Stolniks were known as palace servants of the Russian rulers since the 12th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries they were young nobles who brought dishes to the tsar's table, looked after his bedroom, and accompanied him in travels. The highest category comprised the room or closer stolniks.
Stolniks were also attached to episcopal administrations as were other similar offices also found in the grand princely or tsarist administration. For example, stolniks are found in documents from the archiepiscopal records in Novgorod the Great.[1]
References
^ B. D. (Boris Dmitrevich) Grekov, Novgorodskii Dom sviatoi Sofii; opyt izucheniia organizatsii i vnutrennikh otnoshenii krupnoi tserkovnoi votchiny, chast” I (St. Petersburg: M. Aleksandrova, 1914. Reprinted in Izbrannye trudy, vol. 4: 7-436).