Yasak
Encyclopedia
Yasak or yasaq, sometimes iasak, ' onMouseout='HidePop("77293")' href="/topics/Yassa">Yassa
) is a Turkic
word for "tribute" that was used in Imperial Russia to designate fur tribute exacted from the indigenous peoples of Siberia
.
. There is much uncertainty as to the time when the concept of yasak was introduced in Muscovy. It appears likely that the tax was inherited by Muscovy from the Volga khanates of Kazan
and Astrakhan - two fragments of the Golden Horde that were subjugated by Ivan IV in the 1550s. These territories were settled by a range of non-Christian peoples who were expected to pay yasak either in kind or cash. The late French scholar of Eurasian history, Renee Grousset, traces "yasaq"(Regulations) back still further in his classic work, The Empire of the Steppes, to the moral code imposed by Ghengis Khan on his original horde. The Yasaq continued to be practiced by Mongol hordes until they came under Yellow Church Buddhist (Mongolia, China) and Muslim influences(Golden Horde, Persia, Central Asia) in successive centuries.
The earliest mention of the tax is found in a letter sent by Ismail (a ruler of the Nogai Horde
and ancestor of the Yusupov
family) to Tsar Ivan IV in 1559, three years after Ivan's conquest of the Volga Delta
and Astrakhan
. The border between the two polities was not yet established, and Ismail complained that Ivan's governor of Astrakhan demanded yasak from those inhabitants of the delta that Ismail considered his subjects, "in grain from those who farm and in fish from those who fish".
principles. The annual delivery of yasak by the native representatives was normally accompanied by a state-sponsored feast and distribution of royal gifts to the natives. This compensation included tobacco
, flint
s, knives, axes, and other useful tools. Some native populations, especially in the Far East
, favoured multi-colored crystal beads. The local voyevoda could also provide the yasak-payers ("ясачные люди") with supplies of provisions such as fish oil
.
When the Tsar failed to deliver due compensation or his presents were deemed insufficient or too cheap, the yasak-payers would voice their discontent. According to one 17th-century report, not only the yasak-gatherers were beaten, but the natives proceeded to "throw the sovereign's presents, and tie them onto dog's necks, and throw them into the fire, and they pay yasak with no courtesy, they kick it with their feet and throw it to the ground and the call us, your servants, bad people". On several occasions, such conflicts prompted the natives to rise in rebellion against the Muscovite government.
It was against this volatile background that the Tsar's officials worked to transform yasak from an exchange of items (the centuries-old concept inherited from the Khanate of Siberia and Golden Horde) into a fixed and regular levy, but the process took centuries to complete. In many frontier areas it turned out that "the regular supply of... presents to the local ruler and his nobles was, in fact, the only way to secure the natives' cooperation". In the basin of the Volga, yasak was replaced with a regular tax in the 1720s, and most of Siberia followed suit in 1822. A largely symbolic form of yasak continued to be levied from the nomadic peoples of Eastern Siberia (Yakuts
, Evenks
, Chukchi
) until the Russian Revolution of 1917
.
was required to determine the numbers of yasak-payers, with results recorded in a list of yasak-payers, or "yasak-book", of which more than 1,700 survive from the 17th century alone. Each male yasak-payer between the ages of 18 and 50 was expected to take a shert, or an oath of allegiance to the Tsar.
Most peoples of Siberia paid tribute on a house-to-house basis, but the Yakut people delivered it based on the number of cattle in each household, while the Bashkir people paid yasak on the basis of a land census. Yasak was payable in sable
s, red fox
es, beaver
s, marten
s; cattle was also allowed as payment in some circumstances. Yasak payments formed the basis for Russia's fur trade
with Western Europe
.
The Siberian Prikaz
was responsible for yasak collection in Muscovite Russia. In 1727, an ukase
decreed that yasak could be paid in cash, but this measure was found to be less than profitable for the imperial treasury and, twelve years later, it was revoked. The Cabinet of Ministers then decreed that yasak be paid in sables, or, in the absence thereof, in other furs.
Catherine the Great undertook a reform of yasak collection by instituting a number of "yasak commissions", with the head office located in Tobolsk
. In 1827 the task of yasak collection was entrusted to two principal yasak commissions, one for Eastern Siberia and another for Western Siberia, whose activities were regulated by a special statute.
Yassa
Yassa was a secret written code of law created by Genghis Khan. It was the principal law under the Mongol Empire even though no copies were made available...
) is a Turkic
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
word for "tribute" that was used in Imperial Russia to designate fur tribute exacted from the indigenous peoples of Siberia
Indigenous peoples of Siberia
Including the Russian Far East, the population of Siberia numbers just above 40 million people.As a result of the 17th to 19th century Russian conquest of Siberia and the subsequent population movements during the Soviet era, the demographics of Siberia today is dominated by native speakers of...
.
Origin
The origins of yasak may be traced to a tax collected from native, primarily non-Turkic populations in the Golden HordeGolden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
. There is much uncertainty as to the time when the concept of yasak was introduced in Muscovy. It appears likely that the tax was inherited by Muscovy from the Volga khanates of Kazan
Khanate of Kazan
The Khanate of Kazan was a medieval Tatar state which occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El,...
and Astrakhan - two fragments of the Golden Horde that were subjugated by Ivan IV in the 1550s. These territories were settled by a range of non-Christian peoples who were expected to pay yasak either in kind or cash. The late French scholar of Eurasian history, Renee Grousset, traces "yasaq"(Regulations) back still further in his classic work, The Empire of the Steppes, to the moral code imposed by Ghengis Khan on his original horde. The Yasaq continued to be practiced by Mongol hordes until they came under Yellow Church Buddhist (Mongolia, China) and Muslim influences(Golden Horde, Persia, Central Asia) in successive centuries.
The earliest mention of the tax is found in a letter sent by Ismail (a ruler of the Nogai Horde
Nogai Horde
The Nogai Horde was a confederation of about eighteen Turkic and Mongol tribes that occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghits constituted a core of the Horde...
and ancestor of the Yusupov
Yusupov
Yusupov or Yusupova is a Russian surname of Tatar origin. It may refer to:*House of Yusupov, noble Russian family**Felix Yusupov , Count Sumarokov-Elston, Russian aristocrat and one of the participants in the murder of Grigori Rasputin**Irina Yusupova , Russian Princess and daughter of Count...
family) to Tsar Ivan IV in 1559, three years after Ivan's conquest of the Volga Delta
Volga Delta
The Volga Delta is the largest river delta in Europe, and occurs where Europe's largest river system, the Volga River, drains into the Caspian Sea in Russia's Astrakhan Oblast, north-east of the republic of Kalmykia. The delta is located in the Caspian Depression—the far eastern part of the delta...
and Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
. The border between the two polities was not yet established, and Ismail complained that Ivan's governor of Astrakhan demanded yasak from those inhabitants of the delta that Ismail considered his subjects, "in grain from those who farm and in fish from those who fish".
Nature
Yasak was gradually introduced in North Asia in the 17th century as a consequence of Russia's conquest of Siberia. The Tsar's relationship with natives was based on the quid pro quoQuid pro quo
Quid pro quo most often means a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. English speakers often use the term to mean "a favour for a favour" and the phrases with almost identical meaning include: "give and take", "tit for tat", "this for that", and "you scratch my back,...
principles. The annual delivery of yasak by the native representatives was normally accompanied by a state-sponsored feast and distribution of royal gifts to the natives. This compensation included tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
s, knives, axes, and other useful tools. Some native populations, especially in the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
, favoured multi-colored crystal beads. The local voyevoda could also provide the yasak-payers ("ясачные люди") with supplies of provisions such as fish oil
Fish oil
Fish oil is oil derived from the tissues of oily fish. Fish oils contain the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid , and docosahexaenoic acid , precursors of certain eicosanoids that are known to reduce inflammation throughout the body, and are thought to have many health benefits.Fish do not...
.
When the Tsar failed to deliver due compensation or his presents were deemed insufficient or too cheap, the yasak-payers would voice their discontent. According to one 17th-century report, not only the yasak-gatherers were beaten, but the natives proceeded to "throw the sovereign's presents, and tie them onto dog's necks, and throw them into the fire, and they pay yasak with no courtesy, they kick it with their feet and throw it to the ground and the call us, your servants, bad people". On several occasions, such conflicts prompted the natives to rise in rebellion against the Muscovite government.
It was against this volatile background that the Tsar's officials worked to transform yasak from an exchange of items (the centuries-old concept inherited from the Khanate of Siberia and Golden Horde) into a fixed and regular levy, but the process took centuries to complete. In many frontier areas it turned out that "the regular supply of... presents to the local ruler and his nobles was, in fact, the only way to secure the natives' cooperation". In the basin of the Volga, yasak was replaced with a regular tax in the 1720s, and most of Siberia followed suit in 1822. A largely symbolic form of yasak continued to be levied from the nomadic peoples of Eastern Siberia (Yakuts
Yakuts
Yakuts , are a Turkic people associated with the Sakha Republic.The Yakut or Sakha language belongs to the Northern branch of the Turkic family of languages....
, Evenks
Evenks
The Evenks are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 35,527...
, Chukchi
Chukchi people
The Chukchi, or Chukchee , ) are an indigenous people inhabiting the Chukchi Peninsula and the shores of the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea region of the Arctic Ocean within the Russian Federation. They speak the Chukchi language...
) until the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
.
Collection
Yasak collection procedures were not strictly regulated and varied considerably from ulus to ulus. A censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
was required to determine the numbers of yasak-payers, with results recorded in a list of yasak-payers, or "yasak-book", of which more than 1,700 survive from the 17th century alone. Each male yasak-payer between the ages of 18 and 50 was expected to take a shert, or an oath of allegiance to the Tsar.
Most peoples of Siberia paid tribute on a house-to-house basis, but the Yakut people delivered it based on the number of cattle in each household, while the Bashkir people paid yasak on the basis of a land census. Yasak was payable in sable
Sable
The sable is a species of marten which inhabits forest environments, primarily in Russia from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, in northern Mongolia and China and on Hokkaidō in Japan. Its range in the wild originally extended through European Russia to Poland and Scandinavia...
s, red fox
Fox
Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
es, beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
s, marten
Marten
The martens constitute the genus Martes within the subfamily Mustelinae, in family Mustelidae.-Description:Martens are slender, agile animals, adapted to living in taigas, and are found in coniferous and northern deciduous forests across the northern hemisphere. They have bushy tails, and large...
s; cattle was also allowed as payment in some circumstances. Yasak payments formed the basis for Russia's fur trade
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
with Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
.
The Siberian Prikaz
Prikaz
Prikaz was an administrative or judicial office in Muscovy and Russia of 15th-18th centuries. The term is usually translated as "ministry", "office" or "department". In modern Russian "prikaz" means administrative or military order...
was responsible for yasak collection in Muscovite Russia. In 1727, an ukase
Ukase
A ukase , in Imperial Russia, was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leader that had the force of law...
decreed that yasak could be paid in cash, but this measure was found to be less than profitable for the imperial treasury and, twelve years later, it was revoked. The Cabinet of Ministers then decreed that yasak be paid in sables, or, in the absence thereof, in other furs.
Catherine the Great undertook a reform of yasak collection by instituting a number of "yasak commissions", with the head office located in Tobolsk
Tobolsk
Tobolsk is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a historic capital of Siberia. Population: -History:...
. In 1827 the task of yasak collection was entrusted to two principal yasak commissions, one for Eastern Siberia and another for Western Siberia, whose activities were regulated by a special statute.