Serfdom existed in tsarist Russia since 1649. It meant a form of dependence of the peasant, who was attached to the land and was subordinate to the landowner. The peasant class found itself completely dependent on its owner.
Serfs not only belonged to the landlords, they worked for him. The master could do whatever he pleased with his servants. The law allowed to beat serfs with rods. You could put them in shackles. Serfs were often sent into exile in distant Siberia. Peasants were often exchanged for purebred dogs. They could be sold individually, by whole families and even villages. Since the 18th century, the price of a healthy strong man reached 300 rubles. The girls were sold for 100-200 rubles. Such rates were in effect in the capital. In some provinces, girls were sold for 5 rubles. In 1812 the cost of a serf did not exceed 200 rubles. People could be pledged, lost at cards.
The peasants had a difficult fate. Often they had to work from morning to night. The landowner owned his own serf architects, artists, carpenters. At that time, the peasant was like a thing. It could be used as, for example, draft animals. They were often beaten for the slightest offense, starved to death. The landowner could even set a dog on a serf, and she gnawed him to death.
Serfs could marry or get married only after the permission of the owner. The landlords often raped young girls and women, because they were completely defenseless. If children were born from this to the owner, he treated them like slaves. They were sold at the first opportunity. Even harems of serfs were kept.
The owners used their servants as hunting targets. Out of boredom, they could drown them, cut off body parts. The facts of ill-treatment were repeatedly recorded. For example, one landowner Saltychikha tortured more than 100 serfs to death. Her crimes went unpunished for a long time. She could grab servants by the ears with hot curling irons, douse them with boiling water, burn their hair, tie them to trees in the cold, naked. Girls and women suffered the most. For a long time the landowner remained unpunished. Only under Catherine II a criminal case was opened on Saltychikha. She was sentenced to 33 prisons for bullying and murder.
In 1861 serfdom was abolished and people were freed from their landowners.