279 fiscal policy, which was designed to strengthen the feudal system characterized by serfdom and to promote an active foreign policy. “The state interest,” according to which the peasant should be a regular taxpayer, took precedence, under Peter, over the “interest” of the estate owners. However, the tsar’s thoughts concerning protection of the peasant’s household vis-a-vis the estate owner’s rents had the character of noncommittal wishes. In reality, the increase of the state taxes went on without any regard for the landlords’ imposition of rents. The claim of the state treasury to the major portion of the peasantry’s surplus is demonstrated clearly by the introduction of the soul tax. The enserfed peasant was required to pay, in tax, seventy-four kopecks per male, while the government calculated the estate owner’s rent at forty kopecks per male. Article 33 of the instruktsiia for voevodas constituted what largely amounted to a repetition of an ukaz issued to the governors in 1714. As was the case in that ukaz, the voevodas were given the task of seeing to it that the inheritance ordinance of 1714 (“Ukaz o edinonasledii”) was followed strictly in each province. This ordinance stipulated that all real estate {nedvizhimye veshchi), that is, nobiliar estates, should be inherited in full by the son each testator named in his will. Only personal property was to be divided among the other heirs, and in the absence of a will the eldest son was to inherit the estate. Thus, article 33 stated that the voevoda “shall, in his province, carefully see to it that no fraud is committed in contravention of this ukaz when it comes to the inheritance of real estate, and likewise that [real estate] is not divided into different parts.“ Article 35, the third of the articles in the instruktsiia lacking counterparts in the Swedish instrukion, opened in the following manner: The voevoda shall, in accordance with His Tsarist Majesty’s Most Gracious ukaz, published this year on January 26 (22), 1719, concerning the quartering of the army regiments in the districts, carefully see to it that the persons in his province (appointed to do so), of whatever rank they may be, make a completely correct census {pogolovnaia perepis") without any concealment or other trickery. The background of this article was the tax reform which, it had been decided in 1717, was to be introduced. This reform, which was initiated in connection with plans for a new maintenance organization for the army during peacetime, rejected the homestead as a canieral unit and introduced personal taxation in its place. All males subject totaxation—peasants, craftmen, and merchants—were to be required to pay a personal tax amounting to a certain sumper person per annum, regardless of age or ability towork. The amount of the tax was to be determined after a census of the male population had been conducted. At the same time, the result of the census was to serve as the basis for the quartering of the army’s soldiers on the peasantry. 2.J0 2A (no. 17), 40.
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