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landowners and the clergy, and for the recruits from theirserfs for the standing army organized by Peter the Greatand continuing, whether in time of war or peace, to bea major, if necessary, burden that engulfed almostthroughout the century far over half the state expenditure.In addition, under Catherine the Great they obtained ineffect further control of local justice and administration,with the result that they were both the legal andeconomic masters of their serfs and their police andjudicial rulers. Hence behind them they had the armedsupport of the state if required.The serf-owners did not pay direct taxation, but theyhad previously instead owed service to the tsar, primarilymilitary service. Peter the Great had reorganized anddone his brutal best to enforce their lifelong service tothe state, whether in the army and navy or in civiladministration, and their compulsory education. Thelandowners reacted strongly, with notable success intheir resistance to this last burden. After Peter theyhad their way. From 1730 service in the very unpopularnavy was no longer compulsory. In 1736 a reductionof obligatory service to twenty-five years was granted,together with numerous grounds of exemption and otherprivileges. In 1762 they crowned their posthumousvictory over Peter I by securing from Peter III theabolition of any obligation to serve at all.This edict removed the formal justification of serfdom:the serfs had to serve the state directly by thepoll tax and recruits, and indirectly by supporting %their owners, who themselves had to serve the statedirectly by providing the officers in the army and civilservice: if their owners no longer had to serve the state,why should the serfs have to serve their owners? Sothe serfs felt and argued—and revolted: there was asecond edict freeing them from their masters, who hadsuppressed it and killed 'the little father' for granting it(cf. p. 168). (Peter III was deposed and afterwardsmurdered in 1762 by court conspiracies, the first headed,the second connived at by his wife Catherine the Great.)But for the true emancipation edict the peasants had towait another hundred years.143