On March 3, 1861, 155 years ago, Emperor Alexander II signed a manifesto abolishing serfdom. About how the landowners treated the peasants, what does St. George's Day and the pretty brides have to do with it.
“Here's to you, grandmother, and St. George's Day,” we say when our expectations do not come true. The proverb is directly related to the emergence of serfdom: until the 16th century, a peasant could leave the landlord's estate within a week before St. George's Day - November 26 - and weeks after it. However, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich changed everything, who, at the insistence of his brother-in-law Boris Godunov, prohibited peasants from transferring from one landowner to another even on November 26 at the time of compiling scribes.
However, the document on the restriction of peasant freedoms, signed by the tsar, has not yet been found - and therefore some historians (in particular, Vasily Klyuchevsky) consider this story to be fictional.
By the way, the same Fyodor Ioannovich (who is also known by the name of Theodore the Blessed) issued a decree in 1597, according to which the period for detecting fugitive peasants was five years. If during this period the landowner did not find the fugitive, then the latter was assigned to the new owner.
Peasants as a gift
In 1649, the Sobornoye Ulozhenie was published, according to which an unlimited period of search for fugitive peasants was announced. In addition, even debt-free peasants could not change their place of residence. The code was adopted during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Tishaish, under which the famous church reform was carried out at about the same time, which subsequently led to a split in the Russian Orthodox Church.
According to Vasily Klyuchevsky, the main drawback of the code was that the obligations of the peasant to the landowner were not spelled out. As a result, in the future, the owners actively abused their power and made too many claims against the serfs.
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It is interesting that, according to the document, "baptized people are not ordered to be sold to anyone." However, this prohibition was successfully violated in the era of Peter the Great.
The ruler encouraged trade in serfs in every possible way, not attaching importance to the fact that the landowners were separating entire families. Peter the Great himself liked to make gifts to his entourage in the form of "serf souls". For example, the emperor gave his favorite prince Alexander Menshikov about 100 thousand peasants "of both sexes". Subsequently, by the way, the prince will shelter fugitive peasants and Old Believers on his lands, charging them for accommodation. Peter the Great endured Menshikov's abuses for a long time, but in 1724 the ruler's patience snapped and the prince lost a number of privileges.
And after the death of the emperor, Menshikov elevated his wife Catherine I to the throne and began to actually rule the country himself.
Serfdom significantly increased in the second half of the 18th century: it was then that decrees were adopted on the possibilities of landowners to imprison courtyards and peasants, to exile them to Siberia for settlement and hard labor. The landlords themselves could be punished only if they "beat the peasants to death."
Cute bride on first night
One of the heroes of the popular TV series "Poor Nastya" is the selfish and lustful Karl Modestovich Schuller, the manager of the barons' estate.
In reality, the managers who received unlimited power over the serfs often turned out to be more cruel than the landowners themselves.
In one of his books, the candidate of historical sciences Boris Kerzhentsev quotes the following letter from a noblewoman to his brother: “My most precious and respected brother with all my soul and heart!.. Many landowners are our very fair debauches: apart from legitimate wives, they have serf concubines, brawls, often whipping their peasants, but they do not be angry with them to such an extent, they do not corrupt their wives and children to such a filth … All your peasants are completely ruined, exhausted, completely tortured and maimed by none other than your manager, the German Karl, nicknamed we have "Karloi" who is a fierce beast, a tormentor …
This unclean animal has corrupted all the girls of your villages and demands every pretty bride for the first night.
If this does not please the girl herself or her mother or groom, and they dare to beg him not to touch her, then they are all, according to the established order, punished with a whip, and the girl-bride for a week, or even two, put on her neck to hinder I will sleep a slingshot. The slingshot closes, and Karl hides the key in his pocket. The peasant, the young husband, who showed resistance to Karla corrupting the girl just married to him, is wrapped around his neck with a dog's chain and strengthened at the gate of the house, the very house in which we, my half-brother and half-brother, were born with you …"
The grain growers are free
Paul I was the first to meet the abolition of serfdom. The Emperor signed the Manifesto on the Three-Day Corvée, a document that legally limited the use of peasant labor in favor of the court, state and landlords to three days during each week.
Moreover, the manifesto forbade forcing peasants to work on Sundays.
The work of Paul I was continued by Alexander I, who issued a decree on free farmers. According to the document, the landowners received the right to release the serfs individually and in villages with the issuance of a land plot. But for their freedom, the peasants paid a ransom or performed duties. The serfs who were released were called "free farmers".
During the reign of the emperor, 47,153 peasants became “free farmers” - 0.5% of the total peasant population.
In 1825, Nicholas I, who was “lovingly” called by the people Nikolai Palkin, ascended the throne. The emperor tried in every possible way to abolish serfdom - but each time he faced the dissatisfaction of the landowners. The chief of gendarmes Alexander Benkendorf wrote about the need to liberate the peasants to the ruler: “In all of Russia, only the victorious people, the Russian peasants, are in a state of slavery; all others: Finns, Tatars, Estonians, Latvians, Mordovians, Chuvashs, etc. - are free."
The desire of Nicholas I will be fulfilled by his son, who in gratitude will be called the Liberator.
However, the epithet "Liberator" will appear both in connection with the abolition of serfdom, and in connection with the victory in the Russian-Turkish war and the resulting liberation of Bulgaria.
Alexander II.
Alexander II abolished serfdom on March 3, 1861 in the course of the peasant reform.
“And now we hope with hope that the serfs, with a new future opening up for them, will understand and gratefully accept the important donation made by the noble nobility to improve their life,” the manifesto said.
- They will understand that, having received for themselves a firmer foundation of property and greater freedom to dispose of their economy, they become obliged to society and to themselves to supplement the beneficialness of the new law with the correct, well-meaning and diligent use of the rights granted to them in the cause. The most beneficial law cannot make people prosperous if they do not take the trouble to arrange their own well-being under the protection of the law."
Ekaterina Shutova