r
0THE NOBLE SERVITOR
AND THE PETRINE STATE
\'ANY man who gets his bread for free, even if only a small amouqt, will not
serve the state usefully or make any effort unless he is compelled to do so, but
will try by every device to escape it and live in idleness, which according to the
Scriptures is the mother of all evil.'^1 The most remarkable thing about this
statement, so characteristic of the tsar-reformer, is that Peter seemed to equate
landownership with sloth. Out of uniform, the noble proprietor was seen as
a parasite who contributed nothing to the general welfare; neither his entre-
preneurial nor his managerial role was of any account. In fact only the
wealthiest members of the dvoryanstvo (or shlyakhetstvo, as it now came to be
called, in emulation of the Polish gentry or sz/achta) could afford to live
unproductively from the labour of their dependants. The vast majority took
part in agriculture and commerce to the extent that the inexorable demands of
state service permitted. It was precisely this historic burden which Peter was set
on increasing, with the result that by the end of his reign Russian nobles were
more service-oriented, indeed more militarized, than at any time before or
since.
State service secured them considerable advantages, both materially and in
terms of social prestige. Most of them held officer rank, and in eighteenth-
century European armies those who held positions of command needed at least
a smattering of education. The Petrine era brought about something of
a cultural revolution so far as the country's social elite was concerned, of
which we can touch on only those aspects that directly affected military ser-
vice. The more ambitious noble officers (or would-be officers) went to the new
institutions which Peter founded: to garrison schools in the provinces or to
specialized establishments for engineers, artillerymen, and naval officers;
together these eventually numbered several hundred pupils.^2 Some were sent to
study abroad. Others obtained a practical education of sorts through service in
their regiments, which for the first time in Russian history might take them to
countries such as Poland or Germany-although the psychological effects of
these novel experiences were as yet slight. Much more important was the fact
that virtually all of them came into contact with foreign or foreign-born
I PSZ v. 2789 (23 Mar. 1714), § 3.
2 Bobrovsky, Voyennoye pravo, ii. 705; PiB xii (i}. 5024 (27), pp. 22-3, 282-3, 340, 38t;
Beskrovnyy, 'Voyennye shkoly', pp. 291-4.