Ancient Russia (9-12 centuries) was a proto-state (early), which was just beginning to form as a political system. The former scattered communities gradually began to merge into united state, headed by the Rurik dynasty.
Scientists agree that Ancient Rus was an early feudal monarchy.
The emergence of the socio-political system of Ancient Russia
The state (Ancient Rus) was formed at the end of the 10th century on the territory Eastern Slavs... At the head is a prince from the Rurik dynasty, who promises patronage and protection to the surrounding feudal lords. In return for this, the feudal lords give part of their lands for the use of the prince as payment.
At the same time, part of the lands conquered during wars and military campaigns is given to the use of boyars, who receive the right to collect tribute from these lands. To remove the tribute, vigilantes are hired who could settle in the territory to which they were attached. Thus, the feudal hierarchy begins to form.
Prince -> votchinniki -> boyars -> small holders of lands.
Such a system contributes to the fact that the prince from an exclusively military leader (4-7 centuries) turns into a politician. The beginnings of a monarchy appear. Feudalism is developing.
Socio-political system of Ancient Rus
First legal document was adopted by Yaroslav the Wise in the 11th century and was called "Russian Truth".
The main task of this document- protect people from riots and regulate public relations. In the "Russian Truth" were spelled out different kinds crimes and punishment for them.
In addition, the document divided society into several social categories. In particular, there were free community members and dependents. Dependents were considered incomplete citizens, had no freedoms and could not serve in the army. They were divided into smerds (commoners), slaves (servants) and temporarily dependent.
Free community members were divided into smerds and people. Possessed rights and served in the army.
Features of the political system of Ancient Russia
In the 10-12th century, a prince stood at the head of the state (which united several principalities). The council of boyars and vigilantes obeyed him, with the help of whom he managed the state.
The state was a union of city-states, since life outside the cities was poorly developed. The city-states were ruled by princely mayors.
Rural lands were ruled by boyars and patrimonials who owned these lands.
The prince's squad was divided into old and younger. The old one included boyars and older men. The squad was engaged in collecting tribute, implementing litigation and field management. The younger squad included young people and less noble people. Also, the prince had a personal squad.
Legislative, executive, military and judicial powers were in the hands of the prince. With the development of the state, these branches of government began to separate into separate institutions.
Also in Ancient Russia there were the beginnings of democracy, which were expressed in the holding of popular assemblies - veche.
The final formation of the political system in Russia was completed by the end of the 12th century.
Political system:
1) Political form reign
2) Structure and competence of central and local government and authorities
The state system of the Moscow principality.
Supreme power in the Russian state at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. carried out Grand Duke... However, he did not carry it out alone, but together with the Boyar Duma, the highest deliberative body under the prince. There is also a restructuring of local government, the feeding system that existed during the formation of the Russian centralized state is gradually becoming obsolete.
The top of the urban population led a continuous struggle against the feudal aristocracy (for land, for workers' hands, against its atrocities and robberies) and actively supported the policy of centralization... It formed its own corporate bodies (hundreds) and insisted on exemption from heavy taxation (tax) and on the elimination of privileged feudal trades and trades in cities.
In the current political situation, all three social forces: feudal(secular and spiritual) aristocracy, service nobility and the top of the posad - formed the basis of the estate-representative system of government.
Until the middle of the 15th century. v North-Eastern Russia the state mechanism existed in the form of the following system. One boyar was responsible for the princely kitchen (for example, the chashnik), the other for the wardrobe (bed-room), the third for entertainment (the falconer), etc.
During the conquest of North-Eastern and North-Western Russia by Moscow, it was important for the Moscow princes to overcome the separatism of the neighboring princes. And if those loyally bowed their heads, then both Ivan III and Vasily III generously left them their inheritance. Only the following changed.
First, the formal legal status of appanage princes. The newly annexed territories were governed on the basis of treaties between the Moscow prince and the former appanage prince.
Secondly, the principalities annexed to Moscow were renamed into counties, and those, in turn, were divided into volosts and camps. The governors were sent to the counties from Moscow, and the volostels to the volosts and camps.
Boyar Duma... At the top of this apparatus was the Duma (or, as historians later called it, the Boyar Duma). From the end of the 15th century. it turns into a permanent organ under the prince. It includes representatives of the most ancient princely and boyar families: princes of Chernigov-Seversky (Glinsky), Rostov-Suzdal (Shuysky), descendants of the Lithuanian sovereign Gedemin (Belsky) and Moscow boyars (Morozovs, Vorontsovs, Zakharievs-Yurievs) and others, but not as princes and boyars - they are assigned certain ranks. Princes receive the rank of "boyar", boyars - "okolnichy".
In the reign of Vasily III, in addition to these two ranks, there appeared "Duma nobles" and "Duma clerks" (secretaries).
The Duma very rarely considers any questions on its own initiative. As a rule, these were problems, the necessity of solving which was indicated by the sovereign. The decisions of the Duma received the force of law only after its approval.
Alien boyars still retain the right to leave, but their own - Moscow - in the 70s. XV century. it is already being lost.
All this means that a relationship of citizenship is being formed.
Orders. Bureaucratic apparatus in the XIII-XIV centuries. consisted two-piece - "free servants", in the capacity of which were the boyars, and the dependent, courtyard people - nobles... Over time, a certain differentiation took place in this dependent category of employees: its upper stratum received the status of "clerks", and the lower - "clerks". From the time of Dmitry Donskoy (1359-1389), the names of three clerks have survived, therefore, the status of this position was insignificant, and from the time of Vasily II (1425-1462) - 20 clerks and clerks.
In the reign of Ivan III, the management of the principality gradually passed from the hands of "free servants" to the hands of the bureaucratic apparatus. The grand ducal chancellery appeared.
Key role in the grand-ducal system, "Palace" and "Treasury"... The first was in charge of the lands of the Grand Duke, the second was in charge of finances, foreign policy, and was also a place for storing archives and printing. When new lands were added to Moscow, structures were created there by analogy with Moscow ones: the Novgorod Palace, Tverskoy, Nizhegorodsky, Dmitrovsky, etc.
In the 60s. XV century. industry orders began to emerge: Local, in charge of land distribution to the nobles, Razryadny, providing them with salaries and keeping records of them, Robber, Posolsky and Chelobitny, Yamskaya, etc. At the beginning of the 16th century. there were already about 10 of them. The orders were headed by "good" boyars ("way" - the direction of activity). A large staff of clerks and clerks were subordinate to them.
Local authorities. Single Moscow state arose during the reign of Ivan III and Vasily III. But the power of the Moscow prince was then still weak, so neither Ivan III nor Vasily III actually interfered in the internal affairs of the annexed principalities.
Meanwhile, the difficult international situation with an undeveloped economy required the concentration of efforts of the entire state. Under these conditions, in the 30-50s. XVI century the remnants of feudalism were eliminated. And on the site of the former appanage principalities, a system of local government bodies arose - "Lip" and "zemstvo huts".
The task of the "lip huts" included the fight against "robberies", "dashing people"... Their competence was determined by statutory "Lip letters"(the first of which dates back to 1539). This local state structure consisted of two elders, chosen from the local "children of the boyars", as well as wealthy peasants, townspeople and appointed police officers. The office work in the "labyrinth hut" was carried out by the clerks. Administratively, these structures were subordinate Rogue order.
The judicial system. There were no single judicial bodies across the country. The court was not separated from the administration, therefore, judicial functions were carried out within the framework of their jurisdiction government bodies, estate, church and private (patrimonial).
The state ones were divided into central (in the form of the court of the Grand Duke, the Boyar Duma, palace departments and orders) and local (in the form of the court of the governor and the volostel).
Army. Until the end of the 15th century. the country's armed forces were the army of the Grand Duke, regiments of appanage princes and boyars. If necessary, collected civil uprising... At the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, in conditions of constant military danger, these formations were no longer enough, and a noble local militia was created. For military labor, the war received estates. Their service lasted from spring until the first snow (there were no hostilities in winter).
The offensive of the state on the privileges of the church. The church was one of the elements political structure country. Therefore, as the power of the Moscow princes strengthened, the former independence of the church began to irritate them.
Social system Moscow principality.
Under Ivan III, the relationship of the Grand Duke to the boyar estate changed significantly. This was expressed in a change in the treatment of the boyars; it becomes arrogant.
But Ivan III still had legends that the boyars were advisers and that the prince should consult with them before starting any business; under Ivan's successor, Vasily III, the autocracy of the Grand Duke manifested itself in a more powerful way. The Grand Duke decided matters without advice from the boyars what Bersen was known to complain about; Nor did he like to be contradicted. The autocratic power of the Grand Duke is also made in relation to the clergy: he has the right to participate in the election and deposition of the Metropolitan. First led. the prince only recommends his candidates, as did, for example, Ivan II regarding Alexei and Dmitry Donskoy regarding Mityai. Dmitry by his own will either invites Cyprian to the Moscow Metropolitanate, then overthrows him. Vasily Vasilyevich Dark already says directly that the choice of the metropolitan always belonged to his ancestors; but neither in his reign, nor in the reign of Ivan III, are metropolitans appointed simply by the will of the Grand Duke.
This order was established only under Vasily III. With the development of princely power, the situation in the Moscow state of the upper class, the boyar, also changed. From a wandering squad, it gradually turns into a settled estate of large landowners and receives land awards from the prince as a reward for its service. Along with this, the boyar's right to leave for other princes began to be limited: the boyar who had departed lost his possessions.
The main importance of the boyars, as assistants to the prince in the administration and his Duma members, decreases noticeably with each reign, and Vasily III can do without their advice. The institution with which the prince consulted was boyar duma... Management current affairs the prince gave orders and orders to individuals. From here were subsequently formed (perhaps from Ivan III) orders; at first, individual branches of management were called paths. This is how the court, or butler, equestrian, falconer, hunter, a little later, the stolnik, chalice, and roundabout appeared. Since Ivan III, the organization of the princely court becomes more complicated and the number of court positions increases; at the same time, the service receives a strictly hierarchical order. At the head of this hierarchy are members of the sovereign's duma: boyars, okolnichy, duma noblemen and duma clerks. They are followed by a whole series of court positions assigned to manage the economy of the Grand Duke or for his personal services: butler, housekeeper, treasurer, armorer, tent-keeper, equestrian, nurseryman, hunter, falconer, printer, clerk, stolniks, cups, bed-clerk, sleeping bags, solicitors, bellies, tenants.
Boyars who occupied various industries management, received the name of good; the upper class of boyars consisted of the boyars introduced, who, at the behest of the prince, also occupied the highest positions. The number of boyars in the Moscow principality increased by natives of different appanage principalities and Lithuania. Inevitable clashes took place between the old boyars and the newcomers. These clashes marked the beginning of tribal disputes - parochialism. For their service, the boyars were rewarded in three ways: feeding, estates and estates. The lower class of the military-service class, which in the specific veche period bore the name of adolescents, children and grids, in Moscow begins to be called noblemen and boyar children. The younger category of service people were "free servants" or "courtyard people". They performed minor positions of customs officers, bailiffs, closers and so on.
There was also a whole class of semi-free « servants under the courtyard»: bee keepers, gardeners, grooms, hunters, fishermen, other industrialists and artisans. From among these semi-free and slaves, various officials of the princely private economy were appointed: tiuns, ambassadors, key keepers, treasurers, clerks, clerks. In addition to boyars and service people, in Moscow there was also a class of commercial and industrial... Their highest class were guests, and then smaller merchants - merchants.
The trading class was divided into hundreds of living rooms and cloth... The lowest class of townspeople - small traders and artisans - is known as black people, which were levied with taxes in favor of the prince and his governors. The peasantry also belonged to black people.
The lands they sat on were black, proprietary and monastic... The peasants who sat on the black lands were directly subordinate to the princes and their tiuns; the rest of the ranks paid a quitrent to their owners and carried certain duties in favor of the state.
Along with the free peasantry, there is also a semi-free enslaving servitude.... As the appanage principalities merge with Moscow, a new Administrative division - county, that is, the district attributed to some city, from where he was tried and tribute was collected from him; parts of the county are now called volosts... This division was extremely uneven. In the city there were governors, and in volosts - volostels, the latter were not always subordinate to governors, and sometimes, especially in large volosts, they communicated directly with the prince.
Sometimes, next to the division into volosts, and division into camps. Veche does not exist in the Moscow principality; monuments and volostels hold all administration and court in their hands... In urban and rural communities, we meet elective socialist and elders, the importance of which is mainly financial and administrative. They collect worldly gatherings, which make distribution of taxes and duties (markings and cuts). The most important of taxes and duties were: tribute and yam- fees to the prince's treasury in money and in kind from households, land and industries; feed - the maintenance of princely officials; city affairs- the obligation to build fortresses; bridging- the obligation to build bridges. Taxes and duties were laid out according to squeezes; three roasts were equal to plow.
Under Ivan III, the Novgorod volosts were charged half a hryvnia from the plow. Taxes from other taxable items were also equated to a plow: a plow was, for example, a tanning vat, a trading store, and so on. Obligations in kind were sometimes converted into monetary ones. The levies from the inhabitants until Ivan III were increased by a tribute in favor of the Tatars. An important advantage of the Moscow princes was that the Horde gave them the right to collect their income.
The princes often withheld these revenues, and sometimes they collected more than they should have. Thanks to this, they always had extra money, with which they bought land from other princes. Customs and trade duties were also an important source of income: myt - duty at outposts and transports; coastal - from those adhered to the shore; bones - from merchants, not goods; attendance - from goods and people who arrived at the auction; living room - for placing goods in the courtyard; tamga - duty on the sale of goods; osmnichee, dying, weighty, stain, horny, imposed crowns - from the newlyweds. Jehoshaphat Barbaro says that Ivan III took into the treasury the right to brew honey and beer and consume hops.
The state united around Moscow represented a qualitatively new stage development of statehood. Huge in territory, six times the size of the former Moscow Grand Duchy, the Russian state had a much more complex structure ruling class and its ruling institutions. State functions have become more complex both in internal and external affairs. If in the feudal principalities of the previous period, the palace and state administration proper were weakly dismembered, now there are functional governing bodies, separate from the palace economy. A multi-stage layer of service people was formed.
V international relations no longer separate lands and principalities, but a centralized state opposed other peoples and states, which in the conditions of an antagonistic class society with constant international conflicts inherent in it significantly increased the stability of peoples in the struggle for independence, which in turn was a primary condition of socio-economic and cultural progress.
Grand Ducal Power
The government of Ivan III tried to elevate the grand-ducal power over the feudal nobility. With special oaths, the boyars were forced to swear allegiance to the Grand Duke of Moscow. The latter began to impose "opals" on the boyars, removing them from his court and thus from higher levels public service, confiscate their estates, limit or expand the immunity privileges of landowners. Second marriage to the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Sophia Palaeologus, the introduction of a new magnificent ceremony at the Moscow court, state emblem- a two-headed eagle, special signs of grand ducal dignity - "barm" (mantle) and the so-called "Monomakh cap" allegedly received by Vladimir Monomakh from Byzantium, not to mention the complete restructuring of the Kremlin - all this was supposed to outwardly emphasize the increased strength of the Moscow sovereigns. However, the actual degree of state centralization depended not so much on the subjective aspirations of the grand ducal power, but on the real correlation of socio-political forces, and this latter was determined by the level and direction of socio-economic development.
Traces of former autonomy
Since the unification process in Russia proceeded in conditions of progressive feudal social relations with their characteristic natural type of economy and weakened by the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the yoke of the development of cities and commodity-money relations, traces feudal fragmentation remained for a long time in the political system united around Moscow feudal Russia... Spiritual and secular feudal lords possessed enormous wealth - land, crafts, sometimes small towns.
A large feudal organization was the church with its own system of court and government. The head of the church - the metropolitan - had his own "court", boyars, army, service people, provided with a conditional feudal holding. The organization of local churches, subordinate to the metropolitan and ruled by archbishops and bishops, was similar. Only for the largest criminal offenses, the trial of church people was carried out by the secular authorities, while the church had the right to court on family and some other cases over the entire population.
The possessions of large secular feudal lords enjoyed immunity privileges, thanks to which the feudal lords had more or less broad judicial and administrative rights in relation to the population subject to them, and often to their troops, which consisted of service people - nobles. After the death of Ivan III, the appanages in the Moscow principality were restored again, which was also one of the important traces of the former autonomy.
Feudal nobility in the new state
There was a sharp struggle between groups of nobility for a place in the newly emerging hierarchy of feudal rulers of a single The Russian state... The princely-boyar nobility of formerly independent principalities and estates in them poured into the old Moscow nobility, who had served the Grand Duke of Moscow for generations. New system the hierarchy was clothed in the form of "parochialism" - the order of appointment to positions in accordance with the nobility of origin, which was determined both by the proximity of one kind or another to the Grand Duke, and by the age of service. The highest place in the hierarchy was occupied by the descendants of the "Rurik" and immigrants from Lithuania - the "Gediminids".
Political system The Russian state became autocracy with the Boyar Duma. and the boyar aristocracy. This is how V.I.Lenin defined this system in relation to the 17th century. 1, when the value of the boyar aristocracy in comparison with the previous time began to decrease, the more this characteristic can be attributed to end XV-XVI v.
Boyar Duma
Under the Grand Duke, a permanent council of the nobility, the Boyar Duma, was formed. Its members were appointed by the Grand Duke on the basis of parochial rules. The initial number of boyars was small (about 20 people). Boyars belonged to the "duma ranks". Subsequently, the ranks of boyars were received not only by the sons of boyars and princes, but in the 17th century. in everyday life they began to call all masters in general boyars; later the word "boyar" became the word "master". The second most senior Duma ranks were the okolnichy ranks, then the Duma noblemen, later the Duma clerks appeared - representatives of the growing government administration. The Boyar Duma sat down daily in the presence of the Grand Duke and resolved issues of internal and foreign policy, and also dealt with local affairs. The formula for the decision was the following: "The Grand Duke indicated, and the boyars were sentenced." Soon the grand-ducal power began to allocate a narrow circle of direct advisers - the so-called "near thought".
Subsequently, the circle of the estates participating in the solution of state issues expanded at the expense of the nobility and the top of the merchant class. It happened in mid XVI v. and embodied in practice Zemsky Cathedrals The embryo of which the researchers consider the meetings of Ivan III with representatives different layers feudal lords on the eve of the campaign against Novgorod in 1471
Church cathedrals
The supreme spiritual authority also influenced the solution of state issues. Although the Grand Duke appointed metropolitans and bishops at his discretion (the church councils assembled on his initiative only confirmed the choice of the Grand Duke), in practice, church leaders did not always act only as advisers and assistants to the Grand Duke - sometimes they opposed his activities if the latter contradicted their interests. Church councils discussed many issues that were put forward by the grand-ducal authorities in need of the support of the church.
Orders
With increasing functions government controlled it became necessary to create special institutions that would manage military, foreign, land, financial, judicial and other matters. In the old organs of the palace administration - the Grand Palace and the Treasury - special departmental "tables" began to form, managed by clerks. Later they developed into orders, when a certain group of questions began to be entrusted ("ordered") to some boyar, around whom a permanent staff of clerks and clerks was formed. The first mention of orders dates back to 1512, but it is possible that they arose somewhat earlier.
The order system was a typical manifestation of the feudal organization of state administration. It was based on the ancient principles of the indivisibility of judicial and administrative power. To ensure orders, they were often given control over individual cities and counties, where they collected taxes and duties in their favor. Orders were functional and territorial, palace and national. The formation of new orders took place largely spontaneously, under the influence of newly emerging needs. The boundaries of the activity of orders were often very contradictory.
For example: financial affairs were divided between orders The great palace, The Great Parish and others. The robbery order was engaged in the pursuit of "dashing people". There were territorial orders - "cheti".
With the annexation of new territories, Kazan, Siberian and other orders arose that were in charge of all affairs in a certain territory. In the orders, a layer of professional officials was gradually formed from ordinary service people - experts in their field, who over time began to influence the solution of state issues.
Local government
To govern in the counties - former independent lands and principalities or their estates - boyars-governors were appointed for a certain period. “Volostels” were sent to help them through the volosts, and “bailiffs” and “closers” were sent to perform judicial functions. Counties were divided into camps, camps - into volosts, and sometimes vice versa. In some cases, there was a division into lands - thirds and quarters. There was no single principle of the administrative-territorial structure. For the performance of their judicial and administrative functions, the governors and volostels collected "food" from the subordinate and subject population in their favor, just as in ancient Russia, according to the "Russian Pravda", there was "pokon virny". This form of government and its provision in practice easily led to lack of control and arbitrariness on the part of the boyars who were feeding, in fact, something like feudal autonomy of individual lands arose again, with the difference that they were headed not by the local prince, but by the Moscow governor. The governors also controlled the local military forces.
Code of Law 1497
In order to centralize and unify the procedure for judicial and administrative activities on the territory of the entire state, in 1497 the Code of Law of Ivan III was drawn up. Unified norms of criminal responsibility and procedures for conducting an investigation and court were established. The class essence of the Code of Law is very clearly visible - with all its content, it is aimed at protecting the interests of feudal landowners, their lives and property, their power over the dependent population, as well as the feudal state. Article 57 of the Sudebnik established as a national law a rule according to which peasants could leave their owners only once a year - a week before St. George's Day, autumn (November 26), and within a week after it, with a mandatory
payment of the "elderly" - payment for living on the land of the feudal lord, but in reality, compensation to the landowner for the loss of working hands. At the same time, in the interests of preserving the contingent of taxpayers for the state, the Code of Laws limited the sources of servitude (slaves did not bear taxes). A person who entered the service of a feudal lord in a city — most often an urban artisan — was not supposed to become a slave. Leaving the city dweller personal freedom, the grand ducal power thereby preserved him for himself as an object of exploitation, a burden.
1 See: V.I. Lenin. Full collection cit., vol. 17, p. 346.
B.A. Rybakov - "History of the USSR from ancient times to late XVIII century ". - M., " graduate School", 1975.
1471 - the battle on the Sheloni River, in which the pro-Moscow Novgorodians won, and they fought with the Prolitians. Finally, Novgorod was annexed in 1478 after the campaign of Ivan III
1485 - Tver was annexed, Ivan III began to be called the Sovereign Grand Prince of All Russia.
The borders of Russia were expanded in the late 15th and early 16th centuries: the Perm and Vyatka lands were annexed.
Moscow - the third Rome - political theory 16th century in Russia, which substantiated the world-historical significance of the capital of the Russian state, Moscow, as a political and ecclesiastical center. The theory “M. - Comrade R. ", set out in a religious form characteristic of medieval thinking, argued that the historical successor of the Roman and Byzantine empires, which, according to the creators of this theory, fell due to the deviation from" true faith", Is Muscovite Russia -" the third Rome "(" Two Romes fell, and the third is, and the fourth is not fast "). Having begun to take shape in the middle of the 15th century, the theory “M. - t. R. " was formulated at the beginning of the 16th century. in the epistles of the Pskov monk Philotheus to the Moscow Grand Duke Basil III Ivanovich.
The theory “M. - t. R. " was prepared by the previous development of political thought in Russia, the growth of national consciousness during the years of the reunification of Russian lands, the final liberation from Tatar-Mongol yoke and the approval of the independence of the Russian state. She played a significant role in shaping the official ideology of the Russian centralized state and in the struggle against the attempts of the Vatican to extend its influence over the Russian lands; in the 16-17 centuries. in the Slavic countries of the Balkan Peninsula, the theory “M. - t. R. " served as the basis for the idea of Slavic unity and had great importance in the struggle of the southern Slavs against Turkish oppression. At the same time, the theory “M. - t. R. " also contained reactionary features - "God's chosenness" and national exclusiveness.
Scheme. Russian centralized state(late XV-early XVI centuries)
Boyar Duma- a permanent advisory body, built on the principle parochialism to discuss important domestic and foreign policy issues.
Castle - national body who was in charge lands of the Grand Duke and land use of the population.
Coffers - national body:
- state archive,
- state seal repository,
- financial,
- foreign policy department.
Governors - representatives of the Grand Duke in the counties.
Functions:
Implementation administrative authority,
Collection taxes(according to the principle of "feeding"),
Completion ships
Volosteli - representatives of the grand duke of the stands and volosts.
Functions:
Implementation administrative authority,
Collection taxes(according to the principle of "feeding"),
Completion ships on grave crimes and property issues.
The governors and volostels received income from feeding, and in Russia there was a special procedure for appointment to office in accordance with the nobility and the position held by the ancestors (localism).
