In the present study, without attempting a comprehensive analysis of the social and legal status of the mazili and ruptaşi, author analyzes these two privileged categories of the population, through the visions reflected in the studies of different authors, who, in different times, referred tangentially to this problem. The author notes that to the social / fiscal categories of mazili and ruptaşi, and later odnodvortsy, were not dedicated special studies or synthesis monographic works, with only two exceptions, the work on odnodvortsy (mazili and ruptaşi) signed by P.G. Gore in 1908 and the article of historians M. Muntean and T. Marşalkovski dedicated to ruptaşi, written in the 1960s. The author ascertains that mazili represented a social category while ruptaşi – a fiscal one, inherited in Bessarabia from the Principality of Moldova. Although mazili kept certain privileges, the imperial administration did not accept them and did everything possible to suppress them as a distinct social category. This process took place gradually by elimination, particularly of mazili, from various administrative functions and by undermining of their social prestige. With time, rights of mazili were limited and they were forced to pay local benefits and different dues along with ordinary tax payers. Despite this, mazili continued to keep even in the second half of the 19th century their distinctive social and spiritual features. While mazili had a more compact social and ethnic composition, the composition of ruptaşi was quite diverse and variegated, namely included autochthonous and foreign elements, transferred to Moldova from abroad from the rural peasantry, but also from the autochthonous urban places, who were not part of the privileged groups of society, lacked permanent residence and were not enlisted as tax payers, enjoyed some privileges based on gift cards issued by the ruler.