Putni boyars

Putni boyars. The lower category of boyar military servitors in the Lithuanian-Ruthenian state. They had the same privileges as the pantsyrni boyars. In the 15th and 16th centuries they occupied a social position between the state peasants and the petty gentry. By the end of the 16th century most of them had been absorbed by those groups or, in Ukraine, become registered Cossacks. In some localities in Right-Bank Ukraine, however, putni boyars could be still found in the 18th century.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]