ABSTRACT
Among dozens, if not hundreds, of petitions submitted by those returned from captivity to the chancelleries in 1649–50, there was the following:
To the Tsar and Sovereign and Great Prince Aleksei Mikhailovich of all the Russia, a poor and helpless Turkish captive from the town of Kozlov … Mar’itsa Mart’ianova is asking You humbly. I was captured by Crimean people in the vicinity of Kozlov and sold to Tsar’gorod [Istanbul], and I was in captivity and suffered gravely in the Turkish land for nine years, and by now I, a poor one, left captivity by myself without ransom but I, a poor one, have not received your sovereign’s payment and food and no remuneration was paid. Merciful Sovereign and Tsar and Great Prince Aleksei Mikhailovich of all Russia, grant me, a poor captive, for my grave suffering in captivity; order, Sovereign, to give me, a poor one, feeding allowance (korm) and reward for returning from captivity (vykhodnoe) similarly to my sisters, as God advises You. Tsar and Sovereign, have mercy on me, grant me. 1
