A Peasant Leaving His Landlord on Yuriev Day, painting by Sergei V. Ivanov
The term serf (Russian: крепостной крестьянин, romanized: krepostnoy krest'yanin, lit. 'bonded peasant'), in the sense of an unfree peasant of tsarist Russia, meant an unfree person who, unlike a slave, historically could be sold only together with the land to which they were "attached". However, this stopped being a requirement by the 19th century, and serfs were practically indistinguishable from slaves. Contemporary legal documents, such as Russkaya Pravda (12th century onwards), distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants. While another form of slavery in Russia, kholopstvo, was ended by Peter I in 1723,[1] the serfdom (Russian: крепостное право, romanized: krepostnoye pravo) was abolished only by Alexander II's emancipation reform of 1861; nevertheless, in times past, the state allowed peasants to sue for release from serfdom under certain conditions, and also took measures against abuses of landlord power.[2]
Serfdom became the dominant form of relation between Russian peasants and nobility in the 17th century. Serfdom most commonly existed in the central and southern areas of the Tsardom of Russia and, from 1721, of the subsequent Russian Empire. Serfdom in Little Russia (parts of today's central Ukraine), and other Cossack lands, in the Urals and in Siberia generally occurred rarely until, during the reign of Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796), it spread to Ukraine[citation needed]; noblemen began to send their serfs into Cossack lands in an attempt to harvest their extensive untapped natural resources.
The emperor and the highest state officials feared that the peasants' emancipation would be accompanied by popular unrest, given the reluctance of the landlords to lose their serf property, but took some actions to alleviate the situation of the peasantry.[2]
Emperor Alexander I (r. 1801–1825) wanted to reform the system but moved cautiously, liberating serfs in Estonia (1816), Livonia (1816), and Courland (1817) only. New laws allowed all classes (except the serfs) to own land, a privilege previously confined to the nobility.[3]
Emperor Alexander II abolished serfdom in the emancipation reform of 1861, a few years later than Austria and other German states. Scholars have proposed multiple overlapping reasons to account for the abolition, including fear of a large-scale revolt by the serfs, the government's financial needs, changing cultural sensibilities, and the military's need for soldiers.[4]
^Hellie, Richard (1982). Slavery in Russia, 1450-1725. University Of Chicago Press. p. 85. ISBN 9780226326474.
^ ab"КРЕПОСТНОЕ ПРАВО • Great Russian Encyclopedia – Electronic version". old.bigenc.ru. 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
^
Susan P. McCaffray, "Confronting Serfdom in the Age of Revolution: Projects for Serf Reform in the Time of Alexander I", Russian Review (2005) 64#1 pp 1-21 in JSTOR
^
Evsey D. Domar and Mark J. Machina, "On the Profitability of Russian Serfdom", (1984) p 919.
of Russia and, from 1721, of the subsequent Russian Empire. Serfdomin Little Russia (parts of today's central Ukraine), and other Cossack lands, in the...
the case with Russian serfs. However, in its latest face, serfdominRussia came to be an exception to other serfdoms, since Russianserfdom eventually transitioned...
during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. The reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire. The 1861 Emancipation Manifesto...
Serfdom has a long history that dates to ancient times. Social institutions similar to serfdom occurred in the ancient world. The status of the helots...
territory of what is now Russia since the introduction of Christianity in the tenth century, serfdominRussia, which was in many ways similar to contemporary...
Field, Daniel. The End of Serfdom: Nobility and Bureaucracy inRussia, 1855-1861 (1976) McCaffray, Susan P. "Confronting Serfdomin the Age of Revolution:...
the United Kingdom; and twice that of China or India. Russia was a late industrializer. Serfdom, which held back development of the wage labor market...
Russia, he also befriended the then-exiled poet Alexander Herzen and pardoned him. It was through Herzen's influence that he later abolished serfdom in...
The Road to Serfdom (German: Der Weg zur Knechtschaft) is a book by the Austrian-British economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek. In the book, Hayek...
age of serfdom 1649–1861 (2008) Jerome Blum, Lord and Peasant inRussia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century (1961) Steven L. Hoch, Serfdom and social...
willing to abolish serfdom than Russian nobility and thus Baltic governorates became the testing ground for entire Russian Empire. In October 1802, widespread...
Serfdomin Poland became the dominant form of relationship between peasants and nobility in early modern Poland during the 16th-18th centuries, and was...
eventually lead to serfdom and were instituted during the rule of the future Tsar Boris Godunov in 1597. (See also SerfdominRussia.) The combination...
nineteenth century, culminating with Alexander II abolishing Russianserfdomin 1861. In the following decades, reform efforts such as the Stolypin reforms...
abolition of serfdominRussia. Under his rule Jewish people could not hire Christian servants, could not own land, and were restricted in travel. Alexander...
1813–1814 that ended with the Russians marching into Paris. Napoleon did not touch serfdominRussia. What the reaction of the Russian peasantry would have been...
19th century saw its decline, marked especially by the abolition of serfdominRussiain 1861. Emancipation meant that the ex-serfs paid for their freedom...
Hellie, Slavery inRussia, 1450–1725 (1984) Hellie, Richard (2009). "Slavery and serfdominRussia". In Gleason, Abbott. A Companion to Russian History. Wiley...
of freedom in the European world" The work begins with a brief introduction about the physical geography of Russia and the nature of serfdom. From here...
overview of and topical guide to Russia. The Russian Federation, commonly known as Russia, is the most extensive country in the world, covering 17,075,400...
serfdom, according to the interests of Russian landlords, i.e. with land to be retained by landlords, in a style similar to the abolition of serfdom in...
campaigns in the Polish–Ottoman War of 1633–1634. Cossack numbers increased when the warriors were joined by peasants escaping serfdominRussia and dependence...
modernization of all aspects of Russian life and was concerned with abolishing the institution of serfdominRussia. Russian Enlightenment didn't promote...
the institution of serfdom in its most oppressive form. (See also SerfdominRussia.) Upon the death of the childless Feodor on 7 January 1598, as well...
became a catalyst for reforms of Russia's social institutions, including the abolition of serfdom and overhauls in the justice system, local self-government...
Homelessness inRussia has been observed since the end of the 19th century. After the abolition of serfdom, major cities experienced a large influx of...
until the 18th and 19th centuries. Serfdom was abolished inRussiain 1861, and while many peasants would remain in areas where their family had farmed...
which had an influence on the abolition of serfdominRussia Yury Tynyanov, important member of the Russian Formalist school, author of Lieutenant Kijé...
Dolgorukov, leading to a neglect of state affairs and the tightening of serfdom. Peter's reign was marked by disengagement, disorder, and indulgence. He...
Global Information