{"id":309,"date":"2012-09-22T10:36:35","date_gmt":"2012-09-22T14:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/?page_id=309"},"modified":"2012-11-28T15:48:53","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T19:48:53","slug":"katherine-ruiz-diaz","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/guidedhistory\/historians-craft\/katherine-ruiz-diaz\/","title":{"rendered":"Peasant Life and Serfdom under Tsarist Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A caricature of Russian serfs<\/p><\/div>\n

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By: Katherine E. Ruiz-D\u00edaz<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Introduction<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Serfdom in Europe can be traced back to the 11th century. \u00a0This type of feudalism spanned throughout Europe, declining in Western Europe around the 14th century with the Renaissance, but increasing in Central and Eastern Europe, a phenomenon sometimes known as “later serfdom.” \u00a0Until it was abolished in 1861, serfs -as they were known- in Russia were bonded to their masters in a certain type of modified slavery. Known as the Russian Empire, a term coined by Peter I the Great, this time period is an era of reform for the peasant serfs in the Russian countryside. In this research guide, the period of time attempted to be covered is between 1721, at the beginning of what is know as the Russian Empire, and the year 1861, when under the rule of czar Alexander II serfdom was abolished.<\/span><\/p>\n

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"A Peasant Leaving His Landlord on Yuri's Day," painting by Sergei V. Ivanov.<\/p><\/div>\n

Many elements influenced this turn of events for serfs, from Enlightenment ideas that found their way into the Russian crown to general apathy towards American slavery at the time. Nevertheless, this research guide does not focus mainly on the end of serfdom, but on compiling information about the lives of peasant serfs before the year 1861. The main purpose of this page is to compile information, primary sources, and historical analysis that presents Russian peasants as socio-economic beings, whose lives -otherwise seen as insignificant- made the pages of history and influenced the writings of literary circles at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Agricultural Economy in Rural Russia<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Serfdom, as any form of feudalism, was based on an agrarian economy. Day after day, serfs worked the land of their lords, barely leaving time to cultivate the land\u00a0allotted\u00a0to them to take care of their family.\u00a0The lord’s land was divided by the peasant commune (obshchina<\/em> or mir<\/em>), into large fields worked on a rotation crop system. Each field was divided into strips and each family given so many strips in each field according either to the number of male workers in the family or the number of mouths to feed. It was this control of “their” land which led to the mistaken, but deep-rooted peasant belief that “we belong to the masters but the land is ours.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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G. Myasoyedov. "Harvesting." 1887.<\/p><\/div>\n

“The Russian Agrarian Question” from The Russian Peasantry: Their Agrarian Condition, Social Life, and Religion<\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n