YASAK PEOPLE, FOREIGNERS, YASAK AND EXCHANGE OF GIFTS - PRACTICAL THINKING ABOUT A THEORY
Objective: The study concerns controversial issues of Russian history related to yasak people from the end of the 16<sup>th</sup> century to the middle of the18<sup>th</sup> century. Materials: During the investigation, the author used newly discovered archival documents as well as previous publications. Results and novelty of the research: It has been established that the term “foreigners” in the administrational documentation of the Muscovy in 16<sup>th</sup>-18<sup>th</sup> centuries indicated the yasak people from the river Volga to Eastern Siberia. The “yasak” for traditional yasak people signified a state duty (a tax) and yasak people had a votchina right on the yasak land. Yasak people can be preliminarily divided into three categories: 1. Yasak people in the Volga area. They were very similar to state peasants in an economic sense and the yasak was merely a vestige for them. Nevertheless, they preserved votchina rights on honey, lands and the hunting of beaver. 2. Ural, Western and Southern Siberian yasak people - hunters, fishers or pastoralists. For them, the yasak was basic type of the state tax corresponding to their local economies. Yasak traditions stemmed from period when these peoples were in sphere of influence or vassalage of post-Golden Horde states. The votchina rights of these peoples covered all over their territory. 3. North and Northeast Siberian populations who did not have advanced social structure and had never paid tax earlier. Any taxes were unclear to that population which is why the state formulated relations with them in understandable form - as an exchange of gifts. Thus, yasak populations were not all the same, and relations between the state and different groups were created along the lines of different schemes. Аt the same time, the yasak people formed a part of the social structure of the Russian state. An exception to the rule were some peoples in northern and northeast Siberia, where the situation must be considered separately for every clan/tribal group.