Serfs and serfdom
There are written records of serfs as far back as the early 1000’s in Russia. This process, called serfdom, involved free people being treated like slaves. A serf is a Russian peasant (very poor worker or farmer) who had to work the farm of a noble, and who had very little freedom or control over their life. Their master was called a landlord, and he owned the farm and controlled the serfs who farmed it. As more and more Russian peasants became serfs, they lost their freedoms and rights and had to depend on their landlord.
Serfs had to pay very heavy taxes to their landlords. They lived on their piece of land, called a plot, for their whole lives—unless their landlord decided to trade them to another plot of land and another landlord. If this happened, the landlord could keep their family and everything they owned. Serfs were only allowed to travel during certain times of the year. They could not marry who they wanted, because the landlord did not want to lose his serf if they married someone on another plot.
The landlord could do almost everything but kill his serf. They had very few rights. Year after year, serfs had fewer and fewer rights, and they got angrier and angrier at their unfair treatment.
Peter the Great (ruled from 1672-1725)
When Peter the Great was young, he made a Grand Tour of Europe to meet other monarchs (absolute rulers of government) and see how their politics and economics worked. He even worked building ships in Holland while he was in disguise, so no one knew who he was. He learned a lot about industry and how to run a country. After he became Tsar, Peter was determined to modernize his very old-fashioned country. He wanted to be as modern as the rest of Europe so that the other countries would respect Russia, and so that Russia could become one of the leading powers in Europe. So in 1698, he got his nobles together for a meeting and cut off all their old, traditional beards. Beards were not popular in the rest of Europe. He also banned traditional dress, and encouraged young nobles to spend a year or two traveling around Europe to learn Western manners.
Peter changed his title from Tsar to Emperor, so that the other countries would see Russia more like the Roman Empire. Then he had the capital of Russia moved from Moscow, where it had been for almost 1,000 years, to a brand new capital that he built on the coast. Now it was easy trade with other European countries—or to send troops and the navy if they needed to. Peter named it St. Petersburg, after himself. He forced Russian peasants to build it, and forced his nobles to live there part of the year. They had to pay taxes to pay for the cost of building it.
Peter continued to give the federal (country) government more and more power, and to take away power from county and town governments.
The federal government controlled all business, and was in charge of buying and selling goods with other countries. Peter also gave most of the jobs in the federal government to military officers, because he knew that if the military was his government, the people could not kick him out of power and take over. He was just too powerful.
Peter also founded many new colleges. Two of the most important colleges were the College of Engineering and the College of Navigation. Peter felt that a strong navy, or military sea power, was important to being a strong European country. With new colleges and more education, Russia went through many technological and economical changes.
While Peter made Russia a powerful new member of modern Europe, he did not improve the lives of his subjects, or the people he ruled, very much. Serfs still did not have many rights, and it only continued to get worse.
Catherine the Great(ruled from 1729 to1796)
Catherine the Great was born a German princess in one of the tiny German states, but later became the most powerful ruler of the huge Russian Empire. In 1745 she married to prince Carl Peter Ulrich, the future Emperor Peter III. She joined the Russian Orthodox Church, learned Russian, and read many books to give herself an excellent education. In 1762 she was part of a coup, or a sudden illegal grab of power, against her husband Emperor Peter III. He was overthrown and killed later in what was called an accident, while Catherine became Russia’s ruler. Her time as Empress was considered to be the Golden Age (time of peace and growing wealth) of Russia.
Catherine continued Peter’s project to make Russia modern. She built museums, academies and colleges, and libraries. She even opened the first college for women in Russia. She wrote many things, including comedies, fiction, and a book on how to educate young children.
Catherine believed in the importance of education, and felt that giving students knowledge, skills, and strong values would help them to become modern and well-educated. She studied schools in other countries to understand how to give her country the best education possible. In 1786 after all her study, she created a free national education system for Russia, with elementary and high schools for all social classes, rich and poor—except for serfs. Boys and girls were taught together. Catherine even gave all her teachers a book called Guide to Teachers that helped them to run their new schools. Unfortunately, there was not enough money put into them. Not many people ended up staying at these free schools.
During Catherine’s rule, the nobles who owned land also owned the serfs on the land. This is the system that existed when she came into power. She made some changes to serfdom. If the nobles did not take care of their serfs well, then the serfs could make a legal complaint. Now people who were not nobles could not own serfs. If the serfs were illegally owned, they could be freed. She stopped the ways people could become serfs, and said that a free serf could not become a serf again. Nobles could also have their serfs educated.
However, serfdom still existed, and the landlords still had many powers over the serfs. The serfs became angry, and had a violent rebellion in 1774. After this, Catherine was afraid that she might lose power. She changed her laws to give the landlords more power over the serfs.
Catherine the Great died in 1796 and her son took the throne. Like Peter the Great, she did many things to make Russia more modern, but in the end she did not improve the lives of her subjects very much.
The end of serfdom
Serfdom continued for more than 100 years after the death of Catherine the Great. In 1861, serfdom was made illegal: but being free didn’t make the lives of the peasants much better.
When Tsar Nicholas II took the throne, he was a terrible ruler. After war with Japan and World War I, the people were angry enough with their absolute ruler that they overthrew the government and took it over in 1917. The Russian Empire was over.
A family of serfs on the plot of land that they worked.
A political cartoon of Catherine the Great. What is this artist’s opinion about how she treated the serfs?
A painting of serfs on their land. How is this painting different from the photo? Why do you think the artist chose to paint serfs in this way?
Ms. Ouellet's Social Studies Blog 