Produced main exports for Russian international trade ..

1
THE RUSSIAN PEASANT I

• Economic foundation of the Russian state
• Labor on pomeste estates provided service nobles
  with main source of income
• Produced main exports for Russian international
  trade
• Provided economic base that allowed nobles to
  fulfill their service obligations to the state
  and provided Russia with the critical
  agricultural surplus the state had to have to
  engage in international trade

2
THE RUSSIAN PEASANT II

• Constituted vast majority of Russian population
• Over 70 of population in 1796
• Source of strength
• Bore brunt of taxation and conscriptionmore
  peasants, more revenue and soldiers

3
THE RUSSIAN PEASANT III

• Source of weakness
• Peasants were marginal cultivators
• Provided limited tax base
• Were backward and tradition-bound
• This backwardness contributed to Russian
  backwardness in relation to the West
• Occasionally very volatile
• Peasant revolts were huge and destructive
• Stenka Razin (1670s)
• Pugachev (reign of Catherine the Great)

4
KRESTIANE

• Term used to define all rural inhabitants liable
  to pay the head tax
• Few were free
• 98 were serfs
• Permanently attached to the land where they were
  born
• Held in hereditary personal bondage to landowner
• Complete loss of freedom
• Could not leave estate without permission
• Could be bought, sold, or even given away
• Did not possess title to personal property
• Under legal jurisdiction of landlord

5
PEASANT SERVICE

• Obrok
• Prevailed on estates where most of arable land
  was divided among serf families, each working its
  allotment as if it were their own
• Pay lord annual rent
• Barschina
• Most arable land retained by landlord
• Serfs only had small strips of land
• Performed labor services on lords land in
  exchange for strips

6
STATE OBLIGATIONS

• Provided majority of recruits for army
• Lifelong term of service
• Liable to be inducted into forced labor on state
  construction projects
• Example St. Petersburg
• State peasants
• Lived and worked on state-owned estates
• Paid obrok to the government
• Liable to forced labor on state projects
• Freer from interference in their daily lives than
  ordinary serfs and less likely to be sold or
  given away

7
THE PEASANT COMMUNITY (I)

• Peasant Commune
• Limited right of self-government of a peasant
  community
• Village Assembly
• Major organ of commune
• All male household heads
• Selected village officials
• Apportioned taxes
• Selected army recruits
• Collected and administered money for communal
  purposes
• Bribed government officials

8
THE PEASANT COMMUNITY (II)

• Engaged in annual redistribution of land among
  peasant households
• Practice first appeared after 1718 with the
  implementation of Peter the Greats head tax
• Originally promoted by landlords to ensure that
  each household had capacity to pay taxes
• Not an illustration of inherent socialist
  character of peasants

9
THREE FIELD SYSTEM

• Divided into 3 fields
• One in spring wheat
• One in winter wheat
• One fallow
• Fields rotated each year
• Arose in response to lack of fertilizer
• Always ensured that one field would be left
  fallow each year to allow it to renew itself
• Fields divided into strips
• Each household allotted scattered strips in each
  field
• Strips redistributed each year

10
DRAWBACKS

• Imposed strict interdependence on peasants
• Result was low yields
• 31
• Other contributing factors were poor climate,
  short growing season, poor soil, and lack of
  fertilizer
• No incentive to improve productivity
• Market for surpluses was limited
• Profits grabbed up by landlord or state

11
ENLIGHTENED RULERS AND THE PEASANTS

• Reforms of Peter and Catherine the Great actually
  caused situation of peasant to decline even
  further
• Basing noble status on service to state caused
  noble landlords to increase their power over serfs

12
WESTERNIZATION

• Westernization only affected upper classes
• Created two nations
• Western upper class
• Traditional Old Russian peasants
• Material wants and needs of nobility increased
  with their westernization
• Noble expenditure for western items increased
  with their degree of cultural westernization
• Landlords converted to barshchina payments to
  earn higher income from direct sale of produce on
  the market

13
CATHERINE AND THE PEASANTS

• Removed major justification for serfdom
• Released nobility from the obligation of serving
  the state in 1762
• Necessary step towards professionalization of
  civil service
• But major justification of serfdom had always
  been service to the state
• Now nobles no longer had to serve state but
  serfdom remained in place
• Made serfdom more vulnerable to challenges from
  various quarters

14
EMELIAN PUGACHEV

• Led massive peasant revolt in southern Russia
  between 1773-1774
• At its high point it involved 3 million peasants
• Achieved some early successes but was ultimately
  defeated by government troops
• Pugachev was brutally executed

15
RESULTS OF PUGACHEV REVOLT

• Frightened the government and nobility
• Instilled deep fear of peasantry in hearts of the
  upper classes and convinced them that if peasants
  were ever freed, they would massacre the nobility
• Some nobles began to seriously look at the
  institution of serfdom
• Put problem of serfdom into focus for the first
  time and created foundation for a movement that
  would eventually challenge the institution

16
SUMMARY

• Peasantry supported entire political and social
  apparatus of Russia
• Yet they remained poor, exploited, ignorant,
  tradition-bound, and superstitious
• These weaknesses reverberated throughout entire
  structure of Russian society and prevented Russia
  from being a truly progressive and great power
• In order to become truly great, the Russian
  ruling class would have to abolish serfdom,
  equalize taxation, give political rights to
  peasants, and give them equal access to social
  and economic opportunities
• But to do this would have been class suicide
  because this would give peasantry control of the
  country