Peasants who lived on state lands. What does "state peasants" mean? History of state peasants

A peasant is one of the representatives of the main class of the Russian population in Medieval Rus', whose main occupation was agriculture. Due to the fact that for a long time in Russia the majority of the population were these hard workers, this period in the history of our country is of particular interest. The formation of the peasantry dates back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Already in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, mass enslavement was realized. A peasant is, first of all, a person who lacked civil and

What was the serf class?

Starting from the eleventh century, the era began to dominate. The serf peasant, who was dependent on the landowner, worked first of all for the master, and then for himself. Being in such a position, for any violation the peasant who was bound could legally be subjected to it. The owner's allotment was not allowed to be mortgaged, sold or given as a gift, since it was the property of the landowner. By the middle of the seventeenth century, about half of the country's population was already in serfdom. It was their work at that time that created the basis for further development states.

State peasants

The remaining unenslaved population engaged in agriculture was formalized as state peasants in the second half of the eighteenth century. They lived on government land and performed duties in favor of the authorities, and also paid taxes to the treasury. at the same time he was considered personally free.

Due to the confiscation of church property, the government increased the number of state peasants. In addition, their number was replenished due to the flight of serfs from the villages, as well as due to visitors from other countries.

The difference between state peasants and serfs

It is assumed that the crown peasants from Sweden served as an example for determining the legal rights of state peasants. First of all, they had personal freedom. Unlike serfs, state peasants were allowed to participate in trials. They were given the right to enter into transactions and own property. A state peasant is a “free rural inhabitant” who could organize both retail and wholesale trade, as well as open a factory or factory. Serfs did not have such a right, since their personal freedom belonged entirely to the landowner. The state peasant is a temporary user of government property. Despite this, there are known cases of them making transactions as the owner of a land plot.

Problems and difficulties of serfdom

The peasants were dissatisfied with their unequal position in society. Excessive exploitation by landowners provoked mass riots and uprisings. The largest peasant uprising became a war, the leadership of which was taken by Stepan Razin, which lasted from 1670 to 1671. The peasant uprising led by E.I. also became loud. Pugachev, which lasted from 1773 to 1775.

Only towards the end of the eighteenth century did the Russian authorities think about the problem of the existence of serfdom. The legal and property situation did not suit the country's largest class either.

The year 1861 was decisive: Alexander II carried out a serf reform, as a result of which serfdom canceled, and over twenty million people finally gained freedom. However complete liberation was received after two years, during which they served their duties.

), State peasants lived on state-owned lands and, using allotted plots, were subordinate to the management of state bodies and were considered personally free.

According to the 1st revision (1724), there were 1,049,287 male souls (in European Russia and Siberia), i.e. 19% of the total agricultural population of the country; according to the 10th revision (1858), - 9,345,342 male souls, t.s. 45.2% of the agricultural population of European Russia. Estate State peasants increased due to the peasants of secularized church estates and newly annexed territories (the Baltic states, Right Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Crimea, Transcaucasia), Ukrainian Cossacks, former serfs, confiscated Polish estates, etc. In the late 30s. 19th century average land plot State peasants in 30 out of 43 provinces it was less than 5 dessiatines and only in a few provinces did it reach the established norm (8 dessiatines in land-poor provinces and 15 dessiatines in large-land provinces). The bulk State peasants contributed cash rent to the treasury; on the territory of the Baltic states and provinces annexed from Poland, state-owned estates were leased to private owners and State peasants served mostly corvée; The arable peasants of Siberia first cultivated the state-owned arable land, then paid food taxes, and later - monetary taxes. In the 1st half of the 19th century. quitrent State peasants ranged from 7 rub. 50 cop. to 10 rub. from the soul per year. As the exploitation of appanage and landowner peasants intensified, monetary dues State peasants became relatively smaller than comparable duties for other categories of peasants. Besides, State peasants were obliged to contribute money for zemstvo needs and worldly expenses; Along with other categories of peasants, they paid a capitation tax and served duties in kind (for example, road, underwater, billet duties). They were responsible for the proper performance of duties by mutual guarantee.

Development of trade and industry in the 18th-1st half of the 19th centuries. led to the expansion of rights State peasants: they were allowed to trade, open factories and factories, own “unpopulated” lands (i.e., without serfs), etc. But at the same time, due to the growth of landowner entrepreneurship, the nobility systematically appropriated state lands and sought to convert the free State peasants in their serfs (see General survey ). In the 2nd half of the 18th century. the government distributed to the nobility millions of dessiatines of state-owned land and hundreds of thousands State peasants; in the 1st half of the 19th century. The mass sale of state estates and their transfer to a specific department was practiced. Many nobles demanded the abolition of the class State peasants, transferring state-owned lands with their population into private hands.

As a result of the growth of land shortage and the increase in feudal duties at the beginning of the 19th century. progressive impoverishment and under-income were discovered State peasants Mass unrest became more and more frequent State peasants, directed against the reduction of plots, the severity of quitrents, the arbitrariness of tenants and officials. Question about change of control State peasants gave rise to numerous projects, both feudal and liberal-bourgeois. The worsening crisis of the feudal-serf system forced Nicholas's government to begin reforming the management of the state village in order to support state finances, raising the productive forces of the state village, and bring the landowner serfs closer to the position of “free rural inhabitants.” During 1837-1841, under the leadership of General P.D. Kiseleva was established special ministry state assets with a complex hierarchy of bureaucratic bodies. The created administration was entrusted with “guardianship” over State peasants through traditional rural community supervised by government officials.

The program for the economic development of the state village also could not be implemented. Measures such as the elimination of corvee duties were of relatively progressive importance State peasants in Lithuania, Belarus and Right Bank Ukraine, stopping the leasing of state estates to private owners and replacing the per capita rent with a more uniform land and fishing tax. However, these measures could not make a fundamental change in the situation State peasants The land shortage was not eliminated. The number of arrears did not decrease, but increased even more; agrotechnical measures turned out to be inaccessible to the peasant masses; Medical and veterinary care was provided on an insignificant scale, and most importantly, the entire management system based on feudal guardianship was accompanied by monstrous violence and extortion. Feudal management of the state village was in sharp contradiction with the economic processes of the 40-50s. 19th century, hindered the growth of peasant trade and industry, hindered the development of agriculture and fettered the growth of the productive forces of the peasantry. The result of the reform was the growth of the peasant movement, which took especially violent forms in the regions of Northern Pomerania, the Urals and the Volga region, where State peasants lived in large compact masses. Continuous protests against the system of government of the feudal state were also observed in the central and western regions (see. "Potato Riots" , "Cholera Riots" and etc.). After graduation Crimean War 1853-56 there was a clear tendency towards a merger of struggles State peasants with the movement of appanage and landowner peasants. In turn, the nobility, alarmed by the government’s plans, on the one hand, and the growing peasant movement, on the other, was indignant against Kiselev’s reform and demanded the elimination of the “trusteeship” system. In 1857, Alexander appointed the reactionary M.N. as the new minister of state property. Muravyova , approved the counter-reform project - approximation State peasants to the position of appanage peasants.

On February 19, 1861, serfdom in Russia was abolished. At the same time, personal rights were extended to former landowners and appanage peasants State peasants and the forms of their “self-government” established by the laws of 1838-41. State peasants in 1866 they were subordinated common system rural administration and were recognized as “peasant owners,” although they continued to pay the quitrent. Full ownership rights to land State peasants received under the law of 1886 on the compulsory purchase of land plots, and the size of the plots State peasants turned out to be more, and redemption payments were less than those of the landowner peasants. State peasants Siberia and Transcaucasia remained in the previous position of holders of state-owned land, since the laws of 1866 and 1886 were not extended to them. Government attempts to improve the situation State peasants Transcaucasia at the end of the 19th century. did not eliminate the acute shortage of land in the village and the arbitrariness of the local administration.

Lit.: Druzhinin N. M., State peasants and the reform of P. D. Kiselev, vol. 1-2, M. - L., 1946-58; Antelava I.G., Reform of the land structure of state peasants of Transcaucasia at the end of the 19th century, Sukhumi, 1952; by him, State peasants of Georgia in the first half of the 19th century, Sukhumi, 1955.

N. M. Druzhinin.

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State peasants in the Yaroslavl province appeared in accordance with the decree of 1724 on the introduction of the poll tax.

In the province there were six main sources of their replenishment: free people from other classes; freed from the landowners and free cultivators; peasants of escheated estates; transferred to the treasury for debts; those who moved from one class subgroup to another; peasants of landowners' estates that were mortgaged but not sold at public auction.

During the period ser. XVIII - 1st half of the 19th century centuries the increase in state peasants in the province was significant and amounted to 54.2%. If in 1762 there were 3,344 state peasants living in the province, then by 1858 their number increased to 124,905. In the middle of the 19th century. state peasants accounted for 27.94% of the total male population of the province. In the XVIII - first half of the XIX centuries. state peasants consisted of: state peasants themselves, settled on state-owned land (state-owned peasants), coachmen, peasants settled on their own lands (free cultivators), who no longer paid feudal rent for the land. By 1858, state peasants of the province lived in 18 volosts and 90 rural communities. Of the 3,716 state-owned villages, 2,057 were located on state-owned land (102,178 souls), and 550 were on their own lands (12,338 souls).

State peasants, both personally and in property, enjoyed all the rights of persons of free status. In 1801, state-owned villagers received the right to buy land without peasants. This decree legitimized the process of breaking the monopoly of the nobility and the treasury on land ownership and opened up opportunities for the emergence of a peasant peasantry. land ownership. By the middle of the 19th century. in the province there were 12,338 souls of state peasants - land owners, which amounted to 9.2% of their total number.

Rights of state peasants in the sphere of land use at the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. have not changed. By decree of 1799, state-owned peasants were given an allotment norm of 15 dessiatinas in provinces with a lot of land and 8 dessiatinas in provinces with little land. The Yaroslavl province belonged to the land-poor province, and state peasants experienced a constant lack of allotment land. The general level of peasant farms remained low: there was a catastrophic lack of fertilizers, livestock, and feed. The general shortage of land was exacerbated by a widespread change in the size of allotment arable land. In the non-chernozem zone, the allotment of arable land to ensure agricultural production had to be at least 6 acres per capita. And in the Yaroslavl province the average size of the total allotment at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries. was about 5 dessiatines, by 1832 it decreased and amounted to 2.3 - 3.4 dessiatines. On the government estates of the province there were also practically landless villages, where there were 2 dessiatines of land per person. To increase the area of ​​arable land, peasants cleared areas of forest, but the size of the clearing itself was limited: no more than 1 dessiatine could be cleared per capita. 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. Mostly they rented arable land and hayfields. In 1837 - 1839, state peasants paid 179,448 rubles annually for renting others’ lands, including landowners’ lands. By 1858, state peasants of 89 rural societies rented 50,799 acres of non-allotment land. Agriculture in most districts did not provide peasants with even simple reproduction. In 1846, the governor noted that free cultivators were more worthy and prosperous, followed by peasants from large estates. State-owned peasants are in last place due to lack of land.

An important process in the economic life of the state peasants of the province in the middle of the 19th century. commercial farming began to grow. The main directions of this production were flax growing, potato growing and commercial gardening. Where soil fertility allowed, 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 fishing - potato-molasses production. In the Yaroslavl province, 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, and from the beginning of the 50s of the 19th century. - its commercial production. A major center of commercial gardening was the Rostov district, where in the 40s and 50s of the 19th century. state peasants stopped cultivating crops and began growing vegetables for sale.

The improvement of production skills and tools was facilitated by the activities of the practical school on the estate of the landowner E. S. Karnovich and the activities of the Northern Vologda Agricultural School. The development of commercial farming was a clear indicator of the growth of the social division of labor, the connection of peasant farms with the market, and the transformation of commercial farming into a capitalist economy. At the same time, areas of commercial agriculture were islands in agriculture and their influence on the socio-economic development of the state village was limited and of a local nature.

Lack of land and poor soil predetermined the widespread development of otkhodnichestvo among state peasants. They had the right to open trading establishments, take and issue bills, engage in government contracts, and establish factories and factories. Legislation on otkhodnichestvo was the most flexible. The state, interested in regularly receiving taxes, encouraged the activities of state-owned peasants to find additional funds. Due to their personal freedom, state peasants went into retirement for long periods. On average in the province, every 12th of the state peasants and every 18th of the landowners received passports. During the period 1842 - 1852, 222,545 state peasants received otkhodnik passports, many more than once.

The occupations of otkhodniks were varied, but unstable. They changed depending on the demand for labor. In the province by the beginning of the 19th century. specialization developed in individual districts: Yaroslavl district supplied masons and carpenters; Danilovsky - plasterers, sculptors; Mologsky - horse breeders; Myshkinsky - hookmen, cab drivers; Rostovsky - gardeners; Uglichsky - weavers, sausage makers; Lyubimsky - servants of taverns and taverns. Construction workers predominated, which was explained by the development of government and private construction. Garden latrine farming was widely developed among state peasants. By the early 50s of the 19th century. Almost 12% of otkhodniks were engaged in gardening: of the Rostov ones - 3295 state peasants, 1975 - landowners. Among them there were 418 women: 306 from state peasants, 112 from landowners. In St. Petersburg, ¾ of the vegetable gardens were rented by state peasants from the Yaroslavl province.

The historical role of Yaroslavl as one of the major trading centers largely prepared the ground for a massive trade withdrawal, which by the 50s of the 19th century. covered more than 10 thousand Yaroslavl peasants - 16.83% of all those who went to work. Large numbers traders 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 field of trade that it was easier for the arriving peasants to find work.

By the middle of the 19th century. The importance of commercial and industrial activities and commodity-money relations increased. They covered more deeply and comprehensively economic activity peasants The scarcity of land and, at the same time, the commercial nature of the area became more acute. The Yaroslavl province took second place after the Moscow province in the process of separating peasants from agriculture. State peasants of the province occupied a prominent place among the otkhodniks. Social stratification began among them, 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.

State peasants of the Yaroslavl province were also engaged in non-agricultural trades: maintenance of water transport (horse transport, haulage, pilotage), processing of agricultural raw materials (sheepskin-fur, potato-molasses, butter). This activity was a consequence of the surplus of labor, which amounted to 51%. This situation occurred even when there were 57 workers per 100 souls. Workers at water transport associated with the most difficult, unskilled and low-paid work, were represented by the most able-bodied state peasants.

Non-agricultural activities of state peasants in the processing of agricultural raw materials were varied transitional forms from crafts to manufacture 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 and molasses enterprises, in 1855 - 15, in 1856 - 17. Family labor in the potato and molasses industry, especially by the early 50s of the 19th century, was gradually replaced by hired labor. These enterprises employed approximately 300 industrial workers. The development of potato and molasses 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 varnish manufactories, eight brick factories, ten chicory factories, and one cord-spinning factory. Together with potatoes and molasses, by 1856 there were 45 enterprises in the possession of the state peasants of the province. 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 active industrialists, that is, peasants who broke away from their own farms in search of additional income from trade, industry, and agriculture (farm labor). They made up 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, for three households there is barely one worker who is not engaged in crafts. Non-agricultural occupations of state peasants locally, that is, within the province, by the middle of the 19th century. wore mass character. There was a deepening and expansion of the social division of labor in small industry: 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. the state peasants alone already had over 500 of them.

The development of production forces, their growth as a result of improving labor skills based on the deepening of the social division of labor, did not change the nature of the economy in the state village. It was still consumer driven.

The position of state peasants depended to a large extent on the size and methods of collecting duties. State duties included the poll tax, zemstvo tax, secular dues, tax for the construction of communications, and recruitment tax. The feudal duty was land rent. Along with the development of state peasant farms, duties increased. The poll tax increased 3 times from 1798 to 1818, and the quitrent increased 2 times. Zemstvo duties were sent in kind: underwater, road. The amount of secular fees was established in each volost independently.

Since 1840, a public tax was established from state peasants, which replaced zemstvo and secular taxes. On average it was 7 rubles. silver Different villages with the same amount of payments had far from identical land plots both in size and quality. Between different villages, volosts, and even more so, counties, the unevenness in serving duties increased. Rural and volost authorities often abused their power. In the state-owned villages there was rampant “robbery” 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 offenses among state peasants of the Yaroslavl province were actions against the property and revenues of the treasury in the form of violations of statutes on government 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 effect.

State peasants , a category of peasants (see Peasantry) in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries, formed from the non-enslaved agricultural population. G.k. lived on state lands, used allotted plots, paid a poll tax and a 40-kopeck quitrent, carried out a number of duties (in 1850 some of the duties were replaced by a monetary tax), and were subject to the administration of the state. organs and were considered personally free. On the territory Bashkortostan G.K. known since the 18th century. They were formed from bobyli, monastery peasants, yasak people, teptyars, children of retired soldiers, suitcase Tatars (they maintained pits at their own expense, were engaged in transporting people and government cargo from Kazan to Ufa), white-arable soldiers (since 1842, some were transferred to G.K., the rest - into the Cossack class), discharged, escheated and bank peasants (peasants taken from landowners for debts or left without owners). Part G.k. settled on the patrimonial lands of the Bashkirs under an agreement with the Bashkirs-patrimonial owners (see Asaba) on the allowance. The earliest settlements of G.K. appeared in the east. districts of the Orenburg province. G.k. contributed monetary fees to the treasury (poll tax, quitrent for surplus product, zemstvo and worldly dues) and performed natural duties. duties (supplied food to the Uyskaya and Yaitskaya distances of the Orenburg line), instead of the 40-kopeck quitrent tax, they plowed the “sovereign tithe arable land” (since 1743 replaced by natural grain dues), served corvee and natural duties (underwater, stationary, road, recruit, etc. .). Cash fees from G.k. Orenb. lips gradually increased: in 1724 - 40 kopecks. from the heart, 1810 - ca. 2 rubles, 1812 - 3 rubles, 1816 -3 rubles. 26 kopecks, 1817 - 3 rubles. 30 kopecks, from 1839 (in terms of silver) - 95 kopecks, 1861-62 - 1 ruble. G.k. they sowed winter rye, oats, barley, millet, buckwheat, spelt, peas, hemp and flax; produced marketable grain and exported it to the city center. Russia. They were engaged in beekeeping, forestry, leatherworking, tailoring, fishing (they rented lakes and river sections from the Bashkirs) and other trades; Otkhodnichestvo and hiring at mining factories were widespread. At the end of the 50s. 19th century land dimensions allotments G.k. on the territory Orenb. lips were: in Belebeevsky district - 10.2 dessiatines. land per capita husband gender, Birsky district - 19, Menzelinsky district - 8.6, Orenburg district - 14.8, Sterlitamak district - 7.4, Troitsky district - 11.1, Ufa district - 8.3, Chelyabinsk district - 18.1 des. land. During the General Land Survey G.k. were allocated 15 des. land. Number of G.K. (thousand male souls), according to the 2nd revision (1719), amounted to St. 11.6, 3rd revision (1762) - St. 99, 5th revision (1800) - St. 161.5, 7th revision (1816) - St. 171.6, 8th revision (1834) - St. 310 (of which in Belebeevsky district - over 11.5, Birsky district - over 8.6, Bugulma district - over 35.5, Buguruslan district - over 60, Buzuluk district - about 51, Verkhneuralsky district - St. 0.8, St. 26, St. 9.5, St. 16, Chelyab. U. - St. 46), 9th revision (1850) - approx. 326. The day before Peasant reform 1861 in Orenb. lips there were G.k. OK. 214 thousand male souls floor (1858), in Orenb. and Ufa provinces - St. 241 thousand (1865). Ethnic composition of G.k. (according to the 10th revision; 1859) was diverse: Russians made up St. 152 thousand people (71.3%), Tatars - St. 33 thousand (15.6%), Chuvash - approx. 15 thousand (7%), Mordovians - St. 10 thousand (5%), etc. From the beginning. 18th century G.k.'s postscript was circulated. to the mining factories (see Mining peasants, Assigned peasants), who performed state work. orders, and leasing to miners (see Possessed peasants); transfer to the category of appanage peasants; sale to private individuals, etc. In the 1st half. 19th century G.k. received the right to buy lands not inhabited by peasants (decree of 1801), engage in trading activities (manifesto of 1824), and move to live in cities (law of January 24, 1849). G.k. took part in the uprising of 1835, and in 1859 - in the “temperance movement” against the system of wine farming. acc. with the law “On the land structure of state peasants” dated November 24. 1866 for G.K. the lands (in the amount of 8 to 15 dessiatines) that were in their use were preserved. According to the law of June 12, 1886, they received ownership rights to the purchased lands.

Class system and changes in the social structure of society.

Class structure Russian society began to change. Along with the old classes of feudal lords and peasants, new classes arose - the bourgeoisie and

proletariat. But officially the entire population was divided into 5 estates: nobility, clergy, peasantry, urban inhabitants, Cossacks.

Early 19th century:

Nobility- economically and politically dominant class. The nobles owned most of the land and exploited the peasants who lived on these lands. They had a monopoly on the ownership of serfs. Occupying all 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, which was dominated by the noble aristocracy. The clergy awarded with orders acquired rights of nobility. The white clergy received hereditary nobility, and the black clergy 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. Feudal-dependent peasants made up the bulk of the population, and were divided into landowners, state possessions and appanage peasants belonging to the royal family. The situation of the landowner peasants was especially difficult. The landowners disposed of the peasants as their property. The labor of sessional peasants was unproductive, which is why the use of hired labor in industry began to increase. Responsibilities as the property of nobles: corvee, quitrent and other duties. Responsibilities as subjects of the state: conscription, payment of taxes. Rights: communal ownership of land, community self-government.

City dwellers. This class was divided into 6 groups: honorary citizens, merchants, guild foremen, townspeople, small owners and working people, i.e. hired workers. Honorary citizens enjoyed a number of privileges: they were exempt from corporal punishment and personal duties. The merchant class was divided into 2 guilds. The first is wholesalers; the second is retailers. The guild group consisted of artisans assigned to the guilds, divided into masters and apprentices. The urban population consisted of petty bourgeois, mostly employed in factories and factories. Rights: employment in urban industries and small trade, class self-government. Responsibilities: recruitment, payment of taxes.

Cossacks As a class, it was established only in 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 plots of 30 acres of land. The lands of the Cossack nobility in 1848 were declared hereditary property. With all these measures, tsarism sought to preserve the economic and socio-political structure of the Cossacks. Police duties: night patrols in cities, catching fugitives, convoy of government transport, encouraging the payment of taxes and correction of arrears, monitoring the deanery at fairs, etc. Economic duties: delivery, storage and sale of food, collection of taxes, various assignments for government procurement.

The state began to create new Cossack troops to guard the borders. This is how the Siberian Cossack army was formed, and then the Transbaikal army. By the middle of the 19th century, there were nine Cossack troops in Russia: Don, Black Sea (later transformed into Kuban), Terek, Astrakhan, Orenburg, Ural, Siberian, Transbaikal and Amur. Rights: land ownership, tax exemption. Responsibilities: military service with your own equipment.

Population of Russia in the first half of the 19th 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 to urban population did not change significantly (no more than 7-8% of Russians lived in cities). The social structure was based on the class principle. Belonging to a certain class - a social community distinguished on the basis of origin and legal status - played significant role In human life. The ruling class remained nobility. It made up approximately 1% of the country's population, but had exclusive rights to own land and serfs, and was exempt from taxes and conscription. 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 (from 1832 - V) class according to the Table of Ranks became a hereditary nobleman. Quite complex processes took place among the nobility. Contemporaries noted the growth of the layer of small-landed and even landless nobles, and 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, and adopted a law on primogenitures, which allowed declaring estates not subject to division between heirs. The clergy and merchants also belonged to the privileged classes. The clergy, like the nobles, had the right to own land and peasants, and were exempt from taxes and conscription. The merchant class was divided into three guilds depending on the size of their capital. The merchants of the first guild were engaged in internal and foreign trade, did not pay most taxes and were not subject to conscription. 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 conscription. Military agriculture was considered semi-privileged class of Cossacks. The tax-paying classes were the peasantry and petty bourgeoisie (the unprivileged urban population - artisans, small traders).

The largest class in terms of numbers was peasantry. It was divided into three large groups - landowners (belonged to a private owner - landowner), state (belonged to the treasury) and appanage (belonged to members of the imperial family and were managed by a special palace department, appanage). Peasants performed various duties in favor of their owners (corvee labor, quitrent, etc.), paid taxes to the state, and were subject to conscription. An important role in the life of the Russian village was played by the peasant community (mir), which carried out periodic redistribution of arable and hayland among peasants. At the community meeting, important issues were resolved, and elected officials (elders, sotskie, etc.) were appointed to lead the life of the village. The peasantry was the most powerless class and suffered more than others from serfdom. Serfdom hindered the social growth of enterprising (“capitalist”) peasants and 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 a numerical increase in the layer of people who were engaged in entrepreneurship. Among the successful entrepreneurs are not only merchants of the first and second guilds, but also serfs who made huge fortunes (Prokhorovs, Ryabushinskys, Morozovs, etc.)> and even nobles. A new phenomenon was also the formation of a vast layer of commoners. Petty officials, children of clergy and bankrupt merchants, they were exempt from paying taxes, but could not buy land without peasants or engage in commercial and industrial entrepreneurship. The sphere of application of their efforts became bureaucratic service and free professions (doctors, teachers, journalists, etc.). It was from the commoners that the Russian intelligentsia was formed in the next half century.

Tax-paying classes - in Russia in the 15th - first half of the 19th centuries, groups of the population (peasants and townspeople) who paid a poll tax, were subject to corporal punishment, and performed conscription and other in-kind duties. Estates that were not subject to the poll tax were called tax-exempt.

Nobility: composition, personal and property rights and obligations, position and legal status. In the first half of the 19th 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 amounted to He has all command positions. Freed from compulsory service to the state, the landowners from the service class turned into an idle, purely consumer class of slave owners. The rapidly growing offices of the bureaucratic apparatus of the empire were formed from the nobles. The country was dominated by bureaucratic and landowner arbitrariness.

By the time the Code of Laws was compiled in 1832, the nobility were given new rights: to have factories and factories in cities, to conduct trade on an equal footing with the merchants. The importance of the provincial noble corporation as a legal entity endowed with property rights also increased. Thus, the state, through laws, sought to maximally strengthen the position of the nobles - large landowners, a reliable support for Russian absolutism.

The state activities of Nicholas I had a great influence on the nobility. The legal status of subjects was formalized in the 1830s - 50s during 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 was formalized: the nobility, the clergy, city residents and rural inhabitants. The emperor understood that the strength and support of his power rested on large and medium-sized landowners, so he tried in every possible way to support them. The inviolability of power lay in the task of strengthening the position of large and medium-sized landowners in local bodies of noble self-government - this was the focus of the Manifesto of December 6, 1831. It established a property qualification for the participation of nobles in the election of candidates for state and public positions. The right to vote was enjoyed by hereditary nobles who owned at least 100 serf souls or 3 thousand dessiatines of land within the province. Through commissioners, owners of at least 5 peasants or 150 acres of land could participate in elections. It follows that the opportunity to actively participate in the corporate life of the estate was presented primarily to the wealthiest part of the nobility. The very activities of district and provincial noble assemblies were placed under stricter control of government officials. The government tried to bureaucratize the nobility, tie it more tightly with the government apparatus, and transform the estate-corporate service into a type of state service. The position of the nobility was legally regulated by the Code of Laws Russian Empire 1832. The nobles still remained the highest privileged class and were defined as “a consequence flowing from the quality and virtue of the men who commanded in ancient times, who distinguished themselves by merit: by which, turning the service itself into merit, they acquired a noble name for their offspring” (v. 15); divided into hereditary and personal (v. 16); the methods of obtaining hereditary and personal nobility were also fixed (section 2).

The government continued throughout the 19th century. support the local nobility by providing them with a preferential loan from state-owned banks secured by populated estates and transferring to them state-owned lands. To preserve large noble land ownership, in 1845 a law on majorates was issued. Its essence was that owners of estates of more than 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 primordial rights. Despite all these events in the period from 1836 to 1858. about 3.6 thousand nobles lost all their lands, becoming placeless. The class policy of Nicholas I led to the fact that the noble class became more closed, and the positions of its wealthiest part were 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 among the highest bureaucracy, the bureaucracy was actively replenished with people from other classes.

Ownership, or serfs, or landowners peasants lived on estates and estates, being under the authority of the landowner and paying him rent and duties to the state. Until the end of the 16th century, landowner peasants enjoyed the right to leave (“refuse”, “exit”) from the landowner once a year on St. George’s Day, subject to certain conditions. Since 1597, a government decree introduced a five-year period for searching for fugitive peasants, which actually meant their rigid attachment to the owner’s land. The Code of 1649 introduced an indefinite investigation. In the 18th century, the situation of the landowner peasants worsened even more - landless peasants were increasingly being sold, and landowners had the right to exile those they found objectionable to Siberia. In 1859, the total number of male and female landowner peasants was about 23 million. Landless In Russia, peasants were the category of landowner peasants who do not have an allotment of land as a result of: - refusal of an allotment when drawing up a charter; - loss of the right to the received plot with leaving the rural society; - loss of allotment due to faulty payment 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 to the category of domestic peasants. Yards peasants in Russia were dependent persons who lived at the court of the landowner and served him and his family. Household peasants were also called servants, serfs, servants, etc. From the end of the 17th century until 1861, household peasants were included in the category of serfs, were deprived of land plots 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 landowner peasants was common in the Urals and partly in Altai. The mining peasants consisted of personally free assigned and possessory possession peasants and were obliged to live and work at the mining factories. Possessional peasants appeared in Russia in 1721. These were serfs assigned to possessional manufactories and sold or bought integrally from these manufactories. At first, sessional peasants could be purchased for agreed periods, and from January 7, 1736, for “perpetual use.” In the 19th century, the number of possession peasants included "essential workers"(new name for assigned peasants). Possessional peasants could not be used for agricultural work, given up as recruits instead of serfs, etc. Possessional peasants were punished both physically and economically - they imposed monetary fines, and made payments from their salaries. In the 19th century, owners of possessional manufactories began to strive to replace serfs with hired workers, and from 1840 they received the right to free themselves from possession peasants. In 1861-1863, the category of possession peasants was eliminated. Another category of serfs in Russia is palace peasants. Palace land ownership developed in the country during the period of the 12th - 15th centuries. Since the 16th century among the members royal family The fashion spread to distribute palace peasants as rewards to their relatives, favorites, associates, and 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 bore various duties in their favor - in-kind and (or) cash dues (since 1753, mainly only cash dues) . The main responsibility of the palace peasants was to supply the royal family with food and firewood. Over time, the palace peasants entered the category of proprietary 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. Locally, the palace lands were managed by clerks, and from the beginning of the 18th century by stewards. In the 18th century, the economic situation of the palace peasants was better than that of other serfs, since their duties were lighter and they had more freedom in economic activity. As a result, by the end of the 18th century, wealthy categories emerged among the palace peasants - rich peasants, merchants, moneylenders and others. Specific peasants, who were, in essence, former palace peasants, appeared in Russia, as mentioned above, in 1797, and farmed on appanage 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. Villages of appanage peasants were united into volosts. At village assemblies, elders, sotskys and tens were elected. The predominant form of duties of appanage peasants was quitrent. Appanage peasants enjoyed greater freedom of economic activity than landowner peasants. The number of male souls of appanage peasants gradually increased: 1797 - 463 thousand; 1812 - 570 thousand; 1857 - 838 thousand. By decree of June 26, 1863, the main provisions of the peasant reform of 1861 were extended to appanage peasants. In particular, appanage peasants received part of their appanage lands as their property for compulsory redemption. As a result, the allotments of appanage peasants in fourteen provinces decreased by 10.7%, and in five northern provinces they increased by 41.6%. In general, former appanage peasants received more land than private peasants, but less than state-owned ones. In particular, in 1905, on average, the former categories of peasants had allotment land per yard: - proprietary peasants - 6.7 dessiatines; - appanage peasants - 9.5 tithes; - state peasants - 12.5 tithes. The appanage 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 working for the landowner. Such peasants were called groundwork. In the 18th century, a layer of peasants emerged from the landowner peasants and took shape. entrepreneurs. Their appearance is associated with increased property differentiation among the peasantry, especially on quitrent estates. During this period, cash rent became widespread, causing 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, some of the former landowner peasants received land plots from the landowners, and before the peasants acquired this land they were called obligated peasants. According to the decree of 1842, obligated peasants, by agreement with the landowners (landowners were not obliged to enter into an agreement), acquired personal freedom, but the land remained the property of the landowner, and the peasants were obliged to bear duties for its use - corvée and quitrent. There were no restrictions on the power of landowners. By the end of the era of serfdom, only 0.25% of the ten million landowner peasants were transferred to the category of obliged peasants.

Personally free peasants Arable peasants cultivated state (state) arable land, which included lands in Siberia, lands in the south of Russia and palace (cabinet) lands. Since the end of the 16th century, an arable peasant received a plot of land (sobin arable land) for personal use, subject to the cultivation of a state-owned field, the grain from which went to the treasury. Since 1769 in Siberia, for arable peasants, the cultivation of state-owned land was replaced by monetary quitrent, and since the 18th century, arable peasants entered the category of state peasants, that is, they remained personally free. Since the 14th century, Russia appeared black moss, or black, peasants. They were not dependent on the landowner and retained a greater degree of personal freedom and the right to dispose of the land. By the end of the 16th century, black-sown peasants survived mainly only in the north of Russia, and in the 17th - XVIII centuries appeared and established themselves in Siberia. Under Peter I, black-growing peasants began to be called state peasants, were subject to a poll tax and additional rent 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 free peasant classes at that time - black-mown peasants, ladles of Northern Pomerania, Siberian arable peasants, single-dvortsev and non-Russian peoples of the Volga and Urals regions. State peasants lived on state-owned lands, used allotted plots, were under 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 century, 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 the state peasants were revealed, the nobles demanded their transfer to private hands. In 1837 - 1841, a special ministry of state property was established with a complex hierarchy of bureaucratic bodies to look after state peasants through rural communities. In the middle of the 19th century, state peasants made up about 45% of all peasants in Russia. The main problem for the peasantry was land shortage. In 1866, state peasants were subordinated to the general system of rural administration and recognized as peasant owners, although they continued to pay the quitrent tax. State peasants received full ownership rights to land under the 1886 law on compulsory redemption of land plots, while the size of state peasant plots turned out to be larger, and redemption payments were lower than those of landowner peasants. The state peasants of Siberia and Transcaucasia remained in the previous position of holders of state-owned 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 assigned peasants who were obliged, instead of paying quitrent and capitation taxes, to work “forever” in state-owned or private plants 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 constant labor. Mainly assigned peasants existed in the Urals and Siberia. Since 1807, in the Urals, assigned peasants began to be exempted by their owners from compulsory factory work, and a little later, under the name of “essential workers,” they entered the category of possessional peasants. And the last category of peasants, equated to state peasants later than others - in the first quarter of the 19th century - peasants odnodvortsy. From the first quarter of the 18th century, the descendants of servicemen who carried out patrol and guard duty on the southern border were called odnodvorets. The creation of a regular army entailed 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 single-yard owners in Russia increased: 1730s - 453 thousand male single-yard owners; 1830s - about 1 million; 1851 - 1.2 million. Odnodvortsy were obliged to pay a poll tax and a four-hryvnia quitrent, 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 the serfs).

Bureaucracy

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). Low salaries of officials contributed to bribery and corruption. A type of Russian bureaucrat has emerged—a bribe-taker and a tyrant who takes out his dissatisfaction with his own life on petitioners. Russian officials were inactive and uninitiative.

Life and customs of classes.

Various social groups and 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, different forms of life are formed in the city and countryside. Everyday life has a huge impact on other areas of social life and, above all, on work, social activities, psychological mood and behavior of people; influences 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 transition of the period determined the blurring of the social structure: the traditional division into classes gradually lost its relevance, and the inheritance of class affiliation no longer guaranteed a person a certain place in society. During 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-value guidelines, when, under the influence of socio-economic processes of a capitalist nature, class status in the public consciousness gave way to social status, based on indicators of financial well-being. The basis and internal mechanism for the transformation of society from an estate-representative society to a class one, formed not by laws and customs, but by economic relations, is considered to be the professionalization of labor activity. In the conditions of the development of capitalism, occupations, and especially professions, were determined by the free choice of a particular 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 division of labor in society. In addition to deepening professional specialization itself, it also involves the consolidation of “representatives of individual professions into professional organizations for the purpose of collectively defending their social status and control over the area of ​​the market where this professional group carries out its functions.”