Social The structure of society changed and became more complex as feudal relations developed. Some pre-revolutionary historians argued that the free population of the Kievan state did not know class divisions and partitions. Everyone enjoyed the same rights, but, of course, different groups of the population differed from each other in their actual situation, i.e., in wealth and social. influence. The social leaders were called: the best people, (husbands), goblin, big, first, deliberate, boyars.

The social ranks were smaller, black, simple children, smerds. Klyuchevsky and the historians of his school note that the upper stratum of the population (the boyars) consisted of two elements: the zemstvo boyars - the local tribal aristocracy (descendants of tribal elders, tribal princes), as well as the military-commercial aristocracy, the serving princely boyars and the upper layer of princely combatants. Soviet historiography in the class of feudal lords distinguishes the top - representatives of the grand ducal house with the grand duke at the head. According to Klyuchevsky, the middle strata were: an ordinary mass of princely combatants who were kept and fed in the princely court and received their share of tribute and military booty as an additional reward: the middle strata of the urban merchant class. The lower strata - the urban and rural common people - were the main population of Russia. Free community-farmers who owe tribute to the prince, urban and artisans, purchases and ryadovichi, smerds - not free or semi-free tributaries who sat on the land of the prince and carried duties for his personal benefit. The non-free population of Russia are serfs (prisoners of war, bonded serfs, outcasts).

The apparatus of power performed the following functions:

• - Collection of tribute from subject lands in favor of the Grand Duke of Kiev (polyudye);
• - Maintenance of public order in their land. The princes judged and sorted out conflicts and defended their lands from external enemies, especially nomads;
• - Foreign policy activities. Military campaigns were undertaken against neighboring states in order to seize booty, alliances were concluded, and trade and diplomatic relations were established.

The historian Semenikova believes that the Old Russian state was built on the basis of the institution of vassalage.

The upper layer of society - the boyars were vassals of the Grand Duke of Kiev and were obliged to serve his squad.

But at the same time they were full masters in their lands, where they had less noble vassals. The system of boyar immunity included the right to transfer to the service of another prince.

Russian Truth speaks of various social classes of that time. Most of the population were free community members - people, or just people. They united in a rural community - rope. Verv had a certain territory, separate economically independent families stood out in it.

The second largest population stinks; it was the unfree or semi-free population of the princely domain.

The third group of the population - slaves. They are known under different names: servants, serfs. Chelyad - an early name, serfs - later. Russian Truth shows the slaves completely powerless. The slave had no right to be a witness at the trial; the owner was not responsible for his murder. Not only the slave was punished for escaping, but also everyone who helped him.

A fairly large group of the population of Russia were artisans and merchants. Growing cities became centers for the development of crafts and trade. By the XII century, there were over 60 craft specialties; Russian artisans produced more than 150 types of iron products.

There were also such groups of the population as men (combatants) and outcasts (people who have lost their social status).

The most important condition for the functioning of the state are taxes. In Kievan Rus, they acted in the form of collecting tribute (products of agriculture, crafts and money). Tribute was laid out in graveyards and collected from the smoke - the yard, the ral - the plow, that is, from individual peasant farms.

The annexed territories began to be considered by the supreme rulers as state property. The prince's combatants received the right to collect tribute from certain territories.

3. Organization of state power in Kievan Rus.

At the head of the Kievan state was a prince, who was called the Grand Duke; princes dependent on him ruled locally. The Grand Duke was not an autocrat; most likely, he was the first among equals. The Grand Duke ruled on behalf of his closest relatives and inner circle - a large boyars, formed from the top of the prince's squad and the nobility of Kyiv. The title of the Grand Duke was inherited in the Rurik family. Traditionally, power was transferred not only to direct heirs, but also to members of the clan. So, Prince Oleg, according to legend, was not the son, but the nephew of Rurik. However, the sons of the Grand Duke of Kiev were the primary heirs and contenders for the role of princes in the local principalities. After the death of the Grand Duke, the throne of Kyiv was occupied by the eldest son, and after his death, the rest of the sons took turns. This is the horizontal principle of inheritance of power. When, after the death of Prince Vladimir, the squad advised his son Boris to take the throne of Kyiv in addition to his elder brother Svyatopolk, Boris replied: “I will not raise my hand against my elder brother; my father is dead, and my brother will be my father's place."

However, the Kyiv throne of the brothers in turn could take only three elders. Younger brothers were equal in rights to the children of older ones. Inheritance was not familial, but generic. The number of reigns corresponded to the number of members of the clan. With an increase in their number, new principalities emerged due to the fragmentation of the former ones.

In the state structure of Kievan Rus, along with the monarchical branch of power, there was also a democratic, parliamentary branch - the veche. The entire population took part in the meeting, except for the slaves; there were cases when the veche concluded an agreement with the prince - a series. Sometimes the princes were forced to swear allegiance to the veche, especially in Novgorod. The main force on which the power relied was the army (voi). It consisted of two parts: from the prince's squad and the people's militia.

The squad formed the basis of the army. According to the Varangian custom, the warriors fought on foot and were armed with swords and axes. Since the 10th century, the squad has mounted horses, and the axes have been replaced by sabers borrowed from the nomads.

The people's militia was convened in the event of large military campaigns or to repel an enemy attack. Part of the militia acted on foot, part mounted horses. The people's militia was commanded by a thousand-man, appointed by the prince.

In addition to the squad and the people's militia, troops of nomadic neighbors ("black hoods") were sometimes involved in the conduct of hostilities.

Since the emergence of Kievan Rus, a system of customary law has also appeared. The essence of the laws of customary law is: blood for blood, or payment for murder; payment in case of beatings; the right to inherit and dispose of property; theft and search laws, etc.

Princess Olga and Prince Vladimir issued their own laws. Under Olga, the collection of tribute was streamlined, laws were adopted to guide administrative activities; Prince Vladimir, apparently in order to replenish the state treasury, tried to introduce fines for murder. However, the custom of blood feud was an ancient tradition, and Vladimir's attempt ended in failure. The first written set of laws, Russian Pravda, was created by Yaroslav the Wise. “The norms of Russian truth had a great influence on the subsequent development of legislation, although during the period of feudal fragmentation there did not exist and could not exist a single legal code”

2.1 The social structure of Ancient Russia

The social structure of Ancient Russia was complex. The bulk of the rural population, dependent on the prince, was called smerds. They lived both in peasant communities and in estates. The ruined peasants borrowed a loan from the feudal lords - "kupa" (money, crops, etc.), hence their name - purchases. A person who lost his social status became an outcast. In the position of slaves were servants and serfs, replenished from among the captives and ruined fellow tribesmen.

The dependent people were opposed by the free population, called people (hence the collection of tribute - "polyudye"). The social top was made up of princes from the Rurik family, surrounded by a retinue, which was divided from the 11th century. into the older (boyars) and younger (children, youths, merciful). "The new retinue and zemstvo (zemstvo boyars) nobility, which took the place of the former tribal, represented a kind of aristocratic stratum supplying political leaders." The free population consisted mainly of residents of cities and villages, community husbands, who created a significant part of social wealth. They were the social core of the socio-political and military organization in the Old Russian state. This was expressed as follows.

Free community members had their own military organization, which in terms of combat power far exceeded the prince's squad. It was a people's militia led by a leader - a thousand (the militia itself was called "thousand"). The supreme authority in the Russian lands of the X-XII centuries. there was a popular assembly of the "older city" - a veche, which was the highest form of self-government. According to L.I. Semennikova, in ancient Russian society, the ideal of people's rule, collective communal governance dominated: "The prince in Kievan Rus was not in the full sense of the word a sovereign, either in the eastern or in the western version ... Arriving in one or another volost, the prince had to conclude a" series " (agreement) with the people's assembly - "veche". And this means that he was also an element of communal power, designed to look after the interests of society, the collective; The composition of the veche was democratic. The ancient Russian nobility did not have the necessary means for its complete subordination. influenced the course of social and political life"

Opinion of L.I. Semennikova about the popular character of the vecha is shared by many scientists, including I.Ya. Froyanov, A.Yu. Dvornichenko. At the same time, in science there is a view of the veche as a narrow-class body of power, where ordinary people could not get (V.T. Pashuto, V.L. Yanin, and others). Another point of view boils down to the following: the veche became a relic in Russia already by the 11th century. and was collected in exceptional cases, and as the highest form of power, it is up to the XV century. existed only in Novgorod, Pskov and partly in Polotsk.

Veche played a prominent role in the political life of Ancient Russia, so the political system of that time can be called veche democracy.

An analysis of the socio-political situation in Kievan Rus leads to the conclusion that the people were an active political and social force, based on the traditions of freedom and public institutions dating back to antiquity, but built on a territorial basis. By means of the vecha, the people often decided which of the princes to "put on the table", discussed issues of war and peace, acted as a mediator in princely conflicts, and resolved financial and land problems. As for the nobility, it has not yet emerged as a separate, closed class, has not yet turned into a social entity that opposes the main part of the population.

3. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE OLD RUSSIAN STATE

The ancient Russian state in the form of government is an early feudal monarchy. In addition to the monarchical element, which is undoubtedly the basis, the political organization of the Russian principalities of the Kievan period also had a combination of aristocratic and democratic rule.

The monarchical element was the prince. The head of state was the Grand Duke of Kyiv, who, however, in ancient Russia was not an autocratic ruler (but rather was "first among equals"). His brothers, sons and warriors carried out: 1) government of the country, 2) court, 3) collection of tribute and duties.

The main function of the prince was military, the first duty was the defense of the city from external enemies. Among other functions - judicial. He appointed local judges to deal with cases among his charges. In important cases, he judged himself as the supreme judge.

The aristocratic element was represented by the Council (Boyar Duma), which included senior warriors - the local nobility, representatives of cities, and sometimes the clergy. At the Council, as an advisory body under the prince, the most important state issues were resolved (the full composition of the council was convened if necessary): the election of the prince, the declaration of war and peace, the conclusion of treaties, the issuance of laws, the consideration of a number of judicial and financial cases, etc. The Boyar Duma symbolized rights and autonomy vassals and had the right to "veto".

The younger squad, which included boyar children and youths, yard servants, as a rule, was not included in the Prince's Council. But when resolving the most important tactical issues, the prince usually consulted with the squad as a whole. It is widely believed that the boyars were completely free in their service to the prince. The boyar could always leave his court or enter the service of another prince. However, since the boyars became landowners, they could only do so by sacrificing their rights to the land. Sometimes it happened that a boyar, who was the owner of land in one principality, served the prince of another. But, nevertheless, usually the growth of land holdings forced the boyars to more often combine their interests with the principality where they lived.

With the participation of princes, noble boyars and representatives of cities, feudal congresses also met, at which issues affecting the interests of all principalities were considered. A management apparatus was formed that was in charge of legal proceedings, the collection of duties and tariffs. From among the combatants, the prince appointed posadniks - governors to manage the city, region; governor-leaders of various military units; thousand - senior officials (in the so-called decimal system of the military-administrative division of society, dating back to the pre-state period); collectors of land taxes - tributaries, court officials - virniki, porches, collectors of trade duties - collectors. The rulers of the princely patrimonial economy - tiuns - also stood out from the squad (later they became special government officials and were included in the state administration system).

Democratic control is found in the city assembly, known as the veche. It was not a body of representatives, but a meeting of all grown men. Unanimity was essential for any decision to be made. In practice, it happened that this requirement led to armed clashes between groups arguing at the veche. The losing side was forced to agree with the decision of the winners. The veche in the capital of the principality influenced the veche of smaller cities. In the XI-XII centuries. Veche fell under the influence of social leaders, losing the functions of management and self-government.

An important feature of Kievan Rus, which developed as a result of constant danger, especially from the steppe nomads, was the general armament of the people, organized according to the decimal system (hundreds, thousands). It was the numerous people's militia that often decided the outcome of battles, and it was not subordinate to the prince, but to the veche. But as a democratic institution, it was already in the 11th century. began to gradually lose its dominant role, retaining its strength for several centuries only in Novgorod, Kyiv, Pskov and other cities, continuing to exert a noticeable influence on the course of the socio-political life of the Russian land.

The Byzantine treaties of princes Igor and Oleg tell about the complete structure of the society of that time. The social structure of Kievan Rus looked like this:

The Grand Duke - stood at the head of the state, was the legislative and judicial power, resolved issues of international politics, was responsible for protecting the state.

Specific prince - relatives of the prince, who were at the head of the principalities and formed the state administration; owned lands, provided the army of the king with uniformed warriors and themselves participated in military campaigns.

Boyars - the top of the princely squad, descendants of the tribal nobility and noble feudal lords; had the same social rights as the appanage princes.

Black clergy:

Metropolitan of Kyiv - stood at the head of the Church of Russia.

Bishops - controlled church districts.

Abbots of the monasteries - followed the economic and religious life of the monasteries.

The monks served God, did not have their own property and completely abandoned worldly life, conducted economic activities in monasteries.

White clergy - held services in churches, conducted religious activities and could have a family.

The posadniks, the deputies of the prince, were responsible for the order and collection of tribute in the territories under their control.

Volosteli - were at the head of the parish or princely estate;

Tiuns - the servants of the prince and the boyars, took part in the management of the volosts or the city, were responsible for the safety of the owner's property.

Palace officials - officials, led the branches in the principalities.

Governors and thousanders are military leaders of boyar origin.

Ordinary combatants are professional soldiers who received rewards from the prince for good service.

Merchants - merchants, participated in the government of the states.

Artisans - engaged in various crafts, depended on wealthy patrons.

Smerdy - free peasants united in communities; they had at their disposal nearby forests, reservoirs, fields.

Ryadovichi - peasants working for the feudal lord by agreement.

Purchases are smerds who became dependent on the feudal lord because of an unpaid debt.

Kholops are peasants dependent on the owner.

The servants are the attendants of the household yard: laundresses, cooks, etc.

The mob are people without property who did dirty work.

Initially, the princes were the leaders of the squad, chosen by the veche. Gradually, their powers expanded. The prince had his own city, guarded by warriors. This city became the center of political and administrative control.

The support of the prince was the squad. She helped collect tribute and guarded the internal and external interests of the population.

The princely income, and, accordingly, the retinue replenished:

Judicial and commercial duties;

Military trophies;

Sale of tribute in kind;

Fees from the subject population;

Estate farming.

The largest social unit was the community (verv). In her possession were hayfields, forests, arable land - a collective form of land ownership. The community was built on democratic principles and controlled all spheres of life of its members.

In Kievan Rus there were personally dependent people. Kholops had the social status of slaves. For the most part, these were prisoners of war captured during military campaigns. A minority of dependent people are debtors.

Initially, there were no laws in Russia. People lived according to customs. There was a special custom of blood feud - talion. In the event of the violent death of a member of the clan, his relatives must take revenge on the culprit. The first law is mentioned in the 10th century - "Russian Law". The formation of a large state required state laws. Since the 11th century, Russkaya Pravda has been formed. She limited the talion and offered to replace it with monetary compensation. Each subsequent prince made his own additions or changes to the code of laws.

Against the background of deepening property stratification in society and the emergence of private property and its accumulation in a certain small group of people, various social strata were formed.

The socio-political life of Kievan Rus was very active and all groups of the population that existed at that time took part in it. The society of Kievan Rus was not homogeneous. Over the centuries, in the process of the collapse of the primitive communal system and the formation of feudal relations, a social division was formed. The social structure of the population of Kievan Rus was also not simple. At the top of society stood the prince, followed by the boyars, the squad, the Orthodox clergy, the townspeople and peasants. At the last rung of the social hierarchy were slaves.

At the top of the class pyramid stood the monarch - the prince. He enjoyed the greatest fullness of economic and political power and had more rights and privileges in the state, because its owner is the sole ruler. All three branches of power were concentrated in his hands - judicial, legislative and executive. The princes were rich people and owned vast lands. they also owned the largest share in foreign trade. Evidence of wealth was the houses that belonged to the Grand Duke of Kiev and their relatives, donations allocated to monasteries on behalf of the prince, as well as the amount of ransoms for relatives during wars and civil strife. The amounts could reach thousands of hryvnias in gold.

The property of the prince could not always be distinguished from the state property, which was at his disposal. The prince himself received a third of all state revenues. He also had military trophies, which he shared with his wife (army). The princes spent part of the profit on the maintenance of their wives and the church institutions of Kievan Rus.

The prince also headed the aristocratic stratum in the society of Kievan Rus. In vassal dependence on the Grand Duke of Kiev were his closest relatives from the Rurik dynasty, the boyars, warriors and local tribal nobility. They had many rights in the state. Being in the service of the prince, they received large land plots, for which they used hired and slave labor. For disobedience to the prince, the boyars could get rid of not only land, but also life, because the same Grand Duke of Kyiv was the supreme judge in Russia.

Among the privileges enjoyed by the aristocrats was service in the army of the prince and the participation of senior combatants in meetings of the boyar duma. For junior combatants, it was a great honor to participate in the princely embassy outside the state.

An equally important role in the social division of baptized Russia was played by the church organization and the higher clergy. The metropolitan, bishops, abbots of monasteries and parish priests belonged to the higher clergy.

The church had a part of the permanent income for its maintenance and development, from the 10th century. she received a tithe from the princely income. Subsequently, the church became powerful in the economic sense, receiving land and villages in private ownership according to special letters from the Kiev princes and as gifts from the boyars. Such possessions became the main source of existence of the church. The owners were the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, large churches and monasteries, such as Mikhailovsky Golden-domed, Vydubitsky. Being financially secure, the church could also influence the political situation in the country.

One step below the boyars were people of the middle social stratum - the urban nobility. Mostly it was the prince's inner circle, his warriors, merchants and usurers who dominated city politics. Great wealth is concentrated in their hands. Some of their desire to get rich contradicted the desire of the poor, inevitably led to social explosions. The result of exploitation by the top of society was popular uprisings.

Small sections of the urban population - artisans, small merchants, shop owners - walked along the city nobility. The lower classes of the city were represented by niello.

The social stratification of the urban population was also reflected in the process of urban planning. The development of the cities of Kievan Rus has a characteristic division into two main parts: detinets and posad. Detinets, or the Upper City, was intended for the residence of the city nobility and its servants. The center of handicraft in the cities was posts. This part of the city belonged to artisans and merchants. It usually had a large number of craft workshops and convenient places for trade and river piers. The high level of organization of crafts in Kievan Rus is evidenced by the fact that already in the 11th century. artisans of industries were united in artels.

The basis of the economy of Kievan Rus was agriculture, namely arable farming. In agricultural Russia, a large layer was made up of peasants (denoted by the term "people"), who, in fact, played a large role in strengthening and developing the country. They were the owners of land plots, livestock, household plots and were subject to the most taxes. Free peasants - smerds - are the largest population of Kievan Rus. A free peasant had the right to move from place to place, to go to court. The main duty of the smerds was to pay tribute to princes, boyars and other owners, as well as serving military service during the war. However, in the XII century. there were signs of the growing enslavement of the peasantry by the feudal lords, it turns out in the widespread use of "lessons" (working off in favor of the owner of the land), the seizure of communal lands by the feudal lords. The increase in boyar land ownership contributed to the emergence of a large group of smerds who worked on boyar land, remaining personally free for a while. In the event of the death of such a peasant and the absence of a male heir (son), this land, together with all the property, passed to the feudal lord.

Purchases - were temporarily in economic dependence on the person who gave them a loan (a bunch), after repaying the debt, they became free from obligations; ryadovichi - also temporarily obliged to the peasants, signed contract documents (row) for the time of working off the debt.

The next category of the population, according to Pravda Yaroslav, were not free people: slaves, servants. The disenfranchised part were the serfs. Although Kievan Rus in its development bypassed the phase of slavery, the position of serfs was something similar to the position of slaves. By the way, not only a prisoner of war could become a slave, but also a purchase or a ryadovich who did not pay the debt and tried to escape. A person fell into an unfree position, married a slave, or was bought in the presence of witnesses. There were cases when parents, unable to pay off their debts, were forced to sell their children into slavery.

A separate group of the population was made up of outcasts - this is a personally free population that has lost contact with its social group. Sometimes princes were called that; during the period of feudal fragmentation, they lost their table and lands.

The formation of feudal relations in the ancient Russian state took place in a pan-European way: from state forms to patrimonial ones. This process was complex, lengthy and unfolded in stages. First, in the 9th century, a system of exploitation of the entire free population by the prince and squad was formed. The main element of this system was tribute, "polyudye". In the X century. there was a revolution in land relations: the princes seized communal lands, as a result of which a patrimonial land tenure of the Grand Duke arose. The next step in the process of feudalization was the appearance in the XI century. land ownership of the top of the service nobility - the boyars and the Orthodox Church. Land ownership in Kievan Rus was divided into two types: the first - conditional (estates), which was provided for the period of stay in the service of the prince; the second is unconditional (patrimony).

In the X - XII centuries. in ancient Russian society, vassal relations were actively formed: for faithful service, the prince bestowed cities and villages on his boyars and combatants. This process formed the conditional landownership. It was not the territory that was given, but the right to levy taxes from its population. So gradually in the X - XII centuries. in the Kievan state there was a large private landownership. The form of land ownership was the local form of feudal land tenure, which did not provide for the transfer of land as an inheritance and its alienation without the consent of the prince.

With the weakening of princely power, the strengthening of centrifugal tendencies in the state, the feudal patrimony became more and more widespread - hereditary possession that could be freely sold, inherited, donated. Its design took place in the XII - early XIII century. The patrimony could be princely, boyar, monastic, church. The peasants who lived here must not only pay tribute to the state, but also pay tribute to the owner for renting land or work off corvée. However, the majority of the population still remained free communal peasants who paid tribute in favor of the state to the Grand Duke of Kiev.

Although the process of establishing feudal relations in Kievan Rus on the whole coincided with general European trends, it also had its own peculiarities. Firstly, in the Old Russian state, feudalism was born on the basis of the primitive communal system, the East Slavic society passed the slave-owning stage of development. Secondly, in Russia the pace of feudalization was slower compared to Europe, where the traditions of private property had taken root since ancient times; thirdly, the emergence and formation of large land ownership did not lead to mass landless peasants, since within the state territory there was a significant amount of uninhabited, economically undeveloped land. Under feudalism, land was the main means of production. The right to own it became a legal basis, an economic basis for the feudal lords to receive land rent from dependent peasants.

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