| Titre | Der Begriff "Adel" im Russland des 16. Jahrhunderts | |
|---|---|---|
| Auteur | Inge Auerbach | |
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Revue |
Cahiers du monde russe Titre à cette date : Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique |
| Numéro | volume 34, no 1-2, janvier-juin 1993 Noblesse, État et société en Russie XVIe - début du XIXe siècle | |
| Rubrique / Thématique | II |
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| Page | 73-88 | |
| Résumé anglais |
Inge Auerbach, The concept of nobility in sixteenth-century Russia.
Since the end of the Middle Ages, the concept of nobility is characterized by a system of values, a style of life and signs such as a blazon and a name. To enjoy the privileges attached to this estate, it is necessary to prove one's nobility by deeds, registers, genealogical trees, or solemn oaths of one's peers. Muscovy ignores all these procedures. There is certainly a hereditary knighthood recognized in the West, but nobles do not possess personal liberty (they are kholopy of the tsar) while placed above the peasants who are free. Nobility is defined by service, so that feminine descent plays but a small part. This service is that of a private person and as from the Muscovite (or Turkish) point of view it is difficult to rely on same, the elite servitor gives up his personal freedom. Privileges are connected with rank in the service, and slavery (kholopstvo) is nothing to be ashamed of. Since the elite is not free and as Muscovy as a whole is nothing but an immense private estate of the tsar (as opposed for instance to Kurbskii's Lithuanian estate), abstractions such as the state, the Crown, the Res publica are absolutely absent and estates (Stândestaat) do not emerge. But officials (d'iaki) take their cue from the military elite and that is why, instead of nobility, it is better to speak of an elite or rather, like Herberstein, of « a kind of nobility » (Art von Adel). Source : Éditeur (via Persée) |
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| Article en ligne | http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_0008-0160_1993_num_34_1_2336 |
