druzhina

druzhina, in early Rus, a prince’s retinue, which helped him to administer his principality and constituted the area’s military force. The first druzhinniki (members of a druzhina) in Rus were the Norse Varangians, whose princes established control there in the 9th century. Soon members of the local Slavic aristocracy as well as adventurers of a variety of other nationalities became druzhinniki.

The druzhina was composed of two groups: the senior members (who became known as boyars) and the junior members. The boyars were the prince’s closest advisers; they also performed higher state functions. The junior members constituted the prince’s personal bodyguard and were common soldiers. All the members were dependent upon their prince for financial support, but each member served the prince freely and had the right to leave him and join the druzhina of another prince. As a result, a prince was inclined to seek the goodwill of his druzhina; he paid the druzhinniki wages, shared his war booty and taxes with them, and eventually rewarded the boyars with landed estates, complete with rights to tax and administer justice to the local population.

By the middle of the 12th century, the characteristics of the two groups had begun to change. The boyars, having acquired their own patrimonial estates and retinues, became less dependent on the princes and began to form a new landed aristocratic class. The junior members became a prince’s immediate servitors and collectively assumed the name dvoriane (courtiers). During the period of Mongol rule (after 1240), the term druzhina fell out of use. See also boyar.