officials; children's, large and small; servants (also junior warriors, personal servants of princes, executors of their household errands). All of them are free, independent people. The lowest level is occupied by the courtyard people themselves, or nobles, people both free and dependent, among them are serfs and younger youths.

The first mentions of the nobles themselves date back to the last quarter of the 13th-13th centuries. In the Laurentian Chronicle under 1174 they are mentioned in connection with the murder of the Grand Duke of Vladimir Andrei Bogolyubsky: his own “merciful people” dealt with him. The Novgorod Chronicle also calls them: “their almswomen.” This term, according to M. N. Tikhomirov, implies “a special category of princely servants employed directly in the palace household.”

The term “nobleman” appears in the chronicles of the last quarter of the 13th century: in Laurentian, Novgorod I; in the Novgorod acts of 1264, 1270. So by the 13th century. the word "almoner" was replaced by "nobleman".

Thus, the first component of the future service class appeared - the squad. She helped the prince in state and economic activities and was in charge of his household. They were free people, especially close to the prince-monarch.

In those days, there was still no difference in the social status of people close to the prince. One might even say that the very concept of service, as unchanging duty and loyalty, originated and was brought up in a servile environment.

Nobles are members of the state administrative apparatus, holders, owners of lands and the people who inhabited them. So we can talk about the existence in the XIII-XIV centuries. nobles as a class category.
Nobility in pre-Petrine Rus'

In the 13th century the Mongols conquered Russia. They imposed taxes on everyone and included everyone in the census, without distinguishing between combatants and zemstvos. Having been formed earlier, several great principalities acquired greater autonomy; the same princely families always reigned in them, so that the prince’s squad soon disappeared into the zemshchina, even the name of the squad disappeared. Together with the zemstvo boyars, the vigilantes formed the highest class among the people - the boyars. Instead of the former warriors, service people began to gather around the princes.

Of all the great principalities, only Moscow managed to strengthen itself at the expense of others and become their leader. The appanages gradually disappeared, having joined Moscow, the entire service class rushed to serve the Moscow Grand Duke, even appanage princes entered his service, first being in contractual relations with him, and then becoming his subjects. When the Moscow Grand Dukes became strong enough and already had many service people in their service, they could boldly go out to fight the boyars, trying to destroy their rights that limited the princely power. The right of service people to leave the prince was destroyed: any transition was considered treason and was punished. These boyars were assigned to the service; It was no longer possible for them to leave; there was nothing to do - they had to serve their prince. Vasily the Dark called the older service people boyar children, the lower ones - nobles, and the word “boyar” became a rank that had to be served. Thus, service to the prince was placed above descent from the ancient boyars. Now the former boyars had to achieve official significance at the prince’s court, and their family significance now meant nothing.

As the Moscow state strengthened and its borders expanded, the influx of nobility into the court staff of the Moscow sovereigns intensified. The number of the court staff increased significantly from the second half of the 15th century, as other principalities annexed to Moscow and with the courtyard servants of the former principalities being added to the Moscow court.

Around this time, the sovereign has at his disposal such a number of court servants or nobles that it becomes too crowded for all of them to live at court. In addition, with compulsory service, they had to have the means to serve it. Hence the manorial system: the nobles were located on the sovereign's land, plots of which were transferred to them for use under the condition of service. This is how noble landowners appeared.

In this new capacity, the nobles still continue to stand lower than the boyars and the boyars’ children, who, as a reward for their service, receive food or lands as their patrimony. The difference continues to exist between the compulsory service of nobles and the free service of boyars and boyar children. But the Moscow princes very early began to struggle with the disadvantages of free service, mainly with the freedom of departure. Recognizing this freedom in numerous inter-princely agreements, in practice they fight against it in every way, applying various “sanctions” to the “departures”: they take away their estates, lower their service honor and other penalties, including the death penalty. To prevent departure, the Moscow government takes suspects’ records of “non-departure,” guaranteeing such records with bail and cash deposits. When, by the beginning of the 16th century, almost all other principalities were annexed to Moscow, there was nowhere to leave except Lithuania, and leaving for a foreign state was, from the government’s point of view, treason. This view also penetrates into the service environment: repentant exiles ask the sovereign to remove from their name the “nasty” that has weighed on them since their departure.

In the 16th century, freedom of departure no longer existed, and at the same time free service lost its significance: for free servants, the obligation to serve arose and, according to the type of service, differences between nobles and boyars began to disappear. Another difference, in social status, also gradually smoothed out during the 16th century. Boyars and boyar children already from the end of the 15th century. receive estates, initially, however, only in exceptional cases. John III confiscated the estates from the Novgorod boyars in 1484 and 1489 and allocated them with estates in Moscow and other districts. He distributed the confiscated estates on the estate to the Moscow boyar children. John IV in 1550 ordered that 1,000 boyar children be placed in a Moscow district and allocate estates to the boyars who did not have estates or estates in the area.

Ivan the Terrible placed service value even higher than family value. The highest class of service people was named after the former lower service people, the nobles, to show that everything for a service person depended on his service to the king, and to erase the memory of him from the ancient all-powerful boyars. The lower service people, as if to “humiliate” the new nobles, were called boyar children, although they were from the boyars.

In the first half of the 16th century. in official acts, boyar children are always ranked higher than nobles, although in reality they were legally equalized, and in fact the position of boyar children often forced them to even become slaves. From the second half of the 16th century. boyar children are already called nobles, and when both of these terms are found side by side, the nobles are often placed above the boyar children. In the 17th century This is already the usual order.

The triumph of one term over the other marks the final victory of the court service of the nobles over the once free service of the boyars' children.

But now only a few nobles had the lot to serve at the sovereign’s court or at least near the court: most nobles carried out this service in the cities. This noble service was military and became compulsory. In 1556, John IV “carried out the established service from the estates and estates”: from 100 quarters of the land an armed man on horseback was to be deployed. It is now impossible to negotiate about service: it is determined by decree. Lists began to be kept for all service people: first, from the middle of the 15th century, only for the more important court ranks (boyar books), and from the middle of the 16th century. - and for all others (lists of nobles and boyar children by city). The purpose of these lists is to alert military forces. Therefore, in the lists of the nobility it was indicated about each serving person, “how he will be horsed and armed and peopled in the sovereign’s service,” and in addition, local salaries and the amount of monetary salary were shown. To compile such lists, periodic reviews or examinations of nobles in cities were carried out. For each city, salarymen were selected from among the nobles, who compiled information about each serving person about his property, previous service and the service he could serve. Based on this data, the analysis of the nobles took place. The difference between them is that the former served as soldiers and regiments, while the latter served as ordinary soldiers.

The oldest indications about such layouts date back to the 30s of the 16th century. Along with the introduction of lists of nobles, it gradually became the norm that only children of the nobility could be included in the number of city nobles, and in the 16th century there were already regulations that “servants of boyars and non-servants of any rank, fathers of children and brothers and nephews and plowed men should have no one as children of boyars they didn’t call the layouts, and they didn’t set up their salaries as local ones.” This marked the beginning of the nobility. If qualitative differences are noticeable among city nobles, then the greater the difference between them and the nobles recorded according to the Moscow list. Moscow nobles are significantly higher than the city nobles, and for each of the latter there has always been a goal to be included in the list of Moscow nobles. The advantages of the Moscow nobles boiled down to the fact that their service took place in front of the sovereign, and all the highest court and Duma ranks were recruited from among them. The beginning of this category of nobles was laid by John IV, who in 1550 ordered a thousand children of boyars and the best servants to be placed near Moscow. Later, the composition of this Moscow guard was replenished both by the descendants of these elected servants and by some of the elected city nobles. The children of the largest Moscow nobles began their service as Moscow nobles, and then, depending on their birth, received appointments to one or another court rank, starting with the solicitor and ending with the highest Duma ranks. Some of the Moscow nobles directly complained to the boyars. In addition to the Moscow nobles, the royal court had an extensive staff of courtiers. Since the 17th century many of them were converted to a simple court rank, to which Moscow nobles were elevated as a form of distinction.

Thus, the title of Moscow nobleman was also the main one for higher ranks.

Contingent of nobles of the 17th century. presented a very motley picture. It included descendants of princely families, old boyars, children of boyars and ordinary nobles, whose ancestors were often slaves all their lives. Therefore, people of pedigree among the nobility, who retained their place in the highest ruling class, looked with the same contempt on the unborn and seedy nobles as they did on other classes of the lower population, and in localism they even developed a special procedure for protecting their social and official position from comparison and rapprochement with thin and seedy nobles.

Summarizing the development of the noble class in the pre-Petrine period, we can conclude that the Mongol yoke brought the squad closer to the zemstvo boyars and destroyed their independence, which was the reason for their transformation into the service class, along with the squad, which at that time occupied key positions in the government of the country.

Then, as a result of the introduction of the estate system, along with the noble landowners, landowner-boyars and boyar children appeared. So there were no longer any legal barriers for the nobles to become votchinniki.

The Tsar relied on the nobles in the fight against the boyars at this time. So he becomes somewhat dependent on them.

At the end of the 17th century. nothing in common could exist between such different elements as bloodlines and high-born nobles, nothing united them, therefore in those days there were a lot of contradictions within the service class.

Before Peter I, the Moscow government carried out intensive legislative and administrative development of class duties for the nobles, for the service of which they were provided with certain benefits or benefits, which later turned into their class rights

Boyars as a category of the ancient Russian population

In Ancient Rus', boyars arise as a result of the decomposition of the clan system, but already in the Kiev period (ninth - twelfth centuries), first in the region of Polyudye, and with the establishment of graveyards, which was carried out by Princess Olga, in the north of Rus'.

On the other hand, all the tasks of collecting polyudye, as well as actually ensuring the export of its results, commanding the Kiev army, managing the princely economy, etc. required the presence of a powerful administrative administrative apparatus in the state, and the princely senior squad acted as boyars in the early Kiev period of the state.

A well-known researcher of the life of Ancient Rus', A. E. Presnyakov, connects the formation of the boyars with the transition to the appointment of “city elders” or centurions as princes by the beginning of the tenth century and points to the first manifestation of the independent position of the boyars in the historical proposal to Boris Vladimirovich to expel his brother Svyatopolk from the center of Kiev, to seize the throne, which happened in 1015 (campaign against the Pechenegs).

At the same time, the senior squad becomes the most influential and independent component of the veche. Thus, the boyars of the Kiev period became subservient landowners to the prince with the number of soldiers, which directly depended on the size of their land holdings (at the same time, they could have possessions, the source of which were princely possessions), and as part of the warriors, they had the right to influence the princely order of inheritance. All boyars owned land holdings or estates in which they had absolute power, but at the same time, the main source of feudal duties of the peasantry for the boyars' benefit was not serfdom, but debt dependence, which was significantly limited at the beginning of the twelfth century by Vladimir Monomakh.

Thus, after the strengthening of the authority of the great princes, starting from the second half of the fourteenth century, the class of serving feudal lords, called nobles, began to strengthen. In addition, land-poor princes are also renamed boyars. The so-called good boyars are also formed, occupying certain economic positions at the princely court (armourer, equerry, okolnichy and others). In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with the formation of a centralized state, the political and property rights of the boyars were significantly limited. For example, by the end of the fifteenth century, the right of vassals to leave their master was abolished.

Any reader can easily imagine a Russian medieval boyar: portly, in an awkward brocade fur coat (even if the room is hot or it’s summer outside), in a tall fur hat, frantically arguing about a place at the table, inserting into his speech now “dondezhe”, now “like”, then something like “it must be so, Nadezhda-Osudar”... How many such boyars have we seen on television and film screens and theater stages! A boyar specialist knows much worse. We still cannot even reliably say what this... mysterious term “boyars” means

There is more than one hypothesis about its origin. They were looking for Slavic roots - either from “battle” (then it turns out that the boyar is a warrior), or from “boliy”, that is, big, because among the southern Slavs the word sounds like “bolyarin”. The roots were assumed to be Turkic and Scandinavian. None of the hypotheses have been proven, but none have been completely refuted. But it is known: the more hypotheses there are, the less likely it is that at least one of them is true. It is only clear that this word is not common Slavic: it is found among the southern and eastern Slavs, but not among the Western ones.

In Rus', boyars for the first time mention the prince’s agreement with, concluded around 911. But then we didn’t hear about the boyars for about a century and a half or two. What's the matter? It has long been suggested that “boyars” is a Bulgarian word, and the translation of the Byzantine-Russian treaty into the Slavic language was done by a Bulgarian and used a familiar word. Only in the 12th century, in the articles of the Extensive Russian Pravda, we find individual indirect references to boyars: the code included boyar serfs, boyar ryadovichi (minor servant-administrators), and boyar tiuns (administrators).

Alas, not only the origin of the term “boyars,” but also its meaning cannot be determined unambiguously: after all, at different times and in different territories, sometimes very dissimilar social groups were called this way. Rich and noble nobles in medieval Rus' are boyars; in Moldova in the 17th century - all feudal lords, small and large; in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, even military servants who occupied an intermediate position between the gentry and peasants were called armored and worthwhile boyars. But... let's return to Rus'.

Before moving into the depths of centuries, let's turn to a single state, to the 15th-16th centuries. And let us immediately see that boyars are a multi-valued term here too. In the narrow sense of the word, this is a high-ranking service person who received the rank of boyar, sitting in the Boyar Duma. There were boyars not only in the Duma of the Grand Duke (and then the Tsar), the appanage princes, the Metropolitan, and some archbishops also had their own boyars. Of course, their social weight was not the same. After the liquidation of the appanage principality, the appanage boyar usually was no longer a member of the all-Russian Duma and lost his “boyarship.” In addition to the boyars, okolnichy (lower rank) also sat in the All-Russian Duma, and from the middle - second half of the 16th century - “Duma nobles”. The name “boyars” was sometimes also applied to all of them. As A.A. Zimin established, when at that time they said that the decision was made by “all the boyars,” they meant both the okolnichy and the Duma nobles.

How many of these “all boyars” were there? In general, not so much. In appanage times, princely dumas consisted of three or four people. At first the Duma of a unified state was also small. When Vasily III ascended the throne in 1505, he was left with five boyars and five okolnichy from his father. True, in the early sixties of the 16th century, the Boyar Duma grew incredibly for a short time - up to 40 boyars and 16-18 okolnichy, but by the end of the reign there were only two and a half dozen people in it - 12 boyars, 6 okolnichy and 7 Duma nobles. However, in the 17th century the Duma was constantly growing. For example, in 1678 there were 42 boyars, 27 okolnichy and 19 Duma nobles.

In addition to this narrow meaning of the word, there was another, broader one. Let's open the Code of Laws of 1497, the first set of laws of the unified Russian state. In the article “On the Lands Judgment” we read: “And the boyar will exact punishment from the boyar...”. A similar article in the Code of Laws of 1550 contains the same wording. In court cases and disputes with neighboring landowners, black-growing peasants often complain that their neighbor wants to “possess that sovereign’s land of yours.” So, another meaning of the mysterious term emerges - every landowner-patrimonial landowner. And not just the big one. We know from sources that there are many estates, the size of which is insignificant: one or two villages, and in a village there are two or three, or even one courtyard. It was this meaning of the word “boyar” that ultimately led to the fact that every votchinnik and landowner began to be called a master, that is, the same boyar. (By the way, it’s interesting whether the medieval boyars stood out for some purely external attributes of prestige. After all, for example, it is not difficult to buy prestigious Guess watches in Ukraine in our time, but what were the attributes of prestige in those days? It is quite possible that the same fur hat worn by the boyars both winter and summer.)

So what boyars are we talking about in this article? About boyars in the scientific meaning of the word, about large landowners who came from those families who often “were among the boyars” and occupied boyar positions - governors in large districts and cities, governors, ambassadors and envoys, etc.

But immediately we come across one significant difference within Rus' itself. We are well aware of the Novgorod boyars. This is a hereditary closed caste. You had to be born a Novgorod boyar, you cannot become one.

Is such heredity of boyars typical for other Russian lands? Let us pay attention to the fact that the Novgorod boyars (probably, to some extent also the Polotsk ones) were independent of the princely power, although they were dependent (at least the Novgorod ones) on the veche. There is even the term “Zemstvo boyars”: they are mentioned in the Novgorod Chronicle in 1344. In the rest of the lands of Rus', the boyars are always the top of the princely squad, the prince’s brilliant entourage, those with whom the prince “thinks” about the “order of the earth,” that is, about the affairs of the country. It is no coincidence that in Russian wedding rites the bride and groom are called prince and princess, and the guests are called boyars. The “boyars” here do not act on their own, but as an entourage of the “prince”. The peculiarities of the Novgorod boyars are probably associated with the specifics of the Novgorod political system - the republican one.

Boyar warriors did not immediately become landowners. Initially, this upper layer of the prince's military servants lived off war booty and tribute collection. When... did boyar villages appear in Rus'?

Most scientists attribute the origin of the boyar estate in the Dnieper region and Novgorod land to the 11th-12th centuries. The same part of the Russian land where the Russian state subsequently formed, the territory of the Volga-Oka interfluve, in the 11th and even in the 12th century was still a distant periphery of the country. But from the middle of the 12th century, here, in North-Eastern Rus' - in the Rostov, Suzdal, and Vladimir lands, boyar villages began to be mentioned in chronicles.

The terrible Batu invasion in the thirties of the 13th century was a disaster for the entire country, including the feudal lords. The boyar warriors died together with the princes in bloody battles, during the siege of cities: after all, they were professional warriors. Looking at the genealogies of Moscow boyar families of the 15th-16th centuries, it is easy to notice: most of them go back no deeper than the turn of the 13th-14th centuries. Those boyars who know their ancestors who lived before Batu’s invasion are newcomers from other lands of Rus', most often from Novgorod, where Batu’s troops did not reach.

Probably, the enemy invasion artificially interrupted in the thirties of the 13th century the process of establishing boyar estates that had already begun - the first feudal lords were simply exterminated. But in the second half of the 13th century, this process began anew, and the flourishing of boyar land ownership in the northeast of Rus' can already be attributed to the 14th century. At first, the boyar estates were small - peculiar small subsidiary farms for princely vassals and servants. After all, subsistence farming dominated in the country, and therefore there was no need to produce agricultural products for the market, but it was necessary to have your own village, which would eliminate the need to purchase grain and meat, butter and milk. Only overseas delicacies and grape wines had to be purchased externally. And a larger estate was initially simply not needed.

How did the boyars become landowners? How did “nobody’s”, “God’s” land, communal land turn into the private property of individuals? We will never be able to answer this question definitively and accurately. And there is an objective reason for this: we learn from sources about land ownership when it has already been established, when lands belonging to feudal lords are sold, bought, when they are bequeathed to heirs or donated.

And yet we have some grounds for assumptions. We know how land ownership developed in Novgorod, where the boyars received their lands as a grant from the veche or bought them from the communities. We know how the monastery possessions were formed: they were donated by princes. There are mentions in some genealogies that the princes also granted land to the boyars. Probably, most of the estates of North-Eastern Rus' are the result of princely distributions. It was “from above” that boyar land ownership arose.

And perhaps this is why the Russian boyar was much more closely connected with his sovereign than the Western European baron, and much less connected with his land holdings. This fact was reflected even in the nature of the surnames of the nobility: the surnames of French and German nobles are derived, as a rule, from their names (using the prepositions “de” and “von”); Most of the surnames of Russian untitled boyars come from the names or nicknames of their ancestors.

Much was already, as it were, programmed by the fact that the boyar estates owed their existence to the grand-ducal power: the relatively early emergence of a single state, severity, and sometimes greater despotism than in other European countries, the grand-ducal and then the tsarist power.

BOYARIN

1) Large landowner, representative of the upper class of feudal lords in Ancient Rus' ( cm.). In government boyars took second place after grand dukes. At the courts ( cm.) grand dukes, they controlled individual branches of the palace economy or territories. The boyars were subordinated to the prince and had their own subordinates. During the period of feudal fragmentation (XII-XV centuries), with the weakening of princely power, the economic power and political influence of the boyars increased. In the Novgorod feudal republic ( cm.) they actually ruled the state. In the 14th century, during the formation of the Russian centralized state, the property and political privileges of the boyars were significantly limited. In the middle of the 16th century. dealt a particularly strong blow to the boyar aristocracy. In the 17th century many noble boyar families died out, others weakened economically; the importance has increased nobility as a new aristocracy. Boyars how a special class with its social and economic privileges ceased to exist under Peter I at the beginning of the 18th century. The title of boyar was abolished in the Petrine era.

2) The highest rank (title) of a government official in Moscow ( cm.) Rus' in the 15th - 17th centuries, which gave the right to participate in meetings Boyar Duma, occupy the main administrative, judicial and military positions, lead orders(type of ministry), to be the governor of certain regions (that is, to represent both military and administrative power there). The title of boyar was given primarily to persons from the most noble families. But in the 16th and especially in the 17th centuries. Representatives of the unborn nobility also received the rank of boyar and the corresponding position in the state apparatus for their personal merits.

Russia. Large linguistic and cultural dictionary. - M.: State Institute of Russian Language named after. A.S. Pushkin. AST-Press. T.N. Chernyavskaya, K.S. Miloslavskaya, E.G. Rostova, O.E. Frolova, V.I. Borisenko, Yu.A. Vyunov, V.P. Chudnov. 2007 .

See what "BOYARIN" is in other dictionaries:

BOYARIN- husband. noblewoman now master, lady. (From battle, to beat, voivode? from bolyarins, to root for someone, to care? from pain, highway?) To know the boyars, gain intelligence (it’s not a sin to get rich). A boyar is not even a brother in rags. Such and such a boyar, but still not a man. Everyone... ... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

boyar- Cm … Synonym dictionary

boyar- BOYARIN, historian. - Oh mean. see below. - And before your letter, we sent the Surgut Litvin Yakov Sergunov to Tobolsk, the newly baptized Narymsky Oleshka Sanbycheev with service and other matters (1. 384). SRI 19: boyar “1) in Dr. Rus' and Moscow. state -... ... Dictionary of the trilogy “The Sovereign's Estate”

BOYARIN- BOYARIN, boyar, pl. boyars, boyars, husband. (source). In Muscovite Rus', a person belonging to the upper class. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

BOYARIN- BOYARIN, ah, plural. yare, yar, husband. 1. In Russia until the beginning of the 18th century: a large landowner belonging to the upper stratum of the ruling class. 2. In Romania before 1945: tribal or local feudal lord. | adj. boyarsky, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I.... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Boyarin- This term has other meanings, see Boyarin (meanings). Russian boyars Boyarin (f. boyarynya, plural boyars) in the narrow sense, the highest stratum of feudal society in the X ... Wikipedia

BOYARIN- Marry the boyars. Prikam. Outdated The name of the youth game. MFS, 36. Great boyars (boyars). Sib. Witnesses, guests of honor at the wedding from the groom's side. SPS, 27; FSS, 15. Small boyars. Sib. Witnesses from the bride. SPS, 27; FSS, 15. Great boyar... Large dictionary of Russian sayings

boyar- a, m. Large landowner; a person who had the highest degree and rank in pre-Petrine times. And he said, looking at the ground, to the noble boyar. // Nekrasov. Who lives well in Rus' // BOYARSKY, BOYARISHNYA, ◘ NEAR BOYARIN, ◘ DUMA BOYARIN... Dictionary of forgotten and difficult words from works of Russian literature of the 18th-19th centuries

BOYARIN- Mishko Boyarin, peasant of Kolomna district. 1495. Scribe. I, 72. Andrey Boyarin, landowner in Vilna. 1643. Arch. Sat. VI, 342… Biographical Dictionary

boyar- Probably common glory. suf. derivative (cf. master) from the lost boyar, clan. n. boyars (most likely, primordial formations with suf. ar from battle fights “battle, battle”). See beat. A boyar is originally a “fighter, warrior, combatant”... Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language

boyar- I boyar of the forests (Melnikov 3, 266) – a euphemistic name for a bear. See boyar. II boyar other Russian. boyar, from where master, Ukrainian. boyar, old glory bolin, pl. bole μεγιστᾶνες (Supr.), Bulgarian. bolyarin, bolyar, serbokhorv. Boarin. With this word... ... Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language by Max Vasmer

Boyars- the highest class of feudal landowners in Rus' in the 9th-17th centuries. In Kievan Rus and during the period of feudal fragmentation, they were members of the princely council and had their own armed detachments. With the formation of the Russian state, they were members of the Boyar Duma, the title of boyar became the highest court rank, complained by the tsar. They were usually at the head Boyars Abolished by Peter I. Boyars– Already in the most ancient monuments of our history we find evidence of the existence of a special government class or circle of people who were the prince’s closest government employees. These people are called boyars, and sometimes the prince’s retinue, and constituted his usual council, with which he thinks about the organization of the land.

Along with the princely power, which has a state character, there is also a special military class - the princely squad, princely men. This was a class of the population closer to the prince, which is proven by the greater punishment laid down in the Russian Pravda for the murder of the prince-husband, i.e. warrior, viroya. This position of the warrior was also the source of his wealth, and the warriors were generally richer than the rest of the population, with the exception of a few especially rich guests. There was a difference between the boyars, but only an everyday one, similar to the division of people in general into the best, average and worst. In the chronicles other Boyars called lepshi, great, etc.; The chronicle contemptuously calls some boyars boyars, although here contempt may refer not to their position, but to their actions. Could be Boyars and subordinate to one another.

From the best people among the inhabitants of each land and from the highest members of the princely court of warriors, the class of boyars was formed. The best people are called. zemstvo boyars as opposed to princely boyars, princely men. The chronicle of the best people is sometimes called. “city elders” or “people.” Having acquired a closer meaning at the prince’s court, the title of boyar expanded beyond the government sphere: in the language of private civil relations, all service privileged landowners and slave owners were called boyars, regardless of the court hierarchy, due to the close connection of the then land ownership with slavery. This is the boyar in Russian Pravda, and with the same meaning this word passes through the monuments of our law until the 18th century.

The highest government class in the principality of the appanage time is designated in the princely charters of the 14th and 15th centuries. The name of the boyars introduced and worthwhile or travelers. Boyars those introduced were the managers of individual departments of the palace administration or palace economy, the butler, the treasurer, the falconer, the steward, the cup maker, etc. All palace officials, high and low, who received palace lands and income for travel or feeding, were called putny.

The boyar who was introduced was well-behaved and worthwhile, because he usually enjoyed such a salary; but as a great boyar, he towered over ordinary travelers who were not the main managers of individual departments of the palace economy. The prince, appointing the boyars as the main managers of his palace economy, entrusting them with his house servants in his household affairs, seemed to introduce these boyars into his palace, so that they were considered as if living in the palace. In such cases, the title: “introduced boyar” corresponded in meaning to the later title of boyars of the household or neighbors.

So, from two elements - the druzhina (servant) and the zemstvo, one boyar class is formed (from the 11th century), when the druzhinniki, having settled, became local landowners, and the zemstvo Boyars through the palace services they moved to the class of princely men. The princely courts, while continuing to exist, prepared new service elements, which gradually merged again into the zemstvo boyars.

The formation of class corporatism was also hampered by the methods of entry into the boyar class that were practiced at that time. The one who occupied the highest place in the service (princely or zemstvo) and acquired more or less rich property became a boyar. Personal qualities (with elevation in society) prevailed in ancient Slavic societies over birth and heredity. Birth influenced the assimilation of the boyars only in fact, i.e. It was easier for the son of a boyar to achieve boyarhood. As a result, ancient Rus' did not know family names; the chronicle tells us only the names and sometimes patronymics of the boyars. In the absence of corporatism, the boyar class could not enjoy any privileges (exclusive rights).

Wed. Al. I. Markevich, “History of Localism in the Moscow State in the 15th – 17th centuries.” (Odessa, 1888); V. Klyuchevsky, “Boyar Duma of Ancient Rus'” (Moscow, 1888).

Lit.: Klyuchevsky V O Boyar Duma of Ancient Rus'. M. 1937. Trino F.P.