For Deliveries to Tsargrad and Other Neighboring States” (Kyiv Reiters in the Eighteenth Century)

VADYM NAZARENKO

Scholars investigating the history of the Hetmanate usually ignore the fact that large enclaves of Russian troops - garrisons - were stationed in the largest cities of the Cossack polity.

In contrast to other structural elements of the Kyiv garrison, the Kyiv Reiter detachment, because of its atypicality and regular mentions in various sources, drew the attention of scholars from the very start, and one of the first to make reference to them was their contemporary Opanas Shafons'kyi. Oleksandr Andriievs'kyi and Volodymyr Shcherbyna devoted small studies to the Reiters.¹ In his reference work on the administrative apparatus of Southern Ukraine, historian Andrii Makidonov compiled a list of Kyiv Reiters who are mentioned in eighteenth-century sources.²

The Reiter detachment³ was a special part of the Kyiv garrison. Its duties dif­fered substantially from the duties of the other structural units of the garrison, in that the Reiters served as couriers and did not perform any garrison functions as such. The Reiters were under the authority of the Kyiv governor, the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, and the Senate. This special subordination ensured them a more favorable status than that of the personnel of the rest of the garrison’s units and subunits. The Reiters were the “governor’s men” and therefore felt much more secure than most of the officers and soldiers of the Kyiv garrison. The Reiters’ privileged status prompted them to establish their sons in the detachment. There­fore “outsiders” - the soldiers and officers of the garrison and army regiments, Cossacks, and others - also attempted to find a place for themselves in the de­tachment. Not infrequently, those aspiring to a place in the unit agreed to serve “above the specified number [sverkh komplekta]” and waited for a vacancy for several years, receiving no salary during this time.

The Reiter detachment was a semi-closed socioprofessional group within the Kyiv garrison, a social phenomenon of sorts. There is plenty of evidence to con­firm this. The Reiters were bound by collective responsibility for the expenditure of the funds that were disbursed to them for duty assignments.⁴ The Kyiv Reiters had their own church (St George’s), which formed a separate parish.⁵ They mar­ried within their own group.

A requirement for candidates for service in the unit was elementary literacy (“ability to read and write Russian”). In addition, many Reiters knew (if only at the conversational level) the Turkish and Tatar languages.⁶

In the Russian army of the seventeenth century, the Reiter regiments were re­cruited mostly from among nobles serving in the “company service [sotennaia sluzhba]” (poor children of boyars, who upon their enlistment in the Reiters re­ceived not only a salary, but also a plot of land) of the Belgorod and Sevsk terri­torial units (razriady).⁷ The first Reiter regiment in the Russian army was formed in 1632.⁸ The number of such units gradually increased, especially during wars.

However, under the Petrovian reforms, the Reiter regiments were disbanded and their personnel were either transferred to dragoon units, or they became the basis for the formation of land militia regiments.

Unlike in the rest of the lands of the empire, the Kyiv Reiters survived, becom­ing an eloquent fragment of the internal mosaic of the Kyiv garrison throughout the eighteenth century. The first Reiter regiments are recorded in Kyiv in 1658.⁹ From 1672 to 1719, one Reiter regiment, named the Kyiv regiment, was stationed in Kyiv. During the period of 1672-1718, it numbered from 91 to 174 men.¹⁰ The last commander of the regiment was Ivan Pozdeev, who is first mentioned in Patrick Gordon's diary in the 1680s, and later in the inventory of 1695. In 1700 he figures as one of the regiment's officers (with the rank of major), and in 1718, as its commander.¹¹ According to the Soviet historian Moisei Rabinovich, the Reiter regiment under the command of Ivan Pozdeev was disbanded in 1719, and was replaced by the Kyiv Reiter detachment (komanda).¹² Most of the documents per­taining to its formation contain references to tsarist edicts from 1725 (“ordered there to be 50 Reiters in Kyiv”).¹³ In contrast to Rabinovich, the Russian-Ukrainian historian Oleksii Andriievs'kyi (1845-1902) insists that that was the year in which the Reiter regiment was disbanded and the detachment was formed.¹⁴ In spite of these differences, it is quite obvious that after the regiment's dissolution, a Reiter unit or subunit continued to serve in Kyiv.

The Kyiv Reiter detachment was subordinated to several higher central state institutions: the Senate, the War Collegium, and the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. The latter department was the one most responsible for the Kyiv Reiters, inasmuch as they provided the means of communication with Russian residents in Istanbul. The size of the detachment and the costs of maintaining it were determined by decrees of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and the Senate. Promotions in rank also required approval by the Collegium of Foreign Affairs.¹⁸

The detachment was administered directly by the Kyiv governor, and hence all documentation regarding assignment and relief from duty, the dispatch of Reiters on missions, payment of their salaries, and the issuance of their travel documents and travelling allowances were handled by the Kyiv governor chancellery.

The authorized strength of the detachment in 1725-66 was determined by de­crees of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, dated 25 March 1725, and of the Senate, dated 4 April of the same year, and totaled fifty men.¹⁹ This number is confirmed by information about the salaries paid to Reiters and reports about their enlist­ment and discharge from service.²⁰ In 1765 the strength of the detachment was increased to 62 men (captain, ensign, wachtmeister (vakhtmistr), corporal, and 58 Reiters).²¹ In 1772 the personnel of the detachment numbered 64 men.²² Ac­cording to chancellery documents, as of 1765, the courier unit was treated as equal to a gubernial company (gubernskaia rota).²³

Recruitment into the Reiter detachment had its own specific character.

Service records from 1769 and 1772 clearly identify the parentage of Reiters. Ac­cording to them, the “children of Reiters” made up more than 60 per cent of the unit's personnel.²⁷ The gubernial chancellery kept a register of the minor sons of Reiters, the “Reiter minors.”²⁸ The reports written by the chancellery listed their ages and also information about their ability to read and write. Thus, in 1770, ac­cording to the Kyiv gubernial chancellery, there were 45 “Reiter minors” aged from six months to seventeen years in Kyiv.²⁹

The lists of personnel of the Reiter detachment contain a number of surnames that are repeated many times: in 1748 there were five each of Babins and Kozlovs, four Zhukovs, and three each of Lisitsins and Kharlamovs.³⁰ The service records of 1772 list three Zhukovs and two representatives each of the Babin, Kharlamov, and Lisitsin families.³¹ Members of the Babin family served as Reiters in Kyiv from as far back as the end of the seventeenth century. In particular, in 1674, there is mention of one Babin (Zakhar) among the officers of the Kyiv Reiter regiment, and in 1695, there are already four Babins (Zakhar, larmola, Andrei, and Vasilii).³² The heritability of service in the Babin family in the Reiter detachment can be traced throughout the eighteenth century.³³

It would be wrong, however, to believe that most of the Kyiv Reiters in the eigh­teenth century were descendants of those who served in the final quarter of the seventeenth century.

Reiter families were closely bound by family ties. Thus in 1772, Kyiv Reiter Ievstafii Renshkeev noted that, being one of the “Reiter children,” he was once married to the daughter of another Kyiv Reiter.³⁷ In addition, Renshkeev had a son-in-law, a Kyiv Reiter who was already retired.³⁸

Another way of manning the Reiter detachment was by transferring soldiers and officers of the Kyiv garrison or field regiments into its ranks, as well as by en­listing the children of company-grade and non-commissioned officers into the unit. The majority of these recruits were the children of soldiers and officers of the Kyiv garrison. For example, the (incomplete) service record of 1769 lists thir­teen persons who had been transferred to the detachment from the battalions of the Kyiv garrison and other units.³⁹ In 1772 there were already seventeen such Re­iters.⁴⁰ As a rule, soldiers and non-commissioned officers of garrison and army regiments, after serving many years, were promoted to officer rank and transferred to the Reiter detachment. Not infrequently, recently transferred former soldiers and officers from garrison and army regiments to the detachment tried to find a place in the units of their sons or relatives.⁴¹

Family ties with Reiter families facilitated transfer to the unit. Apparently, that is how K. Shevyrin, who came from the “soldiers' children,” got into the detach- ment.⁴²

Not infrequently, former Reiters served in the garrison regiments and battalions or worked as secretaries in the governor chancellery. For example, in 1766, of the 24 captains of Kyiv garrison battalions, two (7.6 per cent) had a “Reiter” origin,⁴³ and in 1771, of 72 lieutenants (poruchyky) and ensigns (praporshchyky), they ac­counted for four such men (5.5 per cent).⁴⁴

Often, in the absence of vacancies, acceptance into the Reiter detachment took place “above the specified number.” We know from petitions that many candidates agreed to serve in the unit while waiting for personnel vacancies, which attests to the prestige associated with service in the Reiters. Thus in 1765, Petro Levenets', the son of a Cossack in the Kyiv regiment, petitioned to be accepted for service in the Reiter detachment, and if there were no vacancies, to include him “above the specified number.”⁴⁵ Levenets' was fortunate in that at the time of his petition, there were 49 Reiters in the unit - that is, there was one vacancy. Timofei Babin, son of a Reiter, had to serve two years “above the specified number,”⁴⁶ and lefrem Sahaidakov, a year and a half.⁴⁷

To be accepted into the detachment, the children of Reiters had to receive some training (other candidates, as a rule, already had experience of service at the time of joining the unit). Although the candidate usually noted that “[he had been] taught to read and write Russian at his aforementioned father's expense,” it is quite likely that applicants were also required to be able to handle weapons and to be at home in the saddle (the specific tasks assigned to the Reiter detachment).⁴⁸

It was desirable for the candidate to know how to read and write: according to the 1772 service record, every sixth Reiter was illiterate (the entry stated that he had not been certified “because of inability to read and write”).⁴⁹ The “uncerti­fied” included both the children of soldiers and peasants and the children of Re­iters. Based on their backgrounds, all noblemen, children of officers, and “Little Russians” knew how to read and write. At the same time, the greatest number of illiterates were found among those of peasant origin (two out of three) and the children of soldiers (four out of eleven). Among the “indigenous” Reiters, every thirteenth did not know how to read and write. It is worth noting that although it was desirable for candidates for acceptance into the detachment to be literate, this was not a determinative factor. Illiterate new recruits, either on their own or because they were forced to do so by their commanders, mastered reading and writing while serving in the unit. Thus in 1772, the Kyiv Reiter Aleksandr Kypri- ianov was illiterate, but by 1783, he was already able read and write.⁵⁰

Reiters had to be sufficiently proficient in the Tatar and Turkish languages. Thus in 1744, a report of the Kyiv governor chancellery noted that a number of Reiters had a good command of Turkish.⁵¹ Stepan Melnikov, who headed the de­tachment in 1772-81, was also an interpreter from Turkish.⁵²

Discharge from the Reiter detachment occurred as a result of old age or illness, transfer to another service, or, as punishment, transfer to the regular garrison regiments or battalions. In the first instance, Reiters most often cited old age and illness associated with the particular aspects of cavalry service; for example, the documents contain such reasons as “from horse blows that caused complete ex­haustion and weakness of my health” and “exhaustion from horse blows.”⁵³ An­other reason was transfer to another unit. That is what happened to Reiter Grigorii Kolpakov, who was discharged from the detachment “for drunkenness and inde­cent acts” and transferred to serve as an ordinary soldier in the Kyiv garrison, which yet again attests to the higher status of Reiter service as compared with service in the garrison battalions.⁵⁴

A more detailed analysis of Reiters as a socioprofessional group can be con­ducted based on the service records of the personnel of the Kyiv Reiter detach­ment for 1769 and 1772, which list the name and surname of each Reiter, his age, social background, ownership of serfs, information about the beginning of ser­vice, and promotions in rank. The records of service also contain information about the participation of Reiters in military operations or period spent in cap­tivity and ability to serve.

According to the record of service for 1772, the social backgrounds of Reiters were as follows:

Table 10.1 Social background of the Kyiv Reiters according to the 1772 record of service

Source: tsdiauk, f. 59, op. i, spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv-17.

Thus, the sons of Reiters made up over half the personnel of the detachment. As to other groups (estate and socioprofessional), second place was held by Reiters who were “children of soldiers,” “children of noncommissioned officers,” and “children of company-grade officers.” In 1769, the unit included eight “children of soldiers,” two “children of non-commissioned officers,” and three “children of company-grade officers.”⁵⁵ The 1772 service record also listed two noblemen. Thus, Ivan Sukovin at the time of his transfer to the detachment was twenty-eight years old and had taken part in several wars.⁵⁶ Another nobleman, Ivan Sukhochov, began serving in the Reiter detachment (as of 1756) and in 1772 was forty-six years old. Listed among other “non-Reiter children” were the sons of a cantor, an in­terpreter, and of “chancellery personnel” background.

The category of “Little Russians” consisted of three Reiters who were native Ukrainians. One of them was the aforementioned Petro Levenets' - a Cossack in the Kyiv regiment, who at the age of twenty-three joined the unit (in 1765).⁵⁷ The other two (Vasyl' Fedoriv and Vasyl' Kryshtalevs'kyi) are identified only as “Little Russian” without any indication of their social background.

In 1769, lefrem Sahaidakov left the unit, reporting that he was “of native Polish nobility.”⁵⁸ A damaged list from 1769 includes the Serb Petro Voinovych (native of Belgrade) in the detachment, stating that he began his service in the unit in 1768 (with the rank of wachtmeister).⁵⁹ He no longer appears in the 1772 service record.

From the service record for 1772, we learn the age of the Kyiv Reiters. The ma­jority of them were from twenty to forty years old (nearly 60 per cent). Reiters who were “soldiers' children” and peasants that had been recruited into the mil­itary comprised the older members of the unit.⁶⁰ Unfortunately, owing to a lack of a source base, we cannot compare the ages of the Reiters with the corresponding indicators for soldiers of the garrison. At the same time, we know that after 1764, the garrison battalions were formed, as a rule, of soldiers and officers who were unable to perform field service because of the state of their health (as a result of old age, wounds, or illnesses). Very little information has been preserved about the mortality rate and its causes among the Kyiv Reiters. We know that the prime major (prem’ier-maior) of the detachment died in 1781 at the age of fifty.⁶¹ Reiters also died during the performance of their duties. Thus in 1743, Ivan Shydlovskii died under unknown circumstances,⁶² and in 1771, the interpreter Ivan Maniunin died in Turkish captivity.⁶³

Let us also turn our attention to the subject of promotions in rank of Reiters, the special aspects of climbing the career ladder by the representatives of various social groups, and the manner of and reasons for promotions, and so forth. Let us begin at the very top of the Reiter detachment. The first known commander, Fedor Nakovalnin, began his service in the unit as an ensign (praporshchyk). In 1738, he was already a major.⁶⁴ Later he obtained the rank of colonel and became head of the Starodub garrison regiment of the Kyiv garrison, and additionally served as the town major (komendant) of Nizhyn.⁶⁵ Fedor's son, Aleksii Nako- valnin, who also began his service in the Reiter detachment in 1735, eventually became Kyiv's chief of police (1752-62).⁶⁶ Artemii Solovkov, who headed the de­tachment in 1752-69, was the son of a Reiter. He began his career in the unit in 1738 as secretary.⁶⁷

Reiter commander Stepan Melnikov in 1772-81 came from the “chancery per­sonnel”⁶⁸ and was given the office of commander as a reward for his service as secretary of the Russian embassy in Istanbul.⁶⁹ The interpreter of the governor chancellery, Matvei Melnikov, may have been his relative.⁷⁰ We know that Stepan was the godfather of a child of the commander Kyiv garrison (ober-komendant) Iakov lelchaninov.⁷¹ After the death of Stepan Melnikov, the unit was headed by Vasilii Klimovskii, who was the chief of police of Kyiv before his transfer to the Reiter detachment.⁷²

Much less information has survived about other officers. We know that Captain Ivan Sukovkin was of noble birth and was appointed during his service in the Re­iter detachment “to oversee alcohol sales and revenue collection of taverns in Kyiv (piteinoi v Kieveprodazhi i sboru otkupnoi summy).”⁷³ Before his transfer to the unit, I. Sukovkin served in an army regiment and took part in the Seven Years' and Russo-Turkish wars (1768-74). Of the four ensigns listed in the 1772 service record, two were from among the “Reiters' children” and had served in the Reiter detachment from very beginning of their military service and the other two were “soldiers' children” and had been transferred to the unit after serving in garrison or field regiments.⁷⁴ The percentage of “Reiters' children” with higher military ranks was lower than the percentage of their total number in the detachment. Obviously, being transferred to top posts in the unit was a reward for officers of garrison or army regiments. In addition, it is likely that the educational factor played no small part: Prime Major S. Melnikov had a good education, and Ensign K. Shevyrin began his career as company secretary.⁷⁵

It was normal for the Reiter detachment to have a large number of non­commissioned officers “above the specified number.” Thus the 1772 service record lists 32 wachtmeisters, although the prescribed strength allowed for only two. We also need to consider that, regardless of service promotions, the number of po­sition salaries for higher and lower ranks was specified. The sub-unit was pre­scribed only one position salary for an ensign, one for a wachtmeister, and two for corporals. Thus, as a rule, a promotion in rank did not carry with it an increase in the Reiter's salary.

Most often promotions were based on years of service. However, being close to the garrison command and connections could accelerate the process of career growth. Thus David Chunpalov, after serving a year in the unit, was awarded the rank of wachmeister at the age of nineteen. Another Reiter, Kiprian Tulenkov, be­came a wachtmeister immediately upon his transfer to the unit in 1772, at the age of seventeen (most likely his service as copyist in the gubernial chancellery played no small part in this).⁷⁶

The financial situation of the Kyiv Reiters deserves special attention. We know that during the period of 1725-65, the annual salary of a Reiter was fifteen rubles, which was higher than the pay of soldiers in the garrison regiments.⁷⁷ In the 1720s, a dragoon in a garrison regiment earned close to six rubles in a yearly salary, while a soldier earned five (those in army regiments earned double that amount).⁷⁸ Ap­parently, some Kyiv Reiters received additional pay for service in state-owned tav­erns. In 1734 eight Reiters who worked in Kyiv taverns were paid 7 rubles and 50 kopeks in salary, and the soldiers and corporals of garrison regiments, 5 and 6 rubles, respectively.⁷⁹ But we do not know exactly if those 7.5 rubles were in ad­dition to the basic salary of 15 rubles, or part of that salary.

We do not know if the costs of provisions, uniforms, and such were part of the salary amount. It was only in 1765 that salary rates were approved, in which these costs were definitely included. According to estimates based on an analysis of spent funds, the annual cost to maintain an ordinary Reiter exceeded 30 rubles, and a wachtmeister, more than 45 rubles.⁸⁰ As of the end of the 1760s, the number of ensigns and wachtmeisters in the Reiter detachment was significantly higher than the manning chart specified, and therefore a part of the officers had to accept being paid the salaries of lower ranks for their service (“Ensign Bershov on a wachtmeister's salary” and so forth).⁸¹

However, the Reiters' main source of income was contraband trade and com­bining their military service with jobs that enabled them to bring in “shadow” earnings. Making regular visits to the lands of the Ottoman Empire, the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Austrian Empire, Reiters not only performed their immediate tasks but also sought to earn money on trade in various goods. They also delivered various letters or transported certain goods in exchange for suitable payment, using their official position to do so.⁸²

Unfortunately, the majority of official documents do not contain information about this aspect of the Reiters' income. Perhaps the only document regarding this is the resolution adopted by the Senate in 1760, which noted that “Reiters sent from the Kyiv governor chancellery to Moscow, St Petersburg, and other places transport heavy baggage by mail, so that there is no room for others on the wagon, and therefore they order the postmen to tie themselves with a rope to the wagon. Thus, on 8 March 1759, the traveling Reiter Vasilii Neliakaev had two sacks of nuts and a third containing various things, and a small barrel (antal) of some kind of drink, and it is safe to say that these Reiters take such parcels from monasteries and people of other professions in exchange for considerable compensation, thereby bringing the mail horses to extreme emaciation and un­timely death.”⁸³ We know that the Kyiv Reiters held fairly profitable posts. The aforementioned I. Sukovkin monitored the sale of alcohol in Kyiv. In addition, Reiters occupied such posts as “supervision of state salt,” “supervision of the trea­sury” (in the gubernial chancellery), “supervision of vineyards,” and so forth.⁸⁴

Understandably, it is unlikely that sources can provide the amounts of the bribes received by Reiters, or what property they had appropriated illegally. The only thing that can cast light on this is their wealth. Most Reiters had their own residences and lived in a separate quarter (sloboda).⁸⁵ Some of them lived in the Podil (which was off-limits to soldiers and officers of the garrison) and Pechersk districts. We know that the Kyiv Reiter, Captain Ivan Sukovkin, purchased a house in Kyiv for five hundred rubles.⁸⁶ As of 1755, two Reiters lived on the territory of the Pechersk fortress in their own residences.⁸⁷ As we can see, Reiters, who were paid not that large a salary, were able to buy themselves pretty decent properties in Kyiv. We also know that Reiters owned horses and cattle.⁸⁸ Their possessions included pastures and hayfields in Kyiv's Obolon district.⁸⁹ There were also other factors that improved the financial situation of Reiters, such as, for example, a good match: thus, in 1772 Ensign Vasilii Roshchepkin reported that he was married to a “merchant's widow.”⁹⁰

Notably, most Reiters educated their sons at their own expense,⁹¹ something that was not affordable for many Kyiv residents.⁹² According to the 1770 list of “Reiter minors,” 28 out of 45 were being taught to read and write; all ranged in age from six to seventeen years old.⁹³ Of the Reiters' sons who were not literate, fourteen were under six years old, two were more than six years old, and one was eight.⁹⁴

The main task of the Reiter detachment was to provide a communication link between the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and the Russian resident in Istanbul. Courier missions to the capital of the Ottoman Empire were the most frequently reported Reiter tasks. It is worth noting that the Reiters had performed such as­signments even earlier (before the creation of the detachment): the Reiter regi­ment headed by Ivan Pozdeev in 1718 was used to make “special deliveries.”⁹⁵ In 1723 interpreters from the Turkish and Tatar languages were recruited to accom­pany Reiters on their trips to the capital of the Ottoman Empire.⁹⁶

Usually, several Reiters were sent to the capital of the Ottoman Empire, ac­companied by an interpreter.⁹⁷ The report on the personnel of the detachments in 1728 notes that on 20 March seven Reiters were in Istanbul (Tsargrad).⁹⁸ In 1748 four Reiters (a wachtmeister and three regular soldiers) were dispatched to the Ottoman capital.⁹⁹ Couriers constantly travelled to Istanbul. Communications with the resident were interrupted only during the Russo-Turkish wars.

During their trips to Istanbul, the Reiters were escorted by Cossacks up to the border with the Ottoman Empire. Thus in 1753, two Cossacks traveled to the bor­der together with Reiter Fedor Ozerov and an interpreter, and earlier the same number escorted Wachtmeister Petr Foteev and an interpreter to Bendery.¹⁰⁰ As of 1764, an escort of two Cossacks was mandatory.¹⁰¹ Often the Reiters were ac­companied by a sort of mini train (2-4 wagons), so that waggoners were sent along with the couriers and so forth. Thus, the aforementioned Fedor Ozerov in 1753 set out for Istanbul with several wagons, an interpreter, and waggoners (a total of nine people), including the serfs of Aleksei Obreskov, the Russian resident in Istanbul. Petr Fateev, who travelled along this route slightly earlier, was accom­panied by the waggoners till the town of Bendery.¹⁰²

Not all Reiters traveled to Istanbul. In 1744 the governor chancellery determined that only thirty Reiters were needed for assignments to the capital of the Ottoman Empire.¹⁰³ The rest delivered “state parcels” to the Polish-Lithuanian Common­wealth, the Austrian Empire, and the Zaporozhian Sich.¹⁰⁴ The countries and cities to which Reiters were sent were recorded in service reports. Thus in 1733 Grygorii Bershov noted that he had traveled on assignment to Moscow, St Pe­tersburg, and “Little Russian, Great Russian, Polish, [and] Lithuanian” cities.¹⁰⁵ Wachtmeister Efrem Sagaidakov also reported that, in addition to Istanbul, he had traveled to “Poland, St Petersburg, Moscow, and other Great and Little Rus­sian cities.”¹⁰⁶

The Reiters' other important tasks included escorting officials (sometimes church hierarchs) or important guests and convoying prisoners of war and crim­inals. For example, in 1754 Kyiv Reiters escorted from the territory of the Crimean Khanate to Hlukhiv three groups of argats (laborers, workers) and rendjipers (day laborers) - inhabitants of the Hetmanate and the Polish-Lithuanian Common­wealth who worked as hired laborers for the Tatars.¹⁰⁷ Reiters who were setting out on assignment were given “travel” allowances (for the purchase or rental of horses, wagons, purchase of fodder, and other expenses). The amount depended on the distance of the trip and the task assigned to the Reiter. For example, the usual amount for travel to St Petersburg was 17 rubles and 72 kopeks.¹⁰⁸ Depending on the cargo or the person whom the Reiter was escorting, the amount could be greater. Thus, Reiter Ivan Shydlovskii, who escorted a captive Turkish serasker to St Petersburg, was issued 28 rubles and 65 kopeks.¹⁰⁹ The Reiters bore collective responsibility for the embezzlement of travel allowances.¹¹⁰

Reiters were also used for intelligence work. Thus in 1743 Reiter Grebenkin was sent with this task to Bendery, and Shydlovskii to Mohyliv-Podilskyi.¹¹¹ In 1753 Kyiv Reiters Afanasii Roshchepkin and Amvrosii Babin, who were traveling to Is­tanbul, were ordered to “gather intelligence along the way.”¹¹²

In addition to the listed tasks, the Reiters also served in various “posts” in Kyiv. In 1778, S. Melnikov, commander of the subunit, compiled a list of official duties that Kyiv Reiters performed.

Table 10.2 Duties of Kyiv Reiters in the first half of 1778 according to a report by Unit Commander S. Melnikov

Source: TsDiAUK, f. 59, op. i, spr. 8624, ark. 2-3.

In addition, another sixteen Reiters in the detachment had no specified duties and were obviously “reserved” for various other assignments.¹¹³ At the time, two were sick.¹¹⁴

The list above does not reflect all the tasks that the Kyiv Reiters performed. Not infrequently, they had to execute fairly specific assignments. For example, the job described in the list as “for the sale of books” attests to the existence of some sort of bookstore at the gubernial chancellery. In 1777 the Kyiv Reiters T. Seleznev and E. Zhukov delivered four mail wagons of jam from Kyiv to the im­perial court in St Petersburg.¹¹⁵ Reiters also figured among the members of the special mission that was in charge of the production of Tokaj wine for the imperial court in the domains of the Habsburgs (the mission included Hryhorii Skovoroda and Irynei Fal'kovs'kyi at one time).¹¹⁶ Reiters were also used to search for serfs who had fled from their owners - generals or colonels of the Russian army. Part of the Reiters' duties were of a semi-official nature: documents may have specified one mission, but in reality, they may have been carrying out the personal errands of the garrison's top command or gubernia authorities. The performance of “spe­cial” assignments also had an effect on their careers and material status. Aleksandr Radishchev, in his famous work A Journey from St Petersburg to Moscow (1790), tells a story about a great nobleman and a courier.¹¹⁷ Here is the story in brief: a nobleman was very fond of oysters and sent a courier at government expense to bring him his favorite delicacy. For performing this special assignment, the courier was promoted (“sergeant N.N. to be an ensign”). It is quite possible that it was the service of the Kyiv Reiters that served as the prototype for Radishchev's story (literary scholars identify Prince Grigorii Potemkin as the lover of oysters).

But it was a mistake to regard the Reiter service as a sinecure. Reiters often faced dangers on the road - both from criminals and, not infrequently, from those whom they were escorting. For example, in 1750 the hegumen of the Hustyn Monastery, Melkhisidek Bohdanovych, who was traveling at the behest of the metropolitan of Kyiv to the Diet in Warsaw, beat Reiter Mizikov who was escorting him.¹¹⁸ In 1763 Reiter Fedor Ozerov complained that the interpreter Ivan Kras­nikov had almost killed him during their trip. In 1768 all the Reiters who were in Istanbul were arrested by the Turks and held prisoner until 1771 in Yedikule Fortress. This is a far from complete list of the dangerous situations and events that awaited the Reiters during their service.

Unfortunately, owing to lacunae in historical sources, we cannot compile a complete picture of the weaponry, uniforms, and flags of the Kyiv Reiters in the eighteenth century. Considering the Russian army's rearming rates in those times, we can assume that their weapons and protective gear were the same as at the end of the seventeenth century (carbine, two pistols, sword, helmet, and cuirass), which accords with the information about the inventory of weapons in the gar­rison's armory in 1695 and 1700. In 1765 the cost of maintaining a Reiter was the same as the cost of maintaining a dragoon (including the cost of weapons and uniform). We can therefore assume that the Reiters' weapons, and perhaps their clothing, were analogous to those of the dragoons.

Opanas Shafons'kyi (1740-1811) noted in the Description of the Chernihiv Vicere­gency (1851) that before the establishment of regular postal service in the Het- manate by Petr Rumiantsev-Zadunaiskii in 1765, only Kyiv Reiters provided regular postal communication between Kyiv, Moscow, St Petersburg, and inside the Hetmanate. Although Shafons'kyi stated that the postal services were noto­riously unreliable, Reuters served as a quite reliable link between the Kyiv gover­nor, the central authorities, the Russian resident in Constantinople, and the Zaporozhian Sich. The Cossack starshyna mostly used their messengers to deliver letters, and there were attempts to introduce a regular postal service before Ru­miantsev’s initiatives. The issue of regular mail services was resolved after the abolition of the Hetmanate when a new stage in the incorporation of Cossack autonomy began. Reiter continued to serve as special couriers and constituted a separate professional group until 1765.

Thus, over several generations in the eighteenth century, a service corporation of Kyiv Reiters developed under the protection of the Kyiv governor. The military function of this subunit of the Kyiv garrison was practically reduced to naught. The Reiters performed courier, administrative, police, and intelligence functions. The existence of the Reiter detachment in Kyiv is evidence of the fact that the Russian government’s unificatory measures were not always systematic in nature, even in the case of the army. The need to adapt to local conditions necessitated creating separate service corporations, which performed specific tasks (in addi­tion to the Reiter detachment in Kyiv, a few other special units charged with car­rying out different tasks such as the protection of strategic objects existed in the center and on the peripheries of the Russian Empire. Therefore, the Russian Empire, which sought to “swallow” the state and social body of the Hetmanate and to unify Russian society, had itself created a socioprofessional corporation of Reiters in Kyiv which contradicted the very logic of unification.

Translated from the Ukrainian by Marta Skorupsky

NOTES

Originally published as: Vadym Nazarenko. “‘Dlia posylok v Tsar'grad i druhie okrestnye gosudarstva’: kyivs'ki reitary XVIII st.,” Sotsium: al'manakh sotsial’not istorit, no. 13-14 (2017): 41-58. Copyright 2017 by Vadym Nazarenko. Translated and reprinted with permission.

1 A. Shafonskii, Chernigovskogo namestnichestva topograficheskoe opisanie (Kyiv, 1851), 161; A. Andrievskii, “Ukaz 1725 g. o raskasovanii reiterskoi komandy v Kieve,” in Istoricheskie materialy iz arkhiva Kievskogo gubernskogo pravleniia (Kyiv, 1885), 8: 123; V. Shcherbyna, Strilets ka ta Reitars ka vulytsi u Kyievi, in Novi studi'i z istorii Kyieva (Kyiv, 1926), 62-4.

A.V. Makidonov, Personal 'nyi sostav administrativnogo apparata Novorossii XVIII veka (Zaporizhzhia, 2011), 11-12.

Reiters, as a type of heavy cavalry, appeared in Europe in the sixteenth cen­tury. They were a heavy cavalry that used firearms in battle. The Reiters first appeared in the Russian army at the end of the sixteenth century, but the first regiments were formed only in the 1630s. The Reiters were armed with a carbine, two pistols, and a smallsword or broadsword (later saber). Their protective gear consisted of a helmet and a cuirass.

A. Andrievskii, “Kievskie tolmachi,” Kievskaia starina 25, nos 5-6 (1889): 588. Instytut rukopysu Natsional’nol biblioteky Ukrainy im. V.I. Vernads ’koho (Manuscript Institute of the V.I. Vernads'kyi National Library of Ukraine; hereinafter - ir nbu), f. 312, spr. 408 (169), ark. 1-6.

Andrievskii, “Kievskie tolmachi,” 587-8.

H. Shpytal'ov, “Stvorennia Ukrains'koi landmilitsii (1713-1729),” Visnyk Za- poriz ’koho instytutu Dnipropetrovs ’koho derzhavnoho universytetu vnutrishnikh sprav 1 (2008): 33-7.

For greater detail on Reiter regiments in the Russian army, see A.V. Malov, “Konnitsa ‘novogo stroia' v russkoi armii v 1630-1680-e gody,” in Otechestven- naia istoriia 1 (2006): 118-31.

I. Babulin, “Sostav russkoi armii v Chudnovskoi kampanii 1660 goda,” Reitar 4 (2006): 33.

See G.B. Alferova and V.A. Kharlamov, Kiev vo vtoroi polovine XVII veka (Kyiv, 1982), 108, 135; Patrik Gordon [Patrick Gordon], Dnevnik (1648-1689), trans. and notes by D.G. Fedosov [ed. M.R. Ryzhenkov] (Moscow, 2009), 20; P.G. Lebedintsev, “Rospisnoi spisok g. Kieva 1700 g.,” Chteniia v Istoricheskom obshchestve Nestora-Letopistsa [chiONL] 6, part 3 (1892): 4; A. Myshlaevskii, Kreposti i garnizony iuzhnoi Rossii 1718 goda (St Petersburg, 1897), 16.

Gordon, Dnevnik (1648-1689), 32; Alferova and Kharlamov, Kiev vo vtoroi polovine XVII veka, 108; Lebedintsev, “Rospisnoi spisok g. Kieva 1700 g.,” 4; Myshlaevskii, Kreposti i garnizony iuzhnoi Rossii 1718 goda, 16.

M.D. Rabinovich, Polkipetrovskoi armii (Moscow, 1977), 81-2. Tsentral’nyi derzhavnyi istorychnyi arkhiv Ukrainy v m. Kyievi (Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Kyiv; hereinafter - tsdiauk), f. 59, op. 1, spr. 169, ark. 1 zv.; spr. 1592, ark. 1-2; spr. 2324, ark. 1-2.

Rabinovich, Polki petrovskoi armii, 81-2; Andrievskii, “Ukaz 1725 g. o raskaso- vanii reiterskoi komandy v Kieve,” 123.

Andrievskii, Kievskie tolmachi, 586. Andriievs'kyi reports that in 1723 ten

Reiters and ten Cossacks were selected to carry letters to Istanbul. Obviously, an increase in the personnel of the Reiter-couriers had taken place in 1725; tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 377, ark. 4.

Polnoe sobranie zakonov Rossiiskoi imperii (hereinafter - pszri). Sobranie pervoe. 1649-1825 gg. (St Petersburg, 1830), vol. 7 (1723-1727), No. 4865, p. 599. ir nbu, f. 160, spr. 106, ark. 3.

tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 2160, ark. 1. Ibid., spr. 170, ark. 1 zv.; spr. 556, ark. 9.

Ibid., spr. 170, ark. 1 zv.; spr. 2324, ark. 3; spr. 3658, ark. 1; spr. 4557, ark. 1-2. Ibid., spr. 5189, ark. 4.

Ibid., spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv-17.

Ibid., spr. 4576, ark. 1-1 zv.; spr. 5189, ark. 1. The gubernial companies were used mainly for internal service, especially police work.

tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 3658, ark. 3.

Ibid., spr. 378, art. 2.

Ibid., spr. 3658, ark. 1; spr. 4171, ark. 1-2.

Ibid., spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv-17.

In this way, the Russian administration kept “Reiter children” separate from “soldiers' children.” The “soldiers' children” made up a special social group in the eighteenth century. These were the sons of soldiers in garrison regiments, who attended garrison schools and, upon reaching the age of sixteen or sev­enteen, were transferred to garrison or army regiments. There was a garrison school in Kyiv, where the children of the soldiers and officers of garrison regi­ments, and of the artillery and engineering units, studied. It proved impossi­ble to separate out the children of Reiters in the garrison school in Kyiv. Apparently, they were getting an education somewhere else. For more infor­mation about the Kyiv garrison school, see V. Nazarenko, “Kyivs'ka harni- zonna shkola u XVIII st.,” in Naukovi pratsi istorychnoho fakul 'tetu Zaporiz’koho natsional’noho universytetu 41 (2014): 36-42.

tsdiauk, f. 59, op 1, spr. 6167, art. 1-2.

Ibid., spr. 1592, ark. 1-3.

Ibid., spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv-17.

Alferova and Kharlamov, Kiev vo vtoroi polovine XVII veka, 108, 135, 153. tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 378, ark. 2; spr. 3658, ark. 1-2.

Myshlaevskii, Kreposti i garnizony iuzhnoi Rossii 1718 goda, 16-17. tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 377, ark. 4.

Ibid., spr. 170, ark. 1 zv. Ibid., spr. 6756, ark. 1.

Ibid., f. 59, op. 1, spr. 6756, ark. 1.

Ibid., spr. 5830, ark. 2-8.

Ibid., spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv-17.

Thus Reiter Andrii Kuznetsov (one of the “soldiers' children”), who had been transferred to the detachment in 1763, as of 1772 had two sons, one of whom served together with him in the unit, and the other, in one of the battalions of the Kyiv garrison ( tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 6983, ark. 12 zv-13).

Ibid., ark. 10 zv.-ii.

Ibid., spr. 4944, ark. 1-11.

Ibid., spr. 6212, ark. 1-11.

Ibid., f. 59, op. 1, spr. 4577, ark. 3.

Ibid., spr. 3658, ark. 1-2; spr. 4171, ark. 4.

Ibid., spr. 5828, ark. 3.

Ibid., spr. 3658, ark. 1; spr. 4170, ark. 1.

The interpreters, who accompanied the Reiters on assignments to foreign countries, were also required not only to know languages but also be able to read and write. Thus, we know that the interpreter of the gubernial chan­cellery in 1750s, Ivan Iur'ev, who was fluent in Turkish (and had a poor com­mand of Greek and Romanian), studied how to read and write at the school attached to St Feodosii's Church. See Andrievskii, Kievskie tolmachi, 590-1. tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv-17.

tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 6756, ark. 15 zv.-i6; f. 246, op. 3, spr. 150, ark. 13 zv. In some documents, the same Reiters were described as literate and as illiterate within the span of half a year. Obviously, this was due to errors in compiling service records, because it would be odd for a Reiter to be able to read and write in a year.

Andrievskii, “Kievskie tolmachi,” 587-8. tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv.

Ibid., spr. 9791, ark. 3 zv.; spr. 5828, ark. 1, 3, 6.

Ibid., spr. 4171, ark. 3-4.

Ibid. spr. 5830, ark. 2-8.

Ibid., spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv.-io.

Ibid., spr. 4757, ark. 3-3 zv., 6, 8; spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv-17.

Ibid., spr. 5828, ark. 3.

Ibid., spr. 5830, ark. 2-8.

Ibid., spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv-17.

Ibid., spr. 9792, ark. 1.

A. Andrievskii, “K istorii pogranichnykh otnoshenii,” in Istoricheskie materialy iz arkhiva Kievskogo gubernskogo pravleniia 9 (1885): 155-64. The cause of the Reiter s death was a drinking spree: the Reiter got drunk in a tavern and disappeared. After some time, his body was found showing signs of murder. A. Andrievskii, “‘Perepiska s tainym sovetnikom Obreskovym vo vremia sledstviia ego s pervoi armii v Sankt-Peterburg',” in Istoricheskie materialy iz arkhiva Kievskogo gubernskogo pravleniia, 9 (1885): 239.

Andrievskii, “Ukaz 1725 g. o raskasovanii reiterskoi komandy v Kieve,” 123. tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 1844, ark. 6 zv-7.

tsdiauk, f. 59, op. i, spr. 640, ark. 3 zv.; Makidonov, Personal'nyi sostav administrativnogo apparata Novorossii XVIII veka, 12.

tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 640, ark. 4.

Ibid., spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv.-io.

Ibid., spr. 6848, ark. 1-10.

Matvei Melnikov was born in Nizhyn and worked in his childhood and youth as a helper of Nizhyn's Greek merchants. While abroad, he learned six languages (two at the “proficient” level, four at “not yet perfect”) and was recruited into government service as an interpreter in the Kyiv gubernial chancellery in 1747. Considering that at the time that he was taken on as an interpreter, Matvei had a family and was no less than thirty-five years old, it is quite possible that he was the father of Stepan Melnikov.

ir nbu, f. 160, spr. 1092, ark. 3.

tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 9792, ark. 1-3; Makidonov, Personal’nyi sostav administrativnogo apparata Novorossii XVIII veka, 12.

A. Andrievskii, “Tseny na krepkie napitki v Kieve v 1776 g.” in Istoricheskie materialy iz arkhiva Kievskogo gubernskogo pravleniia 8 (1885): 214-15. tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv-17.

S. Melnikov's service record states that in 1747-54 he was a student (the edu­cational institution is not named), then he worked as an interpreter, and from 1763 to 1772 he was secretary of the Russian embassy in the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Clearly, he could not have obtained this post without the necessary education. tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 6756, ark. 9 zv.-io.

Ibid., ark. 14 zv-15. The Reiter's father served as interpreter in the Kyiv gubernial chancellery.

Ibid., spr. 2324, ark. 15. The salary was paid out of the revenues of the Kyiv gubernia, particularly from taxes that were collected from the Old Believers (raskol’ niki), who lived in Kyiv gubernia. See pszri, vol. 13, no. 9773, p. 319. In 1723 it was planned to pay Reiters 30 rubles per year. After the increase in the number of couriers (from 10 to 50), changes were obviously introduced into the unit's budget.

Ibid., vol. 43, bk. 1, no. 3511, pp. 20-1. tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 441, ark. 1, 11.

Ibid., spr. 5189, ark. 4.

Ibid., ark. 5. This can be explained by the specific nature of retirement from the Russian army: many officers wanted to retire with a high officer rank and therefore agreed to serve for lower pay. Nor should we ignore the profitability of Reiter service, inasmuch as salaries were not the only source of income for the Kyiv Reiters.

The Reiters were considered to be diplomatic couriers, and thus they were not searched on the borders, were not required to pay customs duties, and so forth. In view of the fact that during their trips the Reiters had an oppor­tunity to become familiar with market conditions, they knew what to carry and where.

pszri, vol. 15, no. 11057, pp. 471-2. tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 8624, ark. 2-3.

The Reiter quarter (sloboda) appeared in 1666 and existed throughout the second half of the seventeenth to the eighteenth century. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the territory of this settlement began to be called Reitars'ka Street, which exists to our time.

tsdiauk, f. 54, op. 1, spr. 3405, ark. 24; f. 59, op. 1, spr. 8527, ark. 1-35.

Ibid., f. 128, op. 4, spr. 122, ark. 32-3. Both Reiter families each had two free people “as servants.”

Ibid., spr. 6973, ark. 1-5. Judging from the information in the source, the Reiters hired pasturers to graze their horses; A. Andrievskii, “Sveden'ia o skotskom padezhe v Kieve (1752 g.),” in Istoricheskie materialy iz arkhiva Kievskogo gubernskogo pravleniia, 8 (1885): 151.

R. Delimars'kyi, Magdeburz’kepravo vKyievi (Kyiv, 1996), 86-7. tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 6756, ark. 2.

The children of soldiers and officers of the garrison regiments/battalions received a free education at the garrison school. Most of the “Reiter minors” who applied to enlist in the detachment stated that they had studied at the expense of their fathers and not at the garrison school.

See M. Iaremenko, “Tsina diakivs'koi nauky,” Kytvs'ka Akademiia 8 (2010): 122-38.

In Reiter Demian Zhukov's family, three sons, aged six, eight, and sixteen, were in school.

tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 6167, ark. 1-2.

Myshlaevskii, Kreposti i garnizony iuzhnoi Rossii 1718 goda, 6-7. Sources from the end of the seventeenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century contain many mentions of Reiters as couriers.

96 Andrievskii, “Kievskie tolmachi,” 586.

97 tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 265, ark. 1-5.

98 Ibid., spr. 170, ark. 1 zv.

99 Ibid., spr. 798, ark. 160, 187, 267; spr. 1592, ark. 38.

100 Ibid., spr. 798, ark. 187 zv., 267.

101 A. Andriievskii, “Materialy po istorii Zaporozh'ia i pogranichnykh otnoshenii (1743-1767 g.)” in Zapiski Odesskogo obshchestva istorii i drevnostei 16, part 2 (1893): 264.

102 tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 798, ark. 187-187 zv.

103 Andrievskii, “Kievskie tolmachi,” 588.

104 tsdiauk, f. 9, op. 1, spr. 1592, ark. 1, 2, 38.

105 Ibid., spr. 377, ark. 4, 7.

106 Ibid., f. 59, op. 1, spr. 5828, ark. 2.

107 M. Horban', “Arhaty i rendzhypery 1753 roku,” Skhidnyi svit (Kharkiv) 3-4 (1928): 312.

108 tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 3657, ark. 2.

109 Ibid., spr. 687, ark. 3-5.

110 Andrievskii, “Kievskie tolmachi,” 588.

111 Andrievskii, “Materialy po istorii Zaporozh'ia i pogranichnykh otnoshenii,” 117, 122-3.

112 tsdiauk, f. 59, op. 1, spr. 798, ark. 238.

113 Ibid.

114 Ibid.

115 A. Andrievskii, “K istorii kievskogo varen'ia,” in Istoricheskie materialy iz arkhiva Kievskogo gubernskogo pravleniia, 1 (1882): 61-6.

116 L. Makhnovets', Hryhorii Skovoroda (Kyiv, 1971), 30-2.

117 A.N. Radishchev, Puteshestvie iz Peterburga v Moskvu (St Petersburg, 1992), 17-18.

118 A. Lazarevskii, Opisanie staroi Malorossii, vol. 3, Polk Pryluts’kyi (Kyiv, 1893): 402-3. Mel'khisedek threatened to kill the Reiter (“I’ll cut you into pieces, you Jew, you bastard, you moskal'”) but confined himself to merely beating Mizikov.