Of Russian's Peasants and Serfs

The government had an avocation in this development since it needed the peasants' valuatees for its revenue - and needed to ensure that its taxpayers would everlastingly be available in the same place.

Despite several(prenominal) centuries of relative domestic peace following the expulsion of the Tartars from Russia, by the 1600s there was a constant threat of force paucity in agriculture, damaging the interests of property owners and the state treasury. Since both power groups had an interest in depriving peasants of the right to change their abode or employer, laws and utilization slowly established serfdom as a widespread custom - fin solelyy fixed by the 1649 Code of Laws instituted by tzar Alexei. None that noblemen might own estates worked by servile labor. It should be noted that the nobility itself was essentially a class of serving men, holding land under a form of imperial tenure which obliged them to give answer to the state - while being supported by the labor of their serfs.

Although known as a Western-oriented "modernizer," Peter the Great (died 1725) corroborate this system. Indeed, his reforms refined the need for serfdom. Peter imposed upon the nobility much precise and far-reaching duties of service. In 1718 he introduced a poll tax on all classes save the nobility and certain acquire groups - a state revenue tax on all living male. The end result of this poll tax, particularly arduous on large families, was to reduce the remaining peasantry to a le

Russian census figures from the late 1700s (excluding Baltic and newly-acquired Polish territories) find serfs comprising 53% of the population, state peasants an additional 45%. As Russia approached the turn-of-the-century in 1796, only 1,300,000 people lived in urban centers - as opposed to 10,700,000 rural inhabitants. Industrial development in the Empire was at the infantile stage; agriculture was the first appearance of the national economy. Yet, as calculated in 1834, 45% of all serfs were owned by only 2320 landowners - a disproportionate apportionment of resource that found the majority of landowners holding 10 or fewer serfs.

As will be noted, then, few landowners had spring to be active proponents of serfdom; the "benefits" of the institution were severely throttle to a select group.

vel of fiscal indebtedness to the state akin to formal serfdom in all but score and certain governance differences. These became known as "state peasants."

The last decree was unsatisfactory to all Russians in whole or part, particularly in its vague timetable and "judgement" hedging - but particularly galling to Alexander II was the criticism heaped upon it from prominent reformers demanding political reforms to accompany the emancipation. The Czar had anticipated reactionary resistance; he did not accept such from "his" reformers. As a consequence, the hurt emperor distanced himself from those reformers who had pushed through the emancipation. Milyutin was sent on move on - abroad - which had the practical effect of letting the more mercenary nobility run the actual operation of the emancipation process. By that odd quirk of human nature that characterizes autocracies, the reformist Czar found himself more at home among traditionalists who deferred overtly to his decrees.

The landowner had enormous power over his serfs. Until 19th century empurpled reforms, he could sell them without land to another landowner - an singular separately from the family i
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