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History of state peasants

State peasants were issued by decrees of Peter I from the remnants of the non-enslaved agricultural population:

• odnodvortsev (serving people on the black earth border with the Wild Steppe), on November 24, 1866, the law “On the land arrangement of state peasants” was issued, according to which the estate was abolished;
• non-Russian peoples of the Volga and Ural regions.

The number of state peasants increased due to the confiscation of church properties (huge properties of the Russian Orthodox Church were confiscated by Catherine), returned, annexed and conquered territories (the Baltic states, Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Crimea, Transcaucasia), former serfs confiscated estates of the gentry of the Commonwealth and others. In addition, the number of state peasants was replenished by runaway serfs (privately owned) peasants who settled on the developed lands (Bashkiria, Novorossia, the North Caucasus, and so on). This process (the transition of runaway serfs to the ranks of the state) was tacitly encouraged by the imperial government.

Also, foreign colonists (Germans, Greeks, Bulgarians, etc.) who settled in Russia contributed to the increase in the number of state peasants.

The position of the state peasants

State ( state-owned) peasants lived on state lands and paid taxes to the treasury. According to the 1st revision (), there were 1.049 million male souls in European Russia and Siberia (that is, 19% of the total agricultural population of the country), according to the 10th revision () - 9.345 million (45.2% of the agricultural population ) [ ] . Presumably, the crown peasants in Sweden served as a model for the legal definition of the position of state peasants in the state. By law, state peasants were treated as "free rural inhabitants." State peasants, in contrast to the owners, were considered as persons with legal rights - they could speak in court, conclude transactions, own property. State peasants were allowed to conduct retail and wholesale trade, open factories and plants. The land on which such peasants worked was considered state property, but the right to use was recognized for the peasants - in practice, the peasants made transactions as owners of the land. However, in addition to that, since 1801, the state. peasants could buy and own "uninhabited" lands (that is, without serfs peasants) on the basis of private ownership. State peasants had the right to use an allotment of 8 acres per capita in small-land provinces and 15 acres in large-land provinces. The actual allotments were much smaller: by the end of the 1830s - up to 5 acres in 30 provinces and 1-3 acres in 13 provinces; in the early 1840s, 325,000 souls had no clothing.

The bulk of the state peasants contributed cash quitrent to the treasury; on the territory of the Baltic states and the Kingdom of Poland, state-owned estates were leased to private owners and state peasants served mainly corvee; Siberian arable peasants first cultivated state-owned arable land, then paid food quitrent (later in cash). In the first half of the 19th century, the dues fluctuated from 7 rubles. 50 kop. up to 10 rubles per year. As the duties of appanage and landlord peasants increased, the monetary rent of the state peasants became relatively less than the duties of other categories of peasants. State peasants were also obliged to contribute money for zemstvo needs; they paid a poll tax and served natural duties (road, underwater, lodging, etc.). For the proper performance of duties, the state peasants were responsible for mutual responsibility.

Kiselyov's reform

As a result of the growing shortage of land and the increase in duties at the beginning of the 19th century, a progressive impoverishment of the state peasants was revealed. Unrest of state peasants began to occur more often against the reduction of allotments, the severity of quitrents, etc. (for example, "Cholera riots", "Potato riots" of 1834 and 1840-41). The question of changing the management of the state peasants gave rise to numerous projects.

In the 1830s, the government began to reform the management of the state village. In 1837-1841, a reform developed by P. D. Kiselyov was carried out: the Ministry of State Property and its local bodies were established, which were entrusted with the “trusteeship” of the state peasants through the rural community. The corvée duties of the state peasants in Lithuania, Belarus and Right-Bank Ukraine were liquidated, the leasing of state estates was stopped, the per capita rent was replaced by a more uniform land and trade tax.

A staunch opponent of serfdom, Kiselyov believed that freedom should be introduced gradually, "so that slavery is destroyed by itself and without upheavals of the state."

State peasants received self-government and the opportunity to resolve their affairs within the framework of the rural community. However, the peasants remained attached to the land. A radical reform of the state village became possible only after the abolition of serfdom. Despite the gradual transformation, they ran into resistance, because the landlords feared that excessive emancipation of the state peasants would set a dangerous example for the landowning peasants.

Kiselyov intended to regulate the allotments and obligations of the landowning peasants and partially subordinate them to the Ministry of State Property, but this aroused the indignation of the landowners and was not implemented.

Nevertheless, when preparing the peasant reform of 1861, the compilers of the legislation used the experience of Kiselyov's reform, especially in matters of organizing peasant self-government and determining the legal status of peasants.

Liberation of the state peasants

On November 24, 1866, the law “On the Land Arrangement of State Peasants” was adopted, according to which rural communities retained the lands that were in their use on the basis of the rights of “possession” (direct use). The redemption of allotments in the property was regulated by law from

Siberian arable peasants, odnodvortsy (service people on the black earth border with the Wild Steppe), non-Russian peoples of the Volga and Ural regions.

The number of state peasants increased due to the confiscation of church properties (huge properties of the Russian Orthodox Church were confiscated by Catherine), annexed and conquered territories (the Baltic states, Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Crimea, Transcaucasia), former serfs confiscated estates of the gentry of the Commonwealth, etc. In addition, the number of state peasants was replenished by runaway serfs (privately owned) peasants who settled on the developed lands (Bashkiria, Novorossia, the North Caucasus, etc.). This process (the transition of runaway serfs to the ranks of the state) was tacitly encouraged by the imperial government.

Also, foreign colonists (Germans, Greeks, Bulgarians, etc.) who settled in Russia contributed to an increase in the number of state peasants.

The position of the state peasants

State peasants lived on state lands and paid taxes to the treasury. According to the 1st revision (), there were 1.049 million male souls in European Russia and Siberia (that is, 19% of the total agricultural population of the country), according to the 10th revision () - 9.345 million (45.2% of the agricultural population ) . Presumably, the crown peasants in Sweden served as a model for the legal definition of the position of state peasants in the state. By law, state peasants were regarded as "free rural inhabitants." State peasants, in contrast to the owners, were considered as persons with legal rights - they could speak in court, conclude transactions, own property. State peasants were allowed to conduct retail and wholesale trade, open factories and plants. The land on which such peasants worked was considered state property, but the right to use was recognized for the peasants - in practice, the peasants made transactions as owners of the land. However, in addition to that, since 1801, the state. peasants could buy and own on the basis of private ownership "uninhabited" lands (that is, without serfs). State peasants had the right to use an allotment of 8 acres per capita in small-land provinces and 15 acres in large-land provinces. The actual allotments were much smaller: by the end of the 1830s - up to 5 acres in 30 provinces and 1-3 acres in 13 provinces; in the early 1840s, 325,000 souls had no clothing.

The bulk of the state peasants contributed cash quitrent to the treasury; on the territory of the Baltic states and the Kingdom of Poland, state-owned estates were leased to private owners and state peasants served mainly corvee; Siberian plowed peasants first cultivated state arable land, then paid food quitrent (later cash). In the 1st half of the 19th century, the dues ranged from 7 rubles. 50 kop. up to 10 rubles per year. As the duties of appanage and landlord peasants increased, the monetary rent of the state peasants became relatively less than the duties of other categories of peasants. State peasants were also obliged to contribute money for zemstvo needs; they paid a poll tax and served natural duties (travel, underwater, lodging, etc.). For the proper performance of duties, the state peasants were responsible for mutual responsibility.

Kiselyov's reform

As a result of the growing shortage of land and the increase in duties at the beginning of the 19th century, a progressive impoverishment of the state peasants was revealed. Unrest of state peasants began to occur more often against the reduction of allotments, the severity of dues, etc. (for example, " Cholera riots", " Potato riots" of 1834 and 1840-41). The question of changing the management of the state peasants gave rise to numerous projects.

In the 1830s, the government began to reform the management of the state village. In 1837-41, a reform developed by P. D. Kiselyov was carried out: the Ministry of State Property and its local bodies were established, which were entrusted with the "trusteeship" of the state peasants through the rural community. The corvée duties of the state peasants in Lithuania, Belarus and Right-Bank Ukraine were liquidated, the leasing of state estates was stopped, the per capita rent was replaced by a more uniform land and trade tax.

A staunch opponent of serfdom, Kiselyov believed that freedom should be introduced gradually, "so that slavery is destroyed by itself and without upheavals of the state."

State peasants received self-government and the opportunity to resolve their affairs within the framework of the rural community. However, the peasants remained attached to the land. A radical reform of the state village became possible only after the abolition of serfdom. Despite the gradual transformation, they ran into resistance, because the landlords feared that excessive emancipation of the state peasants would set a dangerous example for the landowning peasants.

Kiselyov intended to regulate the allotments and obligations of the landowning peasants and partially subordinate them to the Ministry of State Property, but this aroused the indignation of the landowners and was not implemented.

Nevertheless, when preparing the peasant reform of 1861, the drafters of the legislation used the experience of Kiselyov's reform, especially in matters of organizing peasant self-government and determining the legal status of peasants.

Liberation of the state peasants

see also

Sources and links

• N. M. Druzhinin State peasants and the reform of P. D. Kiseleva, M.-L., 1958.
• L. G. Zakharova, N. M. Druzhinin, article "State peasants" in the encyclopedia "National History"
• A. B. Muchnik, Social and economic aspects of the potato riots of 1834 and 1841-43 in Russia, in the collection: Popular uprisings in Russia. From the Time of Troubles to the "Green Revolution" against the Soviet Power, ed. H.-D. Löwe, Wiesbaden, 2006, pp. 427-452 (in German). (A. Moutchnik: Soziale und wirtschaftliche Grundzüge der Kartoffelaufstände von 1834 und von 1841-1843 in Russland, in: Volksaufstände in Russland. Von der Zeit der Wirren bis zur "Grünen Revolution" gegen die Sowjetherrschaft, hrsg. von Heinz- = Forschungen zur osteuropäischen Geschichte, Bd. 65), Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2006, S. 427-452)

Notes

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See what "State peasants" are in other dictionaries:

In Russia, 18 1st half. 19th centuries an estate formed from former black-haired peasants, ladles, single-dvorets, etc. They lived on state lands, carried duties in favor of the state, and were considered personally free. From 1841 they were controlled by the Ministry ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

In Russia in the XVIII - first half of the XIX centuries. an estate formed from former black-haired peasants, ladles, single-dvorets, etc. They lived on state lands, carried duties in favor of the state, and were considered personally free. In 1886 they received the right ... ... Law Dictionary

STATE PEASANTS, IN THE 18th - 1st half of the 19th centuries. an estate formed from former black-haired peasants, ladles, odnodvortsev and others. G. k. lived on state-owned lands, carried duties in favor of the state, and were considered personally free. Since 1841 ... ... Russian history

A special class of serf Russia, issued by decrees of Peter 1 from the remaining non-serfdom rural population (black-eared peasants (See. Black-eared peasants) and ladles (See. Ladles) of Northern Pomorye, Siberian plowed ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Russia in the 18th and early 19th centuries an estate formed from former black-haired peasants, ladles, single-dvorets, etc. They lived on state-owned lands, carried duties in favor of the state, and were considered personally free. Since 1841 they have been ruled by ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

A special estate of serf Russia, issued by decrees of Peter I from the remnants of an unenslaved farmer. the population of black-eared peasants and ladles of the North. Pomorye, Siberian plowed peasants, single-dvortsev, non-Russians. peoples of the Volga and Ural regions). ... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

See Peasants... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

STATE PEASANTS- a special category of peasants in Russia in the 18th–19th centuries, formed as a result of the tax reform of 1724, with a total number of 1 million male souls, who previously paid tax in favor of the state along with other categories of tax ... ... Russian statehood in terms. IX - beginning of XX century

legal and historical aspects

XVIII - first half of the XIX centuries.

Monograph

CHAPTER 2

Land property of the feudal-unprivileged estates

1. State peasants

Until the reform of 1861, the peasants in Russia did not form one estate with a uniformly defined status. On the contrary, there were a lot of categories with a very diverse legal status, which were formed both historically - as a result of various economic conditions and relations with higher classes and the state, and for reasons of government legislative measures - mainly in the 1st half of the 19th century, when in this way they searched for and tried on different options for resolving the peasant question.

The most privileged of the peasants were state peasants- the former free farmers, after the establishment of the principle of state ownership of land that does not directly belong to other persons, found themselves sitting on state lands. Although during the 18th - early 19th centuries numerous attempts were made to bring them closer in status to privately owned peasants and to burden them with duties accordingly (on which, in particular, the tax transformations of their position in the Petrine era were based), however, by the beginning of the 19th century, this policy was abandoned and the state peasants themselves became that part of the general peasant class, on which the reforms of the general peasant liberation were carried out and tried on (the beginnings of this policy were laid back in the reign of Catherine II). The table given in the appendix (see Table 4) gives an idea of ​​the number of state peasants in comparison with the total peasant population of Russia.

Since the reign of Alexander I, the status of state peasants has increasingly begun to legally differ from the status of privately owned peasants, the most significant measure along which was the recognition of the state peasants' ownership of land and the right to acquire it - the property rights of state peasants in movable property were recognized earlier .
Before the reforms of Peter I, state peasants were divided into arable and quitrent: 1) arable peasants were obliged to plow the land for the state, that is, to work in kind, 2) quitrent peasants had to pay dues for the land. In addition, the peasants of the falconer's settlements, who are obliged to supply falcons, gyrfalcons and other hunting birds for the royal catching and to assist in hunting, must also be counted among the state peasants who carried natural duties; peasants assigned to fishing, who were supposed to deliver a certain amount of fish to the royal court, etc. Even before the reforms of Peter the Great, the state purposefully pursued the view that all lands on which peasants who do not have masters sit are state, and the corresponding payments , levied from the "black" peasants, were carried out not as a public law obligation, but as a payment to the owner, that is, they were qualified under private law, and in relation to the "black" peasants the ban on alienating their lands was constantly repeated . Peter's reforms unambiguously qualified the status of state peasants as the same landlords, whose land is owned by the state, in relation to which they must bear common privately owned duties. In this regard, under Peter I, all peasants who lived on state land were turned into quitrents with the establishment for them, in addition to the nationwide seventy-kopeck poll tax, also a quitrent tax of 40 kopecks. This additional taxation was motivated by the fact that state peasants did not bear duties to the landowner and a new fee was introduced into the equation of their position with privately owned payments . This, originally forty-kopek, quitrent gradually increased throughout the 18th century, deliberately adjusted to the practice of private ownership: in 1745 it was 55 kopecks, in 1760 it rose to the ruble , in 1768 - up to two, and in 1783 it was three rubles .

In November 1797, an extremely curious decree was issued , according to which, firstly, the normal size of a peasant allotment was determined at 15 acres, and secondly, for land-poor state peasants who did not have a designated number in their holding, additional cutting was provided, and if there was not enough land in this possession, resettlement, in- thirdly, and this is most important for us, the decree actually spoke about the ownership of state-owned peasants on the land (“on those lands that now belong to the peasants), and also recognized the ownership of the peasants in the mills built by them on their lands (“provide these to those peasants possession without reserve"). It remains a debatable question of the extent to which the authors of the decree were aware of the endowment of state-owned peasants with property carried out in the text, especially immovable property, which remained a painful issue throughout Catherine's reign, and with which the subsequent legislation of the Nikolaev era aimed to fight. In all likelihood, the decree should be regarded as a kind of legislative slip of the tongue, especially since it was issued in the form of a Senate decree on the basis of the highest approved report, and, therefore, by status could not claim innovation, but had to confirm and resolve individual incidents on on the basis of an already existing order. Nevertheless, the fact that such expressions could penetrate official acts shows the real duality of the legal status of state lands being cultivated by state peasants.

The laws of 1766 and 1788 strengthened the right of state-owned peasants to buy “small villages from landowners in the vicinity”. Such a purchase could take place with the permission of the Treasury Chambers at a certain rate - 30 rubles per capita, it was registered as a state property, however, it was provided to the purchasers for actual and protected by state regulations. In 1801, state peasants, along with merchants and philistines, received the right to acquire uninhabited lands. An additional legalization of 1817 confirmed the right of purchasers to sell, mortgage and assign these plots by any means. In 1823, the right to purchase land was assigned to peasant societies as legal entities, moreover, acquisitions were now formally and legally considered peasant property.

Despite, however, their free civil legal status and some legislative fixation of their legal status, a constant threat to state peasants was their transfer to privately owned peasants: that is, an award to the nobility or transfer to an appanage. State peasants with lands were transferred to the Russian nobility both on lease (mainly in the western provinces) and in ownership. You can demonstrate the scale of such distributions (which acquired a truly legendary character during the reign of Catherine, and about 600 thousand peasants were given away for distribution during the short reign of Paul) by citing the “Statement of the most merciful grants of lands”, which, however, refers to a later period (from 1804 to 1836), but all the more impressive, since in the first half of the 19th century the practice of distributions was most severely narrowed and met with resolute resistance both from the liberal-minded part of Russian high society and from the Ministry of Finance, which directly accepted each such award as plunder. treasury (see tab. 5).

In total, during the thirty-year period in which the policy of preventing distributions was carried out as a state policy, more than 1,000,000 acres passed into private hands, and, since the lands were complained of at the choice of the person who received the highest favor, this million acres fell on the best lands, moreover, it happened simultaneously with the growing land hunger already in the state countryside, where for decades they could not put into practice the provisions on additional allocation of arable land to the peasants and were forced to constantly reduce the size of the peasant allotments prescribed by law, but still remaining unable to produce even these limited reforms.

From time to time, plans arose for large-scale distribution of state peasants into private ownership or conversion into long-term noble leases. Such a requirement for economic peasants was put forward even at the Legislative Commission of 1767. In 1826, Count N. S. Mordvinov drew up a detailed project for the transformation of the state village. According to him, the state peasants, along with their allotments and additional land area, were transferred on a long-term lease for 50-100 years to private individuals (Mordvinov meant landowners by them) and educational institutions. In addition to quitrent, which remained unchanged and was still paid to the state, peasants from 18 to 50 years old were subject to corvee duties in favor of the tenant in the amount of 1 day a week. The very status of these alleged lease holdings was more than peculiar: for example, with the permission of the government, the tenants could sell, donate and change peasants, although they did not have the right to split the villages when they were inherited, but the general right of inheritance in the lease holdings was exhibited without fail . It should not be thought that this was just the usual projecting of a land admiral who was looking for salon popularity - in 1810 similar proposals became a legal reality. Then, in order to improve the terrible state of public finances and eliminate the budget deficit, M. M. Speransky, with the active participation of the same N. S. Mordvinov, developed a project according to which 3 million acres of land, about 2 million acres of forests and more than 332 thousand souls of peasants; the total amount of the sale was to be more than 100 million silver rubles. This project was accepted and the relevant departments started its implementation. According to the manifesto of May 27, 1810 “On the opening of an urgent internal loan to reduce the number of banknotes and to pay state debts”, a certain part of state property - quitrent items leased out, part of state forests and “lease and other estates, now in temporary private ownership "- was separated "for its conversion into private property through sale." The sale itself was to be made at public auction; inhabited lands could be acquired not only by nobles, but also by "merchants of the highest ranks", including foreign subjects. The project ended in failure - by 1816, when the sale was terminated, only 10,408 were alienated into private ownership - there were no buyers for a greater number, however, this enterprise itself clearly demonstrates the unreliability of the "free" status of state peasants and the degree of protection of their property rights. Although in the future this kind of measures were not taken and the state was much more cautious about its possessions, however, on the whole, the constant possibility of changing the peasant status was the norm for the existence of a “state-owned rural inhabitant”. In 1830 - 1833. a number of state peasants were ordered to be transferred to the position of appanage peasants, that is, they were legally turned into serfs, which led to unrest in the Simbirsk province, from which this “transfer” was started. Still later, in 1840, it was conceived to transfer part of the state peasants to the state of military settlers. The Minister of State Property P. D. Kiselev strongly objected to the emperor regarding such a measure, pointing out the free position of the state peasants and the opposition to the spirit of the recently undertaken reforms of such a measure, to which he received the following characteristic answer from Nicholas I: “After all, I have not yet given them a letter » .

To characterize the current situation, we will simply quote a lengthy extract from the report of the Senate approved by the Highest on October 17, 1801, entitled "On the satisfaction of the peasants of the state department with the prescribed proportion of land, preferably before those persons to whom it has been most mercifully granted":

“... for the satisfaction of state-owned villages in a full 15 tithe proportion, there is a sufficient number of state-owned loose and quitrent lands only in the provinces: Novgorod, Vologda, Saratov, Novorossiysk, Orenburg, Astarakhan, Arkhangelsk, Vyatka, Perm, Tobolsk and Irkutsk, in which there are more than 15 tithe proportion there is a considerable excess of state lands; and in the following provinces, to fill 15 tithe proportions, each lacks from 50,000 or more, even in some up to a million tithes, namely: in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tver, Pskov, Kaluga, Tula, Ryazan, Smolensk, Kazan, Simbirsk, Voronezh , Tambov, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Kursk, Orel, Vladimir and Sloboda-Ukrainian, and from among them in three provinces: Moscow, Smolensk and Kazan with the return of all state lands in each, no more is calculated for state peasants, as soon as from 5 up to 6 acres with sazhens per capita.

So, this is the state of affairs, fixed by the Senate report, moreover, this report itself is then included in the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire. If this was the "official reality", then one can only guess about the real state of affairs.
In order to improve the position of state peasants, a policy of equalizing peasant land ownership was adopted, carried out by two means: firstly, through intra-peasant redistribution and, secondly, through a resettlement policy. The interest of the state in the preservation of average peasant land ownership, in preventing dispossession of land, was dictated primarily by fiscal needs, since payments to the treasury were levied from the tax, and the ruin of some and the creation of large land holdings by other state peasants led to a decrease in the number of taxpayers, and thereby a decrease in state income from the state village.

Complaints of black-eared peasants and Ukrainian odnodvortsev about the existing inequality of land ownership were already heard in the Legislative Commission of 1767. Peasant mandates, among other things, put forward the demand for an egalitarian redistribution of land. These petitions were heard by the supreme power, coinciding with its tax interests. Already in the 18th century, the local administration began to insist on the need for an even distribution of land among the peasants of state-owned villages and volosts. At the same time, reference was made to the usual practice of privately owned estates. By separate orders, such a measure was applied in various areas, especially in Northern Pomorye and in the territory of single-dvor settlements. At the national level, the practice of egalitarian redistribution was sanctioned by a law of 1797 and confirmed by decrees of 1798 and 1800.

A cardinal reform of the position of the state peasants was carried out under the leadership of P. D. Kiselev, who was granted the dignity of a count for her. The decisiveness of the measures taken by him and the gap with the previous administrative practice were so great that in the higher bureaucratic circles of the Minister of State Property in St. Petersburg there were almost revolutionaries, as can be seen even from the diary review of Baron M. A. Korf. First organized by the V Department of the S. E. I. V. Chancellery, and then the Ministry of State Property, taking over the management of state peasants from the Ministry of Finance, which saw this function as an exclusively profitable item of the state budget, made a radical change in peasant management.
Firstly, a unified state system of peasant management was built, the lower levels of which were volost administrations and peasant societies, that is, the state peasants themselves were involved in the performance of administrative functions. At the center of peasant societies were world gatherings, the main task of which was land redistribution and land management in accordance with communal principles.

Secondly, through a thorough description of available state lands, possessions were discovered that had not previously been taken into account or appropriated by neighboring landowners. A free land fund was arranged, at the expense of which insufficient peasants were allocated up to the established norm of land allotment, and in the absence of such free plots within the estate, resettlement organized by state funds was carried out - if possible, within the same province, otherwise - to the free lands of other provinces.

A queue was developed for satisfying requests for land cuts, depending on the degree of lack of land - first of all, those villages were satisfied in which the size of land per capita was less than 2.5 dessiatines, then - less than five.

Thirdly, the lands allotted to the community now became its property - according to the law, in this case legally, of course, incorrect, but quite characteristic, “a piece of land that went to the secular division of each state settler, being in his use, is always considered public property [ed. us - Auth.] and cannot be assigned from him to anyone by any acts, nor be inherited ”(SGU). The fixation of the land precisely behind a certain rural society gave the land ownership of the world a stable character, the internal orders of which were largely left to its own discretion.

According to the reform of P. D. Kiselev, for the first time in national history, the village received active state support, ceasing to be only an object of exploitation - questions were raised about increasing the efficiency of the peasant economy, expanding the rights of individual owners. State property in relation to state-owned peasants, after the transformation of the late 30s and 40s, increasingly became more of a general public right of the state to their lands than a certain private property. And such a change is a considerable merit of a very specific person, namely, gr. Kiselyov, since this very direction of reform, which he persistently approved, was far from the only one - Perovsky's transformations remained as a direct and quite real alternative to him, by which the specific village was transferred to modern private ownership.
Another important task accomplished was the creation of a regulatory framework on which both the management of state-owned peasants would be based and their legal status would be prescribed.

In this regard, the Kiselyov reform received a lot of reproaches for the pettiness of regulation, for creating the ideal of "police regulations" for the countryside. In fact, most of these reproaches are true - the procedures and norms of detailed patrimonial regulations of private estates were largely borrowed. However, this form of fulfillment of the intention should not obscure the fundamental change produced by these numerous acts - instead of scattered norms issued on a special occasion, as often canceled as simply forgotten in administrative chaos, the state village received uniform provisions, was for the first time in all its diversity of their relations and needs is introduced into the field of state legislative regulation. From now on, changes in the position of the state peasants could no longer go through simple private orders - they had to be appropriately built into the general system, and this prompted caution and attentiveness in concrete actions.

) PSZ RI Sobr. 1. No. 20033.

) Rubinstein, N.L. Decree. op. - P. 40 - 41.

) Druzhinin, N.M. Decree. op. – S. 95.

) PSZ RI Sobr. 1. No. 18633; 19500.

) See: Mironenko, S.V. Pages of the secret history of autocracy / S.V. Mironenko - M .: "Thought", 1990. - S. 147.

M.A. Kovalchuk, A.A. Teslya Land ownership in Russia: legal and historical aspects of the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. Monograph. Khabarovsk: Publishing House of the Far East State University of Transportation, 2004.

state peasants

in Russia 18-1st floor. 19th centuries an estate formed from former black-haired peasants, ladles, single-dvorets, etc. They lived on state lands, carried duties in favor of the state, and were considered personally free. From 1841 they were managed by the Ministry of State Property. All R. 19th century were approx. 45% of the peasantry. In 1866 they were subordinated to the general system of rural management, in 1886 they received the right of full ownership of the land for a ransom. The state peasants of Siberia and Transcaucasia remained in their former position as holders of state land, since the laws of 1866 and 1886 were not extended to them. 19th century did not eliminate the acute shortage of land in the countryside.

Big Law Dictionary

state peasants

in Russia in the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. an estate formed from former black-haired peasants, ladles, single-dvorets, etc. They lived on state lands, carried duties in favor of the state, and were considered personally free. In 1886, they received the right to full ownership of the land for a ransom. G.K. Siberia and Transcaucasia remained in the same position as holders of state land, since the laws of 1866 and 1886 were not extended to them.

State peasants

a special class of serf Russia, formalized by decrees of Peter 1 from the remaining non-enslaved rural population (black-eared peasants and ladles of the Northern Pomerania, Siberian plowed peasants, single-dvorets, non-Russian peoples of the Volga and Ural regions). Unlike landlord and palace peasants (later appanage peasants), landed peasants lived on state-owned lands and, using allotted allotments, were subordinate to the management of state bodies and were considered personally free.

According to the 1st revision (1724), there were (in European Russia and Siberia) 1,049,287 male souls, that is, 19% of the entire agricultural population of the country; according to the 10th revision (1858), ≈ 9,345,342 male souls, t. 45.2% of the agricultural population of European Russia. The estate of the G. k. increased due to the peasants of secularized church possessions and newly annexed territories (the Baltic states, Right-Bank Ukraine, Belarus, Crimea, Transcaucasia), Ukrainian Cossacks, former serfs confiscated Polish estates, etc. At the end of the 30s. 19th century The average land allotment of land plots in 30 out of 43 gubernias was less than 5 acres, and only in a few gubernias did it reach the established norm (8 acres in small-land provinces and 15 acres in large-land provinces). The bulk of the G. k. contributed cash quitrent to the treasury; on the territory of the Baltic States and the provinces annexed from Poland, state-owned estates were leased to private owners, and the state estates served mainly corvee; The arable peasants of Siberia at first cultivated the state arable land, then they paid food quitrent, and later, cash quitrent. In the 1st half of the 19th century. quitrent G. k. fluctuated from 7 rubles. 50 kop. up to 10 rubles per year. As the exploitation of the appanage and landlord peasants intensified, the monetary dues of the state tax became relatively less than the duties of other categories of peasants comparable with it. In addition, G. k. were obliged to contribute money for zemstvo needs and for worldly expenses; along with other categories of peasants, they paid a poll tax and served in-kind duties (for example, road, underwater, lodging). For the proper performance of duties, they were answered by mutual responsibility.

The development of trade and industry in the 18th-1st half of the 19th centuries led to the expansion of the rights of landlords: they were allowed to trade, open factories and plants, own “uninhabited” lands (that is, without serfs), etc. But at the same time, due to the growth of landlord entrepreneurship, the nobility systematically appropriated state lands and strove to turn free G. to. into their serfs (see. General Land Survey). In the 2nd half of the 18th century. the government distributed to the nobility millions of acres of state-owned land and hundreds of thousands of state land; in the 1st half of the 19th century. the mass sale of state estates and their transfer to a specific department was practiced. Many nobles demanded the abolition of the estate of the G. k., transferring state lands with their population into private hands.

As a result of the growth of land scarcity and the increase in feudal duties in the early 19th century. Progressive impoverishment and arrears of the state capital were discovered. Mass unrest of the state capital was repeated more and more often, directed against the reduction of allotments, the severity of dues, and the arbitrariness of tenants and officials. The question of changing the management of the state capital gave rise to numerous projects, both feudal and liberal-bourgeois. The escalating crisis of the feudal serf system forced the government of Nicholas I to start reforming the management of the state village in order to support state finances, raising the productive forces of the state village, and bring the landlord serfs closer to the position of "free rural inhabitants". During 1837-1841, under the leadership of General P. D. Kiselev, a special ministry of state property was established with a complex hierarchy of bureaucratic bodies. The created administration was entrusted with the "trusteeship" of the G. k. through the traditional rural community, patronized by government officials.

The program for the economic development of the state countryside could not be carried out either. Of relatively progressive importance were such measures as the abolition of corvée duties of civil society in Lithuania, Belarus, and the Right-Bank Ukraine, the cessation of leasing state estates to private owners, and the replacement of per capita dues with a more uniform land and trade tax. However, these measures could not bring about a fundamental change in the position of landowners. Malozemelie was not eliminated. The number of arrears did not decrease, but grew even more; agrotechnical measures turned out to be inaccessible to the peasant masses; medical and veterinary assistance was rendered on a negligible scale, and most importantly, the entire system of administration on the basis of feudal guardianship was accompanied by monstrous violence and exactions. The feudal management of the state countryside was in sharp contradiction with the economic processes of the 1940s and 1950s. 19th century, hindered the growth of peasant trade and industry, hindered the development of agriculture and fettered the growth of the productive forces of the peasantry. The result of the reform was the growth of the peasant movement, which took on especially violent forms in the regions of Northern Pomerania, the Urals, and the Volga region, where peasant peasants lived in large, compact masses. Continuous protests against the system of government of the feudal state were also observed in the central and western regions (see "Potato riots", "Cholera riots", etc.). After the end of the Crimean War of 1853–56, a clear tendency was revealed to merge the struggle of the civil war with the movement of appanage and landlord peasants. In turn, the nobility, alarmed by the plans of the government, on the one hand, and by the growing peasant movement, on the other, were indignant against Kiselev's reform and demanded the abolition of the "guardianship" system. In 1857, Alexander II, having appointed the reactionary M. N. Muravyov as the new minister of state property, approved the project of a counter-reform, bringing the state property closer to the position of the appanage peasants.

On February 19, 1861, serfdom in Russia was abolished. At the same time, the personal rights of landowners and appanage peasants and the forms of their “self-government” established by the laws of 1838–41 were extended to the former landlord and appanage peasants. G. k. in 1866 were subordinated to the general system of rural management and recognized as "peasant owners", although they continued to pay quitrent tax. The rights of full ownership of the land were obtained by the landed estates under the law of 1886 on the obligatory redemption of land allotments. The townships of Siberia and Transcaucasia remained in the same position as holders of state-owned land, since the laws of 1866 and 1886 were not extended to them. did not eliminate the acute shortage of land in the countryside and the arbitrariness of the local administration.

Lit .: Druzhinin N. M., State peasants and the reform of P. D. Kiselev, vol. 1≈2, M. ≈ L., 1946≈58; Antelava I. G., Reform of the land arrangement of the state peasants of Transcaucasia at the end of the 19th century, Sukhumi, 1952; his, State peasants of Georgia in the first half of the 19th century, Sukhumi, 1955.

N. M. Druzhinin.

Wikipedia

State peasants

State peasants- a special estate of the peasantry in Russia in the 18th - 19th centuries, whose number in some periods reached half of the agricultural population of the country. Unlike the landlord peasants, they were considered personally free, although they were attached to the land.