First stage refers to the end of the 15th - 16th centuries, when the offensive of the feudal landowners and the state against the peasants began. The growth of local and patrimonial landownership was accompanied by the subordination of the peasants to the power of the landowners. Peasants turned into serfs, i.e. bound to the earth and to their master. Thus, the development of serfdom in Russia was associated with the formation of the local system and the growing role of the state. The economic basis of serfdom was feudal property to the earth in all its forms - local, patrimonial, state.
Until the end of the 15th century, peasants could leave their owners and move to another landowner. Sudebnik of Ivan III (1497) introduced St. George's day rule, according to which peasants could leave their owners only once a year - a week before St. George's Day (November 26) and within a week after it, with mandatory payment "elderly"- payment for living on the owner's land. This was the first nationwide restriction of peasant freedom, but not yet enslavement.
In the Sudebnik of Ivan IV (1550) the norms of the peasant transition on St. George's Day were confirmed and clarified, the elderly increased, the power of the master over the peasants increased: the owner was made responsible for the crimes of the peasants. Now the feudal lord was called the "sovereign" of the peasant, i.e. the legal position of the peasant was approaching the status of a serf, which was a step towards serfdom.
Second phase enslavement of peasants in the country took place from the end of the XVI century. until 1649, when the Cathedral Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was published.
At the end of the XVI century. there was a radical change in the position of the peasants, who were deprived of the right to leave their owners. In the conditions of the ruin of the country and the flight of the peasants, Ivan the Terrible in 1581 introduced feudal legislation - "reserved years", when St. George's Day was canceled and the transition of peasants was prohibited, which meant important step on the way to the formalization of serfdom in Russia. IN 1592 - 1593 A decree was issued that forever abolished the right of peasants to move on St. George's Day. Under Boris Godunov, in 1597, a decree was issued that ordered that all fugitive and forcibly taken peasants be searched for and returned to their former owners within a five-year period. The serf legislation of the late 16th century is the most important stage in the history of serfdom in Russia. Now farmers were attached to the land, and not to the owner.
During the Time of Troubles, in the conditions of the crisis of all power structures, it was more and more difficult to keep the peasants from leaving. Vasily Shuisky, hoping for the support of the nobility, issued serf legislation that provided for an increase in the term lesson years. In 1606, a 10-year term was established, and in 1607, a 15-year term for detecting fugitive peasants.
The system of serfdom legally formalized Cathedral Code of 1649 It assigned privately owned peasants to landlords, boyars, monasteries and other owners, and also established the dependence of privately owned peasants on the state. The Cathedral Code abolished the “lesson years”, approved the right to an indefinite search and return of the fugitives, secured the heredity of serfdom and the right of the landowner to dispose of the property of the serf.
Third stage enslavement of peasants refers to the middle of the XVII - XVIII centuries, when there was a strengthening and further development of serfdom. During this period, there are serious differences in the right to dispose of the peasants: their landowner could sell, exchange, or inherit. During the reign of Peter I, the size of peasant duties increased, and feudal exploitation intensified. This was facilitated by the Decree on Uniform Heritage of 1714, which turned noble estates into estates, land and peasants became the full property of the landowner. In the XVIII century. serfdom took on the most severe form. Corvee and dues grew, and with them the rights of landowners in relation to the property and personality of the peasant. Legislation consolidated the regime of unlimited landowner arbitrariness in relation to serfs.
Gradually in late XVIII– 19th century the process of disintegration of feudal relations intensifies, the feudal-serf system enters a period of crisis, and capitalist relations are born.
Thus, serfdom is an important difference between the Russian social development from Western European. The Russian state tied the peasants with feudal dependence, sacrificing the natural development of society.
Plan
Introduction
The beginning of the restriction of peasant transitions. Sudebnik 1497 - 1550
The decisive stage in the formation of the serfdom system
3. The finalization of the nationwide system of serfdom. Cathedral Code of 1649
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
In the middle of the XVI century. Russia entered into new period of its development. Vassal-suzerain relations, characteristic of early feudalism and the Russian centralized state, were replaced by new form- estate-representative monarchy. Previously, the state unity of Rus' was based on the political agreement of the feudal lords. Therefore, the previous period is sometimes called political feudalism. In the XVI-XVII centuries. unity was based on all-estate Zemsky Sobors. It turns out that the social base of the monarchy was wider, and the feudalism of this period can be called social.
In the XVI-XVII centuries. all areas developed more intensively public life, which affected social structure society and the state-political structure of Russia.
In the social structure of society, tendencies to enslave the peasants intensified. The enslavement of the peasants had a huge impact on the development of our country - it caused a sharp, albeit still little noticed by researchers, shift in the psychology of the broadest masses of the Russian population.
When and how the decisive point was set in the process of enslaving the peasants remains to this day not fully clarified, despite the almost boundless historiography of the issue. The lack of direct evidence in the sources dooms historians to numerous hypothetical reconstructions of this event.
The purpose of the study is to consider the main stages of the enslavement of peasants in Russia.
1. The beginning of the restriction of peasant transitions. Sudebnik 1497 - 1550
Feudal-dependent population of Russia in the XVI-XVII centuries. was inhomogeneous. The state (black-eared) peasants found themselves in the most advantageous position. In the 17th century Palace peasants were significant in number. Privately owned peasants belonged in the XVI-XVII centuries. not only the boyars, but also the nobles. During this period, the term "local peasants" appears. As in previous periods, the peasantry was united into communities. During this period, servility persisted in Russia, but the number and social base of this estate was declining.
By decision of the Zemsky Sobor of 1549, the revision of the outdated Sudebnik of 1497 began. The Code of Laws, adopted in 1550, consisted of 100 articles instead of 68 in the previous one, that is, about a third of the laws were new. The Sudebnik of Ivan the Terrible (1550) reflected the changes that had taken place in the legislation since 1497.
Art. 76, 78, 82 Sudebnik regulated bonded relations and servility. Kholops, as in the previous legislation of the 15th century, became subjects of law. Sudebnik continued to narrow the social base of servility. For example, Art. 82-83 distinguished between obligations and servility. Now the obligations did not extend to the personality of the debtor. Art. 76 fully reveals the sources of servitude and explains that serfs are not children born before their parents became such, as well as those who entered the service in the city or the service in the village without the appropriate registration of reports. In addition to this, Art. 81 forbids accepting servants and their children as slaves.
Attachment of peasants to the land began already in the XIV century. In the inter-princely agreements, an obligation was written not to entice black-taxed peasants from each other. From the middle of the 15th century, a number of letters of the Grand Duke were published, in which a single period for the leave and reception of peasants was established for all feudal lords. The same letters indicated the obligation to pay a certain sum of money for the departing peasant. Size elderly (payment for the peasant's living on the master's land) depended on whether the yard was in the steppe or forest zone, and on the length of residence.
The development of serfdom took place in several stages, the scope of which can be limited by the following documents:
Sudebnik of 1497, which established in Article 57 St. George's day rule;
Sudebnik of 1550, during which the reserved summers;
Cathedral Code of 1649, which abolished lesson summer and establishing indefiniteness of investigation.
Attachment developed in two ways - non-economic and economic (enslaved). In the 15th century, there were two main categories of peasants - old-timers and newcomers. The former ran their household and carried out their duties in full, forming the basis of the feudal economy. The feudal lord sought to secure them for himself, to prevent the transition to another owner. The second, as newly arrived, could not fully bear the burden of duties and enjoyed certain benefits, received loans and credits. Their dependence on the owner was debt, bondage. According to the form of dependence, a peasant could be a half-worker (work for half of the harvest) or a silversmith (work for interest).
According to the legislative acts of the XIV-XV centuries, all categories of peasant landowners are black, palace, boyar, patrimonial. Local in relation to landowners were divided into three unequal categories:
peasants were taxable, state-owned, subject to certain state taxes and duties, who did not have the right to transfer. They constituted the predominant mass of the state population;
privately owned peasants who lived on the land of their masters and paid them frills;
free peasant colonists on foreign lands, public and private, exempted from taxes and duties for a certain grace period, after which they were credited to the category of black or privately owned peasants.
The landowners and estate owners were judges of their peasants in all cases, with the exception of criminal cases.
The code of law of 1497 under Tsar Ivan III for the first time on a nationwide scale limited the right of peasant output: their transfer from one owner to another was now allowed only once a year, during the week before and after the autumn St. George's Day (November 25) after the completion of field work. In addition, natives were obliged to carve out the elderly to the owner - money for the loss of labor, for yard - outbuildings. This was the beginning of the creation of a nationwide system of serfdom. What were the benefits of the feudal economy?
For the development of the feudal economy in the conditions of that time, a high degree of non-economic coercion was required, which is proved by the entire course of the enslavement of the peasants. But it is also obvious that St. George's Day was a fairly effective means: limiting the transition to a short time, high exit fees made it extremely difficult for the peasant to leave on his own, and most often it was about export, that is, about changing the feudal lord. The voluntary exit of a peasant who did not pay the elderly and did not leave on St. George's Day was nothing more than an escape prosecuted by law. Consequently, the existing system of detecting peasants is unlikely to have seriously changed after the annexation. Moreover: the investigation, most likely, was indefinite, which ensured the rights of the landowner to his peasant to a much greater extent than the five-year "lesson years" introduced, possibly even before the decree of 1597. So for an ordinary landowner, the St. George's Day system could have certain advantages. In addition, the most far-sighted representatives of this stratum could understand that with its abolition, they would also lose their natural resource of labor, and farming methods would lose flexibility and efficiency.
Apparently, it should still be recognized that in the XVI century. the attitude of representatives of the estate system to the attachment of peasants was, at least, far from unambiguous, because, being objectively beneficial (in theory) primarily to not very large representatives of the estate system, in practice of real relations it entailed a lot of negative consequences for them. In addition, there were separate strata and territorial groups of landowners for whom attachment was by no means unconditionally beneficial (for example, in the conditions of the estate system in southern Russia). Perhaps it is not at all by chance that the information that has come down to us about the petition of the nobility at the council of 1580, immediately preceding the introduction of "reserved years", does not contain noble demands for the attachment of peasants.
At the end of the XVI - beginning of the XVII centuries. laws were adopted in which the provisions “On St. George’s Day” of the Sudebnik of 1497 were developed. (Article 57), the Sudebnik of 1550 (Article 88) and the Stoglavy Sobor of 1551 (Article 98).
Popular uprisings and boyar arbitrariness during the early childhood of Ivan IV, as well as the general tendency towards the centralization of the country and the state apparatus, led to the publication of this new code of laws. Taking as a basis the Code of Laws of Ivan III, the compilers of the new Code of Laws made changes to it related to the strengthening of the central government. His feature there was a desire to improve the administration of justice. True, the old system of administration and court in the person of governors and volosts was preserved, but with significant amendments, the essence of which was to increase control over them by the local population and central authorities.
The population of the country was obliged to bear a tax-complex of natural and monetary duties. A single unit of taxation for the entire state was established - a large plow. Depending on the fertility of the soil, as well as the social status of the owner of the land, the plow was (400-600 hectares) of land. Thus, the non-parochial system of government that developed during the period of the liquidation of appanages and came into strong conflict with the requirements of the time was initially limited. And then - due to its fundamental unsuitability - it was abolished.
At the same time, there was a reduction in slavery. According to the law code of 1550, serfs - parents were forbidden to serf their children born in freedom. Since 1589, the servility of a free woman who married a serf has been questioned. The Code of Laws of the 15th-16th centuries no longer mentioned the punishment for the flight of a purchase, robbery, arson and horse-stealing (as was the case in Russkaya Pravda) as sources of servility. At the same time, the procedure for releasing slaves into the wild became more complicated - the issuance of letters was carried out in a limited number of cities. A complicated form of issuing a document was required (by a court with a boyar report).
. The decisive stage in the formation of the serfdom system
In 1581, the decree "On reserved years" was introduced. The decree was adopted as a temporary measure in the conditions of the Levon War and canceled (“commanded”, forbade) the transition of peasants on St. George’s Day until the next, i.e. 1582. The actions of the “commandment” of the transition of peasants actually canceled the provisions of previous laws and were repeated from year to year .
In 1592 a census was taken. The results of the census were included in the "Scribe Books", which served as the basis for further lawmaking. In 1597, on the basis of the "Scribe Books", a decree "On a five-year investigation of fugitive peasants" was issued. Peasants who were not included in the “Scribe Books”, that is, those who left the feudal lords before the census five years ago relative to 1597, were not subject to search and return to the master. The exception was special search cases about runaway peasants. Peasants registered in 1592, who equally left the patrimony or estate after the specified period, were subject to search and return.
In line with feudal policy, one can interpret the decree of 1597 "On serfs." The decree developed the corresponding provisions of serfs, legalized serfdom and equated the position of serfs with serfs. Until the death of his master, the serf had no opportunity to regain his personal freedom (v. 3). The law allowed those serfs who had served their master for at least six months to be turned into bonded servants, even if the service serfs had no debt obligations to the owner (Article 9).
To streamline possible issues in cases of servitude, appropriate censuses were provided, the data of which had to fit into the "Books" of the Kholop'y order (Art. 1-2). They determined the statute of limitations on the issue of ownership of a serf (Article 4). All issues that arose under the decree of 1597 were resolved in the Kholopy court of the Kholopy order in accordance with the new legislation and the previous provisions of the Code of Laws of 1550 (Art. 1,2,4,7).
At the beginning of the XVII century. serfdom legislation changed several times. Under the conditions of the famine of 1601, the government allowed the free transfer of the dependent population to other feudal lords in the event that the owner was not able to feed his serf or serf. Later, the decree was canceled, and the new decree "On Lesson Years" increased the period of search and return of peasants to their master up to 15 years. However, in the conditions of the “Time of Troubles”, the decrees were ignored by the feudally dependent population, and the government had neither the strength nor the ability to implement the adopted legislation.
So, the legislation of the late XVI - early XVII centuries. was decisive in the process of enslaving the peasants.
The census and the decisions of the council of 1584 were probably connected with fragments of the law on the establishment in 1586/1587 of the norms for local salaries near Moscow, as well as the Code of 1586 on servitude, the main concern of which was the registration of transactions for bonded people, which, obviously , could help to take into account and fix the taxable part of the serfs. It is possible that the spread of “reserved years” for taxpayers over a larger territory was also connected with the census, due to the same reasons as before. The likelihood of such a scenario is also confirmed by recent observations by B.N. Flory over the practice of introducing "reserved years" in the first half of the 1580s, and in the scribal order analyzed by him to the Galician scribes, Yu.I. Neledinsky and L. Safonov dated June 30, 1585, the fiscal motives of the new description are quite clearly visible ("Posadtsky people and volost peasants fled ... not even to pay sovereign taxes from envoys" - emissaries of the central government, extorting emergency taxes).
As can be seen from the studies, the census took at least one or two years, the compilation and design of scribe books also took one or two years (for example, in 1623 Foka Durov "... measured the Totemsky district, and the books" were done in rough and clean 2 years in Moscow).
Thus, the results of the census could be obtained no earlier than three years later. There is nothing surprising in this - even the procedure of the per capita census and revisions in the 18th century. (1st revision) stretched out, despite the simpler tax unit and the accounting and description procedure, for more than five years. The main work on the census was done in 1585-1587, however, summary data on it could be obtained only after the completion of the last descriptions, and the last scribe books, according to Koretsky, date back to the 1590s. The census was also delayed due to the fact that in the course of the work there were disputes, denunciations of scribes, investigations, and sometimes revision of the works of unqualified scribes. The summary results of the census could not have been obtained before 1590/1591.
But for what purpose, then, were censuses carried out on a national scale, if they did not set such a task? According to many authors, the purpose of the census was to enslave the peasants.
Modern research traces the process of continuing and even progressive desolation. "Data collection notebooks" of the late 1580s are full of notes: "peasants scattered", "no one to take", "not taken from empty shares", not taken for the poor and for those who are not at home. "The share is also growing. arrears from 2.4% in 1581-1582 to 13.3% in 1589-1590 (excluding hidden arrears).The logically following revision of tax salaries by the government of Boris Godunov in the direction of their reduction is confirmed as quoted by N.M. Karamzin by order to the envoy Islenyev in July 1591 (“Whatever the lands of the entire state, he committed all the plows in tarkhaneh, in favor”), and the conclusion of E.I. Kolycheva based on the materials of the monastery archives of that time (“in the early 90s the government was forced to reduce the rates of basic taxes"), as well as the partial whitewashing of the lord's plowing no later than 1593.
Data on the insolvency of a part of the population, which forced tax cuts, could force the government to take extraordinary measures. The specific situation in the country in the early 1590s could also have prompted this. The beginning of the settlement of Siberia, the government policy for the development of the southern regions, which unfolded here and there after 1584-1586. (the construction of chains of fortified towns required service people and at the same time created conditions for the rapid colonization of these areas, which was extremely difficult to control, and it obviously went largely at the expense of the fugitives. Most simple solution adopted in order to stop the outflow of taxpayers from the old territories, which undermined the country's tax system, was a ban on exit, already tested in the practice of "reserved years". It could apply not only to the owner's peasants, but also to other categories of taxpayers, and the decree on it, most likely, could be adopted no earlier than 1591-1592. The ban on exit for taxpayers automatically stopped the action of St. George's Day. He also terminated the action of the "forbidden years", as he turned the temporary norm into a permanent attachment to the tax.
This was required by a tax policy based not on a progressive income tax, but on a static salary, even though it was set in accordance with the economic capabilities of the payers, but fixed for a certain moment, after which until the next census, which was delayed for a rather long period (usually 20-30 years), the position of payers could change dramatically. The rigid system of territorial salaries that had not been reviewed for a long time, which were also collected by different institutions, which objectively prevented their mutual revision, required, if possible, the invariance of tax units, that is, restrictions on the movement of taxpayers, because, although taxes were collected from the land, it was obvious to everyone that the amount of "arable land" ultimately depends on how many people plow it. This need for a fairly rigidly centralized tax system to limit the mobility of the population was clearly manifested in the 18th century. in conducting polling censuses. A new strengthening of serfdom relations was connected with them, the initiator of which was not the landowners. The very logic of the functioning of the per capita tax system was at work. Therefore, it is quite possible that in the XVI century. the peasants were attached not to the land, but to the state tax, and not in connection with the insistence and demands of the landowners (who could mostly be satisfied by the system of non-economic coercion already established in the practice of St. George's Day), but in connection with the fiscal interests of the state. It was the financial needs of the state that could force Boris Godunov to accept taxpayers, "not listening to the advice of the oldest boyars."
Of course, the five-year fixed-term summers primarily met the needs of large estate owners, but in many respects they also took into account the interests of the state. To some extent, they resolved the problems of colonization, protection and development of new borders, and also fixed the "fledgling" payer in the new territory, preventing its repeated ruin, inevitable when returning to the old place. The five-year period was probably nothing more than the time of the complete economic arrangement of the peasant in the new territory. It was no coincidence that the Code of Laws of 1550 established the payment of the entire amount of the elderly only after four years of residence. It is possible that these motives prevailed in establishing the five-year investigation. True, the political situation at the end of 1597 could have prompted the consolidation of the emerging system in the interests of the boyars, to whom it objectively provided certain advantages. For the mass of service people, the attachment of the peasants, corrected by the fixed years, could not be so profitable.
3. The finalization of the nationwide system of serfdom. Cathedral Code of 1649
The Council Code of 1649 was the largest legislative act of that time. The immediate reason for its adoption was the uprising of the townspeople of Moscow that broke out in 1648. The townspeople turned to the tsar with petitions for the improvement of their position and for protection from harassment. At the same time, the nobles presented their demands to the tsar, who believed that the boyars were infringing on them in many ways. The tsar suppressed the uprising of the townspeople, but nevertheless was forced to postpone the collection of arrears, to alleviate to some extent the position of the townspeople. In July 1648, he ordered the development of a draft of a new law called the Code.
The main reason for the adoption of the Council Code was the intensification of the class struggle. The tsar and the top of the ruling class, frightened by the uprising of the townspeople, sought to calm the masses of the people to create the appearance of easing the situation of the taxed townspeople. The decision to change the legislation was influenced by the petitions of the nobility, which contained demands for the abolition of school years.
The Cathedral Code of 1649 is a significant step forward compared to previous legislation. This law regulated not separate groups of social relations, but all aspects of the socio-political life of that time. In the Cathedral Code of 1649, the norms of various industries were reflected.
The most important section of the Council Code was the chapter peasant court . An indefinite search for fugitive and taken away peasants was introduced. The prohibition of the transition of peasants to new owners on St. George's Day was confirmed. The feudal lords received the right to almost completely dispose of the property and personality of the peasant. This meant the legal registration of the system of serfdom. Simultaneously with the privately owned peasants, serf relations extended to the Black Hundreds and palace peasants, who were forbidden to leave their communities. In the event of flight, they were also subject to an indefinite investigation. peasant law cathedral code
The feudal lords had the right to land and peasants, but they were obliged to serve from estates and estates. For evading service, the confiscation of half of the estate threatens, beating with a whip, for treason - the death penalty and total confiscation of property.
The peasants did not have the right to keep shops in the cities, but could trade only from wagons and in the market stalls.
Thus, the entire peasant population was attached to their owners. The power of the monarch increased, which meant moving towards the establishment of an absolute monarchy in Russia. Cathedral Code It was adopted, first of all, in the interests of the nobility and the tops of the settlement, taking into account the interests of the boyars and the clergy.
So, the consolidation of the peasants with the adoption of the Cathedral Code was completed. Many historians were interested in the reasons for the enslavement of the peasantry. Let's look at some of the theories.
Already in 1857-1860, several specific variants of the theory of enslavement took shape and the concept of "unordered" enslavement, put forward in the articles of M.P. Pogodin and M.M. Speransky. According to the latter, the peasants were attached without active participation state, as a result of the gradually increasing economic dependence of peasants on their owners.
At the same time, in line with the democratic tradition (A.I. Herzen), the idea of enslavement arose as long process, in which the very fact of attaching peasants to the land did not have any exceptional significance. It was almost entirely accepted by V.I. Lenin (for whom "serfdom" therefore became almost a synonym for feudal dependence in general), and through him - and Soviet historiography. The advantage of this stage of the discussion of the problem was the increased attention to the motives for the enslavement of the peasants.
If Speransky explained the gradual formation of serfdom by economic relations between the peasant and the landowner, then B.N. Chicherin saw in the decree of 1592 the desire to "attach" the peasantry in a number of other classes to a certain type of service and to stop the "wandering state" of the peasants. According to I.D. Belyaev, this decree meant attaching peasants to the land and was caused primarily by the fiscal needs of the state, as well as the desire to stop the flight of peasants to the outskirts after the Livonian "ruin", but paradoxically did not lead to the loss of personal freedom by the peasants. CM. Solovyov, who considered the decree prohibiting the exit of peasants as a means to provide the local system with labor, actually became the founder of the concept that explains enslavement by the "struggle for labor hands" between landowners and patrimonials - a concept that was subsequently widely used by Soviet historical science.
But from the 1880s to late XIX V. in science, the "unordered" theory triumphed, completed by V.O. Klyuchevsky. She transferred the center of gravity to the economic relations between peasants and landowners and interpreted the establishment of serfdom as an attachment to the personality of the owner. This theory was the brainchild of its time: it reflected a positive trend for that era towards "economism" in the study historical processes associated with the spread of Comte's positivism and Marxism, as well as the influence of the specific practice of relations between landowners and peasants during the period of the "temporarily obligated" state.
The spirit of the era was also felt in the general prominence of interpersonal, proprietary relations, so characteristic of the emerging bourgeois society. An essential argument in favor of such a concept at the time of the formation of positivist methodology scientific research there was also the absence of direct traces of the decree of 1592/1593 in the act material accumulated by that time.
However, the positions of the "ruthless" theory of the enslavement of the peasants were significantly undermined at the beginning of the 20th century. after the discovery of references to "reserved years", which were interpreted as a prohibition of the peasant exit into last years reign of Ivan the Terrible. In this regard, a new modification of the "instruction" theory was born, linking enslavement with " reserved years". She also switched to the concepts of B.D. Grekov, classical for Soviet historiography, until there was a return to the Tatishchev version of the "instruction theory" in the works of V.I. Koretsky, whose conclusions were widely recognized in the 1970s-1980s.
But in the struggle between the supporters of the “instruction” and “instructive” concepts, already in pre-revolutionary historiography, the subject of discussion narrowed: the central problem became the time and method of enslavement, but not its motives, which receded, as it were, into the background and under the influence of the historiographic tradition of the “incredible” theory of tacitly reduced in the plane of the relationship between feudal lords and landowning peasants. This trend was strengthened by the methodological schemes that dominated the Soviet historical science with its dominant economic processes and class and intra-class struggle as the main driving force development of society. As a result, the field narrowed. historical research, actually converted into Stalin period(1930s - early 1950s) from multidimensional to one-dimensional - to the arena of struggle between feudal lords and peasants. The simplification of the picture of the forces that really acted in society and influenced its development was not completely overcome in the post-Stalin era, despite the successes of the Soviet historical school in the mid-1950s-1980s.
Hence, those ascending to Solovyov became predominant in Soviet historiography. various options explaining the reasons for the enslavement of peasants by the interests of the local system (except for the original concept of L.V. Milov, who saw in enslavement one of the stages in the struggle of the feudal lords with the community resisting them). They, perhaps, remain dominant in the "post-perestroika" period with its characteristic general methodological instability and vagueness (an exception is, perhaps, the concept of B.N. Mironov, who broadly interprets serfdom as a condition that has spread since the beginning of the 18th century to all strata of society without exception, and characterized by the serfdom of a person not only from the landowner or the state, but also from class corporate and communal structures).
Conclusion
IN control work the topic “The main stages of the enslavement of the peasantry in Russia. Cathedral Code of 1649. In the course of the study, the main points of the enslavement of the peasantry were highlighted. Causes and consequences of this process for Russia. In conclusion, we summarize the results of the work.
Thus, the Russian peasantry could lose its freedom in a number of other categories of taxpayers, not at the will and insistent requests of the landowners, but under the pressure of the mechanical, impersonal force of financial state interests. Their spokesmen did not even wonder about the consequences of this decision and its significance for the future of Russia. But the feudal landowners, faced with the fact of attaching the peasants to the tax, soon adapted the existing system to their needs, suppressing the last vestiges of personal freedom among the landowning peasants and giving rise to the most crude forms of arbitrariness and exploitation, which ripened by the 18th century. almost to a slavish state that distorted the souls and psychology of Russian people in all strata of society for centuries to come.
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Reasons for the enslavement of peasants in Russia: 1. natural environment, which required the creation of a rigid mechanism of economic coercion of the peasants for the development of society, strengthened. state, providing state. apparatus;
2. confrontation between the community and the developing landownership. The resistance of the peasants to the expansion of local land ownership, the desire of service people to exercise control over communal land, which would guarantee the satisfaction of their needs, the overcoming of the resistance of the peasants was achieved by their complete subordination;
3. the state's need for a guaranteed income of taxes, for which it was necessary to carry out a census of peasants and attach them to the landowners;
4. disasters and destruction that were caused by the oprichnina and the Livonian wars. As a result of these destructions, the peasants fled from the center to the outskirts of the country, in connection with which the problem of providing the service class with labor force sharply became aggravated.
The main stages of the enslavement of the peasantry were;
1) the end of the 15th-16th centuries. Fortification process. peasants in Russia began in Ancient Rus'-part of the rural population lost complete freedom and turned into serfs and serfs. In the conditions of feudal fragmentation, the peasants could leave the land on which they lived and move to another landowner. In the Sudebnik of 1497, a certain day was established (Yuriev's Day) for the transition of peasants from one owner to another. A week and a week after St. George's Day (November 26), peasants could move from one landowner to another, but only after paying for elderly . At other times, the peasants did not have the right from their landowner to another. The establishment of a short transition period testified to the restriction by the state of the rights of peasants. The Code of Laws of 1550 introduced reserved summers, during which even the established passage of peasants was prohibited. In the 50-90s. 16th century the peasants were rewritten, and the scribe books became the documentary basis for attaching the peasants to the landlords. Attachment was carried out by non-economic and economic (bondage) ways;
2) 16-17 centuries. In 1592, during the reign of Boris Godunov, a decree was issued on widespread enslavement, which prohibited the transition of peasants throughout the state-va and without any time limits. The regime of protected years was introduced, which made it possible to compile scribe books (population census), which led to the creation of conditions for attaching peasants to their place of residence and returning fugitive peasants in case of capture by the old owners. In the Council's verdict of 1649, on the abolition of school years, there was a ban on accepting not only peasants who were recorded in scribe books, but also members of their families. Decrees on lesson years were issued, which set the time limits for the investigation and return of fugitive peasants from 5 to 15 years. In 1649, the final enslavement was carried out by the Council Code. Fixed years were abolished, an indefinite search for fugitive peasants was introduced, the eternal and hereditary fortress of the peasants was declared;
3) ser. 17- to. 18 centuries. As a result of the reforms carried out by Peter I, the peasants lost the remnants of their rights and, in terms of their social and legal status, approached the slaves. In the 18th century the landowners received the full right to dispose of the personality and property of the peasants, as well as the right to exile the peasants without trial to Siberia and to hard labor;
4) the end of the 18th-19th centuries. Serfdom relations entered the stage of decomposition. The state carried out measures limiting the arbitrariness of the landowners. In 1861, serfdom was finally abolished under Alexander II.
Stages of enslavement of peasants in Russia:
1497 - Sudebnik Ivan 3. St. George's Day began. November 26th. It was possible to move from one host to another (a week before and a week after).
1550- Sudebnik Ivan 4. Yuryev day + elderly. (Increased the fee for the elderly and established an additional fee)
1581- Protected summers. Cancellation of St. George's Day - a ban on the transition.
1597- Lesson summers. Investigation of runaway peasants 5 years.
1607– Investigation of runaways for 15 years.
1637– Detective 9 years.
1642. - Detective 10 years.
1649 - Council order. An indefinite search for runaway peasants. in Moscow there was an uprising called the "Salt Riot", the cause of which was an excessively high tax on salt. Following Moscow, other cities also rose. As a result of the current situation, it became clear that a revision of the laws was necessary. In 1649 he was called Zemsky Sobor, at which the Council Code was adopted, according to which the peasants were finally attached to the land.
IN tsarist Russia serfdom spread widely XVI century, but officially confirmed by the Cathedral Code of 1649.
Sudebnik of 1497
Sudebnik of 1497 - the beginning of the legal registration of serfdom.
Ivan III adopted a code of laws of a unified Russian state- Sudebnik. The transition from one landowner to another is limited to a single period for the whole country: a week before and a week after St. George's Day - November 26. The peasants could go to another landowner, but they had to pay the elderly for the use of the land plot and yard.
Land reform of 1550
Under Ivan IV, the Sudebnik of 1550 was adopted, he retained the right to transfer peasants on St. George's Day, but increased the payment for the elderly and established an additional fee, in addition, the Sudebnik obliged the owner to answer for the crimes of his peasants, which increased their dependence. Since 1581, the so-called reserved years began to be introduced, in which the transition was prohibited even on St. George's Day. This was due to the census: in which region the census took place, in that one the reserved year began. In 1592 the census was completed, and with it the possibility of the transition of the peasants was completed. The peasants, having lost the opportunity to move to another owner, began to run away, settling for life in other regions or on "free" lands. The owners of runaway peasants had the right to detect and return fugitives: in 1597, Tsar Fedor issued a Decree, according to which the term for detecting runaway peasants was five years.
Serfdom in the 17th century
In the 17th century in Russia, on the one hand, commodity production and the market appeared, and on the other, feudal relations, adapting to the market. It was a time of strengthening autocracy, the appearance of prerequisites for the transition to absolute monarchy. The 17th century is the era of mass popular movements in Russia.
In the second half of the XVII century. Peasants in Russia were united into two groups - serfs and black-mowed. Serfs ran their households on patrimonial, local and church lands, carried various feudal duties in favor of landowners. Black-eared peasants were included in the category of "hard people" who paid taxes and were under the control of the authorities. Therefore, there was a mass exodus of black-eared peasants.
In the reign of Mikhail Romanov, further enslavement of the peasants took place. Increasing cases of cession or sale of peasants without land.
During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, a number of reforms were carried out: the procedure for collecting payments and carrying out duties was changed. In 1646 - 1648. a household inventory of peasants and beans was carried out. And in 1648, an uprising called the “Salt Riot” took place in Moscow, the cause of which was an excessively high tax on salt. Following Moscow, other cities also rose. As a result of the current situation, it became clear that a revision of the laws was necessary. In 1649, the Zemsky Sobor was convened, at which the Council Code was adopted, according to which the peasants were finally attached to the land.
Its special chapter “The Court of the Peasants” canceled the “lesson years” for the investigation and return of fugitive peasants, the indefinite search and return of fugitives, established the heredity of serfdom and the right of the landowner to dispose of the property of a serf. If the owner of the peasants turned out to be insolvent, the property of peasants and serfs dependent on him was collected to compensate for his debt. Landowners received the right to a patrimonial court and police supervision over the peasants. Peasants did not have the right to speak independently in courts. Marriages, family divisions of peasants, inheritance of peasant property could only take place with the consent of the landowner. Peasants were forbidden to keep trading shops, they could trade only from wagons.
Harboring runaway peasants was punishable by a fine, whipping and imprisonment. For the murder of a foreign peasant, the landowner had to give his best peasant with his family. The owner had to pay for the runaway peasants.
The Cathedral Code of 1649 showed the way to strengthening Russian statehood. It legally formalized serfdom.
Serfdom in the 18th century
Peter I
In 1718 - 1724, under Peter I, a census of the peasantry was carried out, after which the household taxation was replaced by a poll tax in the country. In fact, the peasants supported the army, and the townspeople - the fleet. In the reign of Peter I, a new category of peasants was formed, who received the name of the state. Under Peter I, the passport system was also introduced: now, if a peasant went to work more than thirty miles from home, he had to receive a note in his passport about the date of return.
Elizaveta Petrovna
Elizaveta Petrovna at the same time increased the dependence of the peasants and changed their position: she eased the position of the peasants by forgiving them arrears for 17 years, reduced the size of the poll tax, changed recruitment (divided the country into 5 districts, which alternately supplied soldiers). But she also signed a decree according to which the serfs could not voluntarily enlist in the soldiers, allowed them to engage in crafts and trade. This marked the beginning of the stratification of the peasants.
Catherine II
Catherine II set the course for further strengthening of absolutism and centralization: the nobles began to receive land and serfs as a reward.
Serfdom in the 19th century
Alexander I
Of course, serf relations hindered the development of industry and in general development of the state, but, despite this, agriculture adapted to new conditions and developed according to its capabilities: new agricultural machines were introduced, new crops began to be grown (sugar beet, potatoes, etc.), new lands were developed in Ukraine, the Don, in the Volga region . But at the same time, the contradictions between the landowners and the peasants are intensifying - corvée and dues are brought by the landowners to the limit. Corvee, in addition to working on the master's arable land, included work in the serf factory, and the performance of various chores for the landowner throughout the year. The process of stratification within the peasantry began to intensify. The unspoken committee under Alexander I recognized the need for changes in peasant policy, but considered the foundations of absolutism and serfdom to be unshakable, although in the future it assumed the abolition of serfdom and the introduction of a constitution. In 1801, a decree was issued on the right to purchase land by merchants, philistines and peasants (state and appanage).
In 1803, a decree was issued "On free cultivators", which provided for the release of serfs to freedom for redemption with land by whole villages or individual families by mutual consent of peasants and landowners.
Decide again peasant question Alexander I tries in 1818. He even approved the project of A. Arakcheev and the Minister of Finance D. Guryev on the gradual elimination of serfdom by redeeming landlord peasants from their allotments with the treasury. But this project was not practically implemented (with the exception of granting personal freedom to the peasants of the Baltic states in 1816-1819, but without land).
Alexander II - Tsar-Liberator
Alexander II, who ascended the throne on February 19, 1855, set the following goals as the basis for the peasant reform:
1) liberation of peasants from personal dependence;
2) turning them into smallholders while maintaining a significant part of the landed estates.
On February 19, 1861, Alexander II signed the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom, he changed the fate of 23 million serfs: they received personal freedom and civil rights.
But for the land allotments allotted to them (until they redeem them), they had to serve a labor service or pay money, i.e. became known as "temporarily liable". For allotments, the peasants had to pay the landowner an amount of money, which, being deposited in the bank at 6%, would bring him an annual income equal to the pre-reform dues. According to the law, the peasants had to pay the landowner a lump sum for their allotment about a fifth of the stipulated amount (they could pay it not in money, but by working for the landowner). The rest was paid by the state. But the peasants had to return this amount (with interest) to him in annual payments for 49 years.
Reasons for the abolition of serfdom:
Firstly, this is the backlog of Russia in all spheres of the economy.
Secondly, this is the discontent of the Russians (and these were not only peasants, but also representatives of other classes).
Thirdly, defeat Crimean War which showed that in such conditions Russia cannot give a worthy rebuff to the enemy.
Significance of the abolition of serfdom:
The emancipation of the peasants led to the gradual restoration of the economy, to the accomplishment of the industrial revolution, to the establishment of capitalism in the country.
Also, the February 19 manifesto freed millions of peasants from serfdom. They received civil rights, but at the same time, there was another side of the coin.
The peasants did not have enough land, they were crushed by taxes and payments, many were still dependent on the landowner (but now economically). The agrarian question became even more aggravated. In the future, it will become the cause of the discontent of the peasants and their joining the revolutionaries.
One of the most controversial issues in Russian historiography is the topic: "Enslavement of the peasants." The stages of this process are very conditional, but the generally accepted point of view is that serfdom in Russia finally took shape in the 17th century. It should be noted that in medieval Europe this phenomenon also existed, but it was not observed everywhere and was quickly canceled. Therefore, many scientists wondered why the serf system of dependence took shape in our country just at the time when it actually ceased to exist in Europe.
Prerequisites
The enslavement of peasants, the stages of which are conditionally distinguished by decrees of the tsarist government in the 15-17 centuries, according to some researchers, was a natural consequence of the low productivity of agriculture, which, in turn, was due to difficult natural and climatic conditions.
In addition, some historians believe that the original dependence of the peasants on the feudal lords became the reason for the emergence of the serf system. The first, settling in a new place, borrowed tools from the second, seeds for sowing, occupied the land, which tied the peasants to the landowners. However, initially the villagers had the opportunity to leave their master, having paid off their debts. However, the latter tried to keep to himself labor force by increasing the fee or debt. Thus, the enslavement of the peasants actually began. The stages of this important phenomenon in the socio-economic life of the country were characterized by a gradual increase in pressure and pressure from the landowners.
Causes
In addition to these circumstances, there was another condition that contributed to the emergence and strengthening of the serf system in our country. It is known that the military basis of the state was the service class, which consisted of landowners and their armed people.
In order to properly perform their official duty, the state sought to provide the landowners with free labor and therefore met their wishes and demands to permanently attach taxpayers to them. So, already at the legal level, the enslavement of the peasants continued, the stages of which can be conditionally identified according to the relevant legislative acts of the government. The landlords were primarily concerned with providing their lands with working hands. But since the peasants had the right to go to another owner after paying off their debts, the landowners complained to the tsar about the shortage of farmers. And the authorities went to meet the service people, in every possible way preventing the transition of dependent people from one landowner to another.
theories
The stages of the enslavement of peasants in Russia have been studied by many prominent Russian historians. Scientists have developed two concepts of the emergence of serfdom in our country. According to the first of them, in order to maintain defense capability, the state attached peasants to the land so that service people could regularly fulfill their duties of maintaining border security.
This theory was called "instruction" in historical science, since its authors focused on the legal, legislative reasons for the emergence of the serf system. This point of view was held by such prominent scientists as N. Karamzin, S. Solovyov, B. Grekov, R. Skrynnikov. The stages of enslavement of peasants in Russia were considered by scientists in different ways. Other authors, on the contrary, argued that the emergence of serfdom was a natural consequence historical development the country's economy.
They believed that the conditions of life themselves worked out the appropriate conditions for the dependence of the peasants on the landowners, and the state only legally, formally consolidated the already existing relations. This theory was actively developed by such well-known researchers as V. Klyuchevsky, M. Dyakonov, M. Pogodin. In contrast to the first point of view, this concept is called "unordered".
land property
The main stages in the enslavement of the peasants should be determined by the degree of their dependence on the feudal lords. In the 15th century, two forms of feudal landownership finally took shape: patrimonial and local. The first assumed the transfer of land by inheritance from the ancestors.
This was the privilege of the highest stratum of the big boyars. The main part of the service class received plots for service and became nobles. They were called landlords, since they owned the estate - the land that was at their disposal as long as the nobleman served the state.
Categories of dependent population
By the formation of new groups of the rural population, one can trace the stages of the enslavement of the peasants. Briefly, this phenomenon can be characterized as the process of formation of the serf system due to the emergence of various forms of dependence on the feudal lords. The 15th century can rightly be considered the first period of registration of serfdom, since it was at this time that dependent peasants emerged into separate categories.
Some of them worked for the landowners for half the harvest, for which they received the name "ladles". Others worked out their debt to the owner by their own labor and therefore were called bonded serfs. And, finally, there was a category of beans who did not have their own arable land and, therefore, the ability to pay taxes and debts. So, the 15th century can rightly be considered the first period of the formation of serfdom of the rural population.
Decree of the 15th century
The main stages of the enslavement of peasants in Russia are traditionally distinguished by decrees of rulers that restrict their freedom. The first such law was the well-known Sudebnik of Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III, which was adopted in 1497.
This major legislative monument provided for the centralization of the courts, and also limited the period for the transition of peasants from one landowner to another to one period of the year - a week and a week after St. George's Day (November 26).
16th century decrees
However, almost a century later, in 1581, the Russian Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible introduced the so-called reserved years, which canceled this right of the peasants for an indefinite period. The government of Boris Godunov during the reign of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich adopted a decree on "lesson years". According to this decree, a period of five years for the capture of fugitive peasants was introduced. These stages of the enslavement of the peasants, the table of which is presented in this section, marked the birth of serfdom in Russia.
17th century legislation
In this century, the final formation of the personal dependence of the rural population on the feudal lords took place. Under the first Romanovs, two more decrees were adopted, which increased the time for detecting fugitive peasants. In 1637, the government of Mikhail Fedorovich extended this period for 9 years, and in 1641 for 15 years.
The stages of the enslavement of the peasants, the table of which includes the laws of the 15th-17th centuries, which consolidated the serfdom of the rural population, ended with the adoption of the Council Code under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1649. This legislative act assumed an indefinite search for fugitive peasants, and also attached them to the landowners for life.
Consequences
The result of all these decrees was the establishment of a system of serfdom in our country, which lasted until the second half of the 19th century. This had an extremely negative impact on the domestic economy, which continued to maintain an agrarian character, while the new time dictated the need for a transition to capitalism and market relations. However, it is impossible to assess this process so unambiguously, which was caused by the formation of the local system of land tenure in Russia, as well as the formation of the service class. Nevertheless, the long existence of the serf system led to the fact that the industrial development of Russia took place in difficult conditions. So, the main stages of the enslavement of peasants, table which is presented above, stretched over three centuries.
