2 ms·
Peasants in Russia (and in Poland-Lithuania before it got conquered) were effectively slaves. They had to do free work, couldn't leave without permission of the
by ajuc 3y ago
Peasants in Russia (and in Poland-Lithuania before it got conquered) were effectively slaves. They had to do free work, couldn't leave without permission of the landlord. Landlords were also acting as judges.
Landlords had monopoly on producing and selling alcohol, and they extracted as much additional income from that as they could. Which meant each of them had an inn which he rented out to someone. The inn was buying landlord's alcohol and encouraging or forcing peasants to buy it.
It was a common trick to have "all you can drink" passes for farmers. There were even attempts to force peasants to buy if they didn't wanted to - by introducing quotas and they had to pay for the whole amount even if they drank less.
When it comes to Slavic countries before 20th century - think American South before civil war, just both slaves and slave owners are white.
- The_Colonel 3y agoWhat you're describing is serfdom, and it was in some aspects similar to slavery, but still distinct. Serfs could not be sold to another landlord, they had obligations towards the landlord, but were not a simple commodity. Serfdom was also widely present in Europe, not unique to Slavic countries at all.
- somethingreen 3y ago> Serfs could not be sold to another landlord They could in Russia. And when direct trade and trade with land were eventually prohibited, they were "rented out" to the same effect.
- amon22 3y agoThere were great differences between the legal status of serf in western europe versus eastern, at least after the black death. This is due to the fact that western europe experienced a serious labor shortage after the black death wiped out a good part of society. This paradoxically put serfs in position where their labor was desperately needed and they could leverage this to gain legal recognition This difference is said to be one of the reasons why the industrial revolution started in western europe and why it took much longer for eastern europe and russia to industrialize.