ABSTRACT
The legislative issue of enlistment in the urban classes was an outgrowth of the state's interest in strengthening the traditional role of the posad as an "obligated community", responsible to the state for a specified set of taxes and services and relying on income from commerce authorized and protected by the state. Contemporaneous legislation sought to provide for the expansion of the posad through the inclusion of suitable elements from other population categories, especially the peasantry. The Petrine legislation creating craft guilds allowed peasant craftsmen to become "temporary" members of these guilds, which gave them the right to practice their trade in the towns without hindrance. The history of legislation on enlistment in the posad was in many ways a reflection of the peculiar class structure of Russian society and the relationship of individual classes to the state.
