Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1877 — Russian Serfdom. [ARTICLE]

Russian Serfdom.

In this northern part of Russia, a very large portion of the land—perhaps as much as one-half —belonged to the State. The peasants living on this‘land had no misters, and were governed by a special branchof the Imperial administration, In a certain sense they were serfs, for they were not allowed to change their official domicile, but practically they enjoyed a very large amount of liberty. By paying a small sum for a passport they could leave their villages for an indefinite length of Hine, and so long as they paid regularly their taxes ahd dues they were in little danger of being molested. Many of them, though, officially inscribed in their native villages, lived permanently in the towns, and not a few of them succeeded in amassing large fortunes. Of the remaining land, a considerable portion belonged to rich nobles, who rarely or never visited their estates, and left the management of them either to the seifs themselves or to a steward, who acted according to a code of instructions. On these estates the position of the serfs was very similar to that of the State peasants. They had their communed laud, which they distributed among themselves as they thought fit. and enjoyed the re-, maifiaer of the arable land in return for a fixed yearly rent. Some proprietors, how. ever, lived on their estates and farmed on their own account, and here the condition of the serfs was somewhat different. A considerable number of these, perhaps as many as 10 per cent, were, properly speaking, not serfs at all, but. rather, domestic slaves, who fulfilled the functions of coachmen, grooms, gardeners. gamekeepers, cooks, lackeys, and the like. Their wives and daughters acted as nurses, domestic servants, ladies* .maids and seamstresses. If, the master organized a private theater or orchestra, the actors or musicians were drawn from this class. These serfs lived' in the mansion or immediate vicinity, possessed no land, except perhaps a little plot for a kitchen garden, and were fed and clothed by the master. Their number was generally out'of all proportion to the amount of work they had to perform, and consequently they were always imbued with an hereditary spirit of indolence, and

performed lazily and carelessly what they had to do. On the other hand, they were often sincerely attached to the family they served, and occasionally proved by acts their fidelity and attachment. How the distinction between serfs and Slaves gradually disappeared, and how. the latter term fell Into disuse', I need not here relate; but I must assert, in the interests of truth, that the class of serfs above mentioned, though they were officially and popularly called “ courtyard people,” were to all intents and purposes domestic slaves. Down to the commencement of the present century the Russian newspapers contained advertisements of this kind—l take the examples almost at random from the Moscow Gatetie ot 1801 s “To be sold, three coachmen, Welltrained and handsome; and two girls, the one eighteen and the other fifteen years of age, both of them good-looking and well acquainted with various kinds of handiwork. In the same house there are for sAletwo hair-dreaeers; the one twenty*! one years of age, can read, write, play on a musical Instrument, and act as huntsman ; the other can drees ladies* and gentlemen’s hair. In the same house are sold pianos and organs.” A little farther on—a first-rate clerk, a carver, and a

lackey are offered for sale, and the reason assigned Is superabundance of the articles in question (aa itliehMton). In some instances it seems as if the serfs and the cattle were intentionally put in the same category, aa in the following: “In this house one can buy a coachman and a Dutch cow.” The style of these advertisements and the frequent recurrences of the same address show plainly that there was at that time a regular class of slavedealers. The humane Alexander I. pro hibited publicadvertisementsof th is kind, but he aid not put down the custom which they represented; and his successor, Nicholas, took no active measures for its repression. Thus until the commencement of the present reign—that is to say, until about twenty years ago—the practice was continued unaer a more or less disguised form. Middle-aged people have often told me that in their youth they knew proprietors who habitually caused young domestic serfs to be taught trades, in order afterward to sell them or let them out for Lire. It was from such proprieton that the theaters obtained a large number of their best actors. Very different was the position of the serfs properly so-called. They lived in villages, possessed houses and gardens of their own, tilled the communal land for their own benefit, enjoyed a certain amount of self-government, and were rarely sold exceptaspart of the estate. —lfdcAanzts WaUace't .Rtmfia.