Prozhitok as the Estate in Land in the Muscovite State: from the 16th Century to the First Half of the 17th Century

Abstract

In the Muscovite State of the second half of the 15th century the pomest’e system began to take shape. The pomest’e estates were granted by the crown or the church on condition of service and held for a period of service only. The holders were not entitled to dispose of pomest’e lands, and their estates were not hereditary. It raised the question of how the needs of retired servicemen and decedents’ family members should be supplied. The question was resolved by means of prozhitok — the law institution that provided the opportunity for the above-mentioned persons to obtain a part of pomest’e land without condition of service.The prozhitok estate provided the limited proprietary right in land. It was granted for a lifetime of a holder who was not entitled to dispose of the land plot. The decisions to grant the prozhitok estates were taken by the landowners (the crown or the church) on a basis of a petition. The sizes of granted land plots were determined on a case-by-case basis. The unified rules for determination of land plots’ sizes were established only in the second quarter of the 17th century.The prozhitok estate could be granted only to the holders of the pomest’e estates and their family members unable to do military service and thus not eligible to obtain or retain the pomest’e estates. In most cases the prozhitok estates were granted to the widows and unmarried daughters of the deceased holders of the pomest’e estates or more rarely to their mothers and unmarried sisters. Also the prozhitok estates could be granted to the holders of the pomest’e estates retired from service because of old age or ailment and to the sons of the deceased holders unable to do military service because of ailment.Typically, the prozhitok estate was considered as terminated after the death of its holder or taking the monastic vows. It was also considered terminated when its female holder entered into marriage. When the prozhitok estate was terminated the land plot was returned to the crown or the church and then granted to some serviceman as the pomest’e estate. It means that the land plot was held without condition of service only temporarily. The lack of vacant pomest’e lands forced the landowners to grant the land plots before the prozhitok estates termination. So the new type of grant — pozhid — was invented. The pozhid estate resembled the pomest’e estate on hold: the exercise of the holder’s rights was delayed until the prozhiok estate termination. For several reasons such grants were forbidden in 1621–1622. Over many years prozhitok developed as the institution of customary law. It became the subject of legislative regulation only in the twenties of the 17th century. The enactment of Sobornoye Ulozhenie in 1649 was crucial for the prozhitok institution as the code generalized the experience in application of legal norms and systematized the acts related to the prozhitok estates.