Pososhnye Liudi

(persons of the sokha), recruits in the Russian state of the 16th and 17th centuries, conscripted for military service from various categories of lands according to the sokha (the basic tax-territorial unit of Muscovy).

The concept of sokha service first appeared in the late 15th to early 16th centuries. Pososhnye liudi were gathered by ukase. A gramota (charter) of 1547 indicates that for the Kazan campaign two men per sokha were to be conscripted in the villages (“one for the cavalry and one for the infantry”), and one man for every 10 households in the slobody (tax-exempt settlements). The pososhnye liudi (posokha, or pososhnaia rat’) served in the infantry and in auxiliary functions, such as constructing fortifications and servicing siege guns and artillery. In the 16th century the pososhnye liudi were also drafted in peacetime for construction and repair work.