Siberian arable peasants, odnodvortsy (service people on the black earth border with the Wild Steppe), non-Russian peoples of the Volga and Ural regions.
The number of state peasants increased due to the confiscation of church properties (huge properties of the Russian Orthodox Church were confiscated by Catherine), annexed and conquered territories (the Baltic states, Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Crimea, Transcaucasia), former serfs confiscated estates of the gentry of the Commonwealth, etc. In addition, the number of state peasants was replenished by runaway serfs (privately owned) peasants who settled on the developed lands (Bashkiria, Novorossia, the North Caucasus, etc.). This process (the transition of runaway serfs to the ranks of the state) was tacitly encouraged by the imperial government.
Also, foreign colonists (Germans, Greeks, Bulgarians, etc.) who settled in Russia contributed to an increase in the number of state peasants.
The position of the state peasants
State peasants lived on state lands and paid taxes to the treasury. According to the 1st revision (), there were 1.049 million males in European Russia and Siberia (that is, 19% of the total agricultural population of the country), according to the 10th revision () - 9.345 million (45.2% of the agricultural population ) . Presumably, the crown peasants in Sweden served as a model for the legal definition of the position of state peasants in the state. By law, state peasants were treated as "free rural inhabitants." State peasants, in contrast to the owners, were considered as persons with legal rights - they could speak in court, conclude transactions, own property. State peasants were allowed to conduct retail and wholesale trade, open factories and plants. The land on which such peasants worked was considered state property, but the right to use was recognized for the peasants - in practice, the peasants made transactions as owners of the land. However, in addition to that, since 1801, the state. peasants could buy and own on the basis of private ownership "uninhabited" lands (that is, without serfs). State peasants had the right to use an allotment of 8 acres per capita in small-land provinces and 15 acres in large-land provinces. The actual allotments were much smaller: by the end of the 1830s - up to 5 acres in 30 provinces and 1-3 acres in 13 provinces; in the early 1840s, 325,000 souls had no clothing.
The bulk of the state peasants contributed cash quitrent to the treasury; on the territory of the Baltic states and the Kingdom of Poland, state-owned estates were leased to private owners and state peasants served mainly corvee; Siberian plowed peasants first cultivated state arable land, then paid food quitrent (later cash). In the 1st half of the 19th century, the dues ranged from 7 rubles. 50 kop. up to 10 rubles per year. As the duties of appanage and landlord peasants increased, the monetary rent of the state peasants became relatively less than the duties of other categories of peasants. State peasants were also obliged to contribute money for zemstvo needs; they paid a poll tax and served natural duties (road, underwater, lodging, etc.). For the proper performance of duties, the state peasants were responsible for mutual responsibility.
Kiselyov's reform
As a result of the growing shortage of land and the increase in duties at the beginning of the 19th century, a progressive impoverishment of the state peasants was revealed. Unrest of state peasants began to occur more often against the reduction of allotments, the severity of dues, etc. (for example, " Cholera riots", " Potato riots" of 1834 and 1840-41). The question of changing the management of the state peasants gave rise to numerous projects.
In the 1830s, the government began to reform the management of the state village. In 1837-41, a reform developed by P. D. Kiselyov was carried out: the Ministry of State Property and its local bodies were established, which were entrusted with the "trusteeship" of the state peasants through the rural community. The corvee duties of the state peasants in Lithuania, Belarus and Right-Bank Ukraine were liquidated, the leasing of state estates was stopped, the per capita rent was replaced by a more uniform land and trade tax.
A staunch opponent of serfdom, Kiselyov believed that freedom should be introduced gradually, "so that slavery is destroyed by itself and without upheavals of the state."
State peasants received self-government and the opportunity to resolve their affairs within the framework of the rural community. However, the peasants remained attached to the land. A radical reform of the state village became possible only after the abolition of serfdom. Despite the gradual transformation, they ran into resistance, because the landlords feared that the excessive emancipation of the state peasants would set a dangerous example for the landowning peasants.
Kiselyov intended to regulate the allotments and obligations of the landlord peasants and partially subordinate them to the Ministry of State Property, but this aroused the indignation of the landlords and was not implemented.
Nevertheless, when preparing the peasant reform of 1861, the drafters of the legislation used the experience of Kiselyov's reform, especially in matters of organizing peasant self-government and determining the legal status of peasants.
Liberation of the state peasants
see also
Sources and links
- N. M. Druzhinin State peasants and the reform of P. D. Kiseleva, M.-L., 1958.
- L. G. Zakharova, N. M. Druzhinin, article "State peasants" in the encyclopedia "National History"
- A. B. Muchnik, Social and economic aspects of the potato riots of 1834 and 1841-43 in Russia, in the collection: Popular uprisings in Russia. From the Time of Troubles to the "Green Revolution" against the Soviet Power, ed. H.-D. Löwe, Wiesbaden, 2006, pp. 427-452 (at German). (A. Moutchnik: Soziale und wirtschaftliche Grundzüge der Kartoffelaufstände von 1834 und von 1841-1843 in Russland, in: Volksaufstände in Russland. Von der Zeit der Wirren bis zur "Grünen Revolution" gegen die Sowjetherrschaft, hrsg. von Heinz-Dietrich Lowe ( = Forschungen zur osteuropäischen Geschichte, Bd. 65), Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2006, S. 427-452)
Notes
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See what "State peasants" are in other dictionaries:
In Russia, 18 1st half. 19th centuries an estate formed from former black-haired peasants, ladles, odnodvortsev, etc. They lived on state lands, carried duties in favor of the state, and were considered personally free. From 1841 they were controlled by the Ministry ... ... Big encyclopedic Dictionary
In Russia in the XVIII - first half of the XIX centuries. an estate formed from former black-haired peasants, ladles, odnodvortsev, etc. They lived on state lands, carried duties in favor of the state, and were considered personally free. In 1886 they received the right ... ... Law Dictionary
STATE PEASANTS, IN THE 18th - 1st half of the 19th centuries. an estate formed from former black-haired peasants, ladles, odnodvortsev and others. G. k. lived on state lands, carried duties in favor of the state, and were considered personally free. Since 1841 ... ... Russian history
A special estate of serf Russia, issued by decrees of Peter 1 from the remaining non-serfdom rural population (black-eared peasants (See. Black-eared peasants) and ladles (See. Ladles) of Northern Pomorye, Siberian plowed ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Russia in the 18th and early 19th centuries an estate formed from former black-haired peasants, ladles, single-dvorets, etc. They lived on state-owned lands, carried duties in favor of the state, and were considered personally free. Since 1841 they have been ruled by ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
A special estate of serf Russia, issued by decrees of Peter I from the remnants of an unenslaved farmer. the population of black-eared peasants and ladles of the North. Pomorye, Siberian plowed peasants, single-dvortsev, non-Russians. peoples of the Volga and Ural regions). ... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia
See Peasants... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
STATE PEASANTS- a special category of peasants in Russia in the 18th–19th centuries, formed as a result of the tax reform of 1724, with a total number of 1 million male souls who previously paid tax in favor of the state along with other categories of tax ... ... Russian statehood in terms. IX - beginning of XX century
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The most numerous and most disenfranchised class in Rus' was the peasantry. The peasants who lived on state lands were called "black" and "black-eared". They lived in communities (peace, volost) and carried duties in favor of the state. All the affairs of the community were decided by the gathering, headed by an elected headman. In the 15th century they were divided into old-timers who permanently lived in the estate or estate of the feudal lord and paid rent to him and into newcomers (newcomers) who were exempted from duties for a while until they acquired a household and began to pay taxes (taxes).
In order not to pay taxes longer, the peasants often ran, passed from one landowner to another. To stop this freemen, the Sudebnik of 1497 devoted 12 articles to the issues of servility. So, article No. 57 announced November 26 "St. George's Day", when a serf could leave the old master for a new one a week before St. George's Day and a week after. This was done solely in order to keep the peasants in place, so that they constantly paid taxes, taxes (taxes). In 1581, a decree was issued on the "Reserved Years", which forbade peasant transitions on St. George's Day as well. A bitter saying immediately formed among the people: “Here you are, grandmother, and St. George’s day!”.
The census of lands in 1592 enslaved the peasants even more. All the peasants were copied into the “Scribe Books” and attached to the landowners' land. Since then, they began to sell them together with the land (as an attachment to the land).
For the same purpose, in 1597, a law “on lesson years” was adopted, according to which the statute of limitations for the investigation of fugitive peasants was set at 5 years. But already in 1637 it was increased to 9 years, and in 1641 to 15 years. And under the rule of Vasily Shuisky, the escape was already considered a state crime, and it was not the owner of the peasants himself who was involved in the investigation, but the police authorities. And finally Cathedral code 1649 declared the search for runaway peasants indefinite.
In 1718-1724. a census was conducted and a poll tax was introduced, replacing the household tax (to file). As a result of this reform, free (“walking”) people became forever serfs. Thus, new estates of peasants were formed: the black-eared peasants of the North, the plowed people of Siberia, the Yasak people of the Middle Volga region. The same reform introduced the passport system. Each peasant who went to work more than 30 miles from home had to straighten his passport, in which a mark was made on the date of his return.
The peasant was powerless. For the slightest fault, the landowner could flog him to death in the stable and not answer according to the law, because. the peasant was his property. In the "Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti" one could read the announcement: "A bull, a pack of hounds and two girls are for sale."
Unbearable oppression, violence, hard labor pushed the peasants to armed uprisings against their oppressors. The most noticeable mark in Russian history was left by peasant war under the leadership of Emelyan Pugachev (1773-1775). Just as formidable were the uprisings led by Ivan Bolotnikov, Stepan Razin, Kondraty Bulavin. But all of them were brutally suppressed, and their leaders were executed.
The Decree of 1767 and the Manifesto of 1775 proclaimed freedom of enterprise. Many peasant entrepreneurs were serfs and almost all the income from the manufactories organized by them went to their owners. A quitrent peasant, leaving for the city to earn money (coachman, stove-maker, shoemaker), also gave part of his earnings to the owner.
For the period from 1796-1798. there were 184 major unrest of the peasants demanding to free them from the power of the landlords and transfer them to the state department. The guilty were punished mercilessly. However, some relaxations have been achieved. So, in 1797, Pavel issued a manifesto, according to which corvée was canceled on Sundays, and now the peasant had to work for the landowner not 6 days, but only 3 days. The rest of the time I could work on my field. And one more point of this Manifesto: it was forbidden to sell household and landless peasants, it was forbidden to sell a husband to one landowner, and a wife with children to another. And in 1798, a decree was issued prohibiting the sale of householders and peasants without land.
Later, the peasants were transferred from the corvée to paying dues. Some of them were able to redeem themselves from serfdom.
The corvee system did not contribute to strengthening the power of the state. The peasant on the manor's field did not strive to work radiantly up to a seventh sweat, but simply "served his corvee". But even quitrent peasants, leaving the landowner for a latrine trade, could not pay much to the owner because of fierce competition, the townspeople and manufacturers paid them mere pennies.
At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. mass unrest of the peasants acquired an all-Russian character. They killed the landlords and their managers, burned the manor's estates, went on the run, refused to fulfill the corvee, did not pay dues, arranged for the grassland of the manor's meadows, fields and arable lands, plundered the manor's forest, wrote complaints to the tsar (although this was forbidden at that time).
Decree of December 12, 1801 "On the sale of uninhabited state lands" land could be freely sold to all classes: nobles, merchants, petty bourgeois and state peasants. Hired labor was allowed on these lands. So for the first time in the history of Rus', the peasant received the right to buy land. However, the peasant, as a rule, never had so much money.
Manufacturing of ceramic dishes
Proto-Slavic ceramics is still unknown, since it has not yet been possible to determine what is actually Slavic in the prehistoric culture of Eastern Europe. Slavic ceramics seem to us clear and definite only in the finds of the 9th-11th centuries, to which the latest research has added more ancient period VI - VIII century...
Start of the Northern War (1700-1721)
At the beginning of the XVIII century. Sweden was the most powerful power in the Baltic region. Throughout the 17th century, its power grew due to the seizures of the Baltic states, Karelia, and lands in northern Germany. The Swedish armed forces numbered up to 150 thousand people. They had excellent weapons, rich experience in military operations and high ...
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State peasants in the Yaroslavl province appeared in accordance with the decree of 1724 on the introduction of a poll tax.
There were six main sources of their replenishment in the province: free people from other classes; freed from the landlords and free farmers; peasants of escheated estates; transferred to the treasury for debts; those who passed from one class subgroup to another; peasants of landlord estates that were mortgaged but not sold at a public auction.
For the period Ser. XVIII - 1st half of the XIX centuries. the growth of state peasants in the province was significant and amounted to 54.2%. If in 1762 3,344 state peasants lived in the province, by 1858 their number had increased to 124,905. In the middle of the 19th century. the share of state peasants accounted for 27.94% of the total male population of the province. In the XVIII - the first half of the XIX centuries. state peasants consisted of: actually state peasants settled on state land (state peasants), coachmen, peasants settled on their own lands (free cultivators), who no longer paid feudal dues on land. By 1858, the state peasants of the province lived in 18 volosts and 90 rural communities. Of the 3716 state-owned villages, 2057 were on state land (102,178 souls), and 550 were on their own lands (12,338 souls).
State peasants, both in person and in property, enjoyed all the rights of persons of a free state. In 1801, state-owned settlers received the right to buy land without peasants. This decree became the legalization of the beginning process of violation of the monopoly of the nobility and the treasury on land ownership and opened up opportunities for the emergence of peasant land ownership. By the middle of the XIX century. in the province there were 12,338 souls of state peasants - owners of land, which amounted to 9.2% of their total number.
The rights of state peasants in the field of land use at the end of the 18th - the first half of the 19th centuries. didn't change. By a decree of 1799, state-owned peasants determined the norm of allotment at 15 acres in large-land provinces and at 8 acres in small-land ones. Yaroslavl province belonged to the land-poor, and the state peasants experienced a constant shortage of allotment land. General level peasant farms remained low: there was a catastrophic shortage of fertilizers, livestock, and fodder. The general lack of land was exacerbated by the widespread change in the size of allotment arable land. In the non-chernozem zone, allotment of arable land to ensure agricultural production should have been at least 6 acres per capita. And in the Yaroslavl province, the average size of the total allotment at the turn of the XVIII - XIX centuries. was about 5 acres, by 1832 it decreased and amounted to 2.3 - 3.4 acres. In the state estates of the province there were also practically landless villages, where 2 acres of land accounted for 1 soul. To increase the area of arable land, the peasants cleared forest areas, but the size of the clearings was limited: no more than 1 acre per capita could be cleared. Unauthorized clearing in state-owned forests was strictly prohibited.
Along with allotment land in the state-owned village, there were other forms of land ownership - rent and purchase of land. Rented for the most part arable land and hayfields. In 1837 - 1839, state peasants paid 179,448 rubles annually for renting foreign land, including landowners' land. By 1858, the state peasants of 89 rural communities rented 50,799 acres of non-allotment land. Farming in most counties did not provide the peasants with even simple reproduction. In 1846, the governor noticed that free cultivators were more worthy and prosperous, followed by peasants of large estates. State peasants are in last place because of the shortage of land.
An important process in the economic life of the state peasants of the province in the middle of the XIX century. was the growth of commercial agriculture. The main directions of this production were flax growing, potato growing and commercial horticulture. Where soil fertility allowed, the state peasants tried to expand the traditional scope of agriculture, especially if there was an increased demand for certain agricultural crops. Flax crops for the period 1802 - 1850 increased by 66 thousand quarters. The growth of potato crops led to the emergence of a new type of industry - potato-treacle production. Already in the 40s of the 19th century, i.e., much earlier than in other provinces of the Central Industrial Region, the necessary prerequisites for the successful development of commercial potato growing were formed in the Yaroslavl province, and from the beginning of the 50s of the 19th century. - its commodity production. A large center of commercial gardening was the Rostov district, where in the 40-50s of the XIX century. state peasants stopped arable farming and began to grow vegetables for sale.
The activities of the practical school on the estate of the landowner E. S. Karnovich and the activities of the Northern Vologda Agricultural School contributed to the improvement of production skills and tools. The development of commercial agriculture was a striking indicator of the growth of the social division of labor, the connection of peasant farms with the market, the transformation of commercial agriculture into a capitalist economy. At the same time, the areas of commercial agriculture were islands in agriculture and their influence on the socio-economic development of the state village was limited and had a local character.
Lack of land and scarcity of soil predetermined the widespread development of otkhodnichestvo among the state peasants. They had the right to open trading establishments, to take and issue bills of exchange, to engage in government contracts, to establish manufactories and factories. The legislation on otkhodnichestvo was the most mobile. The state, interested in the regular receipt of taxes, encouraged the activities of state peasants to find additional funds. By virtue of their personal freedom, state peasants retired for long periods. On average, every 12th of the state peasants and every 18th of the landlords received passports in the province. Between 1842 and 1852, 222,545 state peasants received otkhodnik passports, many more than once.
The occupations of otkhodniks were different, but unstable. They changed depending on the demand for labor. In the province at the beginning of the XIX century. there was a specialization in individual counties: the Yaroslavl county supplied masons and carpenters; Danilovsky - plasterers, sculptors; Mologsky - horse breeders; Myshkinsky - hookers, cab drivers; Rostov - gardeners; Uglichsky - weavers, sausage makers; Lyubimsky - servants of taverns, taverns. Construction workers predominated, which was explained by the development of state and private construction. Was widely developed among the state peasants garden otkhodnoy trade. By the beginning of the 50s of the XIX century. almost 12% of otkhodniks were engaged in gardening: of Rostov, 3,295 were state peasants, and 1,975 were landowners. Among them were 418 women: 306 from the state peasants, 112 from the landowners. In St. Petersburg, ¾ of the gardens were rented by state peasants from the Yaroslavl province.
The historical role of Yaroslavl as one of the major trading centers to a large extent paved the way for a mass trade retreat, which by the 50s of the XIX century. covered more than 10 thousand Yaroslavl peasants - 16.83% of all those who went to the crafts. The large number of merchants among otkhodniks is explained by the fact that this branch of activity was widely developed and, at the same time, did not require qualifications. Therefore, it was in the sphere of trade that it was easier for the peasants who came to find work.
By the middle of the XIX century. the importance of commercial and industrial activity, commodity-money relations has increased. They embraced deeper and more comprehensively economic activity peasants. The scarcity of land was more acutely revealed, and, at the same time, the commercial nature of the region. Yaroslavl province in the process of detachment of peasants from agriculture took second place after Moscow. The state peasants of the province occupied a prominent place among otkhodniks. Among them, social stratification began, associated with the growth of trade and fishing activities, with the development of new capitalist relations in the countryside. The more state peasants went to work, the longer, the stronger the connection with the city, the faster and more thoroughly the foundations of the feudal mode of production were undermined.
The state peasants of the Yaroslavl province were also engaged in non-agricultural trades: maintenance of water transport (horse-breeding, burlatsky, pilotage), processing of agricultural raw materials (sheepskin coat, potato-treacle, oil-pressing). This activity was the result of a surplus of workers, which amounted to 51%. This situation took place even when there were 57 workers per 100 souls. The working cadres in water transport, associated with the most difficult, unskilled and low-paid work, were represented by the most able-bodied state peasants.
The non-agricultural occupations of the state peasants in the processing of agricultural raw materials were distinguished by a variety of transitional forms from handicraft to manufactory, inclusive. The most widespread was small-scale production: in this group of crafts, a significant part of the peasants had their own raw materials. In 1853, the state peasants of the province owned 14 potato-treacle enterprises, in 1855 - 15, in 1856 - 17. Family labor in the potato-treacle industry, especially by the beginning of the 50s of the XIX century, was gradually replaced by wage labor. These enterprises employed about 300 industrial workers. The development of potato-treacle production among the state peasants of the province was an example of the decomposition of subsistence farming and the involvement of peasants in market relations.
The state peasants of the province also owned enterprises in other industries. In 1855 they had two polishing manufactories, eight brick factories, ten chicor factories, and one tackle-spinning factory. By 1856, 45 enterprises were in the possession of the state peasants of the province, together with molasses-potatoes. In total, there were about 500 industrial establishments in the province, i.e., enterprises of state peasants accounted for 9%.
In the state village of the Yaroslavl province in 1854-1858 there were 42,921 available industrialists, that is, peasants who broke away from their own economy in search of additional income from trade, industry, and agriculture (labor service). They accounted for 34.3% of the total number of state peasants in the province, or 75.8% of the number of state peasant workers. For each of the 36,468 households, there were 1.18 industrialists, and 1.55 workers. Thus, in three yards there is hardly one worker who is not engaged in crafts. Non-agricultural occupations of state peasants in the field, that is, within the province, by the middle of the 19th century. were massive. There was a deepening and expansion in the small industry of the social division of labor: at the end of the 18th century. in the province there were over 100 types of crafts, and by the middle of the 19th century. only the state peasants already had over 500 of them.
The development of the productive forces, their growth as a result of the improvement of labor skills on the basis of a deepening social division of labor, did not change the nature of the economy in the state countryside. He still remained consumer.
The position of the state peasants to a large extent depended on the size and methods of collecting duties. The state duties included a poll tax, zemstvo, secular fees, a tax on the construction of means of communication, and recruitment. The feudal duty was the land quitrent. Along with the development of the farms of the state peasants, duties increased. The poll tax from 1798 to 1818 increased 3 times, the dues - 2 times. Zemstvo duty was sent in kind: underwater, road. The amount of secular dues was established in each volost independently.
Since 1840, a public levy was established from the state peasants, which replaced the zemstvo and lay taxes. On average, it was 7 rubles. silver. Different villages with the same amount of payments had far from the same land allotments both in size and quality. Between the various villages, volosts, and even more so the counties, the unevenness in serving duties increased. Rural and volost authorities often abused their power. In state-owned villages rampant "robbery" reigned both on the part of the peasant authorities and on the part of officials. During the period 1841-1844, the heads of seven rural societies were tried.
The most common type of offense among the state peasants of the Yaroslavl province was actions against the property and income of the treasury in the form of violations of the charters on state needs. In the province, annual cutting areas were allocated to 987 state-owned villages (41,887 souls), and 929 villages (50,106 souls) were left without forest. The consequence of this situation was massive unauthorized logging. According to officials of the Ministry of State Property, the destruction of forests had a threefold
Under Peter I, a new estate was formed - state peasants. Their status was officially fixed by decree of the sovereign. They were free from serfdom, lived on state lands, for which they paid feudal rent, and were subordinate to the management of state bodies.
The concept of state peasants
In the territory Russian Empire personally free peasants who lived on lands that belonged not to landlords, but to the treasury, were considered state. Historically, most of them were representatives of the unsecured agricultural population: the former black-mossed, single-dvortsy and representatives of the non-Russian peoples of the Volga region. At different times, the management of state peasants was carried out by various state bodies. They were subject to additional monetary penalties for zemstvo needs, paid dues, performed various types of duties and were subject to corporal punishment for improper performance of work. State peasants lived in special state villages. This estate existed until the end of the 19th century.
History of appearance
The emergence of the class in question is associated with financial reform. This new stratum of society was singled out by combining several categories of the population, uniting all personally free peasants into one group and calling them state.
Emperor Peter I began to implement the reform on March 1, 1698. She simplified the process of paying taxes. In addition to the latter, the empire obliged the state peasants to pay quitrent with a face value of 40 kopecks to the treasury. In the future, it fluctuated within 10 rubles. per person annually.
In the second half of the 18th century, a reform of the state peasants was carried out with the aim of enslaving them to the noble estates. However, an attempt to distribute "souls" to the nobles in the second half of the 18th century met with a decisive rebuff, and over 150 years their number increased from 1 to 9.3 million male souls. In percentage terms, this amounted to 19 - 45% of the entire estate in various years. The calculations were made in Siberia and in the European part of Russia. After the seizure by Empress Catherine II of a significant part of the lands of the Russian Orthodox Church, the ranks of state peasants began to replenish not only the population of the territories of Crimea, the Baltic states, Transcaucasia, and so on. Secularized possessions regularly supplied the state with people. Unofficially, the transition of runaway serfs to the category of state serfs was encouraged, which became a source of stable income for the treasury.
Features of the Reformation
Russian peasants who belonged to the state were legally similar in position to the crown peasants of Sweden. There is a version that it was they who were taken as a model when the reform of the management of state peasants was carried out, but there is no documentary evidence for this.
The main distinguishing feature of free state peasants was their possession of legal rights. Legislatively, they were "free inhabitants" and could participate in court hearings, trade, and open various enterprises. Despite the fact that their working land was formally owned by the state, they could work on it and make transactions as full owners. The area of plots formally ranged from 8 to 15 acres per capita. In fact, they were much smaller. And by 1840, 325 thousand people no longer owned them, the main reason for which was the alienation of land for debts.
New reform
In the 19th century, the state peasants finally secured the right to purchase private property that was not inhabited by people.
Consistent growth in the size of cash payments, as well as a decrease in land allotments led to the impoverishment of the estate. By the end of the first half of the 19th century, this caused popular unrest. To change the situation, P. D. Kiselev developed a new reform. State peasants were able to resolve their affairs within the framework of the rural community, but were not detached from the lands. The initiative repeatedly ran into resistance from the landlords, who were afraid of a dangerous example of freedom for their peasants, nevertheless, the reform was carried out.
The disappearance of the estate
General discontent in the 1860s led to the abolition of serfdom. The management system of state peasants lost its meaning, since all categories of the estate were equalized in rights. By 1866, the "new" proprietors had become subordinate to the system of rural administrations. Despite this, quitrent taxes were not abolished, but now they were extended to all peasants without exception.
On June 12, 1866, the Russian Empire regulated the purchase of allotments for ownership. Soon, the size of the land of state peasants became smaller by 10-45% in different provinces. The reform of the state peasants and the agrarian reform of Stolypin contributed to the final distribution of land and put an end to the issue under consideration. The concept of "state peasants" was no longer used, the concept of wage labor and the agrarian sector of the economy was born.
Class system and change in the social structure of society.
The class structure of Russian society began to change. Along with the old classes of feudal lords and peasants, new classes emerged - the bourgeoisie and
proletariat. But officially the entire population was divided into 5 estates: the nobility, the clergy, the peasantry, the townsfolk, the Cossacks.
Early 19th century:
Nobility the economically and politically dominant class. The nobles owned most of the land, exploited the peasants who lived on these lands. They had a monopoly on the ownership of serfs. Occupying all the command positions of the state apparatus, they formed its basis. Rights: ownership of land and serfs, class self-government, exemption from taxes, conscription and corporal punishment.
Clergy. Divided into black and white. The autocracy sought to attract the most devoted churchmen to its social environment, where the noble aristocracy dominated. The clergy awarded with orders acquired noble rights. The white clergy received hereditary nobility, and the black clergy received the opportunity to transfer property by inheritance along with the order. Rights: ownership of land and serfs, class self-government, exemption from taxes, conscription and corporal punishment.
Peasants. The feudal-dependent peasants made up the bulk of the population, and were divided into landlord, state-possession and appanage, belonging to the royal family. The position of the landlord peasants was especially difficult. The landowners disposed of the peasants as if they were their own property. The work of the sessional peasants was unproductive, which is why the use of wage labor in industry began to increase more and more. Obligations as property of the nobles: corvée, dues, and other duties. Obligations as citizens of the state: recruitment duty, payment of taxes. Rights: community ownership of land, community self-government.
city dwellers. This estate was divided into 6 groups: honorary citizens, merchants, craftsmen, philistines, small proprietors and working people, i.e. employed. Honorary citizens enjoyed a number of privileges: they were exempted from corporal punishment, from personal duties. The merchant class was divided into 2 guilds. The first is wholesalers; second retailers. The group of workshops consisted of artisans assigned to workshops, divided into master and apprentices. The urban population was made up of burghers, who mostly worked for hire in factories and plants. Rights: occupation of urban crafts and petty trade, class self-government. Responsibilities: recruiting, paying taxes.
Cossacks as an estate was established only by the second half of the 19th century. In 1837, the state sought to distinguish the Cossacks from the rest of the population. All Cossacks received allotments of 30 acres of land. The lands of the Cossack nobility in 1848 were declared hereditary property. With all these measures, tsarism sought to conserve the economic and socio-political structure of the Cossacks. Police duties: night patrols in cities, capture of fugitives, escort of government transports, inducement to pay taxes and correct arrears, oversee deanery at fairs, etc. Household: transporting, storing and selling food, collecting taxes, various assignments for government procurement.
The state began to create new Cossack troops to protect the borders. This is how the Siberian Cossack army, and then Transbaikal. By the middle of the 19th century, there were nine Cossack armies in Russia: the Don, the Black Sea (later transformed into the Kuban), the Terek, the Astrakhan, the Orenburg, the Urals, the Siberian, the Trans-Baikal and the Amur. Rights: ownership of land, exemption from taxes. Responsibilities: military service with own equipment.
The population of Russia in the first half of the XIX century. grew steadily. According to various estimates, at the beginning of the century about 40 million people lived in Russia, in 1825 - just over 50 million people, in 1851 - about 70 million people. The ratio of the rural and urban population did not change significantly (no more than 7-8% of Russians lived in cities). The basis of the social structure was the estate principle. Belonging to a certain estate - a social community distinguished by signs of origin and legal status - played a significant role in a person's life. The dominant class remained nobility. It accounted for approximately 1% of the country's population, but had exclusive rights to own land and serfs, and was exempt from taxes and recruitment duties. In the officer corps of the Russian army, the predominance of the nobility was absolute; many nobles served in the state apparatus. An official who reached VIII (since 1832 - V) class according to the Table of Ranks became a hereditary nobleman. Quite complex processes took place in the nobility. Contemporaries noted the growth of a layer of small estates and even stateless nobles, they spoke of the "clogging" of the nobility by people from other classes. The government of Nicholas I (1825-1855) made serious efforts to support the upper class: it raised the class (rank), which gave the right to hereditary nobility, introduced the title of honorary citizen, adopted a law on majorates, which allowed declaring estates not subject to division among heirs. The clergy and merchants also belonged to the privileged estates. The clergy, like the nobles, had the right to own land and peasants, were exempted from taxes and recruitment duties. The merchant class was divided into three guilds depending on the amount of capital. Merchants of the first guild were engaged in domestic and foreign trade, did not pay most taxes and were not subject to recruitment. Merchants of the second guild conducted internal trade throughout the country, and merchants of the third guild - within the city or county. They paid taxes to the treasury and were not exempt from recruitment. The military-agricultural sector was considered semi-privileged. class of Cossacks. The taxable estates were the peasantry and the bourgeoisie (unprivileged urban population - artisans, small merchants).
The largest class was peasantry. It was divided into three large groups - landowners (belonged to a private owner - the landowner), state (belonged to the treasury) and appanage (belonged to members of the imperial family and controlled by a special palace department, appanage). The peasants performed various duties in favor of their owners (corvée, dues, etc.), paid taxes to the state, and were subject to recruitment. An important role in the life of the Russian village was played by the peasant community (world), which carried out the periodic redistribution of arable and hay land among the peasants. At the community meeting, important issues were resolved, and elected officials (headmen, sots, etc.) were appointed to lead the life of the village. The peasantry was the most disenfranchised estate and suffered more than others from serfdom. Serfdom hindered the social growth of enterprising ("real capital") peasants, undermined the economic strength of the serf village. It should be noted that a number of social processes that took place in the first half of the 19th century contradicted the dominant class system. The development of industry led to the numerical growth of the stratum of people who were engaged in entrepreneurship. Among successful entrepreneurs are not only merchants of the first and second guilds, but also serfs (Prokhorovs, Ryabushinskys, Morozovs, etc.) who have made huge fortunes, and even nobles. The formation of an extensive layer of raznochintsy was also a new phenomenon. Petty officials, children of clergymen and bankrupt merchants, they were exempted from paying taxes, but they could not buy land without peasants, engage in commercial and industrial business. The sphere of application of their forces became the bureaucratic service, employment in free professions (doctors, teachers, journalists, etc.). It was from the raznochintsy that the Russian intelligentsia was formed in the next half century. Taxable estates - in Russia in the 15th - the first half of the 19th centuries, groups of the population (peasants and philistines) who paid a poll tax, were subjected to corporal punishment, and performed recruiting and other natural duties. Estates that were not subject to the poll tax were called exempt.
Nobility: composition, personal and property rights and obligations, position and legal status.
In the first half of the XIX century. the state and social order of the Russian Empire was on the same basis. The nobility, constituting a small part of the population, remained the dominant, privileged class. It was the basis of the state apparatus, occupying in him all command posts. Freed from compulsory service to the state, the landlords turned from the service class into an idle, purely consumer class of slave owners. From the nobles, the offices of the bureaucratic apparatus of the empire, which were rapidly growing at that time, were formed. Bureaucratic and landowner arbitrariness reigned in the country.
By the time the Code of Laws of 1832 was drawn up, the nobility was given new rights: to have factories and factories in the cities, to trade on a par with the merchants. The importance of the provincial noble corporation as a legal entity, endowed, among other things, with property rights, also increased. Thus, the state, through laws, sought to maximize the position of the nobles - large landowners, a reliable support of Russian absolutism.
The state activity of Nicholas I also had a great influence on the nobility. The formalization of the legal status of subjects occurred in the 1830s - 50s in the course of the systematization of all-Russian legislation, which was an extremely important stage in the development of Russian law. As a result, the legal status of all classes in the Russian Empire received legislative formalization: the nobility, the clergy, urban residents and rural inhabitants. The emperor understood that the strength and support of his power relies on large and medium-sized landowners, so he tried his best to support them. The inviolability of power consisted in the task of strengthening the position of large and medium landowners in local bodies of noble self-government - this was the subject of the Manifesto on December 6, 1831. He established a property qualification for the participation of nobles in the election of candidates for state and public positions. Hereditary nobles who owned at least 100 souls of serfs or 3,000 acres of land within the province had the right to vote. Through the representatives, the owners of at least 5 souls of peasants or 150 acres of land could participate in the elections. From this it follows that the possibility of active participation in the corporate life of the class was presented primarily to the wealthiest part of the nobility. The very activities of district and provincial noble assemblies were placed under tighter control of government officials. The government tried to bureaucratize the nobility, to connect it more tightly with the government apparatus, to turn the class-corporate service into a kind of state service. The Code of Laws of the Russian Empire of 1832 regulated the position of the nobility legally. The nobles still remained the highest privileged class and were defined as “a consequence emanating from the quality and virtue of the men who ruled in antiquity, who distinguished themselves by their merits: by which, turning the very service into merit, they acquired a noble denunciation for their offspring” (Article 15); divided into hereditary and personal (Article 16); ways of obtaining hereditary and personal nobility were also fixed (department 2).
The government continued throughout the 19th century. to support the local nobility, providing them with a soft loan from state-owned banks secured by populated estates and transferring state-owned lands to them. In order to preserve large landed estates of the nobility, in 1845 a law on majorates was issued. Its essence was that the owners of estates over 1000 souls were allowed to declare them "reserved". They were entirely inherited by the eldest son in the family, and were not divided among other heirs. The law was advisory in nature, so only a few of the large landowners took advantage of it. Until 1861, less than 20 large noble estates were under the right of major. Despite all these activities in the period from 1836 to 1858. about 3.6 thousand nobles lost all their lands, becoming powerless. The class policy of Nicholas I led to the fact that the nobility became more closed, and the position of its wealthiest part was significantly strengthened. All these measures, however, could not stop the objective process of reducing the social and political role of the nobility. Despite the predominance of the hereditary nobility in the environment of the highest bureaucracy, the composition of the bureaucracy was actively replenished with people from other classes.
Ownership, or serfs, or landlords peasants lived in estates and estates, being under the rule of the landowner and paying rent to him, and duties to the state. Until the end of the 16th century, the owner's peasants enjoyed the right to leave ("refusal", "exit") from the landowner once a year on St. George's Day, subject to certain conditions. Since 1597, a five-year term for the search for fugitive peasants was introduced by government decree, which in fact meant their rigid attachment to the land of the owner. The Code of 1649 introduced an indefinite investigation. In the 18th century, the position of the landowning peasants worsened even more - landless peasants were increasingly sold, and objectionable landowners had the right to exile to Siberia. In 1859, the total number of male and female landowning peasants was about 23 million. landless peasants were called in Russia the category of owner-occupied peasants who did not have an allotment of land as a result of: - rejection of an allotment when drawing up a charter; - loss of the right to the received allotment with the exit from the rural society; - loss of allotment due to faulty payments and duties, debt and tax collections in lean years, loss of livestock, etc. Landless peasants existed as a category of the population until 1861, when they were equated with the category of household peasants. Yard peasants in Russia were dependent persons who lived at the court of the landowner and served him and his family. Yard peasants were also called servants, serfs, servants, etc. From the end of the 17th century until 1861, yard peasants were included in the category of serfs, were deprived of land allotments and lived in the master's yards. Since the end of the 17th century, in connection with the development of industrial and mining enterprises, mining peasants. This category of landowning peasants was widespread in the Urals and partly in Altai. The mining peasants consisted of personally free ascribed and owner-possession peasants and were obliged to live and work at the mining factories. Sessional peasants appeared in Russia in 1721. These were serfs assigned to the possession manufactories and sold or bought inseparably from these manufactories. At first, possession peasants could be bought for a stipulated period, and from January 7, 1736, for “perpetual use”. In the 19th century, the number of possessive peasants included "essential workers"(new name for assigned peasants). Posession peasants could not be used for agricultural work, recruited instead of serfs, etc. Posession peasants were punished both physically and economically - they imposed monetary fines, made payments from salaries. In the 19th century, the owners of possessory manufactories began to seek to replace serfs with hired workers, and from 1840 they received the right to be exempt from possessory peasants. In 1861-1863, the category of possessive peasants was eliminated. Another category of serfs in Russia - palace peasants. Palace landownership developed in the country in the period of the 12th - 15th centuries. Since the 16th century among the members royal family a fashion spread to distribute palace peasants as a reward to their relatives, favorites, close, serving nobles. The palace peasants belonged personally to the tsar and members of the royal family, lived on the lands of the great princes and tsars (the so-called "cabinet lands") and carried various duties in their favor - natural and (or) cash dues (since 1753, mostly only cash dues) . The main duty of the palace peasants was to supply the royal family with food and firewood. Over time, the palace peasants entered the category of the owner's peasants, and from 1797 they began to be called appanage peasants. The number of palace peasants in 1700 was 100 thousand households. Since 1724, the palace peasants were in charge of the Main Palace Chancellery - the central administrative, economic and judicial body for managing the palace peasants. On the ground, palace lands were controlled by clerks, and from early XVIII century rulers. In the 18th century, the economic situation of the palace peasants was better than other serfs, since their duties were easier, and they had more freedom in economic activities. As a result, by the end of the 18th century, prosperous categories emerged among the palace peasants - rich peasants, merchants, usurers and others. Specific peasants, who were, in essence, former palace peasants, appeared in Russia, as mentioned above, in 1797, and managed on specific lands, that is, on lands owned by the imperial family. Appanage peasants and appanage lands were managed by the Department of Appanages through local appanage offices. The villages of specific peasants were united in volosts. At rural gatherings, elders, sots and tenths were elected. The predominant form of duties for specific peasants was dues. The appanage peasants enjoyed greater freedom of economic activity than the landowning peasants. The number of male souls of specific peasants gradually increased: 1797 - 463 thousand; 1812 - 570 thousand; 1857 - 838 thousand. By a decree of June 26, 1863, the main provisions of the peasant reform of 1861 were extended to specific peasants. In particular, the specific peasants received part of the specific lands for compulsory redemption. As a result, the allotments of specific peasants in fourteen provinces decreased by 10.7%, while in five northern provinces they increased by 41.6%. In general, the former appanage peasants received more land than the owner's, but less than the state. In particular, in 1905, on average, the former categories of peasants had allotment land per household: - owning peasants - 6.7 acres; - specific peasants - 9.5 acres; - state peasants - 12.5 acres. Specific lands were nationalized in accordance with the Land Decree of 1917. Among the serfs there were peasants who were freed from corvee and received money or bread as payment for work for the landowner. These peasants were called back-to-back. In the 18th century, a layer of peasants- entrepreneurs. Their appearance is associated with the strengthening of the property differentiation of the peasantry, especially in quitrent estates. During this period, monetary rent became widespread, which caused the processes of otkhodnichestvo. Peasant entrepreneurs quickly began to form a class of rural and urban bourgeoisie, and after 1861 this process accelerated even more. From April 2, 1842, part of the former owner-owning peasants received land allotments from the landlords, and until the peasants acquired this land, they were called obligated peasants. According to the decree of 1842, obligated peasants, by agreement with the landowners (the landlords were not obliged to conclude an agreement), acquired personal freedom, but the land remained the property of the landowner, and the peasants were obliged to bear duties for using it - corvée and dues. There were no restrictions on the power of the landowners. By the end of the era of serfdom, only 0.25% of the ten million landowning peasants were transferred to the category of the obliged.
Personally free peasants Arable peasants cultivated state (state) arable land, which included lands in Siberia, lands in southern Russia and palace (cabinet) lands. From the end of the 16th century, an arable peasant received a piece of land (sob arable land) for personal use, provided that the state field was cultivated, the grain from which went to the treasury. Since 1769, in Siberia, for arable peasants, the processing of state land was replaced by cash dues, and since the 18th century, arable peasants entered the category of state peasants, that is, they remained personally free. From the XIV century in Russia appeared black-mallowed, or black, peasants. They did not depend on the landowner, retained a great degree of personal freedom and the right to dispose of land. By the end of the 16th century, the black-eared peasants survived mainly only in the north of Russia, and in the 17th century - XVIII centuries appeared and gained a foothold in Siberia. During the reign of Peter I, the black-eared peasants began to be called state peasants, were subject to a poll tax and an additional quitrent in favor of the state. estate state, or state-owned, peasants, took shape in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century by decrees of Peter I from the composition of the peasant estates free by that time - black-eared peasants, ladles of the Northern Pomerania, Siberian arable peasants, single-dvortsy and non-Russian peoples of the Volga and Ural regions. State peasants lived on state-owned lands, used allotted allotments, were in state administration and were considered personally free. State peasants were obliged to contribute money for zemstvo needs and for worldly expenses, pay a poll tax and serve natural duties on the principle of mutual responsibility. WITH early XIX centuries, state peasants were allowed to trade, open factories and factories, own uninhabited (without serfs) lands, etc. At the same time, progressive impoverishment and arrears among state peasants were discovered, the nobles demanded that they be transferred to private hands. In 1837 - 1841, a special ministry of state property was established with a complex hierarchy of bureaucratic bodies to take care of state peasants through rural communities. In the middle of the 19th century, state peasants accounted for about 45% of all peasants in Russia. The main problem for the peasantry was lack of land. In 1866, the state peasants were subordinated to the general system of rural management and recognized as peasant proprietors, although they continued to pay dues. The state peasants received the rights of full ownership of the land under the law of 1886 on the mandatory redemption of land allotments, while the size of the allotments of the state peasants turned out to be larger, and the redemption payments were smaller than those of the landlord peasants. The state peasants of Siberia and Transcaucasia remained in their former position as holders of state land, since the laws of 1866 and 1886 were not extended to them. Since the end of the 17th century in Russia there was a category ascribed peasants who, instead of paying quitrent and poll tax, were obliged to work “forever” in state-owned or private factories and factories, in accordance with the policy of the government, which supported the development of large-scale industry and sought to provide it with cheap and permanent labor. Basically, ascribed peasants existed in the Urals and Siberia. Since 1807, in the Urals, the ascribed peasants began to be exempted by the owners from compulsory factory work, and a little later, under the name "indispensable workers", they entered the category of possessive peasants. And the last category of peasants, equated with state peasants later than others - in the first quarter of the 19th century - peasants- odnodvortsy. Since the first quarter of the 18th century, the descendants of service people who carried sentinel and sentry service on the southern border were called single-palaces. The creation of a regular army led to the liberation of part of the military people, who began to become peasants and formed peasant households. It is these reasons that explain the predominant distribution of odnodvortsy in the central black earth regions of Russia, namely, in the territories of Voronezh, Kursk, Oryol, Tula, Tambov, Penza and Ryazan provinces. The number of odnodvortsev in Russia increased: 1730s - 453 thousand male odnodvortsev; 1830s - about 1 million; 1851 - 1.2 million. Odnodvortsy were obliged to pay a per capita tax and four hryvnia dues, and until 1840 they had the right to own serfs, however, this right was not widely used (in 1833-1835, odnodvortsy owned a total of 11 thousand peasant souls, living in the same yard with serfs).
officialdom
officials(civil servants) of various ranks was 0.3%- more than 500 thousand people, that is, one for every 3,000 inhabitants of the country. At that time it was the largest bureaucracy in the world. 14% of the state budget was spent on its maintenance (in England - 3%, France - 5%, Italy and Germany - 7% each). Small salaries of officials contributed to bribery and corruption. A type of Russian bureaucrat was formed - a bribe-taker and a petty tyrant, taking out dissatisfaction with his own life on petitioners. Russian officials were inactive, uninitiative.
Life and customs of estates.
Different social groups, classes, under the influence of geographical and socio-economic conditions, develop their own set of everyday norms, traditions, customs, and rituals. At the same time, various forms of life are being formed in the city and the countryside. Everyday life has a huge impact on other areas social life and, above all, to work, social activities, psychological attitude and behavior of people; affects the formation of a person's personality. In turn, the life of each individual is determined by the level of his culture.
Last quarter of the 19th century - a special period in the development of the Russian state: the active process of urbanization and the development of capitalism opened up new opportunities for representatives of different social categories of the Russian city. The transitional period determined the blurring of the social structure: the traditional division into estates gradually lost its relevance, and the inheritance of estate no longer guaranteed a person a certain place in society. In the course of the bourgeois modernization of Russian society, estates began to gradually transform into classes and professional groups. This process was based on the evolution of class and value orientations, when, under the influence of socio-economic processes of a capitalist nature, class status in the public mind gave way to a social one based on indicators of financial well-being. The professionalization of labor activity is considered to be the basis and internal mechanism for the transformation of society from a class-representative into a class society, formed not by laws and customs, but by economic relations. Under the conditions of the development of capitalism, occupations, and even more so a profession, were determined by the free choice of this or that person and expressed the active participation of this person in the social life of the country. The professionalization of the urban population reflected the further process of the division of labor in society. In addition to deepening the actual professional specialization, it also involves the consolidation of "representatives of individual professions in professional organizations in order to collectively defend their social status and control the area of the market where this professional group performs its functions."