Soldiers of the Tsar. Army and Society in Russia, 1462-1874 - John L. Keep

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listorians have generally taken a similar view, which for long seemed to be
ven beyond all doubt by P. N. Milyukov's detailed research. However, in
:nt years the former liberal leader has been taken to task by the doyen of
iet economists, S. G. Strumilin. (Curiously, he does not criticize Klyuchev-
although his conclusions were much the same as Milyukov's.) Klyuchev-
taking random data on grain prices, reached a tentative estimate of a 47
~cfli ut:pre::cia1ion oi the rouble between 1680 and 1724, which he expressed
:rms of 'contemporary' ( 1882) roubles as a fall from 17 to 9-a rough and
y index figure which, strange to say, has not been improved on since. In
is of silver content the rouble depreciated by 50.5 per cent, on Strumilin's
showing,^88 which suggests that Klyuchevsky' s guess was at least in the
order of magnitude. But until a comprehensive publication of commodity
: data is undertaken, any consideration of the actual weight of changes in
ax burden, or indeed of changes in personal incomes generally, is bound
main highly speculative.


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ii staff^0 (, ~~.:•«^1 H"
5 _ GvA•.1>
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y j..,~-
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1! .. ,.,-and engineers
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1an frontier force
•tal ;li.ilars
f)f"'-
i-ielated medical expend.
/.:i'"elated construction

'i ~c. sea-going troops)


med forces

Table 3

Estimated numbers

360
5,817
41,674
58,754
69,313
4,526
15,000 (?)
9,150
204, 140 (?)
85,000 (?)

ca. 289,000
15,000
ca. 304,ooo•·
mentioned in Table, 1720 figures.

Es1imated cost
('000 roubles, rounded)
163
245

3,840

300
330
80
4,958
177
25
110
------
5,270
1,422
6,692

C>"YY korpus, a combat and occupation force in the Volga and Persian war theatre.
mgauz(Ro.s:siya, p. 70) puts the army's total alone at 318,500, including 210,500 regulars,
s no justification. S1rokov (/storiya, i. 466) estima1es 1hat 1here were 220,000 regular
~ere presumably following Geysman in SVM iv (2, I). 83.
''Stein, Geschichte, pp. 91-2; Troi1sky, Fin. politika, p. 224; PSZ xliv (i). 3185, p. 5.
revolutionary historians thought that state revenue increased 3 Yi times
n 1680 and 1724.^89 They implied that this indicated a steep rise in the tax
unilin, 'K voprosu ', p. 183.
1chevsky, Soch., iv. 143 (Peter the Great. p. 177); Milyukov, Gos. kho::.. Rossii, pp. 659-60.
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