The pillar noblewoman is who? Origin and meaning of the term

Many words from old fairy tales in modern children cause only bewilderment, and it is not entirely clear to adults how to explain this or that concept. For example, what does the "noblewoman of poles" mean from Pushkin's fairy tales? Where did this word come from? Let's try to understand.

Nobility in Russia

In Kievan Rus, the notion of "nobility" has not yet developed. Naturally, princely families already existed, but any free man could fill up the ranks of the vigilante or boyars. As a class, the nobility took shape already in the 13th and 15th centuries in the Russia of Moscow. The appearance of this class is inextricably linked with the revision of the principles of land ownership.

Manor and estate

In Muscovy there were two types of private land - an estate and an estate. It was called private land, which was handed down from generation to generation. The estate is a land for temporary use, which was given for long service in the civil service. In connection with the expansion of the territory of Moscow Rus, due to the increment of land from the south and Eastern Siberia, agricultural land became larger, but they could be obtained only in the service of the tsar.

Columns

The lands that were provided to servicemen were decorated according to the laws of that time in special decrees-columns. In them, every employee could find out whether he had land, and whether he was right to process it. Lists were drawn up quite often, but viewed and assured by the tsar himself. So the sovereign of all Russia had an idea of the number of people loyal to him, who owned estates. To fall into such a list is the dream of every servant, because this meant not only the possession of earthly lands, but also the likely attention and mercy of the king himself.

In the lists of the names of the owners of estates were written from the top down - "in a column". Thus, a man whose surname was in "columns" and was called "a columnar nobleman" and "a pillar noblewoman". This honorary title spoke of the existence of landed estates, and of the special mercy of the sovereign. Getting into the cherished "columns" was not easy.

Female noblewomen

Initially, the "columns" were only men. But over time, in the treasured lists were and female names. So the notion of "pillar noblewoman" appeared. The meaning of the word "noblewoman" implies a good origin or profitable marriage. The term "pillar" refers to the existence of anonymous land and a privileged position.

Thus, a noblewoman is a woman, from a good family, a wife or widow of a civil servant who owns the estate. After the death of a civil servant, his widow had the right to preserve the local land "for living", after her death the estate returned to the treasury and could be transferred to other pillar nobles. Cases when the wife or daughter owned the estate in person, were quite rare. As a rule, this right was possessed only by a pillar noblewoman. This possession was usually under the special care of the tsarist authorities, and the woman could not sell, lay or inherit the land.

Land reform

The confusion among the owners of patrimonial and local lands was so typical that it created a lot of inconvenience and wrong judgments. It is worth to clarify that the judgments in those days were mainly based on case law, and a chain of unlawful judgments, transfer of local possessions to inheritance, rent or sale, spread throughout the country. To legalize the current state of things, land reform was undertaken.

Land reform at the beginning of the XVI century equalized the position of the owners of patrimonial and local lands. Lands belonging to families from generation to generation, and the land owned by a nobleman or a noblewoman is a land that obeys the same laws. Such a decision was made in order to legalize the huge local lands that, relatively speaking, did not belong to their owners. Thus, the nobility of the nobles became hereditary nobles - their right to land could be controlled only by themselves. Naturally, in those years the autocracy grew and strengthened, and the tsarist government reserved the right to take the land and demolish the nobleman.

Results

So we sorted out the term "pillar noblewoman". The meaning of the word lies on the surface - it is a representative of the nobility, whose name is on the "pillars" of the sovereign himself. Perhaps, this is the daughter of the nominal tsar's servant or his widow, after which the local lands were left "for maintenance". But after the adoption of land reform, this word begins to get out of use and practically loses its significance. Pushkin used this word in his fairy tale to denote not only the greed of the old woman, but also her desire to be a famous person for the tsar himself. But than it ended for a greedy woman, everyone knows.