Vasily Golitsyn (born 1643)

Golitsyn spent his early days at the court of Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich (reigned 1645-1676), where he gradually rose to the rank of boyar.

Personal experience of the inconveniences and dangers of the prevailing system of preferment - the so-called mestnichestvo, or rank priority, which had paralyzed the Russian armies for centuries - induced him to propose its abolition, which Tsar Feodor III carried out in 1678.

Peter spared his life - owing to the supplications of his cousin Boris - but deprived him of his boyardom, confiscated his estates and banished him successively to Kargopol, to Mezen and to Kholmogory, where he died on 21 April 1714.

[1] He expounded to them some drastic reform measures, such as the abolition of serfdom, the promotion of religious toleration, and the development of industrial enterprises.

As Golitsyn was eager to avoid all forms of violence and repression, his program was more cautious and "realistic" than that of Peter the Great.