Moscow's Men on Horseback 33
assessor's decision; so too did wealth, measured by the amount of land owned
or held and the number of dependants (slaves, serfs). It was a basic assumption
of Muscovite political life that, the higher one stood on the social scale, the
more responsibiiily one shouid bear; and converseiy, that extra duties brought
opportunities for additional gain.
How far the provincial gentrymen were socially mobile is not easily ascer-
tained. Most of our data come from the seventeenth century, when the barriers
were going down. I. K. Rudakov of Tver', who entered service in 1616, was
listed as a gorodovoy in 1621 and 1631 and as a dvorovoy in 1634, 1649, and
1658-when he must have been nearly 60; his poor showing was probably due
to misconduct in 1634, when he left the front, as so many did, without being
properly discharged.^70 The objective of every provincial servitor, one assumes,
was to rise to the top category (significantly, the vybor was the only one to
have a name!), since this offered the prospect of ascent into the upper nobility.
The term apparently originated with the great transfer of men to the capital in1550.^71 Later other provincials were 'chosen', on a more restricted scale and on
a routine basis. Once in Moscow they received the lowest metropolitan rank,
zhilets (literally, 'resident'). There were generally about 200 of these men, who
performed ceremonial duties and served in the sovereign's personal
bodyguard.^72 Margeret states that 'the principal gentlemen are chosen from
each town where they have their land, who are called the vybornye dvoryane of
each town, according to its size-16, 18, up to 20 or even 30 [men], who reside
in the city of Moscow for three years.'^73 In principle, then, the assignment was
temporary: those who did well would join the 'Moscow ranks' and the rest
would return home. The proportion who were siphoned off in this way is not
known. One man served nineteen years as a zhilets without leaping the
hurdle.^74 During the seventeenth century there was a considerable growth in
the number of places to be filled at court and in the central administration, but
this expansion could not accommodate all vybornye with ambition and talent.
Men might also be down-graded from the metropolitan nobility to serve in the
provinces: this was the fate of eleven men who in 1646 rashly petitioned for
exemption from service on grounds of poverty; it was held that their conduct
showed lack of zeal.^75 As the competition at the top became fiercer, more
vybornye were obliged to remain in the 'town' to which they were ascribed,
where they formed the local elite. The growing porportion of vybornye among
provincial servitors may be taken as an indicator of greater prosperity and
social stability. The authorities did not prescribe any arithmetical relationship
between men in the three grades, leaving it to local officials to assess each indi-
(^70) Hellie, 'Muse. Prov. Elite', p. 7 A, based on V. N. Storozhev, Tverskoye dvoryanstvo, Tver',
1891-5, ii. 137-8.
(^71) But cf. Kargalov, Na stepnoy granitse, p. 99 for a mention from 1541. The main study of the
vybornye is Novitsky, Vybornoye i bo/'shoye dvoryanstvo.
72 Brix, Geschichte, p. 172.^73 Margeret, L 'Esta/, p. 22.
(^74) AMG ii. 76 (1637). 75 AMG ii. 268.