Petitions about Taxes and Duties Submitted by Peasants and Traders of Novgorod in the 1610s
The publication familiarizes scholars with petitions (chelobitnyie) submitted by peasants and traders (posadskiye liudi) from Novgorod dating back to the Time of Troubles of the early 17th century. The petitions are of a private and business nature and could be submitted either by individuals or groups of people to Novgorod the Great for examination by Swedish-Russian administration; as a rule, they contained requests to cut down duties and fees. Petitions are stored in the State Archive of Sweden in the second series of Ockupationsarkivet från Novgorod. Records from Novgorod administration archive of the 1610s were evacuated by J. P. Delagardi after departure of the invaders from Novgorod the Great and signing of the Peace Treaty of Stolbovo between Russia and Sweden in 1617. Unlike administration (prikazy) documents the petitions contain not only full information about the degree of devastation of the rural and town population, but also data about the types and sums of direct taxes and special fees collected for the support of the Swedish army as well as material concerning various state services carried out by peasants and traders (posadskiye liudi) during the occupation period.