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ined with other characteristics that were more importantin the building up and functioning of tsarism asit developed in the four centuries between 1500 and1900.The main characteristics of tsarism may be summedup under six headings:(i) The semi-sacrosanct personification of authorityin a supreme ruler, whose power, thoughclosely circumscribed by the weight of customand dependence on the landed and militaryclasses, never became explicitly limited byclearly formulated or regularly operative checksof a legal or institutional kind, and frequentlywas of decisive consequence,(ii) The conception of service to the state to be enforcedin some form or other, first from allland, later from all groups of subjects, a conceptionthat was never fully realized in practice,though it was more and more effectively applieduntil the middle of the eighteenth century.(iii) The application of this conception of service tothe landed class in such a way that not onlymust no land go out of service, but all landmust be in service, with the result that allland came to be regarded in the last resort asunder some control of the tsar.(iv) The linking up of the idea of service with that ofthe omnicompetence of the state, of its unlimitedrange of action (except, prior to Peterthe Great, in regard to the church), of the stateas the creator and not merely the regulator ofall associations within it, other than the church,(v) The lack of differentiation between legislative,administrative, and judicial functions and thedevelopment of a centralized bureaucracy onan exceptionally large scale, corresponding to theexceptionally wide range of state control andextent of the empire.(vi) The paramountcy of the military needs of the state,which made the army, directly and indirectly,93