Rudnik D. Boyars of Southwest Russia in XI–XIV centuries.

The dissertation is devoted to the complex analysis of the activity of the boyar layer in the territory of South-western Rus during the XI–XIV centuries. The main sources of the origin of Boyars, in the first place in the ethnic sense, its military service are determinate. It was shown that permanent proximity to the prince and to the administrative personnel characterizes the boyars as a leading stratum and determines its relative isolation from the masses of the population. It was ascertained the affiliation with the boyars in the first stages of the existence of the stage the Foreigners-Varangians as the basis of the princely armed force, whose the movement to the South was caused by the economical factors. Assimilation of the Varangians opened the way to the armed force and so the boyars for the representatives of the local population, nomads, who recognized themselves as the vassals of the border-line principalities and the masses of the population for the corresponding level of deserts for the prince. Author emphasis to the material condition of the boyars, to the basis of which is the boyar country seat as the center of the rural area and the military-economic complex. The features of the position of boyars of the Kiev, Pereyaslav, Chernigov and Galician-Volyn principalities are distinguished.