Dozornye Knigi

(government inventory of population and tax records), a form of cadastre in the Russian state of the 16th and 17th centuries. They were compiled by dozorshchiki (scribes) upon the petition of a local population for a review of the correspondence between the size of the state tax assessment and the population’s ability to pay. A tax review was an emergency measure that took place most often after a region was laid waste by natural catastrophes or enemy invasions, rendering impossible the payment of taxes at the old rate. When the government accepted the accuracy of the information presented in the dozornye knigi, they re-placed the pistsovaia kniga (cadastres) for tax-collection purposes.