A common question in exams in secondary and higher educational institutions: "Describe the essence of the peasant question in Russia." Meanwhile, if you ask it now to an adult, the vast majority will not remember anything except that serfdom was abolished in 1861. So, let's figure out together what the peasant question is.
For centuries
For many years and even centuries, the peasants remained an oppressed class in the Russian state. Serfdom meant the complete dependence of the peasant on the landowner, the man on whose land he lived. In essence, it is a form of slavery, since the peasant could not voluntarily leave this territory, could not have land or a house on it, and was also a “thing” that was sold and bought - both with and without land.
Changes in the position of men began to occur with the accession of the Romanov dynasty. At first they were not very encouraging, on the contrary: Alexei Mikhailovich made the search for the runaway peasant unlimited - the landowner could now return not only him, but even his descendants, and now the serf could notleave the territory of the estate, even freed - he remained "strong", that is, attached to this land (and therefore "serfdom"). Changes for the better were outlined only under Paul the First.
Pavel
Unlike his mother, Catherine the Great, who believed that the peasants in Russia had a great life, Pavel rightly believed that the life of the common people is quite difficult and it would be nice to somehow try to improve it.
At that time, there were four groups of peasants: appanage, landlord, state and factory. For each of them, their own measures were thought out. So, for example, specific peasants were offered to give out land and help in the economy with new equipment, and collect taxes according to new rules. However, there was not enough land for everyone, so it was decided that they could purchase land from private owners. In addition, they were given passports with which they could go to work.
The peasant question regarding a group of state-owned peasants was proposed to be resolved as follows: to give each allotments of 15 acres (although there were few such plots, and then fifteen were replaced by eight) of land that would allow a person to feed himself and his family and pay tax. In addition, payment rates were set. They ranged from three and a half to five rubles in different areas. A decree was also issued that state-owned peasants have the right to enroll as tradesmen and merchants.
The number of factory men only grew at first, as factory owners were allowed to buypeasants and assign them to their enterprises inseparably. Nevertheless, making sure that the fate of such people remains unenviable, Pavel signed a decree that only 58 people were allowed to be taken to each plant, while the rest must be immediately released from hard work, classifying them as state peasants. This law has made life much easier for this category.
And, finally, the last group - the landlords. In their regard, the peasant question was solved least of all. The following was done for them: they were forbidden to be sold without land, and also to separate families. In addition, it is impossible not to note the Pavlovian April Manifesto of 1797: he forbade forcing peasants to work on Sundays, and also established a three-day rate of corvée. To this day, this document is considered almost the main one of all that Paul did to solve the peasant issue. However, there is a lot of evidence (in the form of complaints from the peasants and the testimonies of the nobility) that this decree was not respected and the peasants were forced to work as before on a daily basis. However, these were only the first cautious steps, and one cannot accuse Pavel of having a bad attitude towards the “lower classes”. "The ice has broken, gentlemen of the jury!"
Alexander the First
Father's transformations were continued by Alexander the First. This was caused, perhaps, not so much by the desire to free the peasants from the oppression hanging over them, but by the understanding of the need for changes in the country: the population was growing, while agricultural resources, on the contrary, were rapidly declining, an urgenttransition to a capitalist economy, which is why something had to be done with the peasant question. And the first thing Alexander did was to issue a law in 1801, in which he “gave the go-ahead” to peasants, philistines and merchants (along with nobles) to acquire land. However, this decree is not considered the main one of what the king carried out. Much more is said about his next bill in 1803.
Decree on free cultivators
Decree on free cultivators - that was the name of the law, issued two years after the first. He really was aimed at somehow trying to help the peasants. So, according to this document, the peasant received the right to redeem himself from the owner, to gain freedom, that is, the will (that is why the name of the law is such). Alexander believed that the peasants would begin to be released en masse, but this did not happen - the ransom price was not determined, the landlords set it themselves. Of course, they did not want to lose their working hands and they wringed the price of liberation to such an extent that the unfortunate peasants could not possibly pay them off. The conditions for obtaining the will were exactly as follows: if you paid, you are free; if you cannot, you return to slavery. Ultimately, a negligible number of peasants - about fifty thousand - received freedom in this way.
In 1809, another decree was issued, which forbade the exile of men to Siberia just like that, without investigation. It was also impossible to sell them at fairs and not feed them in times of famine. The peasant question under Alexander 1 is marked by numerousattempts to resolve, however, due to the fact that the king was quite cautious and was afraid to infringe on the interests of the nobility, no particularly active actions were taken.
In 1816-1819, a reform was carried out in the B altics: the peasants received personal freedom, but without the right to own land. Thus, they still depended on the landowners - they were forced to either rent land from them or work for them.
Nicholas the First
The solution of the peasant question under Nicholas affected state peasants - to a greater extent, and serfs - to a much lesser extent.
The first category was divided into rural communities, which, in turn, became part of the volost. The volost was characterized by self-government, they had their own foremen and heads (as the leaders were called), as well as their own judges. The state also helped such peasants in everyday life: they were given grain in case of crop failure, land - to those who needed it, organized schools for children, hospitals, shops, and so on. For the serfs, much less was done - a ban on the separation of families, exile to Siberia, and a decree on "obliged peasants." It meant the liberation of the peasant from dependence, while he was given a plot of land for use on specially agreed conditions. He remained on the land of the former owner and for the use of it was obliged (and therefore "obligated peasants") to pay him a certain amount. That is, roughly speaking, the essence of the peasant question has not changed much. But people have already sensed where the wind blows from. They were waiting for a total cancellationaddictions, worried. And although there were no riots like the Pugachev uprising, the mood of the peasants changed. The need to abolish serfdom altogether was in the very air.
Alexander II
Alexander II went down in history as a king who finally made up his mind - it was under him that serfdom was finally abolished (however, the essence of the peasant issue did not change much). He did not hide his conviction that someday this must happen and rightly believed that it was better to carry out transformations "from above" than they would come "from below".
Reasons for the abolition of serfdom
There were several reasons for such a solution to the peasant question, and they have been brewing for a long time. The last straw was the defeat in the Crimean War: it showed political unpreparedness, even backwardness in Russia. After it, uprisings broke out in some areas of the country.
In addition, the factors that prompted to change the essence of the peasant question were the slowdown in the growth of industry, foreign and domestic trade, the decline of the landlord economy and the need to reform the army.
Peasant issue in Russia: is it resolved?
To draw up a plan for solving the peasant problem, Alexander instructed the large landowners-feudal lords. For the period from 1856 to 1860. several versions of the program were prepared, sometimes more, sometimes less loyal to the peasants. Basically, they tried to take into account the interests of the landlords, so the solution to the problem was delayed - until in January 1861 Alexander gave a clear order to quicklyto finish with this matter - the peasants were worried, in some places waves of protests broke out. Ultimately, the tsar signed the liberation manifesto on February 19, and it was brought to the attention of the people on March 5. This is explained by Alexander's fear of Pancake week unrest - the content of the document was too contradictory.
The provisions of this manifesto boiled down to the following points:
- All peasants became free people. They were released into the wild without a ransom for themselves, but in addition they received from the landowner the so-called house adjoining plot, as well as a field allotment. The latter was given not to each peasant personally, but to rural communities, which now included peasants. At the same time, the land remained in the ownership of the landowner.
- Peasants could buy the land. While they used it without redemption, they were called "temporarily liable", when they redeemed, they became "peasant-owners".
- For the use of landlords' land, the peasants had to either pay or work off.
- All the man's buildings were considered his property.
- Peasants could now engage in business and enter other classes.
The men (and even not only them) saw the ambiguity of this reform right away. By and large, nothing has changed in their situation. They were officially declared free, but they continued to work for the owner or pay him dues (it ranged from eight to twelve rubles a year). "Will" was not quite real. Many historians subsequently noticed that the landowners became even tougher in relation to the peasants, in particular,began to flog them more. Some scholars believed that the manifesto of Alexander II, by abolishing serfdom legally and doing nothing in fact, was a kind of accelerating factor in the disappearance of this phenomenon. In the history of other countries, according to experts, there were also no cases when serfdom ceased to exist in one day - decades always led to this. However, the peasants, who, in fact, were beckoned and deceived, did not feel better about this realization.
In 1861, almost a thousand two hundred uprisings broke out (for comparison, there were less than five hundred in the previous five years). The people were also indignant at what tricks the landowners went to in order to force the peasants to rent their land and work on it: the peasants were allocated such plots from where it was impossible to get to the forest, or to the arable land, or to the water, without passing through the master's territory. So - rent it and work on it. The men had no choice.
Thus, if you answer the question "Describe the essence of the peasant question", you need to say first of all that even its solution was undertaken in favor of the landowners. There are data according to which the market value of the allotments transferred to the peasants amounted to five hundred and forty million rubles. Taking into account all the machinations, the peasants had to pay eight hundred and sixty million - one and a half times more. Where did the poor get money from? The state provided them with a loan, which the peasants were obliged to repay in 49 years. As a result, the amount came up four times larger thanwas originally. How can one not talk about the interests of the landowners, which were taken into account here? As a result of the reform, it was they who received the greatest benefit, while the peasants were doomed to poverty and lack of land for many decades.
Alexander the Third
Alexander the Third also made attempts to improve the life of the peasants, but this was not crowned with particular success. In addition, the tsar did not hide the fact that he did not consider the “land issue” to be something out of the ordinary and requiring urgent intervention. However, in order to “smooth sharp corners” and quench unrest, in 1881 he passed a law that two years later transferred all “temporarily liable” peasants to “redemption” ones - thus, it became mandatory to buy out their land from the landowner. However, the redemption payments were somewhat reduced - albeit insignificantly. The taxes were completely abolished only by 1887.
In 1882, a special Peasant Bank was created, whose task was to help individual peasants and entire societies in acquiring land. At the same time, special emphasis was placed on loans specifically to individuals. As a result of this event, there was a rather sharp increase in land prices. In the late eighties of the nineteenth century, a law was passed that allowed the very poor to move beyond the Urals, and in 1893 Alexander banned land redistribution and leaving the community. It cannot be said that all these measures have helped the peasant population to live better.
Nicholas II
The peasant question at the beginning of the 20th century, that is, in the reign of Nicholas II,directly connected with the reforms of Pyotr Stolypin. So, in 1906, a decree was adopted on the possibility of free exit from the community, along with part of the land for personal use, a year later they stopped collecting redemption payments. Peasants began to actively move to Siberia and the Far East, where there were free territories.
Rural communities at the same time, on which the predecessors of the last Russian tsar so relied, reached a dead end and collapsed. It was to prevent the complete impoverishment of the peasantry that Stolypin's economic transformations were directed. Ultimately, the peasant question of the 20th century was marked by an increase in agricultural production, an increase in exports and a complete stratification of the peasant community.
Interesting facts
- Serfdom existed not only in Russia, but in our country it lived the longest.
- In Kievan Rus, there were smerds (free farmers with land that belonged to the prince), purchases (smerds who entered into an agreement with the feudal lord) and serfs (slaves). The existence of the latter ended in the reign of Peter the Great.
- More than eight hundred thousand peasants were donated by Catherine to her close associates.
- Some scientists believe that the existence of serfdom was the basis for the development of the Russian state.
- Serfdom did not exist in most of Russia, while only a quarter of the entire Russian population lived there (this is Siberia, the Caucasus, the Far East, Finland, Alaska and others).
SoThus, although it is customary to consider Alexander II the “liberator”, it cannot be said that the reform he undertook significantly facilitated the life of the peasants. The peasant issue was resolved slowly, and serfdom left Russia for several decades after its abolition.
