Peasant duties.

The agrarian reform provided for uniform duties for peasants. The main ones were corvee (panshchina) and chinsh. Drives were considered an additional duty - urgent agricultural work associated with harvesting, haymaking, and plowing the soil. All family members came out to fulfill them. To protect themselves from fire, only one disabled person was left in the house. The hubbub differed from the drives in that they were caused by emergency circumstances - for example, fire, flood. An additional duty was considered to be food rent - dyaklo.

Those peasants who performed corvée for the use of land were called tax workers. From one portage they had to work two days a week of corvée, four days a year of driving, pay 21 groschen chinsha, give a dyaklo in the following amount: two barrels of oats, one load of hay, one goose, two chickens, 20 eggs. Peasants who paid chinsh for the use of land were called siege peasants (chinsh). The size of the basic duties of besieged peasants for one haul of good land was 106 groschen, and for a haul of very bad land - 66 groschen. In addition, they carried out 12 days of collections per year and supplied dyaklo in the same amount as the tax yards.

The third group of peasants were peasant servants. They were divided into military peasants (armoured boyars, good boyars, servants), rural administration (voits, tiuns), servants (cooks, brewers, etc.), fishermen (sedge growers, beaver growers, grooms, fishermen, etc.), village artisans ( blacksmiths, carpenters, potters, etc.). Their duties were not strictly specified. For example, armored boyars, in exchange for free use of land during the war, were required to “have a good Cossack horse, a pike, a pair of pistols... and a musket on their belt.” Since 1557, the good boyars used one horse from two portages for war. But gradually their responsibilities became courier service and payment of chinsha.

After the agrarian reform, involuntary servants were transferred to the category of peasant gardeners. They received small plots of land. For using it, gardeners had to work one day of corvée per week in the farm.

The landowner was obliged to provide the peasants with a plot of land not for ownership, but only for “permanent use.” The land that went to the peasants legally continued to remain the landowner's property, for the use of which the peasants had to bear responsibilities until a redemption deal was concluded between them and the landowner. Until this time, peasants were considered “temporarily obligated,” that is, they remained in their former feudal dependence. But, since no deadline was set for the transition to redemption, this “temporariness” from urgent, as previously assumed, turned into indefinite. The size and form of duties, if there is no voluntary agreement between the landowner and the peasants, were also determined by local “Regulations”.

The “Regulations” established two types of duties - quitrent and corvee. The quitrent amounts according to the “Great Russian” Regulations ranged from 8 to 12 rubles. per shower allotment, depending on the area. The calculation of the quitrent was based on its size that existed on the eve of the reform; if we remember that the peasant dues were paid not only from the income from the peasants' agricultural activities, but also from various non-agricultural incomes, then it will become clear that by paying the dues, the peasant paid not only for the use of the landowner's land, but also for the right to dispose of his labor force; The quitrent, therefore, still bore the character of a feudal service. Naturally, there was no correspondence between the quitrent and the profitability of the peasant allotment; the highest quitrent (12 rubles) was paid by the peasants of the estates located near St. Petersburg, where, as is known, the land is of very low quality, then came the St. Petersburg, Moscow and Yaroslavl provinces and the industrial districts of the Vladimir province (10 rubles), while the peasants of the black earth , Kursk and Voronezh provinces paid 9 rubles.

When calculating the quitrent, the so-called “gradation” was introduced, which consisted in the fact that the first tithe of the allotment received by the peasants was valued more than the next tithes; therefore, if the peasants received an incomplete allotment, each tithe cost them more than when receiving a full allotment, that is, the less land the peasant received, the more it cost him. A particularly sharp gradation was established for the non-chernozem zone; in the chernozem and steppe zones it was somewhat less. The gradation gave landowners the opportunity to further increase the discrepancy between the size of the quitrent and the profitability of the land, that is, to further increase the payment for the loss of power over the peasant. And since labor was especially highly valued in the non-chernozem zone, it was mainly the landowners of the non-chernozem zone who were interested in gradation. It is not for nothing that the “invention” of gradation belongs to the nobles of the non-chernozem zone - the Tver provincial committee.

On corvee estates, corvee continued after the reform. The amount and procedure for serving corvée were determined by voluntary agreement; if an agreement could not be reached, then corvee was served on the basis of the “Regulations”. According to the “Regulations on the Great Russian, Novorossiysk and Belarusian provinces”, for each per capita allotment, peasants had to work 40 days per year for men and 30 days for women, and both men and women had to come to work with their own equipment - just like before the reform. Men were subject to corvee service from 18 to 55 years of age, and women from 17 to 50, i.e., approximately the same as it was practiced on landowners' estates before February 19. The serving of corvée was also regulated by gradation.

Peasants had to work most of the corvee days (three-fifths) from spring to harvest in the fall, which was especially dear to the peasant for working for himself. The landowner could require peasants to work on any day, with the exception of holidays, so long as the total number of days per week did not exceed a certain norm. If a peasant could not work due to illness, then other peasants had to work for him or he himself upon recovery; if he was ill for more than six months, he could be deprived of his land allotment.

Special institutions - provincial presences for peasant affairs - had to develop lesson regulations that would indicate exactly what work should be performed by the corvee peasant during the day. For those jobs that could not be transferred to a fixed position, the working day was set at 12 hours in the summer and 9 hours in the winter.

Peasant corvee workers were allowed to switch to quitrent even without the consent of the landowner, but not earlier than two years after the publication of the “Regulations” and provided that there were no state and landowner arrears. In addition, peasants had to declare their desire to switch to quitrent a year in advance.

The collection of quitrents and corvee duties from the arrears of peasants was equated to the collection of state quitrents and was carried out primarily before all other obligations lying on the peasants. To pay off the arrears, the peasant’s property could be sold, he and his family members could be forcibly sent to work, his field plot and even his estate could be taken away from him.

Thus, the duties of temporarily obliged peasants were in no way essentially different from the duties of serfs; this is the same cash or labor rent, only more or less regulated by law. Only underwater conscription and small taxes were abolished - poultry, butter, eggs, berries, mushrooms, canvas, wool, etc.

The considered local “Regulation” extended to the central and northern provinces, to the provinces of the Middle and Lower Volga and Ural regions, to three “Novorossiysk” provinces (Ekaterinoslav, Tauride and Kherson), part of the Kharkov province and the provinces of Mogilev and Vitebsk, with the exception of four so-called “inflant”, counties of the latter, adjacent to the Baltic region. In these provinces, communal land use prevailed, with few exceptions; in connection with this, the allotment was allocated to the whole society, which responded with mutual guarantee in the event of a failure to serve the duties. In those societies where there was household land use, the plot was assigned to individual householders, and the latter were personally responsible for duties.

For the remaining regions of Belarus and Ukraine and for the Lithuanian provinces, special local “Regulations” were issued.

The life of simple poor peasants completely depended on two factors: the master and Mother Nature. The feudal lord imposed taxes (feudal duties), and nature, for its part, also sometimes did not favor: droughts, too frosty winters or rainy summers nullified all the peasant’s attempts to get out of poverty and vegetation.

Only the most hardworking and persistent achieved their goal and could improve their situation.

What is feudal duty?

The duties of the peasants consisted of observing several points of the contract, upon the conclusion of which the feudal lord was obliged to provide the peasant and his family with land for living and sowing fields, as well as to protect his land and estate from attacks by enemies. Moreover, this type of agreement was not slave-owning: at any moment the peasant’s family could go into service to another feudal lord, but the lands that were allocated to him, of course, were taken away.

In medieval history there were several feudal duties:

• Corvee.
• Monetary dues in favor of the feudal lord.
• Church tithe.
• Other local conditions.

Corvee

This feudal duty consisted of a forced obligation to work in the master's field 2-3 days a week. Sowing and harvesting grain, cutting hay, constructing and repairing buildings, caring for livestock and many other types of work were a heavy yoke on the peasant’s neck.

The feudal lord often violated the terms of the corvee and detained forced people at his work: while they bent their backs on the master, ears of grain fell in their fields, vegetables dried out and unmown hay spoiled. Corvee was the most difficult and unprofitable payment for belonging to the lands of a feudal lord, and given the fact that the terms of the agreement were constantly violated, this gave rise to unrest and discontent.

Church tithe

This feudal obligation was the most oppressive: it was impossible to get rid of it by ransom or reduce the percentage of payment; each family was obliged to pay the church ten percent of its profits from all types of activities. It is not surprising that the church leaders of the Middle Ages wallowed in luxury.

quitrent

Material payment to one's lord was another feudal obligation for the right to use his land and protection. There were several types of rent:

Monetary: a certain amount of money was paid annually into the treasury of the local lord. The peasants received money from selling their goods at fairs, which were held every few months. The artisans also received payment for their work, with which they paid the rent to the master.

Grocery: payment was made for livestock and poultry products - meat, eggs, milk and manufactured cheeses, honey and wine, vegetables and fruits. Often, for lack of more, they were paid in grain from the harvest.

Various mixed forms of payment: livestock, craft items - fabric, yarn and dishes, extracted skins of fur-bearing animals or tanned leather

After paying all taxes and obligations, the ordinary peasant had very little left for his needs, but at the same time everyone tried to work as best and as efficiently as possible, so responsible families slowly but steadily improved their financial situation, and some even managed to buy back the land and free themselves from basic duties.

Some types of other obligations

There were other duties that were no less difficult:

• The right of the first night is the most offensive obligation, which persisted until the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. In some cases, it was possible to buy off this right with a fairly large sum of money. In some areas, a “marriage license” was practiced, which required permission from a master (sometimes for a fee) to marry a specific woman.
• The right of a dead hand - if the head of the family in whose name the land was registered died, it was returned to the feudal lord. But quitrent payments were often used if the family, after the loss of the main breadwinner, could continue to work for it
• Military conscription - in wartime, a man in a forced family was obliged to stand up for the defense of the country, a local region, or go on a crusade.

In different countries and at different times, feudal duties were determined by local customs, beliefs and living conditions: somewhere they were more loyal, in other places, on the contrary, they bordered on slavery, violating all human rights, which subsequently caused riots, revolutions and abolition feudal law.

The “Regulations” of February 19, 1861 established a number of basic principles for the elimination of duties and the allocation of land to peasants. “The general provision on peasants who have emerged from peasant dependence” was based on the recognition of the property rights of landowners to all lands, but established the mandatory surrender of peasants with estate and field land (with the exception of those who did not have land before the reform) first for duties and then for ransom . Preference was given to an “amicable” agreement between peasants and landowners, and the conditions could be very different. If such an agreement was not reached, then strict rules determined by “local provisions” came into play. The reform was based on the principle of gradualism, a favorite hobby of conservatives of all times. Gradually - over two years - statutory charters were to be drawn up, defining the specific conditions for the liberation of the peasants. After that, the peasants were transferred to the position of “temporarily obliged” until the transition to redemption. Then there followed a period of 49 years of payment of redemption payments (or rather, state loans), after which the land plots were to become the full property of the peasants.

The size of the plots was determined by local regulations, of which there were four. One was for 29 Great Russian, Novorossiysk and Belarusian provinces with a communal form of land use. The second is for three Little Russian (left bank) provinces with household land use. There was a special local situation for Right Bank Ukraine and a fourth one for Western Belarus and Lithuania. According to the last two provisions, the peasants received all the land that they had before the reform. This was done for political reasons, since the peasants there were Ukrainians and Belarusians, and the landowners were mostly Catholic Poles. After the uprising of 1863, the peasants of these provinces were immediately transferred to redemption and their allotments increased somewhat (to the previous inventory standards).

Local regulations also divided the provinces into three stripes (chernozem, non-chernozem and steppe), and within the stripes areas were allocated and allotment standards were established for them. In the steppe zone, a single statutory allotment per male soul was introduced (it varied in different areas from six to twelve dozen). In the remaining zones in each locality, the highest and lowest allotment rates were determined. Moreover, the highest allotment was three times larger than the lowest. The law was based on the fact that the peasants were given the actual allotment that they enjoyed before the reform. In this case, if this allotment was more than the highest norm, the landowner had the right to cut off the “surplus” to this norm. If the actual allotment was less than the lowest norm, the landowner was obliged to cut off the land

excess to this norm.

The landowners established norms in such an amount that they could cut off part of the peasants' lands for their benefit. The landowners submitted to the Editorial Commissions underestimated data on the size of the actual plots of the peasants, and therefore, even after some increase in the highest norms by these commissions in most provinces, the peasants' lands were still reduced. The land was also cut off according to additional rules: the landowner could cut off land for himself up to 1/3 of his former estate (in the steppe zone up to 1/2) even if the peasants' allotments did not exceed the highest norm.

According to official data, the size of the plots in favor of the landowners in 27 provinces as a whole amounted to 13% of the peasant plots that were before the reform. Studies by Soviet historians of archive documents (statutory charters) showed that in reality about 20% of their land was cut off from the peasants, and in some provinces up to 30%. The landowners were given the right to determine for themselves which lands to allocate to the peasants and which to keep for themselves. The landowners cut off the best lands for themselves, and also took such plots into sections so that the peasants would be forced to rent them at an expensive price. For example, they took for themselves all the pastures and watering places that the peasants could not do without, and more often they wedged sections into the middle of the peasants' field lands. According to the recollections of one of the statisticians, in the village of Khomuty, Oryol province, the lands of the peasants were in five sections, and it was possible to get to them only through the lands of the landowner. Thus, the landowners were able to exploit the peasants in bondage.

As a result of the reform, 10 million male souls of former landowner peasants received about 34 million dessiatines. land or 3.4 dessiatines. per capita. According to the calculations of liberal economists, for the subsistence minimum it was necessary to have at least 5.5 dessiatines in the black earth zone. per capita, and in other areas 6-8 dessiatines. The allotments were uneven. Almost 5 percent of the peasants received up to 2 dessiatines, 28% from 2 to 3 dessiatines, 26% from 3 to 4 dessiatines, and 27% over 4 dessiatines. The least wealthy were the peasants of the black earth strip, the most northern and steppe provinces.

The allocation of land to peasants was dictated by two reasons. Tsarism was concerned that the peasants would continue to pay taxes, which they could not do without land. In addition, the landowners were afraid of losing their workers, since without land, the peasants would begin to scatter around the cities and go to the land-rich outskirts. Taking into account the interests of the peasants required a significant increase in the pre-reform allotments of the peasants, which could be done through the landowners' latifundia and the organization of the resettlement of peasants in the outskirts. But the landowners won. The pre-reform, clearly insufficient norms were taken as the basis for the allotments, but at the same time the peasants were robbed, taking away vital “segments” from them. When switching to redemption, the former landowner peasants received the title of peasant owners, but in reality they, unlike the landowners, did not receive full ownership of the land. The community was considered the legal owner, but it also did not have the right to sell the plots. With household land ownership, peasants also could not sell their plots. A new form of land tenure, “allotment”, was created.

Some peasants (461 thousand) received quarter, or gift, plots, on average 1.1 dessiatines. per capita. Half of them were in the Lower Volga region, and a quarter in the North Chernozem region. 724 thousand household servants and 137 thousand peasants and small landed gentry did not receive any land at all. They were released after two years free of charge, but without a piece of land.

Before the transfer to the redemption, the peasants had to perform temporary duties in favor of the landowner in the form of a monetary quitrent or corvee. The period of transition from duties to redemption was not firmly established by regulation; it stretched from 1863 to 1883 (the law of 1881 established the mandatory transition to redemption for all landowners' estates). By February 19, 1870, 55% of the peasants in European Russia switched to ransom, not counting the western provinces, where all peasants were immediately transferred to the category of peasant owners. By 1881 15% of the former landowner peasants of the internal provinces remained in the position of temporarily obliged.

Temporary duties were essentially the same as feudal corvée and quitrents, the difference was as follows: their sizes were determined by local regulations, small duties (in-kind payment in poultry, berries, mushrooms, etc., additional hauling work and outfits) were abolished, quitrents were recognized as the main duty (peasants were not allowed it was possible to transfer to corvee without their consent if they had previously paid quitrent, and after two years they could transfer from corvee to quitrent without the consent of the landowner). Corvée was limited to 40 men's and 30 women's tax days per year, with 3/5 worked in the summer half of the year, the rest in the winter. The peasants did not work productively in corvée; the landowners no longer had such power over them. Therefore, the proportion of corvee peasants in the first two years decreased by half (from 71 to 35%) and then the reduction continued.

The principle of determining the amount of quitrent, on which the size of the ransom depended, was of great importance. The government and the tsar himself repeatedly emphasized that they would not allow even a discussion of the issue of ransoming the personal dependence of the peasants, which was proposed by the right-wing landowners. But among the new bureaucracy, a way around this principle was found: to make the size of the quitrent dependent not on the profitability of the land, but on the income of the peasants in a given area. According to local regulations, the highest quitrent was established near St. Petersburg - 12 rubles. From a full allotment, then in non-black earth provinces (Moscow, Yaroslavl, parts of Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod) - 10 rubles. In the black earth and steppe provinces the quitrent was set at 9 rubles. Consequently, quitrents were lower where land was valued higher. This happened because the quitrent standards were approximately equal to the size of the pre-reform quitrent, and it was higher in non-black earth provinces, near the capitals, where it was possible to earn more. And in the black earth provinces the main income was from land and the rent was lower. Here the landowners were compensated by plots of land and the opportunity to receive income from them. The assignment of quitrent according to its pre-reform size was intended to preserve for the landowner the income that the peasant gave, and not to compensate for the land.

The introduction of the so-called gradation of quitrents and corvée was a clever fraud. This principle came into force only when the peasants did not receive a full allotment. For example, when receiving half of the highest allotment, it would seem that the peasant must pay half of the quitrent. But the gradation consisted in the uneven distribution of quitrent (as well as corvee) among the tithes of the allotment. In the non-chernozem zone, 50% of the quitrent was collected for the first tithe received, 25% for the second, and the remainder of the quitrent was distributed equally among the rest. In the Yaroslavl province, the highest allotment of four dozen rents was set at 10 rubles. If the peasants received two tens each, then they paid 5 rubles for the first tithe, as would have been the case without the introduction of gradation. The establishment of gradation was beneficial to the majority of landowners, since the bulk of the peasants received plots less than the highest norm. They received particular benefit from this due to the fact that the ransom, as we will see later, directly depended on the actual value of the post-reform quitrent. The peasants of the black earth strip found themselves in the most difficult situation, where land was cut off in excess of the highest norm.

(based on "The Poem of the Versonian Villans")

“The Poem of the Verson Villans” was written in Old French by a certain Estou le Goz in the middle of the 13th century. The action takes place in the village of Verson, near the city of Caen (Normandy). The lord of Verson was the rich monastery of St. Michael. The author of the work is entirely on the side of the monastery and is hostile and ironic towards the peasants.

Again I bring my complaint to Saint Michael - the messenger of the heavenly king - against all the Versona villans...

Villans must carry the stone - every day there is a need for it - without disputes and without resistance. And in the furnaces and in the mills - after all, they are more treacherous than humble! - they are constantly guilty of service. Whether a house is being built, they must supply the masons with stone and cement."

The first work of the year is for Midsummer 2. Villans must mow the meadows, rake and collect hay into shocks and stack it in stacks in the meadows, and then take it to the master's yard when indicated. Bordarii 3 will put the hay in the barn. They do this work all the time.

Then they must clean the mill ditches - each one comes with his own shovel; With a shovel around their necks, they go to rake out dry and liquid manure. Villan does this work.

But then August comes, and with it new work (that’s what they were missing!). They owe corvée, and it should not be forgotten. The villans must reap the grain, collect and tie it into sheaves, stack it in stacks in the middle of the field and take it immediately to the barns. They have carried out this service since childhood, just as their ancestors did. This is how they work for the lord.

"Apparently, a mixture of clay and straw.

3 Bordarii - peasants obliged to work primarily on the estate, in contrast to villans - holders of small plots on estates, carrying corvee labor and paying rent in kind and in cash.

If their lands are subject to shampar, then they will never bring their sheaves from the fields: they go to look for the collector and bring him with great reluctance; if the villan sins against the established account, the collector will shame him and impose a large fine if he did not give him anything. And so he loads the champar on his gig, not daring to throw off a single sheaf, and takes the common champar to the barn, but his own harvest remains exposed to the rain and wind, and the villan yearns for his bread, which lies in the field, where it suffers all sorts of damage! And so he rides up to the barn, where they take a fine from him if he has lost even one sheaf that fell from the cart in the field or on the road. He ties his horses, but they will not be given a crumb of feed; and if the measurer sees him, he He will also be able to upset the villan by demanding wine from him. He has to pay a lot to someone who has three or four clerks hanging over him: one accepts, another unloads, the third leads to the measurer - having handed over the bread to the poor man, he finally leaves (not for a long time! he knew such joy!), swearing in his dialect that he had handed over such a lot to him, and therefore such a mockery of him.

And then the time comes for the fair “in the meadow” and the September Day of the Virgin Mary, when it is necessary to carry the piglets. If a villan has eight piglets, then he takes the two best, one of them for the lord, who, of course, will not take the worst! And on top of that, you need to contribute 3 deniers for each of the remaining piglets. The villan must pay all this.

Then comes the day of St. Dionysius 4. Here the villans clutch their heads - after all, they have to submit a qualification, and they are in fear.

But the deadline for paying for the fencing is approaching - after all, the villans keep large fences. If a villan has been cultivating his field for a long time, he still cannot and will not dare to fence it off before he has paid a fee to the lord and received his consent.<...>

Then they are again guilty of corvée. When they have plowed the land, they go to the barn for grain, sow and harrow. Each share is one acre 5...

The chickens must be turned in by Christmas; if they are not good and gentle enough, the clerk will take away the villan's pledge 6 .

Next comes the beer duty; two nets of barley and three cartiers of 7 wheat each.

“Champar (part from the field) is the giving to the lord of a certain share of the harvest. Sometimes this is the ninth, tenth or eleventh sheaf, but there are cases when the fourth sheaf was also given.

3 Denier = "/12 sous. 20 sous = 1 livre.

""St. Dionysius's Day is October 9. Villan, as the holder of the feudal land, paid him a qualification. The peasant paid ^enz or champar, and sometimes both.

5 Norman acre = 12.1 hectares.

"Alone from There was a system of bails for coercive measures against the villans. ·

7 Medieval measures of bulk solids fluctuated. In the 13th century in one cart of wheat there were 3 bushels, in one net there were 12 bushels.

Come on, make them pay! They must pay in full! Go, take their horses, take away the cows and calves, hold their deposits in all the yards. Bring more, don’t leave them anything as a gift! Because all Villans are treacherous traitors...

If a villan gives his daughter in marriage outside the seigneury, then the seigneur receives a "culage" fee. Three sous are due to him in the form of a marriage fee, and, sir, I swear that there is something for which he receives these three sous. For in ancient times it was so, that the villan led his daughter by the hand and handed her over to the lord...

Then comes Palm Sunday. A divinely established holiday when it is necessary to pay a duty for sheep, since the villans received this duty by inheritance. But if they fail to pay on time, then they thereby hand over themselves to the mercy of the lord.

On Easter they are again guilty of corvée. When the Villans have plowed the land, they go to the barn for grain, sow and harrow. Each one cultivates one acre for barley.

After that, we need to go to the forge to shoe the horses, because it’s time to go to the forest for firewood...

Then comes the cart duty, called sommage: after all, every year they transported grain to Domzhan. And then they mocked them quite a bit...

In addition, there is a mill ban 2 on them. If the villan does not pay the miller as he is supposed to, then the miller will take his own on the grain, measuring it out in such a bushel as to compensate for his grinding; and with a spatula he will scoop up the flour for himself so that barely half of the full measure remains, and he will also grab a handful...

Then they have a stove bath on top of them and that's the worst part. When the villan's wife goes there (she hasn't been sent there for a long time) and regularly pays her fornage, brings a cake and help, then the baker, arrogant and important, grumbles, and the baker is dissatisfied and scolds, saying that he did not receive what he deserved; he swears on the teeth of God that the oven will be poorly heated and that he will not have to eat good bread - it will be unbaked.

Sire, let it be known to you that there is no more vile people under heaven than the Versonian villans; we know this for sure...