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Soviet Union [USSR] The Romanovs
The most immediate task of Romanov rule was to restore order.
Fortunately for Muscovy, its major enemies, Poland and Sweden, were
in bitter conflict with each other, and Muscovy obtained peace with
Sweden in 1617 and a truce with Poland in 1619. After an
unsuccessful attempt to regain Smolensk from Poland in 1632,
Muscovy made peace with Poland in 1634. The Polish king, who had
been elected tsar during the Time of Troubles, renounced all claims
to the title.
Mikhail Romanov was a weak monarch, and state affairs were
actually in the hands of his father, Filaret, who in 1619 became
patriarch of the Orthodox Church. Similarly, Mikhail's son, Alexis
(1645-76), relied on a boyar, Boris Morozov, to run the government.
Morozov abused his position by exploiting the populace, and in
1648, after an uprising in Moscow, he was dismissed.
The autocracy survived the Time of Troubles and the rule of
weak or corrupt tsars because of the strength of the government's
central bureaucracy. Its functionaries continued to serve,
regardless of the tsar's legitimacy or the boyar faction
controlling the tsar. In the seventeenth century, this bureaucracy
expanded dramatically. The number of government departments
(prikazi) increased from twenty-two in 1613 to eighty by
mid-century. Although the departments often had overlapping and
conflicting jurisdictions, the central government, through
provincial governors, controlled and regulated all social groups,
trade, manufacturing, and even the Orthodox Church.
The extent of state control of Russian society was demonstrated
by the comprehensive legal code introduced in 1649. By that time,
the boyars had largely merged with the elite, who were obligatory
servitors of the state, to form a new nobility
(dvorianstvo). Both groups, whether old or new nobility,
were required to serve the state, primarily in the military. In
return, they received land and peasants. Peasants, whose right to
move to another landlord had been gradually curtailed, were
thereafter attached to their domicile. The state fully sanctioned
serfdom, and runaway peasants became state fugitives. Landlords had
complete power over their peasants and sold, traded, or mortgaged
them. Peasants living on state-owned land, however, were not
considered serfs. They were organized into communes, which were
responsible for taxes and other obligations. Like serfs, however,
state peasants were attached to the land they farmed. Burghers, who
lived in urban areas and engaged in trade and handicrafts, were
assessed taxes and were also prohibited from changing residences.
All segments of the population were subject to military levies and
special taxes. Flight was the most common escape from state-imposed
burdens. By chaining much of Muscovite society to its domicile, the
legal code of 1649 curtailed movement and subordinated the people
to the interests of the state.
Increased state exactions and regulations exacerbated the
social discontent that had been simmering since the Time of
Troubles. A major uprising occurred in the Volga region in 1670 and
1671. Stenka Razin, a cossack from the Don River area, spearheaded
a revolt that drew together dissatisfied cossacks, escaped serfs,
and Turkic ethnic groups. The uprising swept the Volga River Valley
and even threatened Moscow. Ultimately, tsarist troops defeated the
rebels, and Stenka Razin was publicly tortured and executed.
Data as of May 1989
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