Peter's Soldiers 105well have to bear muskets as humble infantrymen, at least in the first years of
their careers. During the earlv part of Peter's reign junior offil".f'r~. who were
more likely to hail from the privileged groups, experienced much the same harsh
conditions as their men. Nevertheless it will be convenient to consider officers
and soldiers separately here.
At the disastrous battle of Narva (November 1700) the new Russian regiments
suffered heavy losses-between 7,000 and 12,000 men-which had to be made
good by fresh levies. These were at first raised in haphazard fashion: in 1703, for
example, the coachmen (yamshchikt) of Moscow and certain other towns were
ordered to contribute one recruit for every two households.^39 The authorities
lacked accurate demographic data, since no census had been taken since 1678;
nor did they as yet have the administrative machinery necessary to conduct
another generallevy. This became possible only in 1705, when officials of the old
Pomestnyy chancellery were called upon to assist those in the newly established
Office of Military Affairs; the two bodies then coexisted for several years, the
former managing general levies and the latter partial ones.^40
A decree of 20 February 1705 set the rate at one recruit-it was now that the
Western term rekrut displaced the old appellation datochnye lyudi-per 20
households. Proprietors with less than the norm were to be assessed jointly.
Those chosen were to be unmarried youths aged 15 to 20, of good reputation and
physically fit (dobrye i chelovechnye). Their owners had to hand them over at so-
called 'stations' (stantsii) in the local town, where they were billeted on the
inhabitants and were 'to live peaceably, not harming or imposing upon the
townsmen or travellers, and not brawling or engaging in destructive acts'.^41
Enlistment continued throughout the summer of 1705, so that the deadline had
to be extended;^42 an e~rlier threat that proprietors who failed to fill their quota
would have it doubled seems to have remained a dead letter. Kurakin states
that in fact the system of assessment by households broke down: 'that year
they took all (sic) the young peasants from Moscow district to be soldiers, and
not according to [the number ofl households', and the same thing happened in
other central areas in 1706.^43 He exaggerated a little, for further levies were
indeed raised in this region, and some effort was made to distribute the burden
equitably between geographical areas and social classes.
Townspeople, for example, were permitted to hire substitutes if they had
none of their own kind to send. Substitutes did not need to be bachelors
and-like other recruits-had to bring signed sureties which in their case obliged
their hirers to provide a replacement if they deserted or were killed.^44 Later a con-
cession was made to poorer landed proprietors as well. Those with less than 20
households were allowed to pay a commutation fee, assessed at 40 kopecks for
each household they possessed (less if they themselves were absent on service).^4 '
39 PSZ iv. 1996 (28 Oct. 1704).
40 Avtokratov, 'Voyennyy prikaz', p. 230.
41 PSZ iv. 2036 (20 Feb. 1705).
42 PSZ iv. 2050 (4 May 1705).
44 PSZ, loc. cil.
43 Kurakin, 'Zhizn' ', p. 272.(^45) PSZ iv. 2103, 2104 (l8 Apr., 6 May 1706).