The prerequisites for the abolition of serfdom were formed at the end of the 18th century. All sectors of society considered the serfdom an immoral phenomenon that dishonored Russia. In order to stand on a par with the European countries free from slavery, the question of the abolition of serfdom was ripe for the Russian government.
The main reasons for the abolition of serfdom:
- Serfdom became a brake on the development of industry and trade, which hindered the growth of capital and placed Russia in the category of secondary states;
- The decline of the landlord economy due to the extremely inefficient labor of serfs, which was expressed in the deliberately poor performance of the corvee;
- The growth of peasant revolts indicated that the serfdom was a "powder keg" under the state;
- The defeat in the Crimean War (1853-1856) demonstrated the backwardness of the political system in the country.
Alexander I tried to take the first steps in resolving the issue of the abolition of serfdom, but his committee did not think of how to put this reform into practice. Emperor Alexander limited himself to the law of 1803 on free cultivators.
Nicholas I in 1842 adopted the law "On indebted peasants", according to which the landowner had the right to free the peasants, giving them a plot of land, and the peasants were obliged to bear the duty in favor of the landowner for the use of the land. However, this law did not take root, the landowners did not want to let the peasants go.
In 1857, official preparations began for the abolition of serfdom. Emperor Alexander II ordered the establishment of provincial committees, which were to develop projects to improve the life of serfs. On the basis of these drafts, drafting commissions drew up a bill, which was submitted to the Main Committee for consideration and establishment.
On February 19, 1861, Emperor Alexander II signed a manifesto on the abolition of serfdom and approved the "Regulations on peasants who have emerged from serfdom." Alexander remained in history with the name "Liberator".
Although emancipation from slavery gave the peasants some personal and civil freedoms, such as the right to marry, go to court, trade, enter the civil service, etc., but they were limited in freedom of movement, as well as in economic rights. In addition, the peasants remained the only class that carried recruiting duties and could be subjected to corporal punishment.
The land remained in the ownership of the landlords, and the peasants were allocated a settled place of residence and a field allotment, for which they had to serve their duties (in money or work), which almost did not differ from serfs. According to the law, the peasants had the right to redeem the allotment and the estate, then they received complete independence and became peasant owners. Until then, they were called "temporarily liable." The ransom amounted to the annual amount of dues, multiplied by 17!
To help the peasantry, the government arranged a special "buying operation." After the establishment of the land allotment, the state paid the landowner 80% of the value of the allotment, and 20% was attributed to the peasant as a government debt, which he had to repay in installments over 49 years.
Peasants united in rural communities, and those, in turn, united in volosts. The use of field land was communal, and for the implementation of "redemption payments" the peasants were bound by mutual responsibility.
Yard people who did not plow the land were temporarily liable for two years, and then they could register in a rural or urban society.
The agreement between the landowners and peasants was set forth in the "charter". And for the analysis of emerging disagreements, the post of conciliators was established. The overall leadership of the reform was entrusted to the "provincial presence for peasant affairs."
The peasant reform created conditions for the transformation of labor power into a commodity, market relations began to develop, which is typical for a capitalist country. The consequence of the abolition of serfdom was the gradual formation of new social strata of the population - the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.
Changes in the social, economic and political life of Russia after the abolition of serfdom forced the government to undertake other important reforms, which contributed to the transformation of our country into a bourgeois monarchy.
1861 - that's the year serfdom was abolished in Russia. This date was the result of long meetings of government officials with landowners, nobles who were directly related to the ownership of people and received their income from the use of their slave state. The prerequisites for the abolition of serfdom were several factors that created a situation of political and economic impasse in the development of Russia.
Causes and consequences of the abolition of serfdom
The main reason can be considered the defeat of the Russian Empire in the Crimean War. Its outcome completely exposed Russia's backwardness from European states in the development of industrial production, political and military leadership of the country. The long overdue need for reforms in relation to the peasantry in particular, and changes in activities in general, served as the main driving force in the development of agricultural reforms. Special Soviets and commissions under the government were created, which began to develop a document that gave freedom to serfs, explained the rights of their former owners and the order of the new life of the peasantry, and brought closer the year of the abolition of serfdom.
Not only for the sake of the freedom of the ordinary peasant, all government minds and enlightened people of the empire fought. Free working hands were needed for the rise of industry, the construction of new cities, military service, finally. Serfdom made it impossible to use the labor of the peasants. Serving your master, cultivating his fields and lands - this is the lot of a serf and all his descendants for many years. In what year was canceled in the same year the peasant first faced the problem of choice - what to do with this freedom, which he had dreamed of for so long? Stay in a familiar and acquired place, or go along with a poor acquired belongings in search of a better life?
The date of the abolition of serfdom - new conditions for the life of the peasantry
The year was the result of painstaking and comprehensive work. Emperor Alexander II of the year signed the Manifesto for the abolition of serfdom. What has changed for the ordinary peasant and his family after this date? In what year serfdom was abolished, in the same year the development of a plan for the development of the country in the conditions of an economy of free labor was launched. The peasant could remain in the position of a tenant of state, landlord or noble land, paying with work or money for its use. He could buy the land, however, almost none of the peasants could afford it - the price was unaffordable.
Selling your skills and abilities has become completely new for the peasant, who has always belonged to his master. To receive remuneration for this, to trade, to enter into the very beginnings of a market economy - the life of the peasant was changing, and his life began to change. One of the main results of the abolition of serfdom can be considered the appearance among the peasantry of the rights and obligations of each participant in the new system - the seller and the buyer. Previously, the peasant could not have his own opinion, now they listened to him, he could to some extent fight for his small, but still rights. 1861 - the date that answers the question in what year serfdom was abolished - it became the year of strengthening and glorifying the autocracy. Alexander II received from the people eternal gratitude and memory as a "savior and liberator." The abolition of serfdom served as an impetus for the development of the industrial and defense complex of the empire, the implementation of military reform, the development of new lands and migration, the strengthening of the connection between the city and the countryside and participation in each other's affairs and problems.
The peasant reform of 1861, which put an end to the serfdom of the overwhelming majority of the peasantry of Russia, is equally often called "great" and "predatory". Seeming contradiction: she is both.
Cancel from above
Serfdom is the most striking manifestation of Russia's backwardness in socio-economic terms from the leading world states. In Europe, the main manifestations of personal dependence were eliminated in the XIV-XV centuries. In fact, the slavish lack of rights of the most massive category of the population of the vast empire affected all spheres of its life.
- Labor productivity in agriculture was extremely low (this is in an agrarian country!). The landowners rarely dared to introduce technical innovations on the estates (what if the peasants-bastards spoil it?), And the peasants had neither the time nor the means for this.
- Industrial development was slowed down. The industrialists needed free working hands, but they were not, by definition. A similar situation in the world at that time was developing only in the United States due to slavery in the South.
- Numerous hotbeds of social tension were created. The landlords, inspired by permissiveness, sometimes treated the peasants disgustingly, and those, unable to defend themselves legally, went on the run and riots.
Although the entire ruling elite of Russia consisted of the nobility, in the middle of the 19th century, even there they understood that something had to be done. History is a little confused when determining the author of the statement "We need to abolish serfdom from above, otherwise the people will abolish it from below." But the quote reflects the essence of the issue accurately.
Rescripts and Commissions
Immediately after the accession of Alexander 2, various ministerial commissions appeared, offering ways to solve the peasant issue. But the starting point of the reform should be considered the “rescript to Nazimov” of November 28, 1857. This document envisaged the creation in three "pilot" provinces (Grodno, Vilna, Kovno) noble committees to develop projects for the abolition of serfdom in Russia. A year later, such committees arose in all the provinces of the European part of the country, where there were serfs (there were none in the Arkhelogorodsk region), and the Main Committee in the capital collected and processed proposals.
The main problem was the question of peasant allotment. Ideas about this can be reduced to 3 main options.
- Release without land at all - let the peasant redeem or work out both the field and the estate with the house.
- To release with the estate, but to redeem the field allotment.
- Release with a minimum allotment of the field, the rest - for ransom.
The result was something in between. But the reform touched not only the question of personal dependence, but also the class status of the peasant as a whole.
Great Manifesto
The main provisions of the peasant reform were collected in the tsar's Manifesto of February 19 (March 3, according to the new style), 1861. Then a lot of supplementary and clarifying legislative acts were issued - the process continued until the mid-1880s. The main gist was as follows.
- Peasants are freed from personal dependence.
- Former serfs become legal subjects, but on the basis of a special class right.
- A house, estate, movable property is recognized as the property of a peasant.
- The land is the property of the landowner, but he is obliged to allocate a shower plot to each peasant (the size varied depending on the province and the type of land in it). For this land, the peasant will work off corvée or pay dues until he redeems it.
- The land is given not to a specific peasant, but to the "world", that is, the community of former serfs of one gentleman.
- The redemption for the land should be such an amount that, when placed in a bank at 6% per annum, it would give an income similar to the quitrent received earlier from a peasant plot.
- Until the settlement with the landowner, the peasant had no right to leave the site.
There were almost no peasants capable of paying the full amount of the ransom. Therefore, in 1863, the Peasants' Bank appeared, which paid the landowners 80% of the funds due to them. The peasant paid the remaining 20%, but then he fell into credit dependence on the state for 49 years. Only the reform of P.A. Stolypin in 1906-1907 put an end to this state.
Wrong freedom
So the peasants immediately interpreted the royal mercy. The reasons were obvious.
- In fact, peasant allotments decreased - the norms were less than the actual land use of peasants at the time of the reform. The changes were especially sensitive in the black earth provinces - the landowners did not want to give away profitable arable land.
- For many years the peasant remained semi-independent, paying or working off the landlord for the land. In addition, he was still in credit bondage with the state.
- Until 1907, the peasants overpaid for their allotments almost 3 times against their market price.
- The community system did not turn the peasant into a real owner.
There were also cases of concessions. So, in 1863, the peasants of the Right-Bank Ukraine, parts of Lithuania and Belarus received increased allotments and were actually exempted from redemption payments. But it was not love for the people - this is how the impoverished peasants were motivated to hate the Polish rebels. It helped - for the land, the peasants were ready to kill their mother, not like pan-lyakh.
As a result, after the abolition of serfdom, only entrepreneurs won. They did get hired workers (yard people were freed without land, that is, without means of subsistence), and very cheap ones, and an industrial revolution began rapidly in Russia.
The predatory side of the peasant reform of 1861 nullified all greatness. Russia remained a backward state with the largest estate, significantly limited in rights. And as a result, the "tops" did not get what they wanted - the peasant riots did not stop, and in 1905 the peasants resolutely went to get "real freedom" from below. With the help of a pitchfork.
Instruction
According to the famous historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, serfdom is the "worst kind" of captivity of people, "pure arbitrariness." Russian legislative acts and government police measures “attached” the peasants not to the land, as was customary in the West, but to the owner, who became the sovereign master over dependent people.
Land has been the main breadwinner for the peasantry in Russia for many centuries. Own "ownership" was not easy for a person. In the 15th century most of the Russian territories were unsuitable for agriculture: forests covered vast expanses. Zaims were based on the arable land mined at the cost of enormous labor. All land holdings were owned by the Grand Duke, and peasant households used independently developed arable plots.
The landowning boyars and monasteries invited new peasants to join them. To settle in a new place, landowners provided them with benefits in the performance of duties, helped them to acquire their own farm. During this period, people were not attached to the land, they had the right to seek more suitable living conditions and change their place of residence, choosing a new landowner. A private contract or "row" record served to establish a relationship between the owner of the land and the new settler. The main duty of the tillers was considered to be the performance of certain duties in favor of the owners, the most important of them being dues and corvée. It was necessary for the landlords to keep the labor force on their territory. Between the princes, even agreements were established on the "non-poaching" of peasants from each other.
Then the era of serfdom began in Russia, which lasted quite a long time. It began with a gradual loss of the possibility of free resettlement to other territories. Burdened with exorbitant payments, the farmers could not pay off their debts, they ran away from their landowner. But according to the law of “years” adopted in the state, the landowner had the full right to search for fugitives for five (and later fifteen) years and return them back.
With the adoption of the Sudebnik in 1497, serfdom began to take shape. In one of the articles of this collection of Russian laws, it was indicated that the transfer of peasants to another owner is allowed once a year (before and after St. George's Day) after paying the elderly. The amount of the ransom was considerable and depended on the duration of the landowner's residence on the land.
In the Sudebnik of Ivan the Terrible, Yuryev survived the day, but the payment for the elderly increased significantly, and an additional fee was added to it. Dependence on the landowners was strengthened by a new article in the law on the responsibility of the owner for the crimes of his peasants. With the beginning of the census (1581) in Russia, “reserved years” began in certain territories, at which time there was a ban on people leaving even on St. George's Day. At the end of the census (1592), a special Decree finally abolished the resettlement. “Here you are, grandmother, and St. George's Day,” people began to say. There was only one way out for the farmers - to escape with the hope that they would not be found.
The 17th century is the era of the strengthening of autocratic power and the mass popular movement in Russia. The peasantry was divided into two groups. Serfs lived on the landlords', monastic lands, who had to bear a variety of duties. The black-haired peasants were controlled by the authorities, these "hard people" were obliged to pay taxes. Further enslavement of the Russian people manifested itself in various forms. Under Tsar Mikhail Romanov, landowners were allowed to cede and sell serfs without land. Under Alexei Mikhailovich, the Council Code of 1649 finally attached the peasants to the land. The search and return of the fugitives became indefinite.
Serf bondage was inherited, and the landowner received the right to dispose of the property of dependent people. The debts of the owner were covered by the property of forced peasants and serfs. Police supervision and court within the patrimony were administered by their owners. The serfs were completely powerless. They could not, without the permission of the owner, enter into marriages, transfer inheritance, independently appear in court. In addition to duties to their master, serfs had to perform duties for the benefit of the state.
Legislation imposed certain obligations on the landlords. They were punished for harboring fugitives, killing other people's serfs, and paying taxes to the state for runaway peasants. The owners had to give their serfs land and the necessary equipment. It was forbidden to take land and property from dependent people, turning them into slaves, and letting them go free. Serfdom was gaining strength, it extended to black-haired and palace peasants, who now lost the opportunity to leave the community.
By the beginning of the 19th century, in connection with the quitrent and corvee brought to the limit, contradictions between landlords and peasants escalated. Working for their master, the serfs did not have the opportunity to engage in their own household. For the policy of Alexander I, serfdom was the unshakable basis of the state system. But the first attempts to free from serfdom were approved by law. The Decree of 1803 "On free cultivators" allowed the redemption of individual families and entire villages with land in agreement with the landowner. The new law made few changes to the situation of bonded people: many were unable to buy out and negotiate with the landowner. And the decree did not apply at all to a significant number of landless laborers.
Alexander II became the tsar-liberator from serfdom. The February Manifesto of 1961 declared personal freedom and the rights of a citizen to the peasants. The prevailing circumstances of life led Russia to this progressive reform. Former serfs became “temporarily liable” for many years, paying money and serving labor service for the use of land allotments allotted to them, and until the beginning of the 20th century were not considered full members of society.
Serfdom is a phenomenon that many historians and writers of that time mention with very negative emotions. It is understood, because serfdom fettered not only the freedom of people, but also their opportunities for development. This article will tell you when serfdom was adopted and abolished.
To understand when and why serfdom was abolished, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with its essence and the history of its origin.
What is serfdom
Serfdom is a toughened form of feudal power. It originated in European countries long before its adoption in Russia and had a very negative impact on the comprehensive development of the country. At a time when Russian peasants, closely tied to the lands of their feudal lords, worked almost around the clock and paid huge taxes, European peasants were already adapted to the rapidly developing capitalist system.
The essence of serfdom is as follows. At that time, society was divided into two main layers - peasants and feudal lords. The peasants had no private property. Feudal lords are the main owners of the capital of the country, who were the owners of land, houses and other private property. Since the peasants needed to survive, they had to work on the land of the feudal lords. For this, they took part of their harvest and the work done. This is ordinary feudalism.
Serfdom in Russia is a toughened feudalism, which not only rips off more than half of the crop and profit from the peasants, but also ties the peasant to the land of the feudal lord. Thus, the peasant is fettered and cannot move freely from one feudal lord to another, cannot accumulate funds and also become a feudal lord.
When was serfdom abolished in Russia
The realization that serfdom destroys society came to Russia much later than to Europe. If the main part of European countries abolished serfdom in the 18th century, then in Russia it was finally abolished as early as February 19, 1861. At that time, the imminent approach of a peasant uprising was felt. In addition, from an economic point of view, serfdom was already beginning to suffer. It was these factors that led to the abolition of serfdom.
Although the above two factors are considered the main ones, some historians argue that there were other phenomena that played a role in the abolition of serfdom in Russia.
