Libmonster ID: MD-1380
Author(s) of the publication: A. K. LEVYKIN

One of the topics insufficiently covered in science is the evolution of the situation of small service people (soldiers, city Cossacks, archers, persons of the Pushkin rank) in Russia. Forming an ordinary mass of the armed forces, they played an important role in political and economic life, performed political and administrative functions in the cities, and in life and everyday life they did not differ much from the village population and the peasantry. One of the categories of service people was the gunners. There are no works devoted to them in the Russian specialized literature; only specific aspects of their service, economy and everyday life were touched upon .1 One of the reasons is the fact that the bulk of the documents of the archive of the Pushkar order, to which the service people of the Pushkar rank obeyed, died during the fire of 1812 in the Moscow Kremlin. The vacuum in sources on this topic is partly filled by materials from other orders, primarily the Discharge One, which was responsible for the armed forces of the state. In addition, the M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library and the archive of the Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Troops contain about 3 thousand files with information on the history of gunners, as well as metallurgy, cities and weapons production .2
Serving people of the Pushkar rank in the cities included gunners, machinists, collars, state-owned blacksmiths and carpenters, masters of the production of tools and ammunition. They performed compulsory military service: gunners served with large-caliber and medium artillery guns, zatinschiki-with small-caliber artillery, collars were city guards. In the" commission record for pushkars "in the city of Lebedyan, it was said:" To serve him in his sovereign tsarev service in all sorts of ways, winter and summer, annual and temporary, marching and

1 Lebedyanskaya A. N. Pushkarsky prikaz [Pushkarsky order]. Candidate of Diss. M. 1950; Buganov V. I. Moskovskie vosstaniya kontsa XVII V. M. 1969; Epifanov P. P. Voisko. In: Essays on Russian Culture of the XVIII century, Moscow, 1979; et al.

2 Archive of the Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Forces (AVIMAIViVS), f. 1, Pushkarsky prikaz; Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library, Manuscript Department (RO GPB). Collection of Old Russian letters; TSGADA, F. Razryada. Columns of the Belgorod table, Cases of different cities, Books of the money table.

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post offices and where his sovereign the tsar will send him to his sovereign service " 3 . There are two main types of service for people of the Pushkar rank: with a city "outfit" and in regiments. In the cities, the gunners were assigned two men to each gun and had to "know and protect their place"in the event of a siege or raid. In the second half of the 17th century, each city had an average of 20-30 guns. Gunners were also charged with the duty to carry guards at the state cellars where ammunition was stored, so that "there would be no loss to the sovereign's powder treasury from military or thieves' people." During the day, there were two guards, at night - up to 10 people. In the service of the city "squad", the gunners were subordinate to the siege head, who was supposed to provide artillery defense of the city in the event of "the arrival of military people" 4 .

Since the middle of the 17th century, due to the rapid development of regimental artillery, there is a mandatory service in soldiers ' and Streltsy regiments with an artillery outfit. Interesting information about the service of the gunners is contained in the murals of various regiments. According to the painting of the Belgorod discharge for 1674-1675 years. in the Great Sovereign's regiment there were 69 heavy and 124 medium regimental guns. In the soldiers ' and Streltsy regiments of the same category, there were 5-10 medium regimental guns each. According to the painting of the regiment of voivode L. R. Neplyuev, during the Crimean campaign, 136 gunners from 10 cities of the Belgorod region served under the "outfit". 50 city gunners from the cities of Kaluga, Koroch, Rylsk and Sevsk served with a Large Dutch outfit. In the regiments, gunners stood out from other service people. In the murals of a Large Dutch outfit, it was indicated that they were commanded by lieutenants and a captain sent from a Foreign order. The gunners had their own form of clothing - a blue caftan with a red sash, an iron cone and a mirror 5 .

There is information about the existence of military personnel of the Pushkin rank in the regiments of combat training. In a petition for 1680 from Kiev, General P. Gordon asked to send him "100 good gunners, except for those who serve in the regiments attired, and those gunners should be taught early so that they can become skilled and try on Pushkar shooting, and that a noble person should be in charge of those gunners." From the number of city gunners of the Belgorod table, the necessary number of people was allocated, "so that they could learn how to shoot and try on what size they knew in shooting." Here, in Kiev, 10 gunners were supposed to be trained by a foreign colonel in engineering, digging, fire and grenade business6 .

In addition to military service, the gunners carried out police functions, stood guard at prisons, looked after "prison inmates", escorted convicts to exile and Siberian prisons. According to the royal charter, the voivode of Pereslavl-Ryazan was ordered to allocate city gunners and firemen to the steward Pleshcheyev to catch "thieves and murderers". In the "article inventories" of cities on the southern borders of Russia, data on this kind of service of gunners are often found. Often they were sent to the counties to collect the children of the boyars for service and "hire netchikov" 7 . Gunners were often sent to Moscow, Tula and other cities to work on the production of guns and ammunition. Only in the second half of the 17th century did this practice stop. The "Certificate of affairs of the Streletsky order" states:: "In past years, city gunners and state-owned blacksmiths were sent from all cities to help in the cannon yard and green (powder) mills for all sorts of work tasks, and Moscow was visited for six months or more, but now pushkars and Pushkar rank serve in the regimental service and there is no one to send to work in Moscow" 8 .

For the convenience of serving, the set of city gunners was divided in two, and the service was carried out alternately. In the above-mentioned "help" it was noted: "And those gunners served the regimental service in half, and the other half remained in the city." In the" estimate list " of the city of Putivl, it was indicated: gunners "of the next half that serve the Pushkar service", in

3rd St. Petersburg, 1838, N 306.

4 TSGADA, F. Razryda, Delo raznykh gorod, kn. 3, ll. 377-384.

5 Ibid., Columns of the Belgorod Table, stb. 770, ll. 37-88; stb. 1070, ll. 150-276; stb. 741, l. 231.

6 Ibid., stb. 987, ll. 200. 204.

7 RO GPB, NN 702-768; TSGADA, F. Razryada, Columns of the Belgorod table, stb. 1102, l. 225; ibid., Books of the Belgorod table, kn. 27, l. 729; AAE. T. 3. SPb. 1836, N 64.

8 DAI. T. 10. SPb. 1875, N 93.

page 177

There are 32 people in Kiev. Serving people were allowed to send relatives to serve in their place. For example, the Bryansk documents noted: "Take one ruble of money from six people who sent their children and relatives to the service instead of themselves." 9
Due to further changes in artillery, increased foreign policy activity of the state and the expansion of the official duties of gunners, the previous arrangements ceased to meet the needs of the army. In the last quarter of the seventeenth century, the government pursued a more determined policy of separating service people, including gunners, from their farms. Often in documents there are such instructions: relatives should maintain the arable land and farm of a serving person at the moment when he is in the service 10 . The number of service men of the Pushkar rank in each city depended on the number of guns located there and on its importance in the overall defense system. We have no data on the total number of gunners of the second half of the XVII century. Among the documents of the Belgorod Table, only some list paintings of some cities on the southern outskirts of the Russian state for various years have been preserved. According to the paintings of 1683, there were 193 gunners in Belev, 173 in Karpov,153 in Oryol, 60 in Sevsk and Putivl. Judging by the extracts from the census books for the cities of the Belgorod category for 1692, there were 975 gunners alone without other servants of the Pushkar rank in the cities of the Belgorod table 11 .

The ranks of serving people of the Pushkar rank were replenished by attracting "free", "willing" people to the service. As a result of such sets, peasants and posadsky tyaglets fell into the gunners. When making up for service, a newly-elected pushkar was given a written record of all the Pushkar ranks of the city, so that he "served spravno, so that neither in the Crimea, nor in Nogai, nor in Lithuania, nor in the Germans, nor in which state he could not leave." Pushkar pledged not to steal, "not to play with grain, not to keep a tavern, and not to know thieves, not to make any tricks on the sovereign's treasury." The offender was expected to be severely punished up to the death penalty, and a monetary penalty was imposed on the lieutenants 12 . This type of recruitment existed until the middle of the century, when as a result of the invasion of Poles and Swedes, pestilence and the construction of new fortified lines, there was an acute shortage of service people. Gunners of such sets, as a rule, did not have the skills of military service and sometimes did not perform their functions. For example, Oboyan gunners from "free" people built courtyards on "foreign lands" far from the city and did not come to it in case of Crimean raids. 13
In the second half of the 17th century, the Pushkar service mainly recruited relatives of the gunners. According to the tsar's decree of 1679, pushkars and coachmen from the posadsky people and peasants who were taken into service after 1663 returned to their former state. Military gunners become almost a closed class 14 . The new garrisons of fortresses and cities were also equipped with cannons from other villages. 19 gunners and 4 collars were transferred from Stary Oskol to Tsarev-Alekseev (Novy Oskol), 8 people from Tula and 20 people from Gremyachyov to Verkhososensk, 12 people from Mtsensk and Orel - 15 . In the cities, the Pushkars settled in compact groups in settlements that were located in the prison or on the posad, but no further than three versts from the city. The settlement was divided into dozens of courtyards with a foreman at the head, who was responsible for order in the territory entrusted to him and commanded a group of ten gunners. The size of courtyards (this included the territory under the house, vegetable gardens and outbuildings) was different in each city. In Userda, they were 140 square meters. sazh., in Volkhov-from 1150 to 640 square meters. 16 fathoms .

Life in the settlement was regulated by special decrees. Nonresident people "without memory" from Pushkar were not allowed to settle or even stay here-

9 TSGADA, f. Razryda, Delo raznykh gorod, kn. 19 ll. 213-213ob.

10 Ibid., book 17, ll. 533-533ob.

11 Ibid., Columns of the Belgorod Table, stb. 1028, l. 268; stb. 905, ll. 23-104.

Day 12. N 306.

13 TSGADA, f. Razryada, Columns of the Belgorod table, stb. 905, l. 321; stb. 324, l. 207.

14 AI. T. 5. SPb. 1842, NN 39, 190.

15 TSGADA, f. Discharge, Columns of the Belgorod table, stb. 329, ll. 240-241.

16 Ibid., Cases of different cities, book 19, part I, ll. 232-233ob.

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order and "order record". But, despite this ban, the population of the settlements was quite motley. Outsiders often entered by buying yards from the gunners. Most of these people lived in the yards of the gunners themselves: Pushkar's sons-in-law, brothers, nephews and children who were not enlisted in the service, as well as workers, bobyli, etc. In the settlements, they were not allowed to keep taverns, play cards and grain. Special attention was paid to fire safety. In the summer, when the weather was windy, it was forbidden to heat stoves and baths, those who disobeyed were punished with batogami. On the territory of the settlement went "detours", consisting of the siege head and elected gunners.

The highest governing body of the Pushkar people and the highest judicial instance for the servants of the Pushkar rank was the Pushkar Order. Judging by the "Incoming journal of the Judgment Table for 1691", its competence included all cases of servicemen of the Pushkar rank, up to robbers. In addition to the gunners, their closest relatives were also subject to the order 17 . For their service, the gunners received money, bread and salt salaries. The salary varied from two to four rubles per year. Bread and salt wages depended on the family status of the pushkar. In Pereslavl-Ryazan in 1686, according to the cash books of the great sovereigns Ivan Alekseevich and Pyotr Alekseevich, the salary in bread was "one quarter of rye and oats for the descendants (the same amount - A. L.) "married and" half an osmina with a quarter of a bachelor", the salt salary for married half a pood and unmarried a quarter of a pood per month 18 . Archangel and Kholmogorsky gunners, instead of a monetary salary, "went to the moving huts at the heads and tselovalniki with the help of a cart and the help of a well-groomed man, and that was how they fed" 19 . In addition to the permanent salary, there were extraordinary and one-time cash and grain grants: to newly-recruited young gunners for yards, for getting a farm, for service, for sending for news, "for complete patience" and wounds, for long service, for performing various works and in case of crop failures or enemy raids. The amount of one-time payments was often higher than the basic salary. The payment of a monetary salary could alternate with the giving of a land plot. For example, the pushkars of Putivl from 1622 to 1640 received a monetary and grain salary of 3 rubles; from 1640 to 1649 they were endowed with lands of 10 chet per person, and from 1649 to 1663 they again received a monetary salary of 20 rubles .

The assignment of service personnel to the device, who were recruited from "free", "willing" people, including gunners, was significantly different from the assignment of service personnel in the fatherland who carried hereditary service. According to the device, the land of the service people was given not to one person, but to a group that owned it by communal right, and was allocated for arable land, mowing, pastures. Forest and fishing grounds were also granted. The right to land was conditional on service; the allotment was taken away if the pushkar stopped serving. However, the wives and children of the dead, dead or captured gunners continued to live in their old yards, own arable land and land .21 To a certain extent, the gunners could dispose of the land received for their service: rent it out, pass it on by inheritance, share it with half-timers and third-timers. The average rate of Pushkar land plots was calculated in the range from 8 to 15 quarters, "a in the field of a two-year-old". In the south of Russia, there were larger allotments - up to 25 quarters, for example, in the cities of Saltov, Valuiki, Userda, and Yablonovo .22 The land salary was subject to a natural tax - "chetverik bread", which was used for the maintenance of service people and amounted to "one chetverik rye and oats later".

Many city gunners received income related to commercial and industrial activities. In the first half of the 17th century, the small number of posadsky population in some cities and government benefits made it possible for a certain part of the gunners to set the tone in local markets. Proclamation by the Council Code of 1649 of the monopoly on trade and craft activities-

17 AVIMAIViVS, F. 1. Pushkarsky prikaz, book 20.

18 Ibid., d. 133; TSGADA, f. Razryada, Columns of the Belgorod table, stb. 324, ll. 223-383; Affairs of different cities, book 54, part II, l. 241.

19 DAI. T. 10, N 33.

20 AVIMAIViVS, f. 1, Pushkarsky prikaz, d. 133.

21 PSZ. Vol. 1. Moscow, 1830, N 4.

22 TSGADA, f. Discharge, Columns of the Belgorod table, stb. 905, ll. 23-604.

page 179

the activity of the posadsky people led to a certain decline in the trade activities of the service people 23 . However, judging by the tax books, in the second half of the 17th century, for example, in the southern Russian cities, pushkars together with other instrument people remained the predominant group of merchants. In Karpov, out of 34 shops, 7 belonged to pushkars, in Oboyan, pushkars owned 14 shops and 7 blacksmiths, in Valuyki, out of 31 shops, 12 were in the hands of pushkars. Interesting data on the trade of gunners are contained in the "Customs Books". In Putivl, of the goods that passed through customs (bread, salt, muscovy) totaling 3,711 rubles, 2,300 rubles belonged to gunners and dragoons. Pushkars participated not only in trade, but also in buying-off operations. Kolomna pushkar Vasily Stepanov son of Loginov asked to give him a tavern and customs on Epiphany with a fee of 116 rubles a year 24 .

These data allow us to expand the study of the history of service people of the Pushkar rank, which is important for deepening knowledge about the feudal society of the XVII century.

23 PSZ. Vol. 1, N 1.

24 TSGADA, f. Razryda, Denezhny stoll, kn. 8. ll. 227-302; kn. 4, l. 36; kn. 104, l. 448; Columns of the Belgorod stoll, stb. 905, l. 25; stb. 1006, l. 2.

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