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lected extensively and which was the subject of
his
Essays in the History of Netherlands Painting,
pub-
lished in two volumes (1885-90). Before his
death he gave his collection to the
HERMITAGE
Museum in St. Petersburg.
18th century, conditions for serfs worsened while
the gentry strengthened their position, especially
after the death of
PETER I
in 1725. Through suc-
cessive laws and decrees, serfs were deprived of
the right to volunteer for military service, pur-
chase property, and seek temporary employment
without their owner's permission. The prohibi-
tion against transferring serfs without the land
they worked was gradually blurred as the cen-
tury wore on, and serf owners were given the
right to exile their delinquent serfs to Siberia.
Peasant discontent over serfdom had been a
main cause of rural rebellions as early as the
TIME
OF TROUBLES
and the Stenka
RAZIN
revolt of
1670-71. In the late 18th century it again served
as one of the main causes behind the far more
serious and extensive
PUGACHEV REBELLION
that
shook the foundations of the Russian state in
1773-74. The Pugachev Rebellion convinced the
more progressive members of Russia's ruling cir-
cles that serfdom needed to be reformed or even
abolished in the future. In the early 19th century,
during the reigns of
ALEXANDER I
and
NICHOLAS I
,
various projects were discussed in government
circles, and some minor changes were imple-
mented, such as Alexander's emancipation of
serfs in the Baltic provinces, albeit without land.
Both monarchs, although personally opposed to
serfdom, shied away from acting forcefully from
fear of the instability that might accompany far-
reaching reforms or the outright abolition of serf-
dom. Only with the disastrous defeat in the
CRIMEAN WAR
did the government of
ALEXANDER II
obtain the necessary momentum and political
desire to propose the emancipation of the serfs.
After several years of discussion, the czar issued
the
EMANCIPATION ACT
of 1861, freeing the serfs
with some land, although not as much as the
peasants had hoped for.
serfdom
A system that deprived Russian peasants of their
freedom, serfdom developed gradually over the
centuries and continued to provide the founda-
tion for Russian rural society until its abolition in
1861. While peasant financial dependence on a
landlord dates back to the period of
KIEVAN RUS
,
the development of serfdom proper coincides
with the expansion of the Muscovite state. As
peasant indebtedness grew, and as the Muscovite
state granted more land to the service gentry on
whom it relied for military and administrative
duties, peasants were increasingly bound to their
landlords in a network of labor and financial
duties. Traditionally, peasants had been allowed
to leave their estates, provided they paid their
debts around
ST
.
GEORGE
'
SDAY
in late autumn. By
the late 16th century, at a time of famine and
social turmoil, this freedom of movement
became increasingly restricted, as the govern-
ment proclaimed “forbidden years,” when peas-
ants could not leave their estates. The increasing
frequency of forbidden years and the extension
of the period when fugitive serfs could be
returned to their masters were important mark-
ers in the progression toward complete serfdom.
The Ulozhenie (Law Code) of 1649 brought these
developments to a peak and is considered the
document that fully established serfdom in Mus-
covite Russia. The code eliminated any statute of
limitations on fugitive serfs and provided harsh
penalties for those harboring them. As serfdom
became a permanent feature of Russian social
life, certain regional characteristics developed.
Serfdom did not make any inroads in Siberia, col-
onized by Russians since the early 17th century,
where the absence of a service gentry and the
sheer vastness of the land made it unnecessary
and almost impossible to enforce. During the
Serge, Victor
(1890-1947)
revolutionary and writer
Born Viktor Kibalchich to a family of Russian
exiles living in Belgium, Serge was the son of an
Imperial Guards officer implicated in a plot to
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