Russia under the Old regime

THE PARTIAL DISMANTLING OF THE PATRIMONIAL STATE

reserved for dvoriane, where their children could begin to soldier among their peers, unsullied by contact with commoners. An important edict issued by Anne in 1736 raised from fifteen to twenty the age at which dvoriane were required to begin state service, and at the same time lowered its duration from life to twenty-five years; these provisions made it possible to retire at forty-five if not earlier, since some dvoriane were inscribed in the Guard Regiments at the age of two or three and began to accumulate retirement credit while still in their nurses' arms. In 1736 dvoriane families who had several men (sons or brothers) were permitted to keep one at home to manage the property. From 1725 onwards it became customary to grant dvoriane lengthy leaves of absence to visit their estates. Compulsory inspection of youths was done away with, although the government continued to insist on the education of dvoriane children and required them to present themselves for several examinations before joining active service at twenty.

These measures culminated in the Manifesto 'Concerning the Granting of Freedom and Liberty to the Entire Russian Dvorianstvo', issued in 1762 by Peter in, which 'for ever, for all future generations' exempted Russian dvoriane from state service in all its forms. The Manifesto further granted them the right to obtain passports for travel abroad, even if their purpose was to enroll in the service of foreign rulers - an unexpected restoration of the ancient boyar right of 'free departure' abolished by Ivan ill. Under Catherine n, the Senate on at least three occasions confirmed this Manifesto, concurrently extending to the dvorianstvo other rights and privileges (e.g. the right, given in 1783, to maintain private printing presses). In 1785 Catherine issued a Charter of the Dvorianstvo which reconfirmed all the liberties acquired by this estate since Peter's death, and added some new ones. The land which the dvoriane held was now recognized as their legal property. They were exempt from corporal punishment. These rights made them - on paper, at any rate - the equals ot the upper classes in the most advanced countries of the west.*

* The scheme given here according to which, yielding to the pressures of dvorianstvo, the Russian monarchy emancipated and transformed it into a privileged and leisured class, is the view held by most Russian historians before and since the Revolution. It has recently been challenged by two American scholars, Marc Raeff (Origins of the Russian Intelligentsia: The Eighteenth Century Nobility (New York 1966), especially pp. 10-ia, and an article in the American Historical Review, LXXV, 5, (1970), pp. 1291-4) and Robert E.Jones (The Emancipation of the Russian Nobility, 1762-1785 (Princeton, N.J. 1973)). These authors argue that it was not the dvoriane who emancipated themselves from the state, but, on the contrary, the state that freed itself from dependence on the dvoriane. The state had more servitors than it needed, it found the dvorianstvo useless in administering the provinces, and preferred to bureaucratize. The argument, while not without merit, appears on the whole unconvincing. If indeed the monarchy had too many servitors (which is by no means demonstrated) it could have solved its problem by demobilizing them temporarily and provisionally instead of 'for ever, for all future generations'. Furthermore, since salaries were rarely paid, no major