https://doi.org/10.31648/ep.5752
The article explores the process of the adoption by bojars (peasants-servants responsible for the delivery of goods and correspondences) of ziemianie duties in private and church estates in the Niasviž-Sluck region in the eighteenth century. It examines the possibilities of the transition and reveals that in the estates of Dukes Radziwiłłs the majority of the bojars changed to ziemianie duties in the mideighteenth century. In the church estates bojars as a separated group remained until the late eighteenth century while their duties gradually merged with the quit-rent peasantry. Despite the predominantly peasant origin of bojars, their attainment of the ziemianie status allowed them to be recognised as the fullyfledged gentry. In the nineteenth century, during “the verification of the gentry” carried out by Russian authorities, some part of the bojars managed to secure the gentry status, usually due to the mystification of their own origin and falsification of the documents confirming their affiliation to the gentry. In some cases families of bojar origin had to change their last names.
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