Non-commissioned officers’ desertion and dualism of social role functions in the Olonets “new order” regiments

The relevance of the study is due to the need for a more detailed consideration of the problem of runaway Olonets soldiers and dragoons in its economic, military and social contextualization. The novelty is in the fact that it is the first study on the impact of the Olonets regiments non-commissioned officers on the spread of desertion. The author focuses on the period from 1660 to 1662, since at that time the scale of desertion reached its peak. The purpose of the work is to identify the place and role of non-commissioned officers under the conditions of mass desertion. The tasks of the study were to identify the most significant cases of group desertion, to clarify the position of sergeants, masters-at-arms and corporals in the army hierarchical ladder, to study their official duties and the reasons for organizing escapes. The author used the systemic, comparative, typological, and genetic methods of historical research. It was shown that, despite their special coordinating function in the units, sergeants and other non-commissioned officers, who were of peasant background, like ordinary soldiers, took responsibility for planning and organizing group runaways. The author concludes that the escapes organized by sergeants were determined by the duality of their specific social role.