The word kholop was first mentioned in a chronicle for the year of 986. Its etymology is unclear. By one hypothesis, the word is cognate with Slavic words translated as "boy", which is similar to the use of the English word boy as "servant". The Slavic word itself is derived from the hypothetical root *chol related to premarital state, unmarriedness, inability for reproduction. By another hypothesis, it is derived from a Germanic root, represented in English by the word "help".
Kholops
The Russkaya Pravda, a legal code of the late Kievan Rus, details the status and types of kholops of the time. In the 11th - 12th centuries, the term referred to different categories of dependent people and especially slaves. A kholop’s master had unlimited power over his life, e.g., he could kill him, sell him, or pay his way out of debt with him. The master, however, was responsible for a kholop’s actions, such as insulting a freeman or stealing. A person could become a kholop as a result of capture, selling oneself, being sold for debts, after having committed crimes, or through marriage to a kholop. Until the late 15th century, the kholops represented a majority among the servants, who had been working lordly lands. Some kholops, mainly house serfs, replenished the ranks of the princely servants or engaged themselves in trades, farming, or administrative activities. Throughout the 16th century, the kholops’ role in the corvée economy had been diminishing due to the increasing involvement of peasantexploitation. At the turn of the 16th century, the serviceclasskholops began to emerge and spread across the country. In the late 17th century, there were also kholops "chained" to their land, who took care of their own household and had to pay quitrent. Those kholops, who had been house serfs, were subject to poll tax in 1722-1724 and were thereafter treated as ordinary serfs.
Combat Servants
"Combat servants", also known as "military slaves" in literature, constituted an armed retinue and personal protection for large and medium-sized landowners in the 16th-18th centuries, and carried out military service together with noblemen, constituting a considerable part of the "Landed army". They were equipped as mounted archers, usually wearing cheap quilted armor and caps.
