36 Muscovite Roots, 1462-1689
archive.^88 In these departments and their provincial extensions there toiled
a vast army of clerks (pod'yachiye): by the 1690s more than two thousand of
them.^89 The Razryad and the Service Land chancellery (Pomestnyy prikaz)
were among the largest employers of labour in the country.
The growth of a provincial apparatus is particularly significant, not only
because (at least potentially) it intensified the degree of bureaucratic control
over noble and other servitors, but also because it led to the creation of what
one may term militarized zones. The most important of these, centred on
Belgorod in the south-west, took shape in the 1640s and by 1663 had no less
than 33,000 men in its charge, of whom 12,000 were gentry servitors.9() Most of
these troops manned the new defence line. They comprised the so-called
Belgorod 'regiment' (the word polk was used here in a more comprehensive
sense; to add to the confusion, the administrative division itself was called a
razryad). Another force, based on the nearby town of Sevsk, in that year had
76,000 soldiers, of whom just over 10 per cent were gentry servitors.^91
Razryady were later set up to cover other regions, but few were so heavily
militarized as those in the south-west. The large concentrations of troops here
were built up partly by taking men from the central regions, which in turn
affected the character of its administration.
It was in the seventeenth century that Russian local government first
acquired a pronounced military character. Previously field commanders
(voivodes) had been sent out only to areas where action was expected or under
way; but the experience of the Troubles so frightened the government that
commanders were appointed throughout the country, one to each of 150 or so
districts (uyezdy). They were a reincarnation of the prince's lieutenants
(namestnik1) in the sense that they could abuse the local inhabitants with little
fear of being called to account; the difference was that the voivodc was for-
mally invested with full military and civil power. Appointment to this office
came to be regarded as a suitable reward for a middle-aged or incapacitated
nobleman with ample military experience.^92 It was understood that the holder,
who generally served a two-year term (to prevent him striking root too deeply
in the area) was entitled to receive, in lieu of salary, 'gifts' and other income-
88 Gozdavo-Golornbiycvsky, 'lstoriya', p. 9; cf. pp. 5-6 for details of the various departments'
responsibilities, aho Ivanov, Opisuniye, p. 9.
(^89) In 1669 the Razryad had the third largest staff of all Moscow chancelleries, which one early
historian (Ivanov, Op1suniye, pp. 53-69) put at 64-perhaps an under-estimate, since by 168617 it
had almost doubled ru 125 (Demidova, 'Byurohati1.a1siya', p. 216), and by 1698 had reached 242
(including 28 secretaries); those in provindal bwcaux numbered 1,873 (id., 'Gos. apparat',
pp. 130, 133-4, 144).
90 Including relatives. Stashevsky, 'Sm eta', pp. 64-7, 70-1 (our computation). In 1678 they
numbered about 20,000: see DAI ix. 106, pp. 257 ff. For a map: Zagorodsky, Belgorodskaya
chert a, p. 157.
91 Stashevsky, 'Smela', pp. 82-3; Vazhimky, ZPmlevludeniye, p. 69, dates the formation of
this force 10 1666.
9~ In 1632 S. l.yl ... Jv, after 30 years' service during which he was wounded several times, was
appointed voivode of Uglich: AMO i. 322.