Glossary
(Helena V. Gushchina)
Note 1. Exact information about the money of Kievan Rus² is absent. Researchers have different opinions³ about this problem. The most de- tailed study of this issue is persented in the work by E. Kamentseva and N. Ustyugov.⁴ The most popular version of the ratio of monetary units: 1) SP: 1 grivna=20 nogatas=25 kunas=50 rezanas=150 veveritsas. 2) VP: 1 grivna kun=20 nogatas=50 kunas=150 vekshas. Note 2. The social structure of the population of Kievan Rus is not quite clear. There are different opinions about it.⁵ The whole population can be divided into three categories: free, dependent and half-dependent people. Free people were the prince, his armed force, boyars, priests, lyudi, and social outcasts. The most numerous category of free people was the so-called lyudi. This category was not homogeneous either: there were such subcategories as narochitiye lyudi, gorodskiye lyudi and do- briye lyudi. A person could become dependent on his own free will as well. Half-dependent were smerds, zakups. The most numerous category of dependent people was kholops.A kholop could pay off his freedom or be given freedom by his owner. The exception were full kholops (obels) who lost their freedom forever.
Boyar — member of an old order of Russian nobility, ranking immedi- ately below the princes.
²Or Kyivan Rus. ³Библиотека литературы Древней Руси. / под ред. Д. С. Лихачева, Л. А. Дмит- риева, А. А. Алексеева [и др.]. СПб.: Наука, 1997. Т. 4: XII век. С. 679.; Зва- рич, В. В. Нумизматический словарь. Львов: Вища шк., Изд-во при Львов. ун-те, 1978. С. 33, 96, 121, 143. ⁴Каменцева Е. И., Устюгов Н. В. Русская метрология: учебное пособие. 2-е изд. М.: Высш. шк., 1975. С. 38—39, 63. ⁵Греков Б. Д. Киевская Русь. М.: Госполитиздат, 1953. С. 119—273.; Зимин А. А. Холопы на Руси: с древнейших времён до конца XV в. М.: Наука, 1973. С. 84—115, 171—172.; Фроянов И. Я. Киевская Русь: очерки социально- экономической истории. Л.: Изд-во Ленингр. ун-та, 1974. С. 100—150.
12 Chelyadin (pl. chelyad) — a dependent person, slave. Servant or another permanent member of a prince’s household.
Dacha — a loan in the form of bread, seed, implements or cattle.
Detsky — a junior bodyguard performing judicial functions.
Dikaya vira — a collective fine for the murder of a free person.
Dobriye lyudi — “good” people. Middle-class free people.
Domenialnyi Ustav or the Pravda Yaroslavichey — the part of Rus- skaya Pravda (Short Pravda Russkaya, articles 19–41).
Drevneishaya Pravda (Ancient Law) or the Pravda Yaroslava — the part of Russkaya Pravda (Short Pravda Russkaya, articles 1–17).
Fyodorovskoye Gospel is probably of the Yaroslavl origin (1321–1327). It is connected with the name of the Yaroslavl Prince Theodore the Black (1240–1299) and his patron St. Theodore Stratelates. As the manuscript contains a miniature “St. Theodore Stratelates” at the beginning the Gospel was named after the Saint. It is kept in the Yaroslavl Museum-Preserve.
Gorodskiye lyudi — towns people. Middle-class free people.
Gridin — a guard. A member of a junior prince’s armed force, a profes- sional warrior, a mercenary.
Grivna (here: pl. grivnas) — currency of Kievan Rus. See Note 1.
Grivna kun — currency of Kievan Rus.
Izgoi — a social outcast. A special social notion meaning the people of different estates.
Izvod — a judicial inquiry involving the witnesses’ evidence.
Kholop (here: pl. kholops). Here: a male slave (a female slave was called roba).
Kholopstvo — slavery.
13 Knyaz — a Slavic title denoting a royal nobility rank. Prince.
Kormchaya Kniga (Navigator’s Chart or the Pilot’s Book) — the chief handbook of canon law. Kormchaya Kniga (or Kormchaya) is the Slavic version of the Greek laws known as the Nomocanon.
Kuna (here: pl. kunas) — currency of Kievan Rus. It comes from the word “kunitsa” (marten); its skin was used as a monetary unit in Rus for some time. See Note 1.
Kupa — a loan.
Kylfings — a people of uncertain, probably Finno-Ugric origin who were active in Northern Europe during the Viking Age.
Letopisets Vskore of Patriarch Nicephorus or Chronographikon synto- mon — a short Byzantine chronograph, a part of Kormchaya Kniga, an unnumbered chapter (after no. 70) in the Yaroslavsky Copy of Kormchaya.
Mechnik — a sheriff.
Mekh — a bag for taxes.
Menshiye boyare (Lesser Boyars) — boyars occupied the lesser military and administrative offices in the state in comparison with Velikiye boyare.
Merilo Pravednoe (“The Just Balance”) — the old Slavonic collection of ethical and juridical writings.
Metelnik — a prince’s bodyguard who escorted a virnik.
Mostnik — a builder of bridges.
Narochitiye lyudi — well-to-do people. Middle-class free people.
Nogata (here: pl. nogatas) — currency of Kievan Rus. See Note 1.
Nomocanon — (Greek: Νομοκανών, from the Greek nomos — law and kanon — a rule) is the collection of the Greek laws.
14 Novgorodskaya I Letopis or Novgorodskaya Pervaya Letopis (NPL) — the Novgorod First Chronicle. It is the oldest survived chronicle of the Novgorod Republic.
O Razlichnykh Obrazakh Spaseniya i o Pokayanii (On Salvation and Repentance) — a collection of the Old Slavic translations of the fragments from St. Athanasius of Alexandria writings. Part of Kormchaya Kniga, an unnumbered chapter (between nos. 43 and 44) in the Yaroslavsky Copy of Kormchaya.
Obel — a full kholop. See Note 2.
Ognishchanin — a dependent person, slave. Prince’s household steward.
Ot Titl — the Old Slavic translation of fragments of works in jurispru- dence, created by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor. Extracts from Corpus juris civilis. It is also referred to as the Code of Justinian. Part of Kormchaya Kniga, chapter no. 22 in the Ya- roslavsky Copy of Kormchaya.
Otrok — a servant.
Paisievsky Sbornik — a collection of texts from various sources.
Perekladnoe — a payment to the court official for the termination of the case.
Podyezdnoy — a prince’s tax collector.
Pogost (here: pl. pogosts) — an administrative and territorial district. Pogosts varied in size, ranging from tens to hundreds of villages.
Pokon virny — the part of Russkaya Pravda (Short Pravda Russkaya, article 42).
Poslukh — a witness.
Povest Vremennykh Let (PVL) — Rus Primary Chronicle.
Pravda Yaroslava (Law of Yaroslav) or the Drevneishaya Pravda — the part of Russkaya Pravda (Short Pravda Russkaya, articles 1–17).
15 Pravda Yaroslavichey (Law of the Sons of Yaroslav) or the Domenial- nyi Ustav — the part of Russkaya Pravda (Short Pravda Russkaya, articles 19–41).
Pravda (here) — Pravda Russkaya.
Prostaya chad — common people. Low-class free people.
Rech Zhidovskogo Yazyka (Jewish dictionary) — a dictionary of for- eign and obscure words (Russian). A dictionary of foreign words met in the translated Books of the Old and New Testaments: proper names and biblical places names, as well as common nouns and some biblical expressions. The dictionary interprets not only Jewish words but also the Greek and Slavic vocabulary.
Rezana (here: pl. rezanas) — currency of Kievan Rus. See Note 1.
Roba — a dependent woman, a female slave.
Ruble or rouble — (here) currency of Kievan Rus. Ruble, from the Rus- sian word rubit’ (to cut), was a piece of a Novgorodian silver grivna or a marked Novgorodian silver grivna. According to another ver- sion the name ruble originated from the word rubets (a seam).
Rusin — a Kievian Russian, an inhabitant of the Middle-Dnieper Region.
Russkaya Pravda is the Old Russian collection of laws. Its appearance is connected by most modern researchers with the name of Grand Prince of Kiev Yaroslav the Wise.
Ryadovich — a half-dependent person in Kievan Rus. The man on con- tract (ryad), debt-bonded servant.
Semi-uncial (semi-ustav or poluustav) — the old Cyrillic script. The ear- lier form was called ustav (developed from the Greek uncial), and later developed into the semi-ustav script.
Slovenin — (here) the name of a Novgorodian Russian.
16 Smerd — the name given to a member of a class of peasantry of the state in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This name was given to two categories of peasants: free peasants who gradually lost their freedom with the development of the feudal order, and dependent peasants.
Sobornik — a liturgical book, a collection of texts from various sources.
Sot Medvenyi — a penitential book in the form of tables. Part of Korm- chaya Kniga, an unnumbered chapter (between nos. 69 and 70) in the Yaroslavsky Copy of Kormchaya.
Sud Yaroslav Volodimerich — the title of Pravda Yaroslava or the Drevneishaya Pravda in the Vast Pravda Russkaya.
Svod — a forensic and investigative procedure to search for stolen goods, a confrontation.
Titlo (pl. titlos) — an over-text diacritic symbol used in the old Cyrillic manuscripts.
Tiun — a prince’s or a boyar’s bailiff. The bishop’s representative.
Tiun konyushiy — a prince’s equerry.
Tiun ognishchnyi — a prince’s household steward.
Tiun ratainiy — a prince’s bailiff in charge of ploughing.
Tiun selskiy — a prince’s bailiff managing a prince’s villages and agri- cultural lands.
Tretny rez — an interest rate of 50 percent per annum.
Varangians — the name of Scandinavian warriors and merchants in Rus of the ninth and eleventh centuries. Known as Normans or Vikings in other parts of Europe.
Veksha (here: pl. vekshas) — currency of Kievan Rus. From a squirrel, squirrel fur. See Note 1.
17 Velikiye boyare (Great Boyars) — boyars occupied the highest military and administrative offices in the state.
Veveritsa (here: pl. veveritsas) — currency of Kievan Rus. See Note 1.
Vira —a fine for the murder of a free person.
Virnik — a collector of a vira.
Volost (here: pl. volosts) — an administrative and territorial district. A name for the territory ruled by the knyaz, a principality.
Voproshaniye Kirikovo — the Questions of Kirik. The name of the Old Slavic writing. Part of Kormchaya Kniga, chapter no. 69 in the Yaroslavsky Copy of Kormchaya.
Yabetnik — an agent of a prince.
Yako Bog Zhivet v Sovershennom Khristianine (How God is in the Perfect Christian) — a collection of the Old Slavic translations of the fragments from St. Athanasius of Alexandria writings. Part of Kormchaya Kniga, an unnumbered chapter (between nos. 43 and 44) in the Yaroslavsky Copy of Kormchaya.
Zakonopravilo — the old Slavic translation of the word Nomocanon.
Zakup (here: pl. zakups) — a half-dependent person in Kievan Rus. Peo- ple became zakups by agreeing to a loan (kupa), with their personal bondage as a guarantee. Legally zakups were free people, but were equal in status to slaves as a result of their voluntarily assumed de- pendence on their landlord.
Zemstvo — the form of local government in 1864–1918.
18