Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century

669 Pages·1971·22.003 MB·English

by  Jerome Blum

LORD AND PEASANT IN RUSSIA
FROM THE NINTH
TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Lord
and Peasant
in Russia
FROM THE NINTH
TO THE
NINETEENTH
CENTURY
B Y JEROME BLUM
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 1961 by Princeton University Press
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
L.C. Card: 61-7413
ISBN 0-691-00764-0 (paperback edn.)
ISBN 0-691-05132-1 (hardcover edn.)
*0»
Publication of the book has been aided by
the Ford Foundation program
to support publication, through university presses,
of works in the humanities and
social sciences.
❖
First Princeton paperback Edition, 1971
Second Printing, 1972
❖
Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for
Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources
❖
Printed in the United States of America
12 11 10 9 8

FOREWORD
i owe many lasting debts of gratitude for the counsel
and support I have received at every stage in the writing
of this book. Professors Hans Rosenberg of the Univer­
sity of California, Berkeley, Norman F. Cantor of Columbia,
Cyril E. Black, Robert R. Palmer, and Joseph R. Strayer of
Princeton, Evsey D. Domar of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and Albert Parry of Colgate University, were good
enough to read parts or all of the manuscript. I have benefited
much from their judgments and their suggestions. The late Dr.
Vladimir Gsovski, Chief of the European Law Division of the
Library of Congress, was always ready to place his encyclopedic
legal knowledge at my disposal. Dr. Vladas Stanka of the Arctic
Institute of America gave generous help in the analysis of old
sources. Grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation and from the Council of the Humanities of Prince­
ton University freed me for three terms from teaching obliga­
tions, subsidies from the Princeton University Research Fund
and the American Philosophical Society allowed me to work on
the book during the summers, and a grant from the American
Council of Learned Studies aided in its publication. Much of
the research was done at the Library of Congress, where the
unfailing kindness and cooperation extended me by the Library's
staff made my task far easier than it might have been. I am par­
ticularly indebted to General Willard Webb and Mr. Gordon
W. Patterson of the Stack and Reader Division, and to Dr.
Sergius Yakobson, Dr. Paul L. Horecky, and Mr. John T. Dorosh
of the Slavic and East European Division, for their friendship
and their patience. I am indebted, also, to Mr. John B. Putnam
of the Princeton University Press for his valued editorial assist­
ance, and to Mr. Isser Woloch for making the index. Finally,
special thanks are due to Thomas and Barbara Moriarty whose
hospitality did so much to make my stays in Washington
enjoyable.
A few words seem necessary about some of the technical
features of the book. Short titles have been used in the footnotes;
C ™ ]
FOREWORD
full citations and place and date of publication are provided
in the List of Works Cited. A glossary at the end of the book
gives the meanings of the Russian terms and the American
equivalents of the weights and measures that appear in the text.
Most of these words are italicized, but certain ones that occur
frequently and that have become familiar to readers of Russian
history, such as mir, guberniia, obrok, barshchina, pomestye,
pomeshchik, and a few others, are printed in roman type. Dates
are all according to the Julian calendar, or the “old style,“ used in
Russia until 1918.
JEROME BLUM
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Introduction 3
KIEVAN RUSSIA
1 The First Age of Expansion 13
2 Peasant Communes and Private
Landowners 24
3 Estate Organization and Labor Force 43
THE MONGOL ERA
4 The Tatar Yoke: Age of Decline 57
5 Landlords of the Mongol Era 70
6 Black People and Landlords* Peasants 93
7 Peasants, Slaves, and Peons 106
THE 1 6 t h AND 17TH CENTURIES
8 A New Era of Economic Expansion 117
9 Absolutism and Aristocracy 135
10 Depression and Slow Recovery 152
11 Landlords in an Age of Revolution 168
12 Changes in the Seignioral Economy 199
13 The Plight of the Peasantry 219
14 The End of the Road 247
c ix 3
CONTENTS
THE LAST IgO YEARS
OF SERFDOM
15 Trade and Industry 277
16 The Factory Labor Force 308
17 Agriculture 326
18 The Dvorianstvo Ascendancy 345
19 Rich Noble, Poor Noble 367
20 The Seignioral Economy 386
21 Masters and Serfs 414
22 Silent Obedience 442
23 The Non-Seignioral Peasantry 475
24 The Village Community 504
25 Reformers, Rebels, and Abolitionists 536
26 The End of an Age 575
27 Some Conclusions and Generalizations 601
Glossary 621
List of Works Cited 623
Index 647
MAPS
Russia in the 12 th and Early 13th Centuries 19
Russia at the End of the 16th Century 121
European Russia in the 1850’s 393