Random Learnings #46 – Scott's Blog

"A Peasant Leaving His Landlord on Yuriev Day" by Sergei V. Ivanov

I thought that Russian serfs were essentially slaves - a belief supported by many English-language references - but have learned that serfs are tied to land and not landowner. In the eighteenth century, Russian serfdom became de facto slavery.

... These functions explain to a considerable degree the Government's encouragement of the growth of the landowners' authority over the peasants during the eighteenth century. The institution of serfdom in the eighteenth century was completely different from what it had been in the seventeenth century, when it merely consisted in fixing the peasant to the soil but not to the person of the landowner. [...] Peter the Great, even more than his predecessors, stressed the importance to the state of the institution of serfdom. But beginning with his reign, serfdom was rapidly transformed into slavery. The peasants became bound not to the land, but to the landowner. [...] Peter ordered that in drawing up the head tax, slaves were to be listed with the serfs. The pomiestchiks paid the tax for both, and thus, first in practice and later in legislation, received complete authority over both groups.

- George Vernadsky, "A History of Russia", p118

During Peter The Great's reign, the size of the army was drastically increased which required a corresponding increase in supplies: metals for munitions, cloth for uniforms, grain, meat and other foods. These needs drove fiscal reform and new taxes to pay for the supplies, however, the government was unable to purchase at market price due to lack of labor. The government was forced to supply factories and landowners with cheap labor - the serfs - and within fifty years serfdom had basically evolved into slavery.