The Noble Servitor and the Petrine State 121
The obligation to denounce those in hiding extended to their relatives, who
were to be disgraced if they were senior officers but subjected to 'cruel tor-
tures' if they were of low rank.^11 One notable, V.A. Zhadovsky, reported that
a large number of boys were concealed in Kostroma district and was given the
job of tracking them down.^12 Nineteen lads were discovered at Tula and no less
than 109 at Shatsk.^13 But the penalities imposed were less severe than Peter had
wanted. Three noblemen jailed at Yelafma were sent to the front without suf-
fering further punishment.^14 Fifty-three men in Kiev province were ordered to
forfeit their estates, 15 but it is not clear that they did so. The bureaucratic
channels soon became clogged. There was still no machinery for verifying
alleged absentees' claims that they had been authorized to stay at home or had
been performing some other official errand.^16 There were also cases of
resistance with which the authorities found it hard to cope. A clerk and two
soldiers, sent to a village near Tula to catch a lad named Sukhotin, who was
said to be 'causing damage ... to many landowners', found he had slipped
away two days before they arrived; they tried to arrest his peasants as sureties,
but they 'became violent'; the official party had to withdraw after recouping
the cost of its journey from Sukhotin's kinsmen.^17
The hunt for absentees continued throughout the reign, reaching its zenith
in 1722 when Peter ordered such youths to be outlawed as if they were bandits;
anyone was entitled to slay them at will and their property was to be con-
fiscated.18 This menacing decree was not easily enforced and did not have the
deterrent effect intended. Pososhkov lamented the ease with which gentry ser-
vitors could escape the net: one, Zolotarev, allegedly sent a substitute underhis own name and meanwhile spent his time terrorizing his neighbours (^19) -
. though this evidence i~ a little suspect.
Peter realized that he had to make military service more attractive by taking
positive measures. Rates of pay for officers, as laid down in the 1711 establish-
ment (shtat), were generous, at least by comparison with those of their men. A
lieutenant drew 80 roubles a year-over six times as much as a private; a (first)
major received 140 roubles, a colonel 300, and a full general 3,120 roubles.^20
(Officers in quarters were supposed to be paid at half rate, as were those in
most garrisons.) Guards and artillery officers were treated better, and
foreigners better still-at least on paper, for there were complaints, similar to
11 DiP i. 14 (13 Mar. 1711); cf. 38, 61, 70 (27 Mar., 16 Apr., 24 Apr. 1711).
12 DiPi. 67 (24 Apr. 1711); cf. 73 (25 Apr.).
ll DiP i. 184, 223 (4 July, 24 July 1711).^1 ' DiP i. 182 (3 July 1711).
" DiP i. 201 (16 July 1711), reproduced in Lebedev, Reformy, pp. 81-2.
16 DiP i. 223 (24 July 1711); ii. 272 (26 Mar. 1712).
17 DiP iv (i). 76 (22 Jan. 1714).
18 PSZ vi. 3874 (II Jan. 1722); Troitsky, Absofyutizm, p. 133; Klyuchevsky, Soch., iv. 77
(Peter the Great, p. 94).
19 Pososhkov, Kniga, pp. 94-5; Klyuchevsky, Soch., iv. 78 (Peter the Great, p. 95). The episode
apparently took place before 1700.
20 PSZ iv. 2319, pp. 599-602; Mikhnevich, in SVM iv (I, i, i). 121 n.; Myshlayevsky, Petr
Vefikiy, pp. 120-1; Avtokratov, 'Pcrvye organy', pp. 171-2.