32 Muscovite Roots, 1462-1689to them; the record-keeping system was cumbersome, and the data in local
service registers (desyatni), land cadasters, and so on rapidly became obsolete.
The same difficulties, it should be noted in fairness, confronted the oklad-
chiki. Aithough they took an oath 'not to favour their friends' or take bribes,G^5
it seems that they were frequently tempted to ease conditions or increase
rewards for their kinsmen and fellow-servitors in the senior grade. The cor-
ollary was that men in junior categories faced heavier or more disagreeable
tasks, or might receive less compensation than their due.
Men in the three provincial grades were termed respectively vybornye
(literally, 'the select'), dvorovye, and gorodovye. The assignment to a par-
ticular class, and with this the specification of the entitlement (oklad), was
called verstan ye.^66 It normally took place in circumstances that one might
term an 'inspection parade' if this did not convey an impression of formal
ceremony that was usually lacking.^67 No rules existed as to the frequency of
assignments, which depended on the whim of the government and its officials;
they would take some account of the current military situation and of
representations from below. In an emergency, or perhaps just for administra-
tive convenience, the two principal events in the gentry cavalryman's service
life, mustering (razbor, sbor) and version ye, might be telescoped. They would
be announced by the town crier or by messenger (pristav). At first many
poorer noblemen in the vulnerable southern border region resided in their local
town, with its protective citadel, and had to be ordered to live on the lands they
had been allotted.^68 Those who had moved out would be summoned back to
attend these official functions, which offered them an opportunity to meet
socially as well as to obtain some material benefit.
Promotion from one grade to another depended in theory on one's merit
(either already demonstrated on active service or in spe), and was granted in
response to a petition in which the servitor detailed his accomplishments and
needs. He began his career as a novice (novik) at the age of 15 and then served
in the lowest grade as a gorodovoy, later advancing to dvorovoy and, if he
were particularly fortunate, to vybornyy. Needless to say, in real life matters
were more complicated. At Kolomna in 1577 some novices went directly into
the second category, perhaps because of the manpower shortage induced by
the war.^69 Besides individual merit, genealogical seniority played a part in the
6l DRVxvi. 334.
66 For a typical order: DRVxvi. 331-9 (1652).
67 The term smotr (inspection) occurs in the documents, for example AMG i.^374 (1632). The
first ones were apparently held in 1556, after regularization of the levy: Likhachev, Razryadnye
dyaki, app. iv. Troitsky, Russkiy absolyutizm, p. 108, dates them from 1622. They would not
have satisfied the disciplinarian drill-masters of a later age: wealthy high-ranking servitors
appeared on fine war-horses (argamak1) in full armour with a large suite, while 't~e poor man
turned up on a miserable nag, an ancient sabre at his side and a bag of hard tack, borne by an
emaciated slave' ('Petr Velikiy i yego armiya', pp. 229-30).(^68) AMG i. 229, 245 (1629); Chistyakova, 'Volneniya', p. 255.
(^69) Storozhev, 'Desyatni', p. 45.