Abstract:
In this article, without touching the status and evolution of the fiscal category of ruptashi considered by the author in previous articles along with the category of mazyli, there is analyzed a long and varied process of this category understanding by different researchers in new and modern historiography, which indirectly or specifically focused on this topic. Analyzing the existing concepts, the author comes to the conclusion that almost all researchers in the 19th-early 21st centuries consider the ruptashi a privileged class: the ancestors of foreign colonists – Bulgarians, Serbs, and others, who settled in the area during the time of the Moldavian government; farmers who have been from the category of clergy and ministers of the church by origin. Rupta de vistierie and rupta de cămară were equated with raznochintsy; rupta de vistierie paid taxes to the treasury, and rupta de cămară – personally to the rulers (cămara). After the annexation of the territory by Russia ruptashi lost almost all their privileges and social prestige. Most researchers tend to see in ruptashi a social category, while in reality they were a fiscal category. Archival sources indicate that ruptashi had a heterogeneous composition, which included both local and foreign people from the rural and urban environment, migrated to Moldova. They were not included in the category of the privileged classes, using only certain privileges, had no permanent residence and had not been enrolled in the category of birnichi (tax-payers). Their privileges with some difficulties were confirmed by the imperial administration, but in 1847 the fiscal category of ruptashi had been liquidated, and they were included in the category of odnodvortsy. The analysis of the examined works, which indirectly or specifically address the issue under discussion, allows the author to conclude that the fiscal category of ruptashi (later - the odnodvortsy) is not sufficiently covered in the studies, and this theme is still waiting for its researcher.
