DOI: 10.25136/2409-868X.2021.9.36320

Abstract: The interdisciplinary approach that takes into account various points of view allows revealing the representations of honor in mentality of the Russian landowners of the XVII century. These representations are analyzed both in the context of national mentality of the XVII century overall, and within the privileged class. The article examines different meanings of honor typical to Russia of the XVII century: ancestral, official, corporate, spiritual, as well as assumptions on the presence of personal honor. Plausible mental representations of the honor of county landowners of the XVII century are viewed from the social, legal, spiritual, moral, and military-professional perspectives. The author goes along with the concepts that attribute honor to the fundamental concepts of national mentality of the XVII century. There are several meanings of honor: the medieval ideal of honor as virtue prevalent in Moscow society, honor of the rank, although the complete dominance of the latter in mentality of the XVII century seems exaggerated. The entire privileged class of the Russian society attached great importance to the meaning of “homeland”, while the provincial landowners valued the length of service. The author believes that the idea of syncretism of honor expressed by the scholars about Middle Ages also pertains to the Moscow period. The honor of noblemen and children of court nobility on the ancestral, corporate and personal levels was an achievement based on “accumulative” principle. The resentment of duels by the Russian privileged ranks of the XVII century, who defended their honor in a lawful manner, deserves particular attention. The representations of honor of the county landowners was stressed by mass poverty and closeness to the lower social classes, which encouraged to stay in the privileged environment. This was accompanied by continuous struggle for retaining paternal, official, corporate, personal honor.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-868X.2020.4.32213

Abstract: The subject of this research is the mentality of Russian landowners of the XVII century. This topic remains insufficiently studied, therefore the author sets a goal to identify the peculiarities of lifestyle and most characteristic mental features of the Russian provincial landowners of the XVII century. The authorial concepts is based on the assumption on possibility of deriving the mental attitudes of this social estate from their typical lifestyle. Due to the lack of direct testimonies on everyday life and apperception of the landowners of the period prior to Peter the Great, the author uses the research and sources on the social, military and agrarian history of the XVII century. A better understanding of the topic is achieved by means of attracting most substantial sources on the history of Russian nobility. From the perspective of the history of mentality, within the framework of interdisciplinary approach, the article generalizes the studies of various scientific disciplines that contain records on the typical lifestyle of Russian landowners of the XVII century. At the same time, features of the mentality of Russian landowners are viewed on the background of cultural worldview of Moscovian State of the XVII century. The mentality of Russian landowners of the XVII century was substantiated by a number of factors defining their lifestyle. The character and conditions of service contributed to mobility, modesty and adaptability. The specificity of conditional landownership, perhaps, accustomed to self-reliance and responsibility. The need to defending interests of the estates formed situational awareness. A peculiar factor for the mentality of landowners was an affiliation to the privileged estate. The “borderline” position with regards to unprivileged ranks classified the poorest landowners to the lowest ranks of service classes; actualized distancing with the latter and imparted e mentality of country landowners of the XVII century with such trait as a desire to preserve their privileged status.