Novoprikhodtsy

(newcomers), also known as novopo-riadchiki, a category of the feudally dependent population of the Russian state in the 15th through 17th centuries. The novopri-khodtsy, unlike the starozhil’tsy (old residents), were generally impoverished peasants who had lost their land allotment and had no means with which to carry on farming. They would settle on the land of a feudal lord with whom they would conclude an agreement known as a poriadnaia zapis’. Under this agreement, the novoprikhodtsy were obligated, after the expiration of the I’gotnye leta (exempt years), to bear all the requisite obligations to the state and to their lord, thus becoming equal to the starozhil’tsy peasants.