The Noble Servitor and His World 39personal retainers governed his share of the spoils.'^5 The lure of booty was a
powerful incentive for those fighting on the western front; but the Tatars did
not lightly surrender the few goods they carried,^6 which leaves one wondering
huw far 1his factor accounts for the indifferent morale of servitors in the
southern border region.
Certainly they could expect little help from the authorities if they were
wounded or fell sick. In 1566 Grisha Nashchokin 'was wounded in the leg by a
musket and has a bullet in his foot'. He submitted a petition to the Razryad,
which ordered officials in Novgorod to send him a 'skilled doctor' (master
lekar ·, that is, a native healer).^7 Whether he removed the bullet is not stated;
the oddest aspect of the case is the degree of bureaucratic centralization it
reveals. It was long believed that no care at all was given until the seventeenth
century, when a few Western doctors were hired to treat casualties. Several are
known to have been active during the Smolensk War. Apparently they then
returned home, for in 1638, when several men in Belgorod died from scurvy,
the authorities simply recommended that the sick should be discharged-in
secret, lest morale be adversely affected!^8 Gentry servitors were sometimes
granted compensation in land or money, but after the Troubles the treasury
was empty. The unfortunate B. S. Gubarev, with 43 years' duty behind him,
'has his left arm cut through below the elbow by a sabre so that he cannot use
his hand' and had also lost an ear; he was nevertheless ordered to soldier on
until his sons could succeed him.^9 However, by mid-century conditions had
improved. The Apothecaries' chancellery recruited more foreign medical men,
who were paid generous salaries; they were posted to the front and sent sup-
plies; training courses were also set up for about 30 native youths.^10 In the
Crimean campaign of 1689 65 carts were assigned for the evacuation of
casualties (reportedly 20,000 men were killed): a mere gesture, but one which
anticipated methods still employed during the Crimean War.
Lucky invalids, if they were men of rank, would be granted leave or, if their
wounds were serious, discharged.^11 However, veterans were still not regarded
as free men-another trait that would endure. They might well find themselves
sent to hunt down bandits or to do guard duty in a fortress-as happened to
P. F. Lubyatinsky of Arzamas, who in 1636, having retired after 50 years in
the ranks, petitioned that the local voivode be told to stop harassing him.^12
s Alef, 'Crisis', p. 22; id., 'Muse. Mil. Reforms', pp. 81-2; Russ, Adel, pp. 8-9. On tooling
during the Thirteen Years War: Bobrovsky, 'K kharakleristike', pp. 182-3. Bobrovsky was one of
the few hisiorians to break the na1ionalist 1aboo on discussing this matler.
6 Russian enslavemenl of Tatar prisoners is no1ed by Paul of Aleppo, Travels of Macarius,
Patriarch of Antioch .. ., Ir. F. C. Belfour, London, 1829-36, ii. 286.
7 Ycpifanov, 'Voysko', p. 378, dling DAI i. I IO.
K Lakhlin, 'Pomo,hd1"', p. 264.
9 AMG i. 88 ( 1614); cf. i. 73.
10 Lakhtin, • Pomosh.:h", pp. 266-9; id., 'Voznagrazhdeniye', pp. 610-11; A. S. Mulyukin,
'lnos1ran1sy svobodnykh professiy v moskovskom gosudarst\e', ZhMNP, N .S., 17 ( 1908). 10,
p. 328; Alexander, 'Medii.:al Developmen1s', p. 207.
II AMG i. 106 (1616); iii. 21, 35 (1660).
12 Brix, Geschichte, p. 91; AMG ii. 45.