Pillar noblewoman. A pillar noblewoman is the heiress of an ancient family

Many words from old fairy tales cause modern children only bewilderment, and adults do not quite understand how to explain this or that concept. For example, what does “pillar noblewoman” mean from Pushkin’s fairy tales? Where did this word come from? Let's try to figure it out.

Nobility in Rus'

IN Kievan Rus the concept of “nobility” had not yet taken shape. Naturally, princely families already existed, but, in principle, any free person could join the ranks of the warriors or boyars. As a class, the nobility took shape already in the XIII-XV centuries in Moscow Rus'. The emergence of this class is inextricably linked with a reconsideration of the principles of land ownership.

Estate and fiefdom

In Muscovy there were two types of private land - patrimony and estate. It was called votchina private land which was passed down from generation to generation. An estate is land for temporary use, which was given for service in connection with the expansion of the territory of Muscovite Rus', due to the increase in land from the south and Eastern Siberia, there was more agricultural land, but it could only be obtained in the service of the tsar.

Columns

The lands that were provided to service people were formalized according to the laws of that time in special decrees - columns. In them, each employee could find out whether he had land and whether he had the right to cultivate it. The lists were compiled quite often, and were reviewed and certified by the king himself. So the sovereign of all Rus' had an idea about the number of people loyal to him who owned estates. To be included in such a list is the dream of every serviceman, because it meant not only ownership of earthly lands, but also the probable attention and mercy of the king himself.

In the lists, the names of the owners of the estates were written from top to bottom - “in a column”. Thus, a person whose last name was in the “columns” was called “pillar nobleman” and “pillar noblewoman.” This honorary title spoke both of the presence of land holdings and of a special status. Getting into the coveted “columns” was not easy.

Noblewomen

At first, only men were included in the “columns”. But over time, the coveted lists also included female names. This is how the concept of “pillar noblewoman” appeared. The meaning of the word "noblewoman" implies good birth or an advantageous marriage. The term “pillar” indicates the presence of significant lands and a privileged position.

Thus, a pillar noblewoman is a woman from a good family, a wife or widow who owns an estate. After the death of a civil servant, his widow had the right to retain the estate lands “for living”; after her death, the estate returned to the treasury and could be transferred to other pillar nobles. Cases where wives or daughters owned the estate personally were quite rare. As a rule, only high-ranking noblewomen had this right. This property was usually under the special guardianship of the royal authorities, and a woman could not sell, mortgage or inherit the land.

Land reforms

Confusion among the owners of patrimonial and estate lands was so typical that it created a lot of inconvenience and incorrect court decisions. It is worth clarifying that court decisions in those days were mainly based on and the chain of illegal transfers of estates by inheritance, lease or sale spread throughout the country. To legalize the existing state of affairs, land reform was undertaken.

Land reforms of the early 16th century equalized the position of owners of patrimonial and estate lands. Lands owned by families from generation to generation, and lands owned by one or another nobleman or noblewoman, are lands subject to the same laws. This decision was made in order to legalize huge estates that, relatively speaking, did not belong to their owners. Thus, the pillar nobles became hereditary nobles - only they themselves could dispose of their right to land. Naturally, in those years the autocracy grew and strengthened, and the tsarist government reserved the right to take away lands and demote the nobleman.

Results

This is how we figured out the term “pillar noblewoman.” The meaning of the word lies on the surface - this is a representative of the noble class, whose surname is on the “column lists” of the sovereign himself. Perhaps this is the daughter of the royal servant or his widow, for whom the local lands were left “for maintenance.” But after the adoption of land reform, this word begins to fall out of use and practically loses its meaning. A.S. Pushkin in his fairy tale used this word to denote not only the old woman’s greed, but also her desire to be known as special to the tsar himself. But everyone knows how it ended for the greedy woman.

In Russia, hereditary nobles of noble families, listed in the XVI-XVI! centuries in the columns are genealogical books, in contrast to nobles of later origin.

View value Pillar Nobles in other dictionaries

Duma Nobles- - in the Russian state of the XV-XVII centuries. third in “honor” rank of members of the Boyar Duma (after the boyars and okolnichy).
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Duma Nobles- in the Russian state of the 15th-17th centuries. 3rd rank of members of the Boyar Duma (after the boyars and okolnichy).

Pillar Nobles- in Russia, hereditary nobles of noble families, listed in the 16-17 centuries. in the columns are genealogical books, in contrast to nobles of later origin.
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1) at........
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Duma Nobles- in Rus. state in the 16-17th centuries. third in "honor" Duma rank. The name D. d. was used from the 2nd half. 16th century Before that, they were called “children of the boyars of the Duma”, “nobles of the sovereign in the Duma”,........
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14.09.2009

Nobility: pillar, hereditary, personal.

Coat of arms of the Pushkins

Let us remember who the old woman wanted to be in “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”? "A pillar noblewoman." Why? Indeed, in the time of Pushkin, rank was valued more than nobility of origin. Nevertheless, being a pillar nobleman was, as they would say now, “cool.” This meant that you were of an ancient family, that your ancestors were nobles even before Peter I. Why before Peter? Because in the XVI-XVII centuries. information about Russian nobles was entered into the columns of the Rank Order. Actually, that’s why they are “pillars”. And under the reformer tsar, the nobility began to be quite actively replenished with people from other classes. This was officially formalized by the Table of Ranks: if a person received a certain rank, he was elevated to hereditary nobility, that is, not only he, but also his children would be nobles.

It’s easy to remember how one could “get out among the people” in the first decades of the 19th century if you memorize a part of Pushkin’s poem “My Genealogy.” The poet (a leading nobleman, by the way) lists in it the most common ways of obtaining hereditary nobility in his time:

I'm not an officer, not an assessor,
I am not a nobleman by cross,
Not an academician, not a professor;
I'm just a Russian tradesman.

Accordingly, a person received hereditary nobility if he became:

An officer (ensign or cornet, this is class 14 of the Table of Ranks. True, children born before their father received an officer rank belonged to the group of “chief officer children” and only one of them, at the request of the father, could receive nobility),
collegiate assessor (8th grade Table of Ranks),
professor,
academician
received an order (in Pushkin - a “cross”. That is why they tried to reward representatives of the peasantry, philistinism and merchants either with medals or with some objects, for example, silver ladles. Award ladles were awarded until early XIX century).

Then the tightening of the screws began. In 1845, the military rank conferring hereditary nobility was promoted to major. In 1856 - to colonel in the army and full-time state councilor in civilian life.

I specifically wrote “the most common methods” because there were other possibilities. After ascending the throne, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna granted nobility to all the soldiers of the grenadier company of the Preobrazhensky Regiment who helped her carry out the coup. The smallpox received nobility and their surname after material was taken from the founder of their family, the boy Alexander Markov, for inoculation of Catherine II. The illegitimate daughter of Emperor Paul I from a laundress was elevated to the nobility and received the surname Musina-Yuryev.

By the way, in the same poem, Alexander Sergeevich writes about representatives of those families whose ancestors served under Peter the Great and his followers.

My grandfather did not sell pancakes (a hint to the Menshikovs),
Didn’t wax the royal boots (This is about Kutaisov, Paul I’s valet),
Didn’t sing with the court sextons (About Razumovsky, whose ancestor, Alyosha Rozum, became Elizabeth Petrovna’s favorite after she noticed a handsome fellow with a wonderful voice in the church choir),
I didn’t jump to princehood from crests (Bezborodko),
And he was not a runaway soldier
Austrian powder squads (a kick towards Kleinmichel and his
descendants);
So should I be an aristocrat?
I, thank God, am a tradesman.

And finally, there was a personal nobility. It was received along with the first civilian rank, and after 1845 with the first officer rank. A personal nobleman could not own peasants, hold elected noble positions, or participate in noble meetings; his name was not entered in the genealogical book of the corresponding province. But there were also bonuses: they could not apply Physical punishment, he was free from poll tax and conscription. In addition, if a family had three personal noblemen in a row (grandfather, father and son), then the son could ask for hereditary nobility. A person could submit the same petition if his father and grandfather had personal nobility and served Russia “immaculately” for 20 years.

P.S. Just in case: I'm talking mainly about the first decades of the 19th century.
P.P.S. The table of ranks can be seen here.

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

Pillar nobility- in pre-revolutionary Russia, representatives of noble families who belonged to the ancient hereditary noble families. The name comes from the so-called Columns - medieval lists granting representatives of the service class estates for the duration of their service.

Subsequently, the estates became hereditary. In the 17th - early 18th centuries, the main documents for the annual recording of service people according to the Moscow list were noble lists, which in - years were kept in the form of books, repeating the purpose and structure of the boyar lists-columns. Since for truly ancient Russian noble families the main evidence of their antiquity was a mention in these columns, such nobles were called pillars.

Because this concept was not formalized legally anywhere; in historiography there is no consensus on the question of what historical period can be used to mark the end of the formation of this layer of the nobility, i.e. Until what conditional or real date must a noble family or its founder be known in order to be considered a pillar? Various options Such conditional chronological restrictions include: 1) it is assumed that only those families whose ancestors are known in the largest pre-Petrine all-Russian genealogical codes, such as the Sovereign Genealogy and (or) the Velvet Book; 2) in another version, the pillar nobility includes noble families known before 1613, i.e. before the election of the Romanov dynasty to the kingdom; 3) finally, all noble families of the pre-Petrine era can be classified as pillar nobles (however, in this case it often remains unclear exactly what moment of Peter’s reign can be considered a milestone date).

In the 18th-19th centuries, the pillar nobles did not have any privileges over representatives of the new noble families (appeared as a result of the award of personal or hereditary nobility for special merits, for length of service, by rank, by order). Therefore, the antiquity of the family served exclusively as a source of pride for its representatives. Official documentation usually used the simple formulation “from the nobles of such and such a province,” the same for both the old nobility and the new. The pillar nobility was quite numerous in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The titled nobility (aristocracy) largely consisted of new families (the award of the title for special merits, sometimes to former pillars, but untitled nobles), as well as Finnish, Belarusian, Polish, Georgian, Tatar, Ukrainian, Balkan, Armenian, Balkan, Western European. The number of clans that were previously boyars, and descended from Rurik, Gediminas, or from people from the Golden Horde, was limited and gradually decreased (the clan was suppressed in the absence of male heirs), as in relative numbers (the percentage of pillars relative to the growing total number of noble families in Russia), and in absolute terms (by total number such genera). They had no privileges over the new titled nobility.

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An excerpt characterizing the Stolbovoe nobility

“Dear birthday girl with the children,” she said in her loud, thick voice, suppressing all other sounds. “What, you old sinner,” she turned to the count, who was kissing her hand, “tea, are you bored in Moscow?” Is there anywhere to run the dogs? What should we do, father, this is how these birds will grow up...” She pointed to the girls. - Whether you want it or not, you have to look for suitors.
- Well, what, my Cossack? (Marya Dmitrievna called Natasha a Cossack) - she said, caressing Natasha with her hand, who approached her hand without fear and cheerfully. – I know that the potion is a girl, but I love her.
She took out pear-shaped yakhon earrings from her huge reticule and, giving them to Natasha, who was beaming and blushing for her birthday, immediately turned away from her and turned to Pierre.
- Eh, eh! kind! “Come here,” she said in a feignedly quiet and thin voice. - Come on, my dear...
And she menacingly rolled up her sleeves even higher.
Pierre approached, naively looking at her through his glasses.
- Come, come, my dear! I was the only one who told your father the truth when he had a chance, but God commands it to you.
She paused. Everyone was silent, waiting for what would happen, and feeling that there was only a preface.
- Good, nothing to say! good boy!... The father is lying on his bed, and he is amusing himself, putting the policeman on a bear. It's a shame, father, it's a shame! It would be better to go to war.
She turned away and offered her hand to the count, who could hardly restrain himself from laughing.
- Well, come to the table, I have tea, is it time? - said Marya Dmitrievna.
The count walked ahead with Marya Dmitrievna; then the countess, who was led by a hussar colonel, the right person, with whom Nikolai was supposed to catch up with the regiment. Anna Mikhailovna - with Shinshin. Berg shook hands with Vera. A smiling Julie Karagina went with Nikolai to the table. Behind them came other couples, stretching across the entire hall, and behind them, one by one, were children, tutors and governesses. The waiters began to stir, the chairs rattled, music began to play in the choir, and the guests took their seats. The sounds of the count's home music were replaced by the sounds of knives and forks, the chatter of guests, and the quiet steps of waiters.
At one end of the table the Countess sat at the head. On the right is Marya Dmitrievna, on the left is Anna Mikhailovna and other guests. At the other end sat the count, on the left the hussar colonel, on the right Shinshin and other male guests. On one side of the long table are older young people: Vera next to Berg, Pierre next to Boris; on the other hand - children, tutors and governesses. From behind the crystal, bottles and vases of fruit, the Count looked at his wife and her tall cap with blue ribbons and diligently poured wine for his neighbors, not forgetting himself. The countess also, from behind the pineapples, not forgetting her duties as a housewife, cast significant glances at her husband, whose bald head and face, it seemed to her, were more sharply different from his gray hair in their redness. There was a steady babble on the ladies' end; in the men's room, voices were heard louder and louder, especially the hussar colonel, who ate and drank so much, blushing more and more, that the count was already setting him up as an example to the other guests. Berg, with a gentle smile, spoke to Vera that love is not an earthly, but a heavenly feeling. Boris named his new friend Pierre the guests at the table and exchanged glances with Natasha, who was sitting opposite him. Pierre spoke little, looked at new faces and ate a lot. Starting from two soups, from which he chose a la tortue, [turtle,] and kulebyaki and to hazel grouse, he did not miss a single dish and not a single wine, which the butler mysteriously stuck out in a bottle wrapped in a napkin from behind his neighbor’s shoulder, saying or “drey Madeira", or "Hungarian", or "Rhine wine". He placed the first of the four crystal glasses with the count's monogram that stood in front of each device, and drank with pleasure, looking at the guests with an increasingly pleasant expression. Natasha, sitting opposite him, looked at Boris the way thirteen-year-old girls look at a boy with whom they had just kissed for the first time and with whom they are in love. This same look of hers sometimes turned to Pierre, and under the gaze of this funny, lively girl he wanted to laugh himself, not knowing why.

We all remember from childhood Pushkin’s cantankerous old woman from “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish,” who first wanted to become a noblewoman, and then raised her demands even higher. The idea laid down by the author in this work is clear and understandable, but not everyone can explain what “pillar noblewoman” means. Meanwhile, the meaning of this term should be sought in the depths of our history.

Estates of service people

First of all, we note that a pillar noblewoman is a representative of an old hereditary noble family, which could well serve as a reason for pride. In addition, she, as a rule, disposed of significant land, although they were not her property. The point here is this.

In those ancient times, when this class was just formed (XV century), the sovereign's servants belonging to it received land plots, called estates, for the duration of their direct duties. Their sizes were sometimes quite impressive.

Estate and fiefdom

Since they were given for temporary use, they had to be returned to the treasury at the end of the service. In this case, estates should not be confused with estates, which were the private property of their owners, who had the right to do whatever they wanted with it. This difference between the two forms of ownership was eliminated only in the middle of the 18th century, when estates began to be inherited.

“Pillar noblewoman”: the meaning of this expression

The names of the owners of such government plots were entered into special lists called columns. This is where the expressions “pillar nobleman” and “pillar noblewoman” came from. The meaning of the word “noblewoman” in this case indicates a close family connection(usually marriage) of a woman with the owner of such a plot, since she herself was not in the service and could not receive land. The same applies to the children of a serving person.

It is known that the practice of Russian office work of the 15th-17th centuries provided for a special type of documents, which were a tape of paper strips glued together. It was on it that the names of the nobles - owners of state-owned plots - were applied. Such a fairly wide ribbon was usually rolled into a scroll called a column - this is exactly what it looked like when placed vertically.

It is not difficult to guess that the expression “pillar nobles” came from him. This becomes even more understandable if we consider that the names on the scroll were written in a “column” - one below the other. This form of document was very convenient. This register of service people was periodically submitted to the sovereign, and he, gradually unwinding it, could examine in detail the entire list of his most trusted persons.

New nobility and pillars

Over time the laws Russian state changed, and estates, previously provided for temporary use, became hereditary. They could be sold, donated and deposited in a bank. The form of compiling accounting documentation also changed: books replaced scroll-columns. But most importantly, in the 17th-18th centuries there appeared a large number of new families, the nobility of which did not have deep historical roots, but was granted only recently for services to the state or due to length of service.

And although in legal terms there was no difference between the new and hereditary (pillar) nobility, belonging to the latter was a source of pride, since it testified to belonging to an ancient family. Thus, a pillar noblewoman is not just a person from the privileged class, but a lady who had reason to be proud of her pedigree. This is precisely what the old woman from Pushkin’s fairy tale claimed. It is not for nothing that synonyms for the word “pillar noblewoman” are primordial, indigenous and hereditary.

Conditions for belonging to the pillar nobility

Since Russia has never had an official legal term- “pillar noblewoman”, the meaning of the word required clarification. Difficulties arose in determining the specific historical milestone at which this layer of the nobility ceases to form. In other words, it is difficult to say to what extent historical period The pedigree of a particular noblewoman must be traced in order for her to have the right to be considered a pillar.

This seemingly idle question actually became the subject of unusually heated debates and discussions, fueled by vanity. As a result, two points of view prevailed. According to one of them, a pillar nobleman or a pillar noblewoman are those people whose ancestors were noted in the largest genealogical records of pre-Petrine times. In another version, the requirements were significantly tightened, and it was necessary to have a founder of the family registered before 1613, that is, before the accession of the Romanov dynasty.

Titles received for the antiquity of the family

In the 18th century, the ranks of the titled nobility, from which the Russian aristocracy emerged, were significantly replenished. Their number included not only those who climbed the social ladder thanks to merit, and were awarded for them title of nobility, but also representatives of old, non-established families, who received high-profile titles only because of their origin.

This order applied not only to men, but also to women. And what did the title “pillar noblewoman” mean in this case? This phrase is by and large, was used to inform the public that its owner bears some high-profile title - countess, princess, etc. So the old woman knew what to ask from the Golden Fish.