Taxes and Duties of the Nogai People in the 19th Century

Abstract

The article considers various taxes and duties of the Nogai population to their landlords as well as uniform duties introduced after the Nogais were incorporated into the Russian state. Murzas - leaders of the nomadic auls (Nog. ‘settlement’) - constituted the upper class of the Nogai community. It was to them that ordinary people were supposed to serve their diverse duties. The Nogais were also to pay taxes for the maintenance of the local administration. It should be noted that duties were distributed not in terms of the number of individuals within a household, but rather - the amount of cattle the household possesses. Since 1828, the Russian authorities imposed corresponding duties upon tarkhans, seits and murzas. The Russian administration exercised strict control over distribution of duties. Such distribution was held by village heads in the presence of the leader and senior representatives, and was to be approved by the whole community. No duty could be introduced without the knowledge of the High Commissioner of the Caucasus. Precinct chiefs issued no internal orders pertaining to duties, apportionments and collection of money but obligated senior representatives to perform such activities. Poor widows, disabled and sick people were exempted from servitudes. Heads, senior representatives and aqsaqals also paid no servitudes when in charge of public affairs. Besides, after the Nogai territory was abolished by Russia the nomads were charged with the following duties: transportation of state-owned provisions to shops of the Right and Left Flanks of the North Caucasus Line using their own resources and at their own expense; maintenance of post stations in the Kizlyar-Astrakhan road; recruitment of armed horsemen for them to serve as border guards; transportation of construction materials under the requisition of the Construction Commission stationed in Pyatigorsk. It is noteworthy that in the latter half of the 19th century the food rent began to be partially replaced by a money one. The diverse forms of the food rent were accompanied by various patriarchal labor rents, such as help to murzas and beis, herding of some rich ‘relative’s cattle, etc. In Zasulakskaya Kumykia Nogais paid their landlords 4 sabus for a four-unit plow, one arba of hay or one silver rouble (per household) for a haymaking session, etc. Nogais of the Kumyk Plain were also to perform statute labors. Access to plough land was to be repaid by bulka (‘mutual aid’) - one day of work during planting of wheat and one more during planting of millet; and the same when it came to reap - one day for wheat and one for millet respectively. By the mid-19th century the labor rent had disappeared.