Convenient navigation through the article:
How was the enslavement of peasants carried out in Rus'?
According to historians and researchers, the prerequisite for serfdom in Rus' was its geographical location. In fact, the withdrawal of surplus product, which was required for the development of society throughout the vast territory of the state, required the formation of a rigid, well-functioning mechanism.
The very formation of serfdom took place in the process of confrontation between the community and the actively developing local land ownership, and ordinary peasants initially perceived arable land as royal or God's property, nevertheless, believing that the owners of such lands are, by law, those who cultivate and work on this arable land .
The rapid expansion of local land ownership and numerous attempts by service people to gain control of certain communal territories or part of them (to obtain the so-called “lordly plowing”), which would act as a guarantor for the further satisfaction of their needs - made it possible to subsequently transfer the same land by inheritance to her sons, thereby securing the right of her clan, which met natural resistance in society. Such riots and indignations could be overcome only in one way - by completely subjugating the peasants.
In addition, the state needed guarantees of receipt of old and new taxes. And during the period of formation of a strong central administrative apparatus, all taxes were collected by landowners. To do this, it was necessary not only to carry out a census of peasants, but also to attach them to a specific feudal lord.
The process of enslaving peasants on Russian soil took place in several stages and was very lengthy.
The first stage of enslavement of peasants
Even during the formation of the first Slavic state part of its population could lose personal freedom, turning into serfs or smerds. At the same time, in conditions of fragmentation Kievan Rus peasants were allowed to leave their principality and go to work for another landowner.
The Code of Law adopted in 1497 legally confirmed this right, indicating the legality of the peasant’s departure after paying the “elderly”. The care was supposed to be carried out on the autumn St. George's day - that is, during the week before the twenty-sixth of November and the week after this date.
In another season, the peasants could not move to other principalities, because they were hampered by their busyness in plowing, as well as by frosts, spring and autumn thaw, etc.
The fixation of the transition period described above, on the one hand, acted as a confirmation of the fact of the desire of the state and feudal lords to limit peasant freedom, and on the other hand, it was a confirmation that they were not able to assign peasants to a specific landowner. It is worth noting that the described right forced the “land owners” to take into account peasant interests, which in itself had a beneficial effect not only on the economic, but also on the social development of the state.
This norm lasted until 1581, when Ivan the Terrible introduced “reserved years”, which prohibited peasant labor on arable land located in the territories affected by the disasters of that period.
The second stage of enslavement of peasants
The next stage in the development of peasant enslavement in Russia lasted from the end of the sixteenth century until the publication of the Council Code in 1649. Around 1592-93, during the period when Boris Godunov ruled the state, a decree was issued according to which peasants were prohibited from leaving throughout the country. In the same year, a large population census and updating of scribe books began, which became an attempt by the state to assign peasants to a specific place of residence with all the ensuing consequences in the event of their flight.
The collected data was also used by the drafters of the decree of 1597, according to which “lesson years” were introduced, representing a five-year period for searching for fugitive peasants. After the expiration of the period, the peasants settled in new territories, which was to the advantage of landowners in the southern regions of the country, where most of the fugitives were sent.
The third stage of enslavement of peasants
The third stage of peasant enslavement, which lasted from the mid-seventeenth century until the end of the eighteenth century, took away the remainder of the rights of the peasants. For example, according to the law of 1675, they could be sold without land, and in the eighteenth century, landowners received the right to dispose not only of the peasants’ property, but also their persons in general. During this period, peasants in Russia were approaching slaves in their legal and social status.
The fourth stage of the enslavement of peasants
From the end of the eighteenth century to 1861, serfdom began to disintegrate, and the state began to introduce certain measures that limited serfdom. At the same time, the condemnation of serfdom became one of the liberal and humane ideas that the nobility was carried away by. This all led to the abolition of serfdom in February 1861 during the reign of Tsar Alexander.
Table: main milestones in the enslavement of peasants
Historians date the first stage of peasant enslavement to the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, when the attack on the peasants of the state and feudal landowners began. At the same time, due to the increase in oppression and duties on the part of the masters, the peasants increasingly ran away from the owners. At that time, such flight was considered one of the most common forms of manifestation of discontent. The state did not yet have the power that could attach the peasant to the land. The active growth of patrimonial and local land ownership of spiritual and secular feudal lords was accompanied by the involvement of other peasants in relation to dependence on the owners. And movements around the country led the peasants to become dependent on new lands, turning into serfs.
Historians associate the very development of serfdom in Russia with the increasing role of the state as a feudal exploiter of the population, as well as with the development of the local system. The economic basis of existing serfdom was feudal ownership of land plot in each of its forms - state, patrimonial, local.
The second stage of enslavement occurred from the end of the sixteenth century until 1649. It was during that period that the Council Code of the ruler Alexei Mikhailovich was published, which radically changed the situation of Russian peasants.
During the reign of another monarch, Boris Godunov, a new decree appeared on the twenty-fourth of November 1597, according to which from now on the detective period for capturing fugitive peasants was five years. It should be noted that the serfdom legislation of this era is the most important stage in the history of Russian serfdom. From now on, farmers were attached not to the land, but to its owner. At the same time, the prohibition of transfer actually applied to the head of the family himself, whose name appeared in the scribe books.
The final third stage of enslavement is usually attributed to the mid-seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. At this time, there was an intensive development and strengthening of serfdom. In addition, this period is characterized by serious differences in the right to dispose of peasants, because then landowners could inherit, exchange and sell peasants. This fact was facilitated by the decree on single inheritance issued in 1714, which was able to turn noble estates into estates, and the peasants and land passed into the power of the landowner himself.
Stages of enslavement of peasants in Russia:
1497 – Ivan’s Code of Law 3. St. George’s Day has begun. November 26. It was possible to move from one owner to another (week before and week after).
1550– Ivan’s Code of Law 4. St. George’s Day + elderly. (increased the fee for the elderly and established an additional fee)
1581- Reserved summers. Cancellation of St. George's Day - a ban on the transition.
1597- Lesson summers. Search for runaway peasants for 5 years.
1607– Searching for fugitives for 15 years.
1637– Detective 9 years.
1642 g. – Detective 10 years.
1649 - Cathedral Code. Indefinite search for fugitive peasants. An uprising called the “Salt Riot” took place in Moscow, the cause of which was an excessively high tax on salt. Following Moscow, other cities also rose. As a result of the current situation, it became clear that a revision of the laws was necessary. In 1649, the Zemsky Sobor was convened, at which it was decided Cathedral Code, according to which the peasants were finally attached to the land.
IN Tsarist Russia serfdom spread widely XVI century, but officially confirmed by the Council Code of 1649.
Code of laws of 1497
The code of law of 1497 is the beginning of the legal formalization of serfdom.
Ivan III adopted a set of laws of a unified Russian state - the Code of Laws. The transfer from one landowner to another is limited to a single period for the entire country: a week before and a week after St. George’s Day - November 26. The peasants could go to another landowner, but they had to pay a fee for the use of the land plot and yard.
Land reform of 1550
Under Ivan IV, the Code of Law of 1550 was adopted; he retained the right of peasants to move on St. George’s Day, but increased the payment for the elderly and established an additional duty; in addition, the Code of Law obliged the owner to answer for the crimes of his peasants, which increased their dependence. Since 1581, the so-called reserved years began to be introduced, in which the transition was prohibited even on St. George’s Day. This was connected with the census: in which region the census took place, the reserved year began in that region. In 1592, the census was completed, and with it the possibility of peasants transferring was completed. The peasants, deprived of the opportunity to move to another owner, began to run away, settling for life in other regions or on “free” lands. The owners of the escaped peasants had the right to search for and return the fugitives: in 1597, Tsar Fedor issued a Decree according to which the period for searching for fugitive peasants was five years.
Serfdom in the 17th century
In the 17th century in Russia, on the one hand, commodity production and the market appeared, and on the other, feudal relations were consolidated, adapting to market ones. This was a time of strengthening of autocracy, the emergence of prerequisites for the transition to an absolute monarchy. The 17th century is the era of mass popular movements in Russia.
In the second half of the 17th century. Peasants in Russia were united into two groups - serfs and black-sown peasants. Serf peasants ran their farms on patrimonial, local and church lands, and bore various feudal duties in favor of the landowners. Black-nosed peasants were included in the category of “taxable people” who paid taxes and were under the control of the authorities. Therefore, there was a mass exodus of black-mown peasants.
During the reign of Mikhail Romanov, further enslavement of the peasants took place. Cases of concessions or sales of peasants without land are increasing.
During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, a number of reforms were carried out: the procedure for collecting payments and carrying out duties was changed. In 1646 - 1648 A household inventory of peasants and peasants was carried out. And in 1648, an uprising called the “Salt Riot” took place in Moscow, the cause of which was an excessively high tax on salt. Following Moscow, other cities also rose. As a result of the current situation, it became clear that a revision of the laws was necessary. In 1649, a Zemsky Sobor was convened, at which the Council Code was adopted, according to which the peasants were finally attached to the land.
Its special chapter, “The Court of Peasants,” abolished the “fixed summers” for the search and return of fugitive peasants, the indefinite search and return of fugitives, established the heredity of serfdom and the right of the landowner to dispose of the property of the serf. If the owner of the peasants turned out to be insolvent, the property of the peasants and slaves dependent on him was collected to repay his debt. Landowners received the right of patrimonial court and police supervision over peasants. Peasants did not have the right to speak in court independently. Marriages, family divisions of peasants, and inheritance of peasant property could only occur with the consent of the landowner. Peasants were forbidden to keep trading shops; they could only trade from carts.
Harboring runaway peasants was punishable by a fine, whipping and prison. For the murder of another peasant, the landowner had to give up his best peasant and his family. Their owner had to pay for runaway peasants.
The Council Code of 1649 demonstrated the path to strengthening Russian statehood. It legally formalized serfdom.
Serfdom in the 18th century
Peter I
In 1718 - 1724, under Peter I, a census of the peasantry was carried out, after which household taxation in the country was replaced by poll tax. In fact, the peasants maintained the army, and the townspeople maintained the fleet. During the reign of Peter I, a new category of peasants was formed, called state peasants. Under Peter I, a passport system was also introduced: now if a peasant went to work more than thirty miles from home, he had to receive a note in his passport about the date of return.
Elizaveta Petrovna
Elizaveta Petrovna simultaneously increased the dependence of the peasants and changed their situation: she eased the situation of the peasants, forgiving them arrears for 17 years, reduced the size of the per capita tax, changed the recruitment (divided the country into 5 districts, which alternately supplied soldiers). But she also signed a decree according to which serfs could not voluntarily enroll as soldiers and allowed them to engage in crafts and trade. This marked the beginning of the stratification of the peasants.
Catherine II
Catherine II set a course for further strengthening of absolutism and centralization: the nobles began to receive land and serfs as a reward.
Serfdom in the 19th century
Alexander I
Of course, serfdom hampered the development of industry in general development state, but despite this, Agriculture adapted to new conditions and developed according to its capabilities: new agricultural machines were introduced, new crops began to be grown (sugar beets, potatoes, etc.), new lands were developed in Ukraine, the Don, and the Volga region. But at the same time, the contradictions between landowners and peasants are intensifying - corvée and quitrent are being taken to the limit by the landowners. Corvée, in addition to working on the master's arable land, included work in a serf factory and performing various household chores for the landowner throughout the year. The process of stratification within the peasantry began to intensify. The secret committee under Alexander I recognized the need for changes in peasant policy, but considered the foundations of absolutism and serfdom unshakable, although in the future it envisaged the abolition of serfdom and the introduction of a constitution. In 1801, a decree was issued on the right to purchase land by merchants, burghers and peasants (state and appanage).
In 1803, a decree “On Free Plowmen” was issued, which provided for the liberation of serfs for the purchase of land by entire villages or individual families by mutual consent of peasants and landowners.
Alexander I tried to solve the peasant question again in 1818. He even approved the project of A. Arakcheev and Minister of Finance D. Guryev on the gradual elimination of serfdom by buying out landowner peasants from their plots with the treasury. But this project was not practically implemented (with the exception of granting personal freedom to the Baltic peasants in 1816−1819, but without land).
Alexander II - Tsar Liberator
Alexander II, who ascended the throne on February 19, 1855, set the following goals as the basis for the peasant reform:
1) liberation of peasants from personal dependence;
2) turning them into small owners while maintaining a significant part of landownership.
On February 19, 1861, Alexander II signed the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom; he changed the fate of 23 million serfs: they received personal freedom and civil rights.
But for the land plots allotted to them (until they redeem them), they had to serve labor service or pay money, i.e. began to be called “temporarily obligated”. For the plots, the peasants had to pay the landowner an amount of money that, if deposited in the bank at 6%, would bring him an annual income equal to the pre-reform quitrent. According to the law, the peasants had to pay the landowner a lump sum for their allotment about a fifth of the stipulated amount (they could pay it not in money, but by working for the landowner). The rest was paid by the state. But the peasants had to return this amount to him (with interest) in annual payments for 49 years.
Reasons for the abolition of serfdom:
Firstly, this is Russia's lag in all spheres of the economy.
Secondly, this is the discontent of the Russians (and these were not only peasants, but also representatives of other classes).
Thirdly, defeat in Crimean War, which showed that in such conditions Russia cannot give a worthy rebuff to the enemy.
The meaning of the abolition of serfdom:
The liberation of the peasants led to the gradual restoration of the economy, the completion of the industrial revolution, and the establishment of capitalism in the country.
Also, the manifesto of February 19 freed millions of peasants from serfdom. They received civil rights, but at the same time, there was another side to the coin.
The peasants did not have enough land, they were crushed by taxes and payments, many were still dependent on the landowner (but now economically). The agrarian question became even more acute. In the future, he will become the reason for the discontent of the peasants and their joining the revolutionaries.
Plan
Introduction
The beginning of restrictions on peasant movements. Law books 1497 - 1550
The decisive stage in the formation of the serfdom system
3. Finalization of the national system of serfdom. Cathedral Code of 1649
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
In the middle of the 16th century. Russia has entered a new period of its development. Vassal-suzerain relations characteristic of early feudalism and Russian centralized state, were replaced new form- estate-representative monarchy. Previously, the state unity of Rus' was based on the political agreement of the feudal lords. Therefore, the previous period is sometimes called political feudalism. In the XVI-XVII centuries. unity was based on all-class Zemsky Sobors. It turns out that the social base of the monarchy was wider, and feudalism of this period can be called social.
In the XVI-XVII centuries. all areas developed more intensively public life, which affected social structure society and the state-political structure of Russia.
The tendencies towards enslavement of peasants intensified in the social structure of society. The enslavement of the peasants had a huge impact on the development of our country - it caused a sharp, although so far little noticed by researchers, shift in the psychology of the broadest masses of the Russian population.
When and how the decisive point was reached in the process of enslaving the peasants remains to this day not entirely clear, despite the almost immense historiography of the issue. The lack of direct evidence in the sources condemns historians to numerous hypothetical reconstructions of this event.
The purpose of the study is to consider the main stages of the enslavement of peasants in Russia.
1. The beginning of restrictions on peasant movements. Sudebniks 1497 - 1550
Feudal-dependent population of Russia in the 16th-17th centuries. was heterogeneous. The state (black-growing) peasants found themselves in the most advantageous position. In the 17th century The palace peasants were significant in number. Privately owned peasants owned in the 16th-17th centuries. not only the boyars, but also the nobles. During this period, the term “manorial peasants” appeared. As in previous periods, the peasantry was united into communities. Throughout this period, servility remained in Russia, but the number and social base of this class was declining.
By decision Zemsky Sobor In 1549, the revision of the outdated Code of Laws of 1497 began. The Code of Laws, adopted in 1550, consisted of 100 articles instead of 68 in the previous one, i.e. approximately a third of the laws were new. The code of law of Ivan the Terrible (1550) reflected the changes that occurred in legislation since 1497.
Art. 76, 78, 82 Code of Laws regulated bonded relations and servitude. Serfs, as in previous legislation of the 15th century, became subjects of law. The Code of Law continued to narrow the social basis of servitude. For example, Art. 82-83 differentiated between obligatory relationships and servitude. Now the obligations did not extend to the personality of the debtor. Art. 76 fully reveals the sources of servitude and explains that serfs are not children born before their parents became such, as well as those who entered service in the city or service in the village without the appropriate registration of reports. In addition to this Art. 81 prohibits accepting servicemen and their children as slaves.
The attachment of peasants to the land began already in the 14th century. The agreements between the princes included an obligation not to lure black-tax peasants from each other. From the middle of the 15th century, a number of charters of the Grand Duke were published, which established a uniform period for the vacation and reception of peasants for all feudal lords. The same letters indicated the obligation to pay a certain sum of money for the leaving peasant. Size elderly (payment for a peasant’s residence on the master’s land) depended on whether the yard was located in a steppe or forest zone, and on the period of residence.
The development of serfdom took place in several stages, the scope of which can be limited to the following documents:
The Code of Law of 1497, which established in Article 57 St. George's Day rule;
Code of laws of 1550, during which the reserved summers;
The Council Code of 1649, which abolished summer lessons and establishing indefiniteness of investigation.
Attachment developed in two ways - non-economic and economic (enslaved). In the 15th century, there were two main categories of peasants - old-timers and newcomers. The first ran their own farm and carried out their duties in full, forming the basis of the feudal economy. The feudal lord sought to secure them for himself, to prevent the transfer to another owner. The latter, as newcomers, could not fully bear the burden of duties and enjoyed certain benefits, received loans and credits. Their dependence on the owner was debt-like and enslaving. According to the form of dependence, a peasant could be a half-cutter (work for half the harvest) or a silversmith (work for interest).
According to the legislative acts of the XIV-XV centuries, all categories of peasant landowners are black, palace, boyar, patrimonial. The locals in relation to the landowners were divided into three unequal categories:
tax peasants, state-owned, subject to certain state taxes and duties, who did not have the right to transfer. They constituted the predominant mass of the state population;
privately owned peasants who lived on the land of their masters and paid them a surplus;
free peasant colonists on foreign lands, public and private, exempt from taxes and duties for a certain grace period, after which they were included in the category of black or privately owned peasants.
Landowners and patrimonial owners were judges of their peasants in all cases with the exception of criminal cases.
The legal code of 1497 under Tsar Ivan III limited the right of peasants to leave for the first time on a national scale: their transfer from one owner to another was now allowed only once a year, during the week before and the week after St. George’s Day in the fall (November 25) after the end of field work. In addition, immigrants were obliged to pay the owner the elderly - money for the loss of workers, for yard - outbuildings. This was the beginning of the creation of a nationwide system of serfdom. What benefits did the feudal economy receive?
For the development of the feudal economy in the conditions of that time it was necessary high degree non-economic coercion, which is proved by the entire process of enslavement of the peasants. But it is also obvious that St. George’s Day was enough effective means: the limitation of the transition to a short period of time, the high payment for exit made the independent departure of the peasant extremely difficult and most often it was a matter of export, that is, of a change of feudal lord. The voluntary exit of the peasant, who did not pay the elderly and did not leave on St. George’s Day, was nothing more than an escape prosecuted by law. Consequently, the existing system of searching for peasants is unlikely to have changed significantly after the attachment. Moreover: the investigation, most likely, was indefinite, which ensured the rights of the landowner over his peasant to a much greater extent than the five-year “lesson summers” introduced, perhaps, even before the decree of 1597. So for the ordinary landowner, the St. George’s Day system could have certain advantages. In addition, the most far-sighted representatives of this layer could understand that with its abolition, they would also be deprived of the natural resource of labor, and farming methods would lose flexibility and efficiency.
Apparently, it should still be recognized that in the 16th century. The attitude of representatives of the local system towards the attachment of peasants was, at a minimum, far from unambiguous, because, being objectively beneficial (in theory) primarily to not very large representatives of the local system, in the practice of real relations it entailed a lot of negative consequences for them. In addition, there were separate layers and territorial groups landowners, for whom attachment was by no means unconditionally beneficial (for example, in the conditions of the manorial system in the south of Russia). Perhaps it is not at all by chance that the information that has reached us about the petition of the nobles at the council of 1580, which immediately preceded the introduction of “reserved years,” does not contain noble demands for the attachment of peasants.
At the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries. laws were adopted in which the provisions “On St. George’s Day” of the Code of Law of 1497 were developed. (Article 57), Code of Laws of 1550 (Article 88) and the “Stoglavy Council” of 1551 (Article 98).
Popular uprisings and boyar tyranny during the childhood of Ivan IV, as well as the general trend towards centralization of the country and the state apparatus, led to the publication of this new set of laws. Taking the code of law of Ivan III as a basis, the compilers of the new code of law made changes to it related to the strengthening central government. His characteristic feature became a desire to improve the administration of justice. True, the old system of administration and court in the person of governors and volostels was preserved, but with significant amendments, the essence of which was to strengthen control over them by the local population and the central authorities.
The population of the country was obliged to bear a tax-complex of natural and monetary duties. A single unit for collecting taxes was established for the entire state - a large plow. Depending on the fertility of the soil, as well as the social status of the owner of the land, the plow accounted for (400-600 hectares) of land. Thus, the non-local management system that developed during the period of liquidation of the appanages and came into strong conflict with the demands of the time was initially limited. And then - due to its fundamental unsuitability - it was abolished.
At the same time, there was a reduction in servitude. According to the legal code of 1550, slave parents were forbidden to slave their children born in freedom. Since 1589, the servility of a free woman married to a serf has been questioned. The legal codes of the 15th-16th centuries no longer mentioned punishment for running away from purchases, robbery, arson and horse theft as sources of servitude (as was the case in Russian Pravda). At the same time, the procedure for releasing slaves to freedom became more complicated - the issuance of certificates was carried out in a limited number of cities. A complicated form of document issuance was required (by the court with a boyar report).
. The decisive stage in the formation of the serfdom system
In 1581, the decree “On reserved summers” was introduced. The decree was adopted as a temporary measure in the conditions of the Levon War and canceled (“commanded”, prohibited) the transition of peasants to St. George’s Day until the next day, i.e. 1582. The actions of the “commandment” for the transition of peasants actually canceled the provisions of previous laws and were repeated from year to year .
In 1592, a population census was carried out. The census results were entered into the “Scribe Books,” which served as the basis for further lawmaking. In 1597, based on the Scribe Books, a decree “On a five-year search for fugitive peasants” was issued. Peasants who were not included in the “Scribe Books,” that is, who left the feudal lords before the census five years ago in relation to 1597, were not subject to search and return to the master. The exception was special investigation cases involving escaped peasants. Peasants registered in 1592, who equally left the votchina or estate after the specified period, were subject to search and return.
The decree of 1597 “On Serfs” can be interpreted in line with serfdom policy. The decree developed the corresponding provisions for slaves, legally formalized servitude and equated the position of slaves with serfs. Until the death of his master, the slave did not have the opportunity to regain his personal freedom (v. 3). The law allowed the conversion into bondage of those slaves who served their master for at least six months, even if the serving slaves had no debt obligations to the master (Article 9).
To streamline possible issues in cases of servitude, appropriate censuses were provided, the data of which had to be entered into the “Books” of the Serf Order (Articles 1-2). The limitation period was determined on the issue of ownership of a slave (Article 4). All issues that arose under the decree of 1597 were resolved in the Serf Court of the Serf Order in accordance with the new legislation and the previous provisions of the Code of Law of 1550 (Articles 1,2,4,7).
At the beginning of the 17th century. Feudal legislation was changed several times. During the famine of 1601, the government allowed the free transition of the dependent population to other feudal lords in the event that the owner was not able to feed his serf or slave. Later, the decree was canceled, and the new decree “On fixed summers” increased the period for searching and returning peasants to their owner to 15 years. However, in the conditions of the “time of troubles,” the decrees of the feudal-dependent population were ignored, and the government had neither the strength nor the ability to implement the adopted legislation.
So, the legislation of the late XVI - early XVII centuries was decisive in the process of enslaving the peasants.
The census and decisions of the council of 1584 were probably associated with fragments of the law on the establishment in 1586/1587 of norms for local salaries near Moscow, as well as the Code of 1586 on servitude, the main concern of which was the registration of transactions for enslaved people, which is obvious , could help take into account and record the tax burden of slaves. Perhaps the census was also associated with the spread of “reserved years” for drafts over a larger territory, explained by the same reasons as before. The likelihood of such a scenario is confirmed by recent observations by B.N. Flory over the practice of introducing “reserved years” in the first half of the 1580s, and in the scribal order he analyzed to the Galician scribes Yu.I. Neledinsky and L. Safonov dated June 30, 1585, the fiscal motives of the new description are quite clearly visible (“The Posadtsky people and volost peasants fled... without even paying the sovereign’s taxes from the envoys” - emissaries of the central government, extorting emergency taxes).
As can be seen from the research, conducting a census took at least one to two years, compiling and designing scribe books also took one or two years (for example, in 1623 Foka Durov “...measured the Totemsky district, and the books were “roughly and completely made 2 years in Moscow").
Thus, the census results could not be received earlier than three years later. There is nothing surprising in this - even the procedure for the capitation census and audits in the 18th century. (1st revision) lasted, despite a simpler tax unit and accounting and description procedure, for more than five years. The main work on the census was done in 1585-1587, but summary data on it could only be obtained after the completion of the last descriptions, and the last scribal books according to Koretsky's data date back to the 1590s. The census was also delayed due to the fact that during the work, disputes arose, denunciations against the census takers, investigations, and sometimes revision of the work of unqualified scribes. The summary results of the census could not have been obtained earlier than 1590/1591.
But for what purpose then were censuses carried out on a national scale at all, if they did not set such a task? According to many authors, the purpose of the census was to enslave the peasants.
Modern research trace the process of ongoing and even progressive desolation. “Data collection notebooks” from the late 1580s are replete with notes: “the peasants scattered,” “there was no one to take from,” “not taken from empty lands,” not taken from the poor and those who were not at home.” The share is also growing arrears from 2.4% in 1581-1582 to 13.3% in 1589-1590 (without taking into account hidden arrears). The logically following revision of tax salaries by the government of Boris Godunov is confirmed by N.M. order to the envoy Islenyev in July 1591 (“Whatever the lands of the entire state, he made all the plows in Tarkhaneh, at a discount”), and the conclusion of E.I. Kolycheva based on the materials of the monastery archives of that time (“in the early 90s.” the government was forced to reduce the rates of basic taxes"), as well as the partial whitening of the lordly plowing no later than 1593.
Data on the insolvency of a part of the population, forcing a reduction in taxes, could force the government to take extraordinary measures. The specific situation in the country in the early 1590s could have prompted this. The beginning of the settlement of Siberia, the government policy for the development of the southern regions, which unfolded here and there after 1584-1586. (the construction of chains of fortified towns required service people and at the same time created conditions for the rapid colonization of these areas, which was extremely difficult to control, and it obviously came to a large extent at the expense of fugitives. The most simple solution, adopted in order to stop the outflow of taxpayers from the old territories, which was undermining the country’s tax system, was a ban on exit, already tested in the practice of “reserve years”. It could apply not only to landowner peasants, but also to other categories of tax collectors, and a decree on it, most likely, could have been adopted no earlier than 1591 - 1592. The ban on exit for drafters automatically stopped the effect of St. George's Day. He also terminated the effect of “reserved years”, since he turned the temporary norm into a permanent attachment to the tax.
This was required by tax policy, which was based not on a progressive income tax, but on a static salary, even if set in accordance with the economic capabilities of the payers, but fixed for a certain moment, after which until the next census, which was delayed for quite a long time (usually 20-30 years), the situation of payers could change dramatically. Hard system for a long time unrevised territorial salaries, which were also levied by different institutions, which objectively prevented their mutual revision, required, if possible, the immutability of tax units, that is, restrictions on the movement of taxpayers, because, although taxes were levied on the land, it was obvious to everyone that the quantity " arable land "ultimately depends on how many people plow it. This need for a fairly strictly centralized tax system to limit the mobility of the population clearly manifested itself in the 18th century. when conducting capitation censuses. Associated with them was a new strengthening of serf relations, the initiator of which was not the landowners. The very logic of the functioning of the per capita tax system was in effect. Therefore, it is quite possible that in the 16th century. the peasants were attached not to the land, but to the state tax, and not in connection with the insistence and demands of the landowners (who could generally be satisfied by the system of non-economic coercion that had already developed in the practice of St. George’s Day), but in connection with the fiscal interests of the state. It was precisely the financial needs of the state that could force Boris Godunov to attach drafts, “without listening to the advice of the oldest boyars.”
Of course, the five-year fixed-term summers met primarily the needs of large patrimonial owners, but in many ways they also took into account the interests of the state. To some extent, they resolved the problems of colonization, protection and arrangement of new borders, and also fixed the “fledged” payer in the new territory, preventing him from being ruined again, which was inevitable when returning to his old place. The five-year period was probably nothing more than the time of complete economic development of the peasant in the new territory. It was no coincidence that the Code of Law of 1550 established the payment of the entire amount to the elderly only after four years of residence. Perhaps these were the motives that prevailed when establishing the five-year investigation. True, the political situation at the end of 1597 could have pushed for the consolidation of the emerging system in the interests of the boyars, to whom it objectively provided certain advantages. For the mass of service people, the attachment of peasants, adjusted by the seasonal summers, could have been far from being so profitable.
3. Finalization of the national system of serfdom. Cathedral Code of 1649
The largest legislative act of that time was the Council Code of 1649. The immediate reason for its adoption was the uprising of the Moscow townspeople that broke out in 1648. The townspeople turned to the tsar with petitions for improvement of their situation and protection from oppression. At the same time, the nobles presented their demands to the tsar, who believed that they were being infringed upon in many ways by the boyars. The Tsar suppressed the uprising of the townspeople, but was still forced to postpone the collection of arrears and to alleviate the position of the townspeople to some extent. In July 1648, he ordered the development of a new draft law called the Code to begin.
The main reason the adoption of the Council Code was to intensify the class struggle. The Tsar and the top of the ruling class, frightened by the uprising of the townspeople, sought to calm the masses of the people to create the appearance of easing the situation of the tax-paying townspeople. The decision to change the legislation was influenced by petitions from the nobility, which contained demands for the abolition of school years.
The Council Code of 1649 is a significant step forward compared to previous legislation. This law regulated not individual groups of social relations, but all aspects of socio-political life of that time. The Council Code of 1649 reflected the norms of various industries.
The most important section of the Council Code was the chapter peasants' court . An indefinite search for runaway and abducted peasants was introduced. The ban on the transfer of peasants to new owners on St. George's Day was confirmed. The feudal lords received the right to almost completely dispose of the property and personality of the peasant. This meant the legalization of the serfdom system. Simultaneously with the privately owned peasants, serfdom relations extended to the Black Hundred and palace peasants, who were forbidden to leave their communities. If they escaped, they were also subject to indefinite investigation. peasant law conciliar code
Feudal lords had the right to land and peasants, but were obliged to serve from estates and estates. For evasion of service there is a risk of confiscation of half of the estate, whipping, for treason - the death penalty and complete confiscation of property.
Peasants did not have the right to keep shops in cities, but could only trade from carts and in shopping arcades.
Thus, the entire peasant population was attached to their owners. The power of the monarch increased, which meant movement towards the establishment of an absolute monarchy in Russia. Cathedral Code It was adopted, first of all, in the interests of the nobility and the top of the town, and took into account the interests of the boyars and clergy.
So, the consolidation of the peasants with the adoption of the Council Code was completed. Many historians were interested in the reasons for the enslavement of the peasantry. Let's look at some of the theories.
Already in 1857-1860, several specific versions of the theory of enslavement took shape and the concept of “unordered” enslavement, put forward in the articles of M.P., appeared. Pogodin and M.M. Speransky. According to the latter, the attachment of peasants occurred without the active participation of the state, as a result of the gradually increasing economic dependence of peasants on their owners.
At the same time, in line with the democratic tradition (A.I. Herzen), the idea of enslavement arose as a long process in which the very fact of attaching peasants to the land did not have any exceptional significance. It was almost entirely accepted by V.I. Lenin (for whom “serfdom” therefore became almost synonymous with feudal dependence in general), and through him - Soviet historiography. The advantage of this stage of the discussion of the problem was the increased attention to the motives for the enslavement of the peasants.
If Speransky explained the gradual formation of serfdom economic relations peasant and landowner, then B.N. Chicherin saw in the decree of 1592 a desire to “attach” the peasantry, among other classes, to a certain type of service and to stop the “vagrant condition” of the peasants. According to I.D. Belyaev, this decree meant the attachment of peasants to the land and was caused primarily by the fiscal needs of the state, as well as the desire to stop the flight of peasants to the outskirts after the Livonian “ruin,” but paradoxically did not lead to the loss of personal freedom by the peasants. CM. Solovyov, who considered the decree prohibiting the peasants to leave as a means to provide the local system with labor, actually became the founder of the concept that explains enslavement by the “struggle for working hands” between landowners and patrimonial owners - a concept that was later widely used by Soviet historical science.
But from the 1880s until late XIX V. in science, the “impeccable” theory triumphed, completed in its final form by V.O. Klyuchevsky. She shifted the center of gravity to the economic relationships between peasants and landowners and interpreted the establishment of serfdom as an attachment to the personality of the owner. This theory was the brainchild of its time: it reflected the positive tendency for that era towards “economism” in research historical processes, associated with the spread of Comtean positivism and Marxism, as well as the influence of the specific practice of relations between landowners and peasants during the period of the “temporarily obliged” state.
The spirit of the era was also felt in the general foregrounding of interpersonal, proprietary relations, so characteristic of the emerging bourgeois society. A significant argument in favor of such a concept at the time of the formation of the positivist methodology of scientific research was also the absence of direct traces of the decree of 1592/1593 in the official material accumulated by that time.
However, the position of the “unauthorized” theory of peasant enslavement was significantly undermined at the beginning of the 20th century. after the discovery of references to “reserved years”, interpreted as a ban on peasants going out into last years reign of Ivan the Terrible. In this regard, a new modification of the “decree” theory was born, linking enslavement with “reserved years.” It also passed into the classic concepts of B.D. for Soviet historiography. Grekov, until there was a return to Tatishchev’s version of the “decree theory” in the works of V.I. Koretsky, whose conclusions received wide recognition in the 1970-1980s.
But in the struggle between supporters of the “decreed” and “undeclared” concepts, already in pre-revolutionary historiography, the subject of discussion narrowed: the central problem became the time and method of enslavement, but not its motives, which receded into the background and under the influence of the historiographic tradition of the “decreed” theory of tacitly reduced in the plane of relationships between feudal lords and landowner peasants. This tendency was strengthened by the methodological schemes that dominated Soviet historical science with its dominance of economic processes and class and intra-class struggle as the main driving force development of society. In this regard, there was a narrowing of the field historical research, which was actually transformed during the Stalinist period (1930s - early 1950s) from multidimensional to one-dimensional - into an arena of struggle between feudal lords and peasants. The simplification of the picture of the forces that actually operated in society and influenced its development was not completely overcome in the post-Stalin era, despite the successes of the Soviet historical school in the mid-1950s-1980s.
Hence, various options for explaining the reasons for the enslavement of peasants by the interests of the local system, dating back to Solovyov, became predominant in Soviet historiography (except for the original concept of L.V. Milov, who saw enslavement as one of the stages of the struggle of feudal lords with the community resisting them). They, perhaps, remain dominant in the “post-perestroika” period with its characteristic general methodological instability and vagueness (the exception, perhaps, is the concept of B.N. Mironov, which broadly interprets serfdom as a condition that has spread from the beginning of the 18th century to all layers of society without exception, and characterized by the serfdom of a person not only from the landowner or the state, but also from class corporate-community structures).
Conclusion
IN test work The topic “The main stages of the enslavement of the peasantry in Russia” was considered. Cathedral Code of 1649.” During the research, the main points of the enslavement of the peasantry were highlighted. Causes and Effects given processes For Russia. In conclusion, let us summarize the results of the work.
So, the Russian peasantry could lose freedom among other categories of tax-payers not at the request and urgent requests of the landowners, but under the pressure of the mechanical, faceless force of financial state interests. Their spokesmen did not even ask themselves about the consequences of this decision and its significance for the future of Russia. But the feudal landowners, faced with the fact of attaching the peasants to taxes, soon adapted the existing system to their needs, suppressing the last remnants of personal freedom among the landowners and giving rise to the crudest forms of tyranny and exploitation, which matured by the 18th century. almost to a slave state, which distorted the souls and psychology of Russian people in all layers of society for centuries to come.
Bibliography
1.Kobrin V.B. Power and property in medieval Russia. - M., 1985
2.Petrukhintsev N.N. The reasons for the enslavement of peasants in Russia at the end of the 16th century. // Questions of history. 2004. No. 7. P. 23-40.
Russian legislation of the X - XX centuries in 9 volumes / Ed. O.I.Chistyakova. T.2-3. - M., 1984-1985.
Sakharov A.N., Buganov V.I. History from ancient times to late XVII century: Textbook. for 10th grade general education institutions / Ed. A.N. Sakharov. 3rd ed. M., 1997
Solovyov S. M. History of Russia. M., 1989. Book 4. P. 187.
Reader on the history of Russia; In 4 vols.-T.1. From ancient times to the 17th century / Compiled by: I.V. Babich, V.N. Zakharov, I.E. Ukolova. -M.: MIROS - International relations, 1994
Cherepnin L.V. On the question of the formation of an estate-representative monarchy in Russia in the 16th century. // Cultural connections of peoples of Eastern Europe in the 16th century - M., 1976.
Yurganov A.L. At the origins of despotism // History of the Fatherland: people, ideas, solutions. M., 1991
Tutoring
Need help studying a topic?
Our specialists will advise or provide tutoring services on topics that interest you.
Submit your application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.
First stage dates back to the end of the 15th - 16th centuries, when the offensive of feudal landowners and the state against the peasants began. The growth of local and patrimonial land ownership was accompanied by the subordination of peasants to the power of land owners. The peasants turned into serfs, i.e. tied to the earth and their master. Thus, the development of serfdom in Russia was associated with the formation of the local system and the increasing role of the state. The economic basis of serfdom was feudal ownership of land in all its forms - local, patrimonial, state.
Until the end of the 15th century, peasants could leave their masters and move to another landowner. Code of Law of Ivan III (1497) introduced "St. George's Day Rule", according to which peasants could leave their owners only once a year - a week before St. George’s Day (November 26) and during the week after it, with mandatory payment "elderly"- payment for living on the owner's land. This was the first nationwide restriction of peasant freedom, but not yet enslavement.
In the Code of Laws of Ivan IV (1550) the norms of the peasant transition on St. George's Day were confirmed and clarified, the elderly increased, the master's power over the peasants strengthened: the owner was held responsible for the crimes of the peasants. Now the feudal lord was called the “sovereign” of the peasant, i.e. The legal status of the peasant was approaching the status of a serf, which was a step on the path to serfdom.
Second phase The enslavement of peasants in the country occurred from the end of the 16th century. until 1649, when the Council Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was published.
At the end of the 16th century. There was a radical change in the situation of the peasants, deprived of the right of exit from their owners. In the conditions of the ruin of the country and the flight of peasants, Ivan the Terrible 1581 introduced serfdom legislation - “reserved years”, when St. George’s Day was canceled and the transition of peasants was prohibited, which meant an important step towards the formalization of serfdom in Russia. IN 1592 – 1593 A decree was issued that forever abolished the right of peasants to cross on St. George's Day. Under Boris Godunov, a decree was issued in 1597, which ordered that all fugitive and forcibly removed peasants be searched for and returned to their previous owners within a five-year period. The serfdom legislation of the late 16th century is the most important stage in the history of serfdom in Russia. Now farmers were attached to the land, and not to the owner.
During the Time of Troubles, in conditions of crisis of all power structures, it was increasingly difficult to keep the peasants from leaving. Vasily Shuisky, hoping for the support of the nobility, issued serfdom legislation that provided for an increase in the term lesson years. In 1606, a 10-year period was established, and in 1607, a 15-year period for searching for fugitive peasants.
The system of serfdom was legally formalized Cathedral Code of 1649 It assigned privately owned peasants to landowners, boyars, monasteries and other owners, and also established the dependence of privately owned peasants on the state. The Council Code abolished the “lesson years”, approved the right to an indefinite search and return of fugitives, secured the heredity of serfdom and the right of the landowner to dispose of the property of the serf.
Third stage enslavement of peasants dates back to the middle of the 17th - 18th centuries, when there was a strengthening and further development serfdom. During this period, serious differences were observed in the right to dispose of peasants: the landowner could sell, exchange, or inherit them. During the reign of Peter I, the size of peasant duties increased and serf exploitation intensified. This was facilitated by the Decree on Single Inheritance of 1714, which turned noble estates into estates, the land and peasants became the full property of the landowner. In the 18th century Serfdom acquired its most severe forms. Corvee and quitrent grew, and with them the rights of landowners in relation to the property and personality of the peasant. The legislation consolidated a regime of unlimited landowner arbitrariness in relation to serfs.
Gradually in late XVIII– XIX century The process of decomposition of feudal relations intensifies, the feudal-serf system enters a period of crisis, and capitalist relations emerge.
Thus, serfdom - important difference Russian social development from Western European. The Russian state tied the peasants into feudal dependence, sacrificing natural development society.