84 Muscovite Roots, 1462-1689Soldiers and cavalrymen received an annual payment in cash and grain, on a
scale which in theory at least was quite generous: 714 to 11 roubles a year.^23
The major expense at this time was officers' pay: foreigners' entitlements were
generally about 60 per cent higher than nativt>"', ~nd their a.n.nua! wage bi!!
came to 210,000 roubles, as against 28,800 roubles for their Russian counter-
parts.24 By comparison, the other ranks in 75 regiments of infanlty and cavalry
cost between 556,000 and 800,000 roubles, according to the pay nate.^25 It was
to meet this expense and other growing military costs that the government
debased the currency-an expedient which sparked the riots of 1662.
Another device to save money was to recruit male adults in entire com-
munities. The idea was that they would earn their own keep while carrying out
routine military duties, and that they would perform these more effectively
since they would be defending their own families and property. Two areas
were selected for the experiment, which in many respects anticipates the better-
known scheme for military settlements introduced by Alexander 1 (see ch. 12).
One was on 'black' land close to the north-western border, in Olonets and
Star a ya Rusa districts, where from 1649 onwards some 9,000 men were ascribed
to service, mainly as infantrymen. From one to three men were taken per
household, according to its size, but all their relatives and otherresidents were
registered by name, evidently so that they could serve as replacements.26 Half
of them were stationed in frontier blockhouses, while the other half formed a
reserve in the rear. Those on active duty were exempted from taxes, which the
reservists had to pay. They were also required lo drill, but this obligation had
to be reduced (from six times to once or twice a week) since it interfered too
much with agricultural work. The military settlements formed a separate ad-
ministrative district under a commander who had full authority in judjcial
matters, even those in which neighbouring civilians were invohred-whereas
elsewhere such cases would be dealt with by elected civilian guba elders.^27 The
regimental chiefs and many of the officers were foreigners, which doubtless
added to the peasants' dislike of the unfamiliar obligations imposed upon
them, and they responded in the traditional manner by deserting en masse. Six
hundred and ninety fugitives were located in various parts of the country.^28
The experiment was a failure, not least because the authorities lost sight of its
original rationale and sent the men to fight far away from their homes. In
these campaigns they suffered heavy losses and their farms fell into ruin, some
being destroyed by Swedish raiding parties. In 1658 a number of these unfor-
21 Hellie, Enserfment, p. 196, citing Stashevsky, 'Smeta', pt. I. p. I. There were two rates, of 4
and 6 den 'gi per day, the former equivalent to 6 roubles a year. This is what soldiers in
Sheremetev's army received in 1660: AMG iii. 65; cf. ii. 98.
24 Stashevsky, 'Smeta', pp. 55-6 (our recalculation); the numbers were 1,650 and 638 respec-
tively.
2l Ibid., pp. 58-9.
26 DAI iii. 65; Pommerening to Queen Christina, Feb.-Mar. 1649, in Yakubov, Rossiya i
Shversiya, pp. 442, 444.
(^2) ' In practice, by ell-military men. See above, p. 41.
(^28) DAI iii. 82.