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Elena V. Kamarauli

Voronezh State University, Voronezh; I. A. Bunin Yelets State University, Yelets, Russia

VERSTANIJE (SERVICE ENROLLMENT) AND LAND SURVEY AS PRACTICES OF CONSTRUCTING SOCIAL ORDER ON RUSSIA’S SOUTHERN FRONTIER (THE YELETS UEZD, LATE 16th CENTURY)

The article examines the practices of constructing social order on the southern periphery of Russia. In the process of transforming the “Wild Field” into state territory, the authorities employed the institutional procedures of service registration (verstanie) and land surveying to incorporate local communities into the structure of the service class. Social order was initially reproduced “on paper”: service registration created the corporation as a formal list, while land surveying delineated the contours of pomestie landholding. The author studies the mechanisms of the administrative appropriation of uezd space, which translated real territory into the categories of prikaz documentation. These institutional procedures were implemented through the interaction between the state and the society. They created a foundation for the self-organization of landowners, who elaborated rules for coexistence on a shared territory. The conclusions drawn from the analysis of a set of documents from 1592–1594 are tested and further developed based on the sources from the first quarter of the 17th century (desyatni, payment books), making it possible to trace the consequences of the administrative decisions of the late 16th century.

Keywords: service enrollmen (verstanije), land survey, social order, service people (sluzhilye lyudi), Southern Russia, 16th century, Yelets

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