Service class people

Service class people (Russian: служилые люди, romanized: sluzhilyye lyudi) were a class of free people in Russia in the 14th to the 17th centuries, obliged to perform military or administrative service on behalf of the state.

Service-men were nominally servants of the tsar, had certain legal rights and duties and could expect pay if they were lucky.

[citation needed] A minor group were sworn-men (tseloval'niki, literally [cross or bible] 'kissers').

[citation needed] In practice the groups blended into each other, and the distinction was most important when dealing with the government.

These people were often called Cossacks, but only in the loose sense of being neither landowners nor peasants.