Polonianichnye Dengi
Polonianichnye Den’gi
a tax collected in Russia for ransoming prisoners of war, mainly from the Crimea. In existence from 1551 to 1679, the tax was assessed on the basis of the sokha (a measure of land that served as a unit of taxation), and exemptions were extremely rare. Up to the 1580’s, the amounts collected were determined by the actual costs of ransoming prisoners, but by the end of the 16th century the tax had become a fixed imposition of 2 rubles per sokha.