CHAPTER 16. - Service Lands. In It Are 69 Articles.

1. [The following size] service landholdings shall be in Moscow province: For boyars, 260 acres per man.

For okol'nichie and for counselor state secretaries, 195 acres per man.

For stol'niki, and for striapchie, and for Moscow dvoriane, and for state secretaries, and for commanders of Moscow musketeers, and for senior stewards of the Palace Chancellery, and for stewards responsible for managing various parts of the palace economy, 130 acres per man.

For provincial dvoriane who are serving by selection in Moscow, 91 acres per man.

For zhil'tsy, and for mounted grooms, and for centurions of the Moscow musketeers, 65 acres per man.

For palace court officials, and for striapchie, and for provisioners, and for officials working for the tsaritsa, and for deti boiarskie, 13 acres per each 130 acres of their service land compensation entitlements.

2. Concerning service landholders of all ranks who desire to exchange their service landholdings among themselves: they shall petition the sovereign about registering those exchanged service landholdings of theirs. They shall submit signed petitions on that matter to the Service Land Chancellery.

3. Moscow people of all ranks shall exchange service landholdings with [other] Moscow people of all ranks, and with provincial dvoriane and deti boiarskie, [and] with foreigners, acre for acre, and inhabited land for inhabited land, and waste land for waste land, and [also] uninhabited land for waste land. In response to their joint petition and the signed petitions, record those service landholdings of theirs [which] they exchanged among themselves.

Where someone in an exchange received a few extra acres above an equal exchange: in response to their joint petition about that transaction, record those few [extra] acres for them.

4. If some service landholders and hereditary estate owners proceed to exchange their own service lands or estate lands for monastery estate lands [in transactions with] archimandrites, and hegumens, and stewards, and monks of any monasteries; and those service landholders, and hereditary estate owners, and archimandrites, and hegumens, and stewards, and monks proceed to petition the sovereign for a registration of those exchanged lands: in response to their joint petition and their signed petitions, register such lands for them accordingly.

5. Concerning service landholders and hereditary estate owners of all ranks who proceed to exchange among themselves hereditary estate lands for service lands, or service lands for hereditary estate lands; and proceed to petition that, in response to their petition, those lands of theirs be registered, service land as an hereditary estate, or hereditary estate as a service landholding: on the basis of that joint petition of theirs, register such lands for them, as is written above this on that matter.

6. If someone exchanges a service landholding with someone; or someone exchanges his hereditary estate land for service land, and they proceed to possess those exchanged lands of theirs on the basis of notes [recording the transaction], but without having registered [the transaction] in the Service Land Chancellery; and one of them dies, but the other survives and proceeds to petition for registration of those exchanged lands: reject [such claims] for such exchanged lands. Do not register those exchanged lands for them after the death of one of the parties.

7. If someone proceeds to petition the sovereign about the registration of his exchanged service landholding, or hereditary estate [populated] with peasants; and he exchanges waste service land or waste hereditary estate land for that populated service landholding or hereditary estate of his; and he writes about the peasants of his populated service landholding or hereditary estate that he is going to move the peasants from his own service landholding to other service land of his: register such service landholdings and hereditary estates on the basis of the signed petitions.

8. If someone proceeds to petition the sovereign about service landholdings, which service landholdings were given out as maintenance allotments to aged dvoriane and deti boiarskie who were discharged from service, and to old widows, and [the petitioners ask] that the sovereign bestow favor upon them, order those middle service class and widow maintenance service landholdings be granted them for support: reject such people who proceed to petition that they be granted a service landholding for support that is in someone's possession. Do not grant them the service landholdings for support.

9. If anyone surrenders a service landholding because of superannuation -- an uncle to a nephew, or a brother to a brother; and in the document recording the surrender of the land and in the petition about registration he writes that the nephew is to feed the uncle, or the brother his brother, until his death; and subsequently the uncle proceeds to petition against the nephew, or the brother against the brother, [alleging] that he is not feeding him, is driving him off the service landholding, and is ordering the peasants not to obey him: take away such surrendered service landholdings from such nephews and brothers and return them to those to whom they belonged previously. Whatever documents they gave on themselves [surrendering the service landholdings] are void.

10. If widows or unmarried young women proceed to surrender their maintenance service landholdings to anyone so that those people to whom they surrender those service landholdings of theirs will feed them and find them a husband: they shall get signed registration documents from those people to whom they surrender those service landholdings of theirs [promising] that such people will feed them and marry them off.

If a widow or unmarried young woman, having surrendered her service landholding, proceed [sic] to petition the sovereign that those people to whom they surrendered those service landholdings of theirs are not feeding them, and are not marrying them off, and are driving them out from those maintenance service landholdings of theirs: compile a decree on the matter of that petition of theirs. Having taken [back] their widows' and unmarried young women's maintenance service landholdings, return them to those widows and unmarried young women for [their] maintenance as previously. Whatever documents they gave are void.

11. Unmarried young women [may] surrender their own maintenance service landholdings when the unmarried young woman is of age, 15 years old.

If someone proceeds to petition the sovereign about an unmarried young woman's maintenance service landholding and says that an unmarried young woman surrendered her maintenance service landholding to him, but if the unmarried young woman at that time is a minor, less than 15 years of age: do not believe such petitioners, and do not register the unmarried young women's maintenance service landholdings as theirs.

12. Concerning people of all ranks who possess service landholdings on the basis of documents recording the surrender of land, but they have not petitioned the sovereign about those service landholdings, and those service landholdings have not been registered for them in the Service Land Chancellery: take away those service landholdings from them and give them away in a distribution to petitioners because they are possessing those service landholdings on the basis of the documents recording the surrender of land without a decree from the sovereign.

13. Grant escheated service landholdings of people of all Moscow ranks, and provincial dvoriane and deti boiarskie, and foreigners to their wives and children for their maintenance according to statute.

Concerning that which is left over after the grants for maintenance to wives and children: grant those service landholdings to members of the [deceased's] clan who have no service landholdings, or small ones.

If in the clan there are no members without service landholdings, or with small ones: grant those service landholdings [that had been in the possession of people] of Moscow ranks to other clans, to similar Moscow people, and to provincial dvoriane and deti boiarskie; and [grant the service landholdings that had been in the possession of] provincial dvoriane and deti boiarskie to similar provincial dvoriane and deti boiarskie, and to Moscow people of any rank whom the sovereign favors.

14. Grant foreigners' [service landholdings] to foreigners with small or no service landholdings. Do not grant foreigners' service landholdings to anyone besides foreigners. Do not grant Russians' service landholdings to foreigners.

15. If someone transgresses, marries a fourth wife, and begets children by her: after his [death] , do not grant his service landholding and hereditary estates to that fourth wife of his and to the children whom he begat by that fourth wife.

16. If women remain childless after [the death] of people of Moscow ranks, and provincial dvoriane and deti boiarskie, and foreigners; and there are no service landholdings and purchased hereditary estates remaining after [the death of] their husbands, and there is nothing from which to give them a maintenance allotment, but their husbands' estates granted for service and clan estates do remain: after review, grant the wives of such deceased [servicemen] a maintenance allotment from their husbands' estates granted for service for the duration of their lives.

Those widows shall not sell, and shall not mortgage, and shall not give away [to religious establishments for prayers] for their soul, and shall not register for themselves as a dowry those estates granted for service.

If [a widow with a maintenance allotment] marries, or becomes a nun, or dies: grant those estates to the hereditary estate owners in the [husband's] clan who are most closely related [to him].

17. If a widow gets betrothed with her own and a daughter's service landholdings: give the groom only the widow's portion, if he takes her; or the unmarried young woman's [portion shall be given to him] who takes the unmarried young woman.

If an unmarried young woman remains [after her widowed mother remarries] : the unmarried young woman shall possess that service landholding until she succeeds in marrying. Then she also will wed with her own allotment.

18. If a widow [who is the former] wife 'of a foreigner is betrothed with her own maintenance service landholding to a dvorianin or a syn boiarskii, who has no service landholding, or who has a service landholding: register those maintenance service landholdings for those people to whom they are betrothed accordingly.

19. If a widow of a dvorianin or a [widowed] wife of a syn boiarskii with a maintenance service landholding makes an agreement to marry a baptized foreigner: that widow is free to marry the baptized foreigner with her own maintenance service landholding accordingly.

20. Concerning the person to whom the widow or unmarried young woman with her own maintenance service landholding is engaged: before his wedding that person shall petition the sovereign for a document registering that maintenance service landholding. If someone fails to register such a maintenance service landholding for himself before his wedding, and he proceeds to petition the sovereign about that maintenance service landholding after his wedding: do not register that maintenance service landholding for him. Distribute it, after review, to [members of] the clan who have no service landholdings, or only small ones. If there are no [servicemen] in that clan without service landholdings, or with only small ones: grant such service landholdings to petitioners in other clans who proceed to petition the sovereign about that service landholding.

21. If widows with their own maintenance service landholdings marry dvoriane and deti boiarskie, and their husbands, having registered those maintenance service landholdings of theirs, proceed to conceal their possession of old service landholdings which belonged to their fathers; and, having taken those maintenance service landholdings, they die; and those maintenance service landholdings are granted as previously to those wives of theirs, who married them with those service landholdings; and there are petitioners against those wives of theirs about those maintenance service landholdings because of their husbands' old concealed service landholdings: reject those petitioners. Do not take away from widows those maintenance service landholdings because of the concealment of the old service landholdings of their husbands.

22. Concerning dvoriane and deti boiarskie who died in the sovereign's service at Smolensk, and were survived by mothers and wives with children, with minor sons; and the service landholding grants in the possession of those dvoriane and deti boiarskie were small, 52, and 65, and 78, and 81, and 94, and 130 acres apiece; and after their death maintenance allotments from those service landholdings of theirs were granted to-their wives, but not to their children; and at that time their children were minors, 3 and 4 years old; and those widows with those maintenance service landholdings of their own married, and their husbands, besides those maintenance service landholdings of theirs, had other service landholdings; and their minor children did not petition against them about the fact that their mothers married someone with those service landholdings because they were small at that time; but if now those children of theirs proceed to petition the sovereign about those service landholdings, that those service landholdings of their fathers be granted to them: having taken those service landholdings of their fathers away from those people whom their mothers married, grant [the service landholdings] to them, even if those people whom their mothers married have no service landholdings [of their own].

23. If after the death of any service landholders their service landholdings are granted to their wives with children, or with step-children, or with [other] kinsmen; and the children, or step-children, or [other] kinsmen are small at that time; and there is no one to intercede and petition the sovereign on their behalf; and in the division of those service landholdings they are wronged; and when they come of age, they proceed to petition the sovereign about that wrong: arrange an eye-to-eye confrontation of those [petitioners] with those people against whom they proceed to petition. Having conducted an investigation [that may have resorted to torture], grant them a repartition of the service landholding.

24. Concerning dvoriane and deti boiarskie who are in possession of [their] fathers' old service landholdings in districts that have been destroyed; and they proceed to petition the sovereign [for the granting] of a new service landholding: they shall reveal, and not conceal, those old service landholdings of [their] fathers which are in the destroyed districts. Concerning him who does not conceal the old service landholding: having conducted an investigation, grant him a new service landholding, if his old service landholding is genuinely depopulated and he has no [means] to support himself in service.

25. If someone is granted a new service landholding, and he conceals a prior grant, [his] father's or his own service landholding; and there are petitioners against him for that; and it is established about that conclusively that he concealed [his] father's service landholding or his own prior grant: take from him as many acres as there are in that paternal or his own concealed service landholding, from another service landholding of his about which the petitioner proceeds to petition the sovereign, and grant it to the petitioner.

26. If someone falsely proceeds to petition the sovereign against someone about the concealment of a service landholding, and it is established about that conclusively that that petitioner petitioned the sovereign falsely out of a desire to take a service landholding away from someone by his deliberately false petition: those people against whom they proceed to petition falsely shall exact from such petitioners for their false petition [their] maintenance expenses and compensation for the delay in the amount of .20 ruble per day from that date when they file that false petition of theirs through that date when the case is resolved, so that everyone will learn not to petition falsely against anyone.

27. Concerning dvoriane and deti boiarskie who themselves proceed to petition for themselves for registration documents on their own unregistered old service landholdings in order to register those service landholdings of theirs in their name; and there have been no petitioners against them about those unregistered service landholdings of theirs before their petition, even by only one day: register those old unregistered and concealed service landholdings of theirs in the possession of those people as [their] service landholding, as it was previously, together with their old service landholdings, and as part of their compensation entitlements. Do not accuse them of concealing land for that.

28. If petitioners proceed to petition against someone about such unregistered and concealed service landholdings before the petition [of those currently holding such lands], even by only one day: take such unregistered and concealed service landholdings from those people and grant them to the petitioners according to the previous statute.

29. If dvoriane and deti boiarskie were in foreign captivity for ten, and for fifteen, and for twenty, and for twenty-five years and more; and their fathers' service landholdings, or their own individual service landholdings were redistributed [to other servicemen] in their absence, when they were in captivity; and they proceed to petition the sovereign that he return those personal service landholdings of their own and of their fathers to them: after review, return [their] fathers' and their own service landholdings which were redistributed [to others] to those [former] captives.

30. If enemy troops kill any dvorianin, or syn boiarskii, or foreigner in the sovereign's service in the regiments: grant their wives a maintenance allotment from their service landholdings of 26 acres of land per 130 acres of their [land] compensation entitlement. Grant their daughters 13 acres per 130 acres.

31. If a dvorianin, or a syn boiarskii, or a foreigner dies in the sovereign's service in the regiments: grant their wives a maintenance allotment from their service landholdings of 19.5 acres per 130 acres of their [land] compensation entitlement. Grant their daughters 9.75 acres per 130 acres.

32. If a dvorianin, or a syn boiarskii, or a foreigner dies at home, and not in the sovereign's service: grant their wives a maintenance allotment from their service landholdings of 13 acres per 130 acres of their [land] compensation entitlement. Grant their daughters 6.5 acres per 130 acres.

33. If after the death [of servicemen] their service landholdings are granted to their children who have not yet been initiated into a service rank; and those children of theirs die without ever receiving that service rank, and their wives and daughters survive them; and those wives and daughters of theirs proceed to petition the sovereign for a maintenance allotment for themselves from their service landholdings; and the compensation entitlements of the fathers of those deceased cannot be located, and their fathers were killed or died in the sovereign's service: grant the wives and daughters of those deceased who had never been initiated into a service rank a maintenance allotment from those service landholdings of theirs equal to the compensation entitlement of a novitiate of the top and middle grades. Concerning those whose fathers died at home: grant them [maintenance allotments] equal to the compensation entitlement [of a novitiate] of the middle and lower grades.

34. Concerning dvoriane and deti boiarskie who have two or three sons, and those dvoriane and deti boiarskie have registered their own service landholdings for their younger children, and they have registered their older children for an allotment [of new service land]; and those of their children whom they registered for allotment [of new service land] proceed to petition the sovereign against their younger brothers [and request] that the sovereign bestow favor upon them, order that that service landholding of their father's be given to all of them, that the inhabited land and the waste land be divided by acres because the service landholdings in their possession are small new grants: in response to that petition of his [sic] , divide up for such petitioners their father's service landholding, plus their new grant, equally among all the brothers [after] having measured out the inhabited and the waste land in portions by acres so that none of them will be wronged by another. If someone has been given a large grant in acres as a service landholding, do not grant him [his] father's service landholding. Grant the father's service landholding to the younger brothers.

35. If prior to the Moscow fire and after the Moscow fire [of 1626] , in the towns in the basin of the Desna and Seim Rivers in the Novgorod Severskii region, in Ryl'sk, in Putivl', [and] in Belgorod, detiboiarskie of those towns were granted waste, deserted wild beehive tree lands as a service landholding to satisfy the compensation entitlement for arable acreage; and others were granted rent-yielding lands as a service landholding and as a source for a cash salary payment; and if in the future the deti boiarskie of those towns proceed to petition the sovereign about [granting] such wild beehive tree lands and rent-yielding lands as service landholdings: having investigated rigorously by grand methods of inquiry, grant such deserted wild beehive tree lands as service landholdings, if those wild beehive tree lands are genuinely deserted and there will be no dispute about them with anyone. But do not grant rent-yielding lands and wild beehive tree lands as arable acreage in a service landholding to anyone.

36. If a service landholder finds unclaimed lakes or unused fish weirs in rivers somewhere, and they are not [currently allotted] as service landholdings or hereditary estates, and are not paying taxes directly to the state; and he proceeds to petition the sovereign about those waters [and asks that they be assigned to him] as a service landholding instead of arable acreage: after review, allot such waters to any service landholders as a service landholding in lieu of arable acreage.

37. Concerning dvoriane, and deti boiarskie, and service landholders of all ranks who proceed to petition the sovereign about escheated service lands; and they write in their petitions that no wives, and children, and [other members of the] clan have survived the deceased: order those petitioners to affix their signatures to those petitions of theirs. If such escheated service lands are granted to someone; and subsequently the wives, and children, or clan [members] of those deceased proceed to petition the sovereign against those petitioners, [alleging] that those petitioners concealed them in their petition out of a deliberate desire to seize their service landholdings; and it is established about that conclusively that the first petitioners concealed them: having taken away those escheated service landholdings from those first petitioners, return [them] to the wives, and children, and relatives of the deceased, to Whom it becomes necessary, by decree. Concerning losses the first petitioners inflicted on their peasants prior to that return [of the land]: collect those losses from those petitioners two-fold and give them to those wives, and children, or relatives of the deceased, to whomever those service landholdings are given.

38. If by the sovereign's decree a service landholding is taken away from someone and given out in a distribution; and rye is sown on those service landholdings on the old service landholders' peasant tillage: grant the new service landholder [as much) seed from that rye for the cultivated arable of the peasant tillage as was sown for the old service landholder, but return [any] additional harvest [in excess of the seed requirement] to the old service landholders. Those same peasants who sowed that grain shall harvest that grain. Concerning the grain which was sown for the old service landholders by slaves or hirelings: the old service landholders shall harvest that grain themselves. Do not force the peasants to harvest that grain of the slaves' and hirelings' tillage.

39. Concerning the waste lands and deserted lands of Moscow province and in the provincial towns which are rented out by the Great Revenue Chancellery and the regional taxation and administration chancelleries: do not sell those rent-yielding lands as hereditary estates and do not give them out as arable to boyars, and okol'nichie, and counselors, and stol'niki, and strapchie, and Moscow dvoriane, and service and chancellery officials of all ranks. Distribute those rent-yielding waste lands as service landholdings to petitioners who have no service landholdings or small ones [to supplement] their earlier service landholdings [prescribed in their] compensation entitlements. If any such rent-yielding lands are granted to anyone in a distribution of service lands, remove such rent-yielding lands from the rent rolls.

40. Concerning deti boiarskie of the southern frontier towns who petition the sovereign for a service landholding in the deserted lands, in the wild steppe: grant them [a service landholding] from the deserted lands of the wild steppe. To those whose compensation entitlements are 520 acres per person, [grant] them 91 acres per person; and to those [whose compensation entitlements] are 390 acres, [grant] them 78 acres; and to those [whose compensation entitlements] are 325 acres, [grant] them 65 acres; and to those [whose compensation entitlements] are 260 or 195 acres, [grant] them 52 acres; and to those [whose compensation entitlements] are 130 acres, [grant] them 39 acres; and to those [whose compensation entitlements] are 91 acres, [grant] them 32.5 acres. Grant such lands to the petitioners within these limits.

41. Concerning lands which from of old were the service lands of Russians, and for many years lay waste; and in past years Tatars and Mordovians settled on those deserted lands according to grants in charters issued by the sovereign, and others [possess them] on the basis of charters issued by the boyars, charters which were granted at the time when there was no sovereign, when the boyars were camped near Moscow, and others [possess them] without any [formal] grants at all and they have been living on those lands for many years, and they are rendering the sovereign's service from those lands: do not take away those lands from them. But in the future do not grant the service lands of Russians to Tatars, or Tatar lands to Russians as service landholdings.

42. If Tatars and Mordovians have possession of Russians' service lands, and they are paying rent from them; and in the future there are Russian petitioners about those lands: take those lands from the Tatars and the Mordovians and give them as service landholdings to Russians.

43. Boyars, and okol'nichie, and counselors, and stol'niki, and striapchie, and Moscow dvoriane, and provincial dvoriane and deti boiarskie, and Russians of all ranks shall not buy or exchange service [lands] or any [other] lands, and shall not take [land] on mortgage, and [as] grants, and on hire for many years [in any transactions] in the provincial towns with princes, and with mirzas, and with Tatars, and with Mordovians, and with Chuvashes, and with Cheremises, and with Votiaks, and with Bashkirs. If any Moscow people, and provincial dvoriane or deti boiarskie, and people of any ranks proceed in the provincial towns to take lands as a grant, or to buy [land], or to take land on a mortgage or for hire for many years, or to exchange land [in transactions] with princes, and with mirzas, and with Tatars, and with Mordovians, and with those various people who pay tribute: confiscate those Tatar service landholdings and lands from which they pay tribute from those people of all ranks for the sovereign. Moreover, they shall be in disgrace with the sovereign for that.

44. Concerning princes, and mirzas, and Tatars, and Mordovians, and Chuvashes, and Cheremises, and Votiaks who have converted to the Orthodox Christian faith: do not take such service lands away from those converts and do not give them to the Tatars.

45. Mirzas and Tatars shall not lay waste their own service landholdings. They shall not flee from those service landholdings of theirs into other towns, nor anywhere into the villages and hamlets. They shall not abandon [military] service. [They] shall live on their own service landholdings and hereditary estates. They, the mirzas and the Tatars, shall possess their own service landholdings where they were inducted into the service landholdings by the grants. If any mirzas and Tatars, not desiring to serve the sovereign, and, by their own felonious conduct, not caring about themselves, proceed to give away, or exchange, and sell, and mortgage, and rent their own service landholdings to Moscow and provincial dvoriane, and deti boiarskie, and people of all ranks; and to lay waste their service landholdings, to rob the peasants, and to inflict oppressions and illegal actions on them; and the peasants flee from those service landholdings of theirs because of their oppression; and, having laid waste or feloniously violated those service landholdings of theirs, they proceed to flee into other towns [military districts] and into Tatar and Cheremis hamlets and proceed to flee from and abandon service, and subsequently that is established: inflict on those mirzas and Tatars a punishment for that that the sovereign decrees. In the same cases, inflict a severe punishment accordingly on those people with whom the mirzas proceed to live as fugitives. Rigorously order them henceforth not to harbor fugitive mirzas and Tatars on their properties for any reason.

46. Concerning the sovereign's court villages and rural taxpaying districts which have been distributed to boyars, and okol'nichie, and counselors, and stol'niki, and striapchie, and Moscow dvoriane, and zhil'tsy, and provincial dvoriane, and deti boiarskie, and foreigners, and various servicemen as service landholdings and hereditary estates; and the land in those grants of theirs is average or poor; and in the future additional land is discovered in those grants of theirs by assessment of the cadastral officials: supplement those grants of theirs out of the additionally discovered] lands. If some people do not have additional land in [their] grants: those lands shall remain in the possession of those people as [recorded in] their grants because there is no land to supplement it with, but do not diminish the land in the grants. The sazhen' used to measure land, or anything else, shall consist of three arshins. Do not make the sazhen ' more or less than three arshins.

47. Concerning people who have been given service landholdings from the sovereign's court villages and the rural taxpaying districts and an hereditary estate from a service landholding for service and for sitting out the [1611] siege of Moscow: do not supplement those hereditary estate lands of theirs.

48. Concerning hereditary estate lands which have been distributed as service lands, and those hereditary estate lands were not supplemented [when] in the possession of the old estate owners: henceforth those service lands which have been granted as service landholdings from hereditary estate lands shall be supplemented with additional lands because they have become service lands. If any people henceforth do not have additional land in [their] grants: those people shall possess their service lands according to their grants, whatever was given to someone, without supplementation, because there is nothing to supplement it with. Do not take away land from the grants. Grant supplements for average land [at the rate of] 32.5 acres per 130 acres of average land. Where the-land is poor: for poor land, supplement it with poor land at the rate of 65 acres per 130 acres. Calculate average and poor land in terms of good land.

49. In the past years through March 7, 1636, Peremyshi' service landholders [resettled] in Beloozero exchanged their service lands with boyars, and okol'nichie, and dvoriane, and deti boiarskie', and escheated service landholdings of the same Beloozero deti boiarskie were granted to dvoriane and deti boiarskie: those exchanged and escheated service landholdings and hereditary estates shall remain in the possession of those people to whom those service landholdings and hereditary estates were granted in the past years through 1636. Henceforth Beloozero [service] men shall not exchange service landholdings with [non-Beloozero] boyars, and okol'nichie, and with dvonane, and with deti boiarskie, [with] people of any ranks. Do not grant their escheated service landholdings and hereditary estates to anyone who is not from Beloozero because after March 1, 1636, Beloozero [service] men were ordered not to exchange their service landholdings and hereditary estates [with anyone not from Beloozero] and it was ordered that their lands should not be granted in a distribution to anyone.

50. And similarly cossacks shall not sell or give away their own cossack hereditary estate lands to anyone.

51. If in past years in the presence of the cadastral officials people registered their service lands as their own hereditary estates in the cadastral books by their own testimony; but they did not deposit hereditary estate documents on those lands with the cadastral officials, and up to the time of this present Law Code have not registered [any such documents]; and they have not obtained [any such] hereditary estate documents; [and] they are possessing those service landholdings of theirs as an hereditary estate on their own volition, without the sovereign's decree; and someone demands such lands in their possession: distribute those lands to the petitioners because [of the rule]: Do not call a service landholding an hereditary estate. But if it is established about those lands conclusively that those lands in their possession are their genuine hereditary estate lands, and not service lands: order them to possess those lands as an hereditary estate, even though they have no hereditary estate documents for those lands and the lands are registered in the cadastral books as theirs [only] on the basis of their testimony.

52. [If] cadastral officials have given extracts from their books to any people, but those extracts do not correspond to the books: do not believe those extracts. Take those extracts from the service landholders and hereditary estate owners to the Service Land Chancellery. In place of those extracts, give them other extracts from the cadastral books and order those extracts written [exactly] like the cadastral books in all articles, word for word.

53. If any people, children after the death of their fathers, or other relatives and [people] of other clans, proceed to petition the sovereign about escheated service landholdings; and those escheated service landholdings are registered [for them] as service landholdings; but those people for a long time do not get the sovereign's charters in accord with the written registration on those service landholdings of theirs; and they proceed to possess those service landholdings without the sovereign's charters, on the basis of the registrations; and petitioners proceed to petition the sovereign against them about that [and allege] that they are possessing those paternal or clan service landholdings without the sovereign's charters, and would [the sovereign] confiscate those service landholdings from them for that and give them to the petitioners: do not confiscate such service landholdings from those people against whom such a petition is filed. Order them to obtain the sovereign's charters on those service landholdings of theirs. Because they did not obtain charters on those service landholdings of theirs for a long time, exact from them the seal fees two-fold for those charters.

54. Concerning petitioners who proceed to petition the sovereign that their relatives or third persons had registered their fathers' service landholdings for them, and they at that time were small; and during their childhood they lived with those relatives of theirs who registered those service landholdings of their fathers for them; and after the registration, those same people who had petitioned for them took those service landholdings of their fathers for themselves in exchange for their own poor service landholdings, without their knowledge; and after [their] father's death] they do not know about the registration for them of their service landholdings and they have not exchanged those service landholdings of their fathers with anyone: arrange visual confrontations for those petitioners concerning those exchanged service landholdings with those people against whom they proceed to petition the sovereign. After the visual confrontation, rigorously conduct an investigation about those service landholdings using all methods of inquiry. If it is established about that conclusively that those petitioners did not exchange the service landholdings of their fathers with anyone; and those people against whom they proceed to petition about those service landholdings of theirs took those service landholdings of their [the petitioners'] fathers for themselves by exchange at those times when they were children, and not yet of mature years: having taken such service landholdings from those people who took them by exchange, return them to those petitioners to whom those exchanged service landholdings had been given. Order them [the defendants] to take possession of their own service landholdings, which they are registering as their own service landholdings in exchange with those petitioners. Grant visual confrontations on such exchanged service landholdings to such petitioners when they are of age, 15 years old. If someone proceeds to petition the sovereign about such exchanged service landholdings prior to age 15: grant them visual confrontations on such service landholdings prior to the age of 15. If a petitioner is 20 years old, and there has been no petition about such an exchanged service landholding from him during those years [between 15 and 20]: reject them [sic] after the 20th year [in their claims] for those exchanged service landholdings, and do not grant visual confrontations. Concerning people who proceed to bring petitions for the registration of their exchanged service landholdings signed by their spiritual fathers, or signed by their relatives, or signed by anyone else to the Service Land Chancellery: do not register service landholdings in someone's absence in response to such petitions. Interrogate those people: who is exchanging those service landholdings, who has signed the exchange documents in their place? Do not register exchanged service landholdings for anyone in the absence [of any of the parties] and without having interrogated those people who are exchanging their own service landholdings and those people whose signatures are on the exchange petitions, so that in the future there will be no dispute on anyone's part about exchanged service landholdings.

55. Concerning escheated and clan service landholdings and [service landholdings] of other clans which are granted by the sovereign's decree to petitioners of various ranks [in partition] with the widows and unmarried young women [who have survived the previous possessors of the service landholdings]; and it is decreed in the partition documents that the widows and unmarried young women be allotted the home estate and the arable adjacent to the home estate, and ordered that the remainder of those service landholdings be allotted to relatives or to [members of] another clan, the cultivated and the waste land in shares according to acreage; and the widows and the unmarried young women proceed to petition the sovereign that the allotments were made contrary to their petition, in various places, and not in one place where it is convenient for them; and those to whom the [service landholding] was granted with them proceed to petition the sovereign [in return] against them, the widows and unmarried young women, that the best places were allotted to them, the widows and unmarried young women; or [allege] that they, the petitioners, among themselves have wronged one another in the partition, and proceed to petition the sovereign for a repartition document: give them a repartition document according to the sovereign's decree, if they proceed to petition for a repartition document within a year after the service land grant. Do not grant such repartition documents beyond a year after the service land grant. If any petitioners, in response to a repartition document, are not able to arrange a just repartition among themselves, and they proceed to petition the sovereign for a second and third repartition document: grant them a second and a third repartition document. Do not grant anyone more than three repartition documents so that no one will suffer excessive maintenance expenses, and losses stemming from the delay, and financial losses in that matter.

56. If people marry widows or unmarried young women and annex the widows' or the young women's inhabited maintenance service landholdings, large grants, to their own former small and waste service landholdings; and subsequently they die; and after their death their wives proceed to petition the sovereign [to ask] that the sovereign bestow favor Upon them, order them given their former maintenance allotments with which they got married for maintenance; but the children of their husbands, the widows' stepsons, proceed to petition the sovereign [to ask] the sovereign bestow favor upon them, to grant them their old service landholdings, their fathers' grants, and to order that their stepmothers' maintenance allotments be divided among all of them, mixing it all up in accord with the grants. Women, who possess small maintenance service landholdings and waste grants, and their old service landholdings are larger than their wives' maintenance service landholdings; and those people die, and children of their first wives survive them, and those children proceed to petition the sovereign [to ask] that they be granted their fathers' former service landholdings, and that their stepmothers be granted their former service landholdings with which they married their fathers; but their stepmothers proceed to petition the sovereign [to ask] that they be granted [lands for] maintenance from their husbands' service landholdings based on their compensation entitlements, and not [just] their former maintenance service landholdings: after the death of such [servicemen], grant their wives [land] for maintenance, based on their [husbands'] compensation entitlements, according to the sovereign's decree, as is written about that above this, from those service landholdings with which those wives of theirs married them. If those widows' former maintenance service landholdings are in excess of the compensation entitlement for maintenance allotments: return that to the children of that deceased [serviceman]. If it becomes necessary to give such widows more for maintenance than that with which they married them because of their husbands' compensation entitlements: grant them a supplement for maintenance to their former service landholdings from the service landholdings of their husbands. Grant the rest to the children of that deceased [serviceman].

57. If dvoriane and deti boiarskie die, and their wives and the sons of a first wife survive them; and the wives of those deceased proceed to petition the sovereign for a maintenance allotment from their husbands' service landholdings based on their husbands' compensation entitlement; and their husbands' compensation entitlements were high, but the service landholding grants in their possession were small, and there were no hereditary estates; or they had service or clan hereditary estates but [these were] also small: grant their wives [land] for maintenance only from their service landholdings based on their high compensation entitlements. If only a small service landholding grant remains for their children, and their children have nothing to live on, and to render the sovereign's service with, from that small grant: after the death of such [servicemen], having mixed their small grants, service landholdings and hereditary estates together, allot it in equal portions to their wives and to all the children, as much as is available for each one. Allot the inhabited and waste land in shares, by acreage. Grant such widows [land] for maintenance from their husbands' service landholdings, and not from their hereditary estates. Grant the hereditary estates after the death of such [servicemen] in portions to their children, and to the stepsons of their wives, so that such hereditary estates will not go out of the clan.

58. If after the death [of servicemen] their service landholdings, full grants, are granted to their widowed wives and children jointly; and those widows proceed to petition the sovereign against their children that their children are not feeding them, and are not paying them any respect, and have expelled them from the' house; and would the sovereign bestow favor upon them, order them granted the service landholdings for maintenance apart from their children: in response to that petition of theirs, grant the widows [lands] for maintenance from their husbands' service landholdings based on their husbands' compensation entitlements, according to statute, separately from their children. If such widows after their husbands' [death] are given service landholdings with their children jointly, small grants, and if there is nothing from which to give a widow full maintenance allotment based on the husband's compensation entitlement: allot such small service landholdings in shares to such widows and their children, as much as is available for each, allotting the inhabited and the waste land in shares by acreage.

59. If petitioners proceed to petition the sovereign against someone about fraudulently-acquired hereditary estates or about concealed service landholdings; and in response to their petition it becomes necessary to arrange visual confrontations for them in such cases; and those people against whom they have petitioned to the sovereign have been sent on the sovereign's service or on business in the provincial towns; and others at such times proceed to say that they are ill; and the petitioners proceed to petition the sovereign that he should order their children, and brothers, and kinsmen, and slaves who sue for and defend in other chancelleries those people who are in service and who claim that they are ill to be present for the visual confrontation for them: in such service landholding and hereditary estate cases grant visual confrontations to those petitioners with those people against whom they proceed to petition at that time when they return to Moscow from the sovereign's service. Concerning people who proceed to say that they are ill: examine those ill people to determine whether they are truly ill. If upon examination those people are truly ill, and they are in no way able to go to a visual confrontation: grant those sick people a continuance of half a year for the visual confrontation because of their illness. Do not take their children, and brothers, and kinsmen, and slaves to a visual confrontation against their will in such cases. If someone's illness is prolonged for more than half a year: order those people, after half a year, to send whomever they trust in that matter to the visual confrontation in their place. Do not grant anyone a continuance of more than half a year for illness in such cases.

60. Concerning dvoriane and deti boiarskie of various towns who proceed to petition the sovereign, and in their petitions write that they have cleared lands and glades for arable and for hay in the income-producing usufruct forests within their own boundaries and within grants [to join them] to their own hereditary estates and service landholdings; or those same petitioners proceed to petition the sovereign about [turning] forests in various groves into arable; and .in response to their petition and after an investigation, those newly tilled lands, glades, and forests are granted to them as arable acreage; but after the grants [have been made] to them, petitioners proceed to petition the sovereign, [alleging] that those previous petitioners had petitioned the sovereign falsely [in claiming that] those forests were deserted and that they had plowed up the land in their own groves in the forests; but [in reality] those forests were granted to all of them as usufruct possessions [to supplement] their service landholdings and hereditary estates, and they all ride into those forests together, and those common forests are inventoried in the cadastral books; and in response to that petition of the last petitioners it is established conclusively that the former petitioners appropriated the lands in the common forests, in the usufruct possessions, by lying: take those lands from [those] grants back from them. Those lands shall be [used by] all the service landholders and hereditary estate owners jointly.

61. Concerning provincial dvoriane and deti boiankie who are old and wounded, and discharged from the sovereign's regimental service, but they are ordered to serve in the fortress siege service; and others because of their wounds are unable to render any service to the sovereign; but they possess large grants of service land; and they have no children; and petitioners proceed to petition the sovereign against those deti boiarskie, [and they ask] the sovereign to order that those discharged and wounded dvoriane and deti boiarskie be put on a maintenance allotment from their service landholdings, by the sovereign's own decree, and that the sovereign favor them, the petitioners, with the remainder of it: reject those petitioners. Old and wounded dvoriane and deti boiarskie shall possess those service landholdings for as long as they live. Levy recruits from them for the sovereign's service from those service landholdings of theirs, or cash for the recruits, as much as the sovereign decrees.

62. Concerning Moscow-area service landholdings in the possession of stol'niki, and striapchie, and Moscow dvoriane, and of provincial dvoriane, and deti boiarskie, and of chancellery and palace court officials; and when those service landholders die, and wives and minor children survive them; and others of their children are at that time in residence with the sovereign [at his palace where they render service to him]; and they proceed to petition the sovereign about [making] those Moscow-area service landholdings of theirs [legally] into their own service landholdings: register such Moscow-area service landholdings of those deceased [servicemen] for the children.

63. Concerning petitioners who proceed to petition the sovereign against someone about deserted peripheral lands [outside the boundaries of hereditary and service lands]; and in the investigation the people being interrogated testify about those lands that those people against whom such a petition has been filed do possess the deserted peripheral lands [outside the boundaries of hereditary and service lands]; but by the cadastral books it is established that those lands are inside the boundaries and limits of those people against whom there is a petition about those lands: on the basis of the cadastral books, those lands shall remain in the possession of those people for whom the cadastral officials registered, and surveyed, and included those lands within the boundaries of their service landholdings or hereditary estates. Do not believe the people interrogated about such lands.

64. Concerning a petitioner, who, having petitioned the sovereign about a service landholding [which is concealed] or [cleared] from deserted lands, or for a purchase [of land]; and, having submitted the petition, does not proceed to go after an abstract for three months; and other petitioners proceed to petition the sovereign about that same service landholding after him; and after [the later petitioners have gotten] their abstract, the prior petitioner again turns his attention to that case: reject those prior petitioners.

65. If someone submits a petition about such lands, and immediately after that they order him to report for the sovereign's service: such petitioners shall bring continuance petitions to [supplement] their petitions. If someone does not bring in a continuance petition [to supplement] his petition, and departs for the sovereign's service without having submitted a continuance petition, and there are other petitioners about those lands after them [sic]: after the statutory three months, grant those lands to the latter petitioners. If in such a case a continuance for the sovereign's service is granted to someone and his continuance petition is [included] in the records: do not grant such service lands to other petitioners until that time when they return from the sovereign's service. Those people, returning from service, shall petition the sovereign promptly about such cases and they shall bring petitions requesting that the litigants appear in the Service Land Chancellery. If someone, having returned from the sovereign's service, does not proceed to petition the sovereign for three months in that case: after the statutory three months, grant such lands to the later petitioners in response to their petition.

66. Concerning deti boiarskie serving in the palace court of the patriarch: those deti boiarskie in the service of the patriarch shall not possess the sovereign's service lands. The patriarch shall grant them service landholdings from his own land fund. Concerning deti boiarskie in the service of the patriarch who by any means, or by concealment, take service lands from the sovereign's lands: take away those service lands from those [people] and give [them] to the petitioners. For the concealment, inflict the punishment that the sovereign decrees.

67. Concerning people serving as jailors in the Moscow Administrative Chancellery: do not grant service landholdings to those jailors. If any jailors are in possession of service landholdings as grants: discharge those people as jailors and order them to render the sovereign's service from the provinces on the basis of the service landholding. If they do not proceed to render the sovereign's service from the provinces: take those service landholdings of theirs away from them and grant [them] to petitioners in a general distribution.

68. Concerning dvoriane who previously served in Novgorod and in Pskov, but now they are inscribed in the Moscow service list; and they have been granted service landholdings in the trans-Moscow towns, but their old Novgorod and Pskov service landholdings are still in their possession: take away those old Novgorod and Pskov service landholdings of theirs and grant them in a distribution to Novgorodians and Pskovians, dvoriane and deti boiarskie, because those dvoriane are serving on the Moscow service list, and they have been granted service landholdings in the trans-Moscow towns, and it has been ordered that those dvoriane shall not possess service landholdings in Pskov and Great Novgorod.

69. Concerning dvoriane and deti boiarskie who, desiring not to render the sovereign's service, while in the sovereign's service, feloniously give away their service landholdings to someone on mortgage, and sell their hereditary estates, and flee from the sovereign's service; and the generals proceed to write about them to the sovereign: having located such fugitives, inflict punishment for their flight: having beaten them with the knout without mercy, send them back to the regiments under guard of bailiffs. Take away those service landholdings and hereditary estates of theirs from those people to whom they gave those service landholdings of theirs on mortgage and sold their hereditary estates while in the sovereign's service in the regiments, and give them back to the sellers for no money.