Kutakov  Sergey

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE BENEFICES POLICY OF THE MOSCOW STATE IN 1530-1540S BASED ON CENSUS MATERIALS OF TVER UYEZD

Authors

Kutakov Sergey

Keywords:

scribal books, Tver district, historiography, land tenure

Abstract

The oldest Tver census materials – the census book of I. P. Zabolotsky and M. I. Usov-Tatishchev of 1539/1540, and the book of dozor of 1551–1554 – preserved in the list of the 1570s at one volume. They have repeatedly attracted the attention of historians. The article considers the historiography of studying the issue of the development of the system of benefices in the first half of the XVI century using Tver census materials. Tver cen- Вестник ТвГУ. Серия «История». 2019. № 1(49). – 72 – sus materials allowed researchers to make a conclusion about the massive distribution of benefices in Tver uyezd in the 1530-1540s. Most of the distributed benefices land received common servicemen, although primarily the boyars government took into account the requests of nobility and the needs of the palace economy. There is no consensus in historiography about the origin of landowners appearing in Tver census books. The characteristics of land tenure in the Mikulinsky stan testify to the ambiguous nature of the local policy in relation to the land of Tver in the 1530–1540s. On the one hand, in the course of these distributions, "alien" landowners, including from the Dmitrov and Volotsk-Ruzsky principalities, received significant land ownership. At the same time, partially retained their possession and Tver nobility.

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE BENEFICES POLICY OF THE MOSCOW STATE IN 1530-1540S BASED ON CENSUS MATERIALS OF TVER UYEZD