Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17th century

About the author:

Larisa Yu. Varentsova, Cand. Sci. (Hist.), Associate Professor, Department of Theory and History of State and Law, Nizhny Novgorod Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia; l_varentsova.65@mail.ru

Abstract:

A special place in the sphere of feudal tenure of the Russian state in the 17th century belonged to the Tsar’s domain — the tsarist household, consisting of estates in various counties. These estates were called palace estates and were in charge of court ministries. Among them, the most important were the Great Palace, as well as the “Bread” Ministry (Prikaz) and the Ministry of Secret Affairs. The activity of the Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17th century was studied to a lesser extent.
This article determines the place of the Novgorod Palace Ministry in the system of Russian central authorities in the 17th century. The historiographic basis of this article includes the works of the well-known Russian pre-revolutionary historians S. Veselovsky and A. Gnevushev, as well as the researchers of the Soviet and post-Soviet periods D. Liseytsev, N. Rogozhin, Y. Eskin, and N. Demidova. Gnevushev first raised the question of the functioning of the Novgorod Palace Ministry in the early 20th century. In 1911, he published documents on the history of the ministry, accompanied by a brief essay. A significant contribution to the study of the Novgorod Palace Ministry belongs to the contemporary researcher — D. V. Liseytsev, who studied its activities in the era of Troubles.
In this article, the author analyzes the Novgorod Palace Ministry as the major component of the Russian power institution from the moment of its foundation until the late 17th century. The source base includes both published and unpublished records of management documentation of the Novgorod Palace Ministry of the 17th century. The documents were preserved in the private collection of the historian of literature, ethnographer, collector and researcher of Old Russian writing, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, E. Barsov (fund 450) in the Department of Written Sources of the State Historical Museum (Moscow), as well as in the fund № 396 of the Armory Chamber of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (Moscow). All these documents represent a unique collection of original notebooks and expendable books on the issue of salaries for service, aimed “for the Tsar’s use”, as well as scripts and description books of palace towns and municipalities, peasants’ request letters for different years of the 17th century. Especially important sources include the ministry documentation published in the book “The Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17th century” by A. Gnevushev, as well as the acts published in the “Russian Historical Library” and “Addenda to the Acts of History” in the late 19th century.
The author has studied the main functions of the Novgorod Palace and defined the structure of this ministry. He has revealed the place of the Novgorod Palace Ministry in the system of the Russian power system in the 17th century. The Novgorod Palace Ministry operated extensive tsarist estates in the Veliky Novgorod District; it had economic and political independence, though it was still considered a branch of the Grand Palace Ministry.

References:

1. Zenchenko M. Yu. E al. 2004. “109 (1601). The patrol book of the palace lands of Shelonsky pyatiny letters and measures of clerks Stepan Sobakin and Kazarin Kolomsky”. In: Zenchenko M. Yu., Belikov V. Yu., Ivanova G. A. (comps.). Scribe Books of the Novgorod Land. Edited by I. Yu. Ankudinov, M. Yu. Zenchenko, A. A.Semin and A. A. Frolov. Pp. 502-504. Moscow: Pamyatniki istoricheskoy mysli. [In Russian]

2. V tipografii Eduarda Pratsa. 1862. “1678 October 9 — 1681 March 19. Acts relating to the collection of affluent people”. In: Supplements to the Acts of history, compiled and published by the Archaeographic Commission. Vol. 8, pp. 118-148. Saint Petersburg: V tipografii Eduarda Pratsa. [In Russian]

3. Veselovsky S. B. 1912. Ministry System of Management of the Moscow State. Kiiv: Kushnerov i Ko. [In Russian]

4. Gnevushev A. M. (comp.). 1911. “This foreigner came to the land in 183”. In: Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17^th Century (Short Essays and Documents), pp. 7-8. Moscow: Russkaya pechatnya. [In Russian]

5. Gnevushev A. M. (comp.). 1911. “Ownership paper for the land to a foreign immigrant in 167”. In: Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17^th Century (Short Essays and Documents), p. 3. Moscow: Russkaya pechatnya. [In Russian]

6. Gnevushev A. M. (comp.). 1911. “Owning a previously empty place in a palace village and in a churchyard and in villages and in wastelands and in desolate lands by an old-timer and a peasant who came under the boyar and governor under Knyaz M. Ya. Cherkassky and under the voivode V. A. Dolgov-Saburov on 1 September 194”. In: Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17^th Century (Short Essays and Documents), pp. 22-23. Moscow: Russkaya pechatnya. [In Russian]

7. Demidova N. F. 2011. State bureaucracy In Russia in 17^th century (1625-1700): bibliographic encyclopedia. Moscow: Pamyatniki istoricheskoy mysli. [In Russian]

8. “Documents of the Novgorod Ministry (national teams) 1628-1683”. State Historical Museum Department of Written Sources (GIM OPI). F. 450. Op. 1. Ed. khr. 88. [In Russian]

9. Gnevushev A. M. (comp.). 1911. “Letters from the records of the Grand Palace to the Novgorod Palace Ministry”. In: Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17^th Century (Short Essays and Documents), pp. 45-67. Moscow: Russkaya pechatnya. [In Russian]

10. Liseytsev D. V., Rogozhin N. M., Eskin Yu. M. 2015. Ministries of the Moscow State of the 16^th-17^th Centuries: A Dictionary-Reference Book. Moscow; Saint Petersburg: Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts; Center for Humanitarian Initiatives. [In Russian]

11. Gnevushev A. M. (comp.). 1911. “Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17^th century”. In: Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17^th Century (Short Essays and Documents), pp. i-xxvi. Moscow: Russkaya pechatnya. [In Russian]

12. Gnevushev A. M. (comp.). 1911. “Estimated cash income and expenses of the Novgorod Palace Ministry for 129 and 130”. In: Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17^th Century (Short Essays and Documents), pp. 70-106. Moscow: Russkaya pechatnya. [In Russian]

13. Gnevushev A. M. (comp.). 1911. “Estimated cash and bread income and expenses of the Novgorod Palace Ministry for 127-128”. In: Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17^th Century (Short Essays and Documents), pp. 107-162. Moscow: Russkaya pechatnya. [In Russian]

14. Gnevushev A. M. (comp.). 1911. “The controversial case of land ownership between the palace peasants and the landowner Pushkin 208”. In: Novgorod Palace Ministry in the 17^th Century (Short Essays and Documents), pp. 30-31. Moscow: Russkaya pechatnya. [In Russian]

15. “Records containing excerpts from scribal and census books of the 17^th century and from the boundary inventory of the Novgorod Palace Ministry on the reaps of the palace peasants of the village of Krasnye Stanki of the Novgorod Uyezd (without beginning and end)”. State Historical Museum Department of Written Sources (GIM OPI). F. 450. Op. 1. Ed. khr. 203. [In Russian]

16. “The decree of the governor to the captain Grigory Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky from the Ministry of the Grand Palace on the collection from the peasants of the palace Osechensky volost of the Novgorod district of bread for salaries to Moscow archers on 10 February 1696”. Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA). F. 396. Op. 1. Ch. 36. D. 53485. [In Russian]

17. V tipografii br. Pateleyevykh. 1878. “The royal certificate to the Novgorod governor Vasily Romodanovsky, on the distribution of the duty to catch in the lakes of Ladoga and in Ilmen, and in the Volkhov river, fish for the royal household for all fishing catchers in general, including the number of monastery peasants, 16 October 1665”. In: Russian Historical Library published by the Imperial Archaeographic Commission, pp. 546-550. Saint Petersburg: V tipografii br. Pateleyevykh. [In Russian]