Apprentices and organization of apprenticeship in the armory chamber of the 17th century

The article is devoted to the study of the organization of the training of craft personnel in the court gunsmith of the Russian tsars in the 17th century. The author studies the ancestry of the apprentices of the Armory, summarizes and analyzes the data on the number, specialties, study terms, and the amount of tuition. The author pays attention to the peculiarities of vocational training in the court’s workshop - the opportunities to send apprentices to other regions for obtaining necessary knowledge and skills and to invite mentors from other cities or from abroad. The article describes the actions of department’s administration on overcoming the staffing crisis caused by the consequences of the Moscow plague of 1654. The author highlights the issue about the forms of encouragement for apprentice displaying abilities and diligence and for distinguished mentors. The article also discusses the procedure and the necessary conditions for the transition of apprentice to the status of master of the Armory chamber. The research is based on the complex of unpublished materials of the former archive of the Armory, now Fund 396 of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts.