Russian landowners in the XVII century: lifestyle and mentality

Abstract

The subject of this research is the mentality of Russian landowners of the XVII century. This topic remains insufficiently studied, therefore the author sets a goal to identify the peculiarities of lifestyle and most characteristic mental features of the Russian provincial landowners of the XVII century. The authorial concepts is based on the assumption on possibility of deriving the mental attitudes of this social estate from their typical lifestyle. Due to the lack of direct testimonies on everyday life and apperception of the landowners of the period prior to Peter the Great, the author uses the research and sources on the social, military and agrarian history of the XVII century. A better understanding of the topic is achieved by means of attracting most substantial sources on the history of Russian nobility. From the perspective of the history of mentality, within the framework of interdisciplinary approach, the article generalizes the studies of various scientific disciplines that contain records on the typical lifestyle of Russian landowners of the XVII century. At the same time, features of the mentality of Russian landowners are viewed on the background of cultural worldview of Moscovian State of the XVII century. The mentality of Russian landowners of the XVII century was substantiated by a number of factors defining their lifestyle. The character and conditions of service contributed to mobility, modesty and adaptability. The specificity of conditional landownership, perhaps, accustomed to self-reliance and responsibility. The need to defending interests of the estates formed situational awareness. A peculiar factor for the mentality of landowners was an affiliation to the privileged estate. The “borderline” position with regards to unprivileged ranks classified the poorest landowners to the lowest ranks of service classes; actualized distancing with the latter and imparted e mentality of country landowners of the XVII century with such trait as a desire to preserve their privileged status.